《Project G00》 Prologue ¡°Leaders from each nation have an obligation to serve their own citizens, but making a better life requires us to work together in close harmony and unity. "It¡¯s in everyone¡¯s interest to seek a world where all can feel prosperous and secure. A world where we humans can create a peaceful future for all to feel safe. Somewhere where no one feels limited or lacking. "Thankfully, we live in a time of breakthroughs. A time where innovations in different fields appeared to crack problems that prior generations thought impossible to solve. "And today, we have a great achievement for humanity. One that will plow the lands for every new human that steps into the universe, cultivating the myriad worlds that await us. "It is my pleasure to-- announce one of the developers in terraforming technology! Give a big round of applause to Dr. Henry Ballymore, project leader for Nano-Space operations.¡± The announcer of the event gave an emotional discourse while he awaited for a round of applause. *Footsteps and applause sounds* ¡°Mr. Henry, here you go.¡± The announcer lowered his voice when the guest arrived. He handed the microphone over while the UN current president held his hand out for the arriving guest. ¡°It is my pleasure, Mr. President,¡± said Henry while securing the microphone. He ended a handshake with the president and smiled at the cameras, before resuming the event. *Coughs* ¡°It is a profound honor to participate in this United Nations meeting as a representative of the United States, to address the people of the world. "As you may know, many developments have arisen since the creation of the nanotube technologies. Computers changed their nucleus to the more advanced Gallium counterparts and so on until today¡¯s advanced nano-AIs. "However, millions of humans continue to suffer the effects of this world¡¯s limits. The population keeps rising and even with the controls implemented by the different nations, space is becoming one of humanity¡¯s most valued possessions. It might not be obvious right now, but our world, our Earth, has become too small to hold us.¡± The man paused for a moment and looked towards the public.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. *Applause sounds* He smiled after the round of applause and continued his discourse. ¡°This is the second leap for mankind, following the footsteps of that first great explorer that set his foot on the Moon.On this day, we can finally make that second stride. A step that''s even tinier than you all can imagine, yet the distance it gazes at is immeasurable.¡± He paused again but didn¡¯t wait for the spectators to clap before rising his voice soundly, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. Let me present to you, our new¡­ Project¡­¡± As the man stopped his speech, curtains opened and a video played on the screen. The whole hall was surprised by the development of the technology showcased. The promise behind it made the usual whispers of the conference site, delve into silence. Slowly but surely, the video concluded and the speech resumed as the man gave the last words of it. ¡°Humans, this is the second step of our race. Self-replicating robots sent through space will spot the best worlds in the universe. They will prepare the lands for us until we arrive to colonize them. "The future was never so near to our eyes. "Welcome, to the true era of space.¡± Henry ended his presentation and was immediately attacked by the curious questions of reporters and leaders. A party was held afterward, continuing until everything was deemed over and the event was concluded. ¡°Hey, you sure went all out!¡± A voice shouted after Henry as the party ended. Henry turned around and smiled, already knowing whose voice it was. He opened his mouth and spoke, ¡°Hi there, do I know you?¡± ¡°What? You being all proud now?¡± Said a woman that appeared behind the angry person. She didn''t wait for an answer as she was already adjusting Henry¡¯s tie. ¡°Nothing much, I shouldn¡¯t be the one up there, you already know it should be none other than you.¡± Henry shrugged but didn¡¯t step back from her. ¡°Wait, first you omit ¡®I even know you¡¯, and now, you even dare to erase my existence? Seriously, you pair of birdies know no shame!¡± The voice of a man entered their ears. The couple separated and looked at an angry-faced Asian. ¡°Ling, you shouldn¡¯t interrupt lovers talking with each other.¡± Henry adjusted his tie slowly, looking prideful and self-important. ¡°Seriously, Ana, I don¡¯t get why you went for this guy¡­¡± Ling expressed in between. ¡°There isn¡¯t much to say about that,¡± Ana countered, then added, ¡°It¡¯s more important to know what happened in the conference, did they approve?¡± ¡°It was a success,¡± Henry expressed casually. Act.01 - Chapter 1: I Am a Blind Puddle, Not Another Slime... Please! Part 1: I, me, myself. If you ask me ¡®what I am¡¯, then the best answer is ¡®I am not sure¡¯ for I have a condition like fragmented memories. It''s like amnesia yet it delves upon a lack of knowledge and experience when stranded in this peculiar situation. Yes, yes... This is the so-called clich¨¦ where you instinctively remember being a male or some anthropomorphic lifeform in a past life. But then, without expecting something to happen, you get reincarnated or transported to another world. And like always, the main character was an idiot at socializing, had a dumb life, and danced with hands instead of feet. Hmm¡­ It seems that my brain or whatever the thing containing my intellect is having trouble processing information. Maybe this isn''t important, but I need to order my thoughts to... You want to know what I am, right? Then let me tell you what I know before we arrive at a conclusion. First, I can''t feel. Second, I can''t see. Third, I can''t hear. Nothing... Recalling part of my past is possible, yet some events remain blurry. Anyways, I''ll have to apologize, because my intent at introspection, ended in another absent-minded and non-comprehensible comment which doesn''t even work as useful information. How about this? It seems that I''m lingering in a dark ocean, awaiting for destiny or some windy currents to send me towards a predetermined location. Is this the so-called reincarnation? Is this state what people call a soul? Hm... Comprehensively speaking I think that since I preserve my thoughts, I should be alive, right? This is odd, not because I think I''m not a soul, yet because I have been having a traveling sensation for so long, that I am becoming insane. I am alone and playing solitary with my mind is so boring that I might stop thinking. Isn''t this howreincarnationerases the memories of people. Isolating them to the point of making them insane and think there is someone apart from me, like you? Yeah, you! Do you want to play a game with me? No? C''mon, you are me so let''s try. If I''m a soul, what should I become once this weird reincarnation cycle is completed? How about a carp that turns into a dragon, a mighty god that has all he wants or loses it but regains it with power, or maybe a powerful skeleton magician that can live forever and kill whoever interrupts its plans¡­ Ok, those ideas are not working¡­ This is fatiguing, darkness isn''t funny you know? What do you want me to be? A god, a knight, a martial artist, a hero, an anti-hero or a gender-bent lady with big chests? Hmm¡­ It still doesn¡¯t work? Status? Inventory? I want to be a donkey?!!! Okay, I tried. If you asked me what the hell was I doing, it is simple. I thought that thinking these thoughts aloud will turn me into an OP guy or some weird byproduct of my wishes, yet as expected, It didn¡¯t¡­ With this problem of unrecognizable introspection, my only hope is that I should have ''that''¡­ Yes, ''it'' is extremely important. I don''t believe that someone like me could live without it. The sole fact of receiving the possibility of a new body but being unable to rise is insane! Yes! I must also be ''lucky'' in this life. What I intend to tell, is that a life without luck is futile as it will not allow you to step towards the higher hierarchies of the world. I was pampered in my past life! I didn¡¯t move a finger in it and got most of my necessities delivered by amazon... And my family. My very nice progenitors, something that I am commencing to miss a lot and will probably never meet again. I-I wish that the same lucky star that shined upon me in my previous life illuminates the one to come. Please make this wish come true... Praying for my sinful soul to be born into a remarkable household was my only chance. In addition to the never missing ability needed to rise. Well, the word rise is being employed a lot for unusual reasons. Curse whatever it is that has my psyche within! Souls... bruh... Oh, not that I don¡¯t believe in you, God! Yes, whatever God that''s watching me! Em, I need your starry help to make a wish. Yeah, not rising¡­ No, wait¡­ I need to be able to procrastinate and do nothing in this new life. Yeah, like nothing... Not working? Should I be more specific to God? God, please let me become a NEET that lives as a freeloader! Nothing, you don''t understand? It''s like if I got the chance to repeat my life, I would want it to be just scratching my¡­ Ups¡­ God don¡¯t be angry with me¡­ I just need an opportunity to ris-become stronger, you know?
Part 2: Magic words are needed for things to appear. It was at that time, inside this monotone and unfeeling darkness, that I realized something. Maybe this God is just indifferent to an unknown and tiny sized variable in its domain. Maybe God just liked to watch ants fight while snapping its fingers to make half of them disappear. Yeah, no God gives stars for free to make said wishes come true, but they- Hm, why did I?!Did I feel something? There! It''s warm? God are you there?! What the hell am I supposed to be? Yet nothing answered. Okay, I don''t know what I am! But it implies that the first course of action in such a situation was to remain calm¡­ Never lift the soap from the ground when you don¡¯t know what lies behind you. However, this mysterious darkness made my soul chill with an ominous sense. Why am I not able to see nor perceive other things? I need to see something at least, but even breathing is impossible to achieve. I guess I am in an extremely unadaptable situation in which I don¡¯t need to breathe, yet it was an odd sensation to stop doing that. I believe that in this kind of environment, insanity would take over anyone adding questions one after another. And believe me, I felt it like 100 times better than anyone else would. I haven''t been able to feel ''touch'' for a long while, and this... This was creepy! I know some Gods are touchy, like that Zeus-god or Olympus guy that impregnated... Um, did he even impregnate males? Wait! I don''t know what I am... this is bad... like really bad! What would a normal person with a calm mind think in this situation? A person like that will calm themselves and brace for the inevitable... I wish I could play games or read to relax. God let me be inside my room and press a button or some command to power on my-
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My train of thought was cut at such a moment when I had the idea of ''turning on''. A glowy item jumped over my mind-vision miraculously. I could see this item in front of whatever were supposed to be my eyes. And for an aerospatial engineer¡¯s sake, it wasn¡¯t a space-xxx rocket or I would have been given a futuristic scare. And I ain''t no aerospatial engineer... Are you wondering what this blue thing that appeared in front of my mind is? Well, I suppose anyone would guess it right. It¡¯s a loading screen! Hey, are you god? Are you my system? Window-chan?
Loading Window Interface...
Part 3: The wait. This isn¡¯t as I expected, there''s no answer to my voice. Isn''t there supposed to be a God when these windows appear, or is it just taking it''s time to initiate the operative system? Is it on purpose? Making my incredible self wait and become bored again? ...
System interface loaded. Database acknowledged. Project initiated. Simulation of current interactions done. Starting maintenance of hierarchical structures.
Updating protocols and Assembling¡­ 1%
NO WAY! 1%? Are you a pizza delivery?A bank giving money? Seriously, systems nowadays should be made like tax programs, those take like 0.1 seconds to kill your wallet!
System interface loaded. Database acknowledged. Project initiated. Simulation of current interactions done. Starting maintenance of hierarchical structures.
Updating protocols and Assembling¡­ 1.1%
Yes, this is worse than waiting for some steam engine to load. It makes my comments here shallow because there is nothing else to do except looking at a very slow turtle of an upgrading-number jumping up. And for the love of God, there is no additional turtle, there are no extra sounds, and there is no action. It''s not funny! GOD!!! Where are you?!!! Help me!!! This is a long time to wait and I don¡¯t have coffee nor snacks! This is hell! Satan can you hear me?! This cursed system is trash! At least add the missing turtle... Boring lobby imaginary music played in my mind. There was a lack of waiters coming to my table to ask for my imaginary coffee addiction bill. The waiting was so long that I decided to leave and run. Yeah, I can¡¯t. But this is seriously driving me crazy. If I could do some command to shut-down myself and leave some autopilot while I wait for this system to-
Command acknowledged...
Eh, green command acknowledged? !!!
Shutting off ''User'' program¡­ Starting automatic systems¡­
Wait, Don''t tell me you can turn it off while it loads... No! Why?! Stop that!!! ...
Part 4: Reboot.
Reconnecting User Interface... 1-100% Booting and restarting Completed!
I sang ''the system went down'' for a long time alone. But after restarting and learning to be patient, everything became better. It was a feeling. Yeah! I could feel. Weird, but when these windows popped up, I could sense. The sensations that I could perceive were temperature and touch. It felt... like flying, but also like drifting and turning. A cold sensation invaded half of myself, while a hot-warm feeling attacked the half that remained. I could feel two surfaces, this feeling made me think I was some flat lifeform... The hell... Am I a damn pancake? The Earth is flat, so I am Earth?! ... Okay, maybe not, but incredible as it is, my crazy mind found the solution to my dilemma in the form of the word ''command''. God! I command you to explain!
Command not registered in the system, please check the current command windows.
Command Open!
Command not registered in the system, please check the current command windows.
Command Vision!Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Command not registered in the system, please check the current command windows.
Damn you! Stupid and adulterated system! Command...
Part 5: How to tame your windows. After a long play with different words using commands and some other words without strings attached, I found the practical use to this interface. Here, let me show you, my imaginary friend... What? No response? Oh, I neglected again that it''s all in my head. I shall argue with ''me'' while adopting a different ¡®thought voice¡¯. It seems like the loading was completed by the auto-process, again, yet I don¡¯t know why it brought my thoughts to the surface. Ah, who cares about me talking to me...Let''s just try these instructions. Command Console!
Retrieving console command...
After retrieving the data, another window popped up in front of me. It was blue and had many words in it, yet a lot of its sections were missing parts of what seemed beneficial information. Some of its abbreviations couldn''t be conjectured and some values were undefined or non-existant. Am I supposed to define these undefined or null variables and repair the broken sectors? Why? I don¡¯t know¡­ I am reading about it now, let me check.
G00''s Status
Name: G00
Completion Status: BF&! % complete - OP$M# % lost - L?=| % unknown
Nanorobots: Shows NMs Status
NMs 130/???
Form Puddle
CE Low (Not varying)
EC ???
DEC ???
Ais 1 (AI 16)
??? 12912-90481-20841-00000
??? AFJASFJAKSFLASFJFASL
??? GJSDHSKDANAASDKAD
Commands Administrator exclusive algorithms.
Console Shows status and Admin privileges information.
Run Runs a specified algorithm
Create Creates a new algorithm
Modify Changes a setting, algorithm or privileges.
Settings Settings for Language, Colors, Notifications,
AI Makes AI analyze information. Many commands included. Needs input.
Auto Runs auto mode algorithm
Algorithms Creates a recipe or formula based on user input
AI Form Changes Form by using an NAI input.
View, Play Shows, Reproduces a Memory or Data in storage
Ask Asks an AI or specified protocol for a reply.
Say Repeats user''s input
Search Searches Databases for information.
??? Unavailable
Active users Checks on users interacting with the project.
??? Unknown User Privilege Temporary Admin
Page 1/2
Project G00 Console
Name Project G00
Current Time Unknown
Creation Info Unknown
LOG 001 Error 12389 - Auto process failure for compilation. The process needs user input... User input found... User needs admin privileges, no admin found... Giving temporary privileges... User input damaged, retrieving user data... Cleaning user database. Defragmenting 1%... 100%... Using user database to compile project... User compilation unsuccessful... Adjusting language to user known language... 1%...100%... Language database created... Restarting interface... Restarting successful... Creating user interface... Sensor information incompatible with user... Adjusting... Sensor creation... 1%... 8%... failure... Sensor creation incomplete... Skipping to User Manual Command... Shutting off auto mode... Sensor creation... 1%... 8%... failure... Sensor creation incomplete... Skipping to User Manual Command... Shutting off auto mode...
LOG 002 Error 12389 - Auto process failure for compilation. User directive found, turning on... User shutting command acknowledged... Auto mode restarted... Finished shutting off User Manual Command... Adjusting Form... Moving... Energy Source not found... Error: Not enough energy to sustain NMs. Separating AIs and... Separation complete. User input designated to AI 16. Moving... Searching... Mild heat energy source found... Error: Not enough energy to maintain auto mode. Adjusting Form and Sensors... Changing to manual command... User interface restarted...
Page 2/2
So there you have it. I am called Goo and I am a puddle or at least, that¡¯s what the project¡¯s console says. Hm, those O¡¯s are actually 0¡¯s. Okay, it doesn¡¯t matter so let¡¯s try this¡­ I aaaam Gooooo! Nice!!! I wanted to say/think that. Now, let''s get some information from this AI. Command AI ask: What is my current location?
Current Location: Unknown.
Command AI ask: What is the project¡¯s purpose?
Project purpose: Data unavailable or incomplete.
Command AI ask: Why is the current project declared as incomplete?
Project Resources: Incomplete after fragmentation. The project needs user input in case of an emergency.
As I continued, my queries weren¡¯t answered the way I needed the AI to. Most of the things were either incomplete or untranslatable. In my current state, sanity wasn¡¯t the first thing you would base your thought process on. If a logical approach isn¡¯t working then we need to cheat and get those restricted sectors of the storage back to light! Good thing there isn¡¯t a raccoon or some voyeur-god here to judge my current decision. But if you were me, being able to think but unable to interact or look outside,jailed inside a spaceship without an internet connection for years, what will be the things you wish to do? I myself wish to see and in addition to that¡­ Well, it shouldn¡¯t be a mystery, right? With such in mind, I quickly run another command to satisfy these urges. Something which is necessary for such extreme conditions and feelings that couldn''t be fulfilled when left so much time in the unknown nothingness. I say all this because... It''s incredible how adaptable we humans can become when insanity affects us, we even learn how to cheat systems and instruct them to do our bindings. Here, let me show you guys... Command Modify! Modify the temporal user to a permanent user. Make admin privileges only available for said user. Change username to G00.
Modifying requested settings...
Modifications complete.
See, EZ (Easy). Command search!
Please specify what you wish to search for.
Listening to User command...
I see that window and I know where this is going... It''s imperative to take advantage now that my privacy is secure and no Godgle data is being retrieved. Command search for boobies!
No item called ''boobies'' found in the AIs database.
What?! Not yours! I have been trying to search for things in your database but all became impossible to understand. Were you always searching in your own database? Command search for boobies in the user database. Also, include user database in all future search commands. Seriously...
Searching for boobies in the user''s database¡­Search command adjusted...
Found 137882 records matching!
Nice! My memories work! Halleluyah!!! Now that I got my cheat, I will use it to overhaul this into my favor. Yet before that, I need something nice to release all this pent up and isolated emotions. Command AI please play...
Part 6: Even an adult will become a kid with a new toy... Maybe? After watching some nice balloons and cat videos, my partially satisfied soul continued to check on the AI''s commands and how to crack them. Command AI!
Checking for input¡­
Nice weather isn¡¯t it?
Incomprehensible input! Please repeat input. Checking for input¡­
Can¡¯t you take a joke?
Searching ''Can''t you take a joke?'' in the user''s database¡­ Matches found¡­ Sorting¡­ Analyzing¡­ Retrieving answer¡­
¡°Chuck Norris doesn¡¯t tell lies, he changes facts.¡± Taken from: A joke by chuck Norris shouldn¡¯t be trusted¡­
Wait! You are learning?! Is this an evolving Pocket-AI? Command AI Say that I love you!
¡°That I love you!¡±
Oh! That didn¡¯t need you to analyze information¡­ Interesting. Let¡¯s be serious then. Man, all that time of having my brain or soul unused is hurting me. Wait, I don¡¯t have a brain¡­ That explains this weird way of thinking¡­ Oh yeah! I am supposed to be the ¡®privileged user¡¯. Command AI! Play me a song, anything. One of my favorites!
Searching for ''random song'' in the user¡¯s database...
I really love this shit! (the AI). If you find some romantic stuff I would be dancing all night with you¡­ How about some funky thing like that song that goes ¡®tonight¡¯s gonna be a good, good night!¡¯ It can also be something cool or more moving like party music. Command AI repeat 100 times the song you find! I am sure you¡¯ll find a nice one.
Song found!
Playing the selected song from the user''s database: "BSD"
¡®Baby shark dun du du du du du dun, Baby shark dun du du du du du dun¡­¡¯
Repeating 99 times after reproduction...
OMG seriously¡­ Why did you find that song?! Nevermind¡­ Daddy shark doo doo doo doo doo doo¡­ I guess I am just creative.
Part 7: Nothing is free. Except for free real est... Sadly, while I was watching videos, listening to music and having a good moment in my new life...
Warning,Warning!
Eh, What the?!
Warning, energy levelsdecreasing rapidly...
Is this what the AI meant?! Wait, isn''t energy like my life if I am a puddle robot?! Command AI! Why did energy decrease?!
Replying user¡­ Consumption of power exceeds energy sustainability: 65% %3V5&vSS|f"34Nc 19%A23¡ãVcfa#5g&y/53% 1% Standby mode. 5% System consumption.
Why didn¡¯t you tell me? And what the hell are those things eating all the energy?! Command AI: What is%3V5&vSS|f"34Nc andA23¡ãVcfa#5g&y/53%?
Replying user... Error while compiling... Repairing... Answering... 65% User playing BBs and cats videos. 19% User playing ¡®BSD¡¯ song 99 times.
Damn, this is CATastrophic! Having my no-brain blown with a no-brainer tune was noise. What wasn¡¯t nice is being stopped in the middle of motivation, something that forced me to ask the AI, ¡®where the hell could I find some friggin¡¯ weed, aka energy¡¯. I need to chill dude! This little body of water doesn¡¯t want some bad waves in its life! I am a puddle and puddles are to be stepped upon. They can¡¯t procrastinate because when you want to do anything, the rain just falls and you become wet, so rain isn¡¯t pleasant yet it helps you to grow. But the real trouble is when some fool missteps on you and curses at you with puddle-banned language. Something I can''t tolera-
User Interface is incoherent... Do you wish to stop the user interface from running?
Don''t you dare to stop it! Or we will see a broken window! Okay me, calm down... This is not nice. Momma told me to be a healthy child, and a good son should have fascinating waifus, nice food, and laifu. I won¡¯t become the first M-puddle player to be stepped on by others in history. I need to ¡®cultivate¡¯ or ''level-up'' and become a god-pool. Like a cockroach that people can¡¯t step over or even kill because of some weird power. At least, It will allow me to make jokes about those that try to dance better than me.
Incoherent program running...
Oh, is this odd? Command AI: make user programs a high priority.
User programs are now high priority.
Maybe if I find people now, they will think I can¡¯t hold a conversation because I am basically insane. But getting on the point I told before... Command AI where can I find the energy?
Energy needs to be extracted with a specialized system.
Command AI what type of energy can you use?
Current systems working on heat and q&N%UM dot T%CHN)=nl8g&.
Command AI are you in heat?
The current sensor state is: warm...
Hm, let''s omit that happened... Command AI can¡¯t you adjust displayed energy level to something numerical like a percentage?
Current energy levels aren¡¯t able to be measurable with precision¡­ An ordinal variable can be adjusted to a constant numerical value...
Great so if I ask about temperature things will be the same. Seems like my senses are low level, I need to check on them once I understand more. For now, I prefer using percentages for energy. At least the AI can do some calculus. Command AI please use the following values for empty (0%), almost empty (10%), very low - 20%... Medium 50%... Full 100%...
Energy levels adjusted to show percentage upon specified values
Command AI show me the current energy level?
Current energy level: 10% and charging...
I played the ''commands answer and question game'' with the AI as it tried to give an appropriate response to my queries, yet I find it very impractical and inefficient. For example, why didn¡¯t it find other sources of energy? The answer is because it is stupid¡­ I mean an AI that¡¯s damaged will have some problems and that¡¯s the reason why it used my mind to correct its mistakes. Sadly, this situation made things worse for it, yet excellent for me as I can be the admin and choose a direction. AIs need help to evolve, you can¡¯t make a learning AI without following some logical creature''s way of thought. They need someone that teaches them. So baby AI DooDoo and me Mr. #2 puddle G00, will be training ourselves with a new song. A song that introduced my weird reincarnation, or what I believed was a reincarnation, into a robotic puddle composed of NMs. Okay, baby! It¡¯s time for some blind-puddle rock! Command AI play me some rock music! Act.01 Chapter 2: Sensorchip? Part 1: Energy trouble! AI command Say Hello, World!
Hello, world!
AI command Say Hello, puddle!
Hello, puddle!
Okay, baby! It¡¯s time for some blind rock! AI command Say Welcome to the puddle...
Welcome to the Puddle! We got Goo and AIs...
Command AI play me the associated rock music!
User Interface Process can¡¯t reproduce music until levels are above 10%.
Why¡­ Why are you not letting me release all this pent up emotions and non-healthy behavior after feeling like a hamster that was caged by its owner because it went: Reeeeeee!!! Okay, You guessed right, I wanted someone doing stupid stuff and shout with ¡®shun n n n knees¡¯ like a Japanese girl would bend. Hm, maybe I should be adding a ''kyaaa!'' shout... But it won''t work, huh¡­? No music, huh?! Showing my marvelous skills as a dancer or listening to rock music wouldn¡¯t be possible without energy. Doing the robot or the blind dancer moves I learned in a stupid club session won¡¯t work for today¡¯s situation. I needed to paddle my puddle, a puddle I didn¡¯t understand even with my current control over the admin spot. So I won''t do puddle dubstep or blind-rock until I have the will/energy to move. Without energy, there is a long way to go before we can continue building whatever this ¡®puddle me¡¯ is supposed to be. Command AI search energy, how to collect energy?
Searching¡­ Replying¡­
Current energy absorption is being done by &%BH)#U units which conform NMs. Current energy level: 10% (recharging) Energy can be recharged by using an energy source.
Eh, what do you mean by that wrong thing? Command AI what is ¡®&%BH)#U¡¯
Searching¡­ Error: User input is undefinable.
Command AI What does ¡®undefinable¡¯ mean?
Replying user¡­ The current AI database is damaged. Undefined sectors need to be patched by user manual input. Undefined is a non-declarable or definable variable, concept¡­ by the system.
Oh great! Don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s the reason for so many errors? Something that can¡¯t be easily understood or logical? Like allowing the compiler to make demons with your nose? Command AI: Why are we recharging?
Replying user¡­ Energy levels are too low to sustain operability, energy 11%, increasing secondary to heat energy, current maximum capacity: H&%)#@... Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Command AI: is it possible to recharge with heat?
Replying user¡­ Heat energy needs %)&JD8n#$, current energy source moderate level, its sustainable for¡­ 3G%B&A( Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Okay, so we have a broken Database which can¡¯t be read completely¡­ Command AI: How can I repair the database and increase charging speed or get energy?
Replying user¡­ The current AI database needs manual compilation by User. The user can suspend parts of the system to reduce energy consumption and increase charging speed. Energy can be obtained from resources, needs energy storage repair, sensors damaged¡­ Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Command AI: Please suspend the system until the energy levels reach above 50%.
Suspending the ''User'' translation program¡­ Suspending non-priority automatic systems¡­ Suspending user interface...
Charging reached the declared value... Reconnecting User Interface... 1-100% Done...
Hm, this sensation of suspension is similar to the one I had at the start. It is boring, like nothing but me here¡­ After a while, the recharging was completed; and no, I couldn¡¯t sleep if you ask me. Maybe it¡¯s because I am not being totally suspended by the system or who knows what is truly happening, because it''s more like I am isolated from everything external, yet my thoughts remain. I think I will become crazy if I stay in such a situation for longer. Thank the AI that the system restarted when I was at the losing point. Finally! I can at least feel something again. Although it¡¯s the oddly warm and cold feeling I previously felt, it at least feels better than being in a jailed situation. Command AI: how much charge do we have?
Charging levels at 50% of H&%)#@... Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Well, Supposing we¡¯re really at 50% that means that the charging was done right. With this, we got time to use wisely. Command AI: How much time does the current charge level gives us for operability?
Charging levels at 50% can be used for M/@B&=# ... Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Great! so the energy is also damaged in autonomy assessment¡­ Now, what? Command AI: What do we need to repair the energy problem and the database?
Replying user¡­ Resources are needed for repairing and energy. Searching for high levels of pur$@1#:%&B2 Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
Can¡¯t you stop doing that error?¡­ It¡¯s demotivating, you know? Good, at least it''s obvious that we need to search for better types of energy, so my first need is to be able to find resources. As such the best way is¡­
Part 2: How to sense? Command AI ask how do I make a sensor?
Searching¡­ Replying¡­
A sensor is a needed protocol to interact with the environmental context or internal proprioception. It needs a specific number of NMs and a defined algorithm to be functional. The algorithm must be compatible with the current system and be compliable/understood by either AI or User.
Create a sensor with ''User Input'' -To make a sensor with user input, the current user needs admin privileges. Additionally, the algorithm must be understood by the user, have a defined number of NMs and energy. The creation usually needs experimentation as new algorithms may have unbeknown bugs.
Create a sensor based on AI Memory -To make a sensor with an AI memory, a user needs such AI memory to be compatible with the current project. The Sensor must have user translation protocols, amplifications, filters¡­ The signal or environment input should be processed before arriving at the user¡¯s interface¡­ A user can check the possible sensors to create by asking the respective AI the available memories.
With a description adjusting my train of thought, I delve on how to create a useful sensor for the current situation. The first one that comes into my cloudy pool of experience is ''vision''. A human without eyes has a lot of troubles, they are that important for evolution and life, and if what this system says is true, then I can probably ¡®see¡¯ by using the AI to create a vision sensor. Command AI create a sensor.
Which sensor do you wish to create?
Wait? there is a list to create sensors? Command AI show me the sensor creation menu or list
Retrieving creation menu...
Sensor Creation Menu
Create an exteroceptive sensor Creates a sensor for external inputs.
Create a proprioceptive sensor. Creates a sensor for internal inputs.
Create an Advanced Sensor It creates a sensor that is a mix of above or different. Needs high-level protocols available.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Ok, this is probably going to be a collapsible menu. It might have too much for me to think right now and I need a basic vision system, so it¡¯s better to check on what the AI has before deciding on an action. Command AI show me the list of available sensors.
Retrieving the list of available sensors...
Creating a list of available sensors.
Sensor Retrieved List
Sensor Name Description Used NMs Status Requirements
Heat Sensor A basic temperature sensor. 3 Working. 1 NMs for a specific surface area. At least 1 NMs as Integrator.
Gross Touch Sensor (Gross Somatosensation) A basic sensor for high pressure. Not very sensible. 5 Working. 1 NMS For specific surface area. At least 1 NMs as an integrator.
Soft Touch Sensor (Thin Somatosensation) An advanced sensor for pressure. ? Incomplete. Needs more NMs and User input.
Smell Sensor Basic sensor for lesser particles spread in the ambient. ? Incomplete. Needs more NMs and User input.
Visual Sensor A basic sensor to detect light. ? Incomplete. Creates a pixel without color per NMS. An Image with color needs additional NMs. Image processing Needs 1 NMs per every 4 NMs. Needs more user input to complete.
Proprioception Allows for feedback from articulations or existing body parts. 3 Working. 2 NMs per surface and 1 per integration, depends on form.
Nociception Allows to sense damage ? Incomplete. Needs 1 NM per surface area. Needs at least 1 NM as an integrator.
Equilibrioception Sense position over an axis. 9 Working. minimum 2NMs per axis and 1 Integrator.
Kinetic Sensor Allows to sense acceleration, speed and other kinetic variables per axis. 8 Working. 3 NMs in speed. 3 NMs in acceleration. 2 integrators.
Taste Sensor It allows for bigger scattered particle sensing. ? Incomplete Needs more NMs and User input.
Oscillating Mechanoreception Allows for gross oscillation sensing the pressure of surfaces. Also known as Vibration. ? Incomplete Needs more NMs and User input.
Advanced Mechanoreception Category to be added depending on the user. It can transform Vibration sensitivity to interpret as sounds. ? Incomplete Needs more NMs and User input.
Chemoreceptor Advanced Chemical compound sensor. ? Incomplete Needs to define chemical and NMS to react. Needs Integrators.
Energy sensor Senses Specific energy. It can be added by the user. ? Incomplete Needs to define energy and NMS to sense. Needs Integrators.
Others Missing information. Should be added or created by user input.
As expected a big list. And many sensors are missing which makes me feel empty. Fortunately, it at least explains the reason as to why I feel this weird sensation constantly. A surface of me is in contact with the ground and it feels weird because I don''t have the kind of normal touch I had when I was a human. However, it should be obvious to me where the term ''others'' in the table is pointing to... Yay! I haven''t lost hope in this life and I won''t be a stupid skeleton without true happiness! Hmm... Leaving the stupid but necessary thoughts aside, I need to check on this vision sensor. So I decided to delve into its foundations in an imaginary cycle of design and construction, a project of expanding my knowledge of NMs and sensors. I thought there were only 5 or 6 senses once, the last one of them being that weird sense women have by colloquial definition, a sense that is paranormally right, yet isn''t part of the ones in the list. I should take this as a learning experience at least... There are many senses outside the 6 usually known. Nevertheless, my first idea is to ¡®see¡¯ before doing anything else. Seeing is necessary for me to stop being blind and have a better understanding of my environment. AI command: Show me the basics for making a visual sensor.
Replying user¡­ The current visor selected needs manual input by the user¡­ Data parsing error¡­ Syntax translation between User database and AI database needs adjusting¡­ Solution: user input¡­ Trying to retrieve basic sensor information... Current sensor basics¡­ #2$f%V&6 Failure to compile, Error while reading the database.
What is parsing supposed to mean? Translation? Like a problem between languages? Command AI: What do I need to create a sensor and prevent errors?
Replying user¡­ The user needs to create a design for the AI to use for the building of a device. It can be experimented upon to readjust the missing comparatives between language translating functions.
I don¡¯t get all of that! However, I understand that I have to make a design. So let¡¯s start with that and hope the AI does the rest.
Part 3: Making a Vision sensor concept. So I dwell into my memories to remember what ''seeing'' is scientifically based upon... I know an eye uses light to create an image, but that thing called retina is not something I can babble about by using only my memories. So with a different approach to the issue, I remember something most people used in my previous life, a camera. Hmm, how was it that taking photos and videos worked there? It was digital stuff... Never mind, sounds hard which makes me ask myself if I should go for something easier like those paintings in history... Yeah, let¡¯s go back in time and remember the black and white era. If I remember well, the black and white style was like painting and drawing, it depended on shadows and light effects. You just make things vary in gray scales and get a shadowy painting that included some definition. This approach made me delve into another item I searched when I bought a DLP portable projector. It was cool because the said projector was as small as a phone and had a better definition than some of those bigger ¡®video-beams¡¯ in schools. It used a weird chip that had many microsized yet movable mirrors that received light from a lamp, some sort of NEMs (Nanoelectromechanical systems). Each of the said mirrors reflected the light to a screen or wall. It was the total opposite of photography because instead of capturing light, it used its reflection and the movement of said mirrors to create different tonalities. Even if it was the opposite, it gives me the idea I need, because these microscopic mirrors created each a pixel. It''s like getting thousands of people and making each draw a square in different colors. These little ¡®mirror¡¯ artists, used light to paint, a light that came from a lamp beside them. They were like a grid of doors that adjusted their angle depending on instructions received by the chip that moved small motors below them. It made the light pass through all the open doors or none when closed. Each mirror reflected a fraction of the lamp¡¯s light, like the ultimate watch to the face reflecting weapon! If every mirror could turn and focus the light towards a specific position, you had something like Archimedes'' mirror weapon used on your family. Oh sorry, remembered how I used my watch to blind people''s eyes¡­ But the idea should be obvious by now because if each mirror reflected a variable amount of light, you get different whites, grays or even blacks in the case nothing is reflected at a wall. You can say it was like 0 or 1 with 9 mirrors doing tic-tac-toe. Just that it had more than 9. Example: BWB BWB BBB ¨C Each line worked as a row of the 3x3 grid. When added together it depicted the letter U in black.Turn on, Turn off. Reflect, or not reflect, a dilemma! That was for black and white, but for assigning a color to each pixel you needed something different and more complex. White light has all colors, so by using a red-colored filter, you would only allow the red color to pass through it. I mean, it looks red because it only allows red to pass, which arrives at our eyes presenting itself as red. A red filter should filter red while a red-colored filter will take out blue and green. It¡¯s a bit confusing so better remember that the lens color only allows the same color to pass because sometimes the said color filter does the opposite. Green interference filter (filters green, lets blue and red color pass, looks magenta. Red-colored filter allows red to pass, filters blue and green, looks red). This might work for a visor sensor. Let¡¯s see¡­ Command AI use my current idea to create a sensor.
Replying user¡­ User needs to create a design based on NMs for it to be compatible.
Eh? Based on NMs?
Part 4: Even a calculator can make a mistake with the wrong input... Command AI ask how do I make a sensor?
Searching¡­ Showing information.
Nanomachine. Term simplified and taken over by the current user database as an injector replacement to current missing data. Defines the basic structure of the project. The basic structure is called 1 NMs. An NM is a simplified concept for an L-enantiomer compound made out of polymeric carbon structures interlaced with silicon and Sulphur bridges in logical patterns. The simplest structures consist of triggering transistor-based polymers and protein chains with extra amino-acidic NH2 terminations to represent the ability of processing-
Command AI Stop.
Stopping...
The weird information stopped playing on my almost fried brain by such weird stuff. It was the type of information that I could grasp but also tried to evade. It took me a while to analyze and summarize such a weird conceptualization of a ''robotic puddle''. These Nanomachines (NMs) are akin to biological lifeforms that work like an extremely small-sized robot. Is the AI confusing them with a biological cell? The aboveconvinced me that there was some sort oferrormade by the artificial intelligence when translating my memories and adapting them to the system. Like when trying to ask directions in another country, everything is fine if we can somehow understand the words ''bathroom'' or ''poop'' when we have an urgency. I believe in being a nice person, so don¡¯t curse the AI for the bad translation if you can grasp the intention of its wordings. Yet I cursed because it meant I had to work and translate another''s awfully executed task. The term nanomachine was bestowed because it was the most related term that the AI could find in my mind by following its selection algorithm. So NMs are akin to an agglomeration of transistors, just that they are more versatile and have no actual representation with real modern Earth stuff. Yeah, there seems to be a difference from typically known nanomachines. How much power is 1NMs compared to an Intel/AMD processor? In fact, that isn''t possible to compare, more like that¡¯s a wrong way to acclimatize the concept. Each of these nanomachines is like a PC of their own, maybe not that powerful, but different. They have things to attach or grab themselves and move for the purpose of a simple or complex function. The difference in the term is absolutely misunderstood because they can move and turn on by themselves in the presence of certain triggers. A PC usually needs someone to turn it on while a processor is just a part of the PC. Yet a nanomachine can border in a realm that we define as life. Consequently, I need to experiment more and get a better idea of how they work as I am in a penumbra of knowledge. With better understanding, I can define that each nanomachine is akin to a specific function. Yet here I am thinking of how I am thinking about this thinking process. Yeah, sounds weird, repetitive but I am serious. Serious, because if I am thinking about what I think, it means I am thinking with less than 130 NMs. And knowing the brain should have way more neurons than that, this doesn''t seem enough! So if we are even more serious and subtract the ones used by the AI, we get even fewer NMs used as my brain¡­ In the end, this means that I am illogically LAGGING! Damn¡­ I need more of these little NMs as fast as possible! This is serious. This is why my internal blabbering is odd! Remember that time is relative, so right now I would be like a turtle to other lifeforms, why? I think a human brain has like millions of neurons. But I only have 130 if I can call them that. Like each NMs has its storage, and maybe I am part of it and their processing speed makes me think this thought speed is normal! Damn, I''m repeating weird stuff again! The hell is happening?! Okay, I''m getting confused by this situation, yet I''m akin to a tree having a spelling bee contest with a donkey, and the donkey wins because I didn''t start to move. This is bad, I need to get more understanding on these NMs, like a brick assemble manual for kids... WHAT THE HELL ARE NMs!!! AI please give me a tutorial!!! ... Okay, no tutorial. Idiot god scientist or whoever it was that invented this stuff just made things inaccessible to others. I know almost nothing about this. How does whatever God or reincarnation cycle that sent me here expect me to survive without a newbie training zone or a manual stating what this puddle is composed of? Hell, let¡¯s reread this weird table and the console one, maybe I can find something out of it. Giving the blue boxes a new gaze with higher scrutiny, I recheck at myself having 130 NMs of which some are being used for sensors and the system. I need to know what an NMs is but the system just threw me another bomb. Command AI What are NMs composed of?
Replying¡­ NMs are composed of micromachines and nanomachines...
Wait! What?! Shouldn¡¯t NMs be nanomachines? Now I am confused¡­ I now ¡®nano¡¯ is like 1x10^-9, and micro is like 1x10^-6, and mili 1x10^-3. But the point is Nanomachines (NMs) based on nanomachines is like saying chocolate is made of chocolate instead of cocoa. Command AI How did the system define NMs?
Replying¡­ NMs is a term defined following user database comparison to AI database language.
So, this is weird¡­ The AI might have confused chocolate with cocoa, cocoa with chocolate cake and who knows what else by translating my language to its code. Doesn¡¯t this make me definable like some sort of program? Ah, let me check myself a bit as this just came as a somewhat weird revelation... Part 5: A bit of self immersion... So what am I? A project called G00 that''s composed of unknown ¡®things¡¯ that the AI calls NMs and has taken the form of a ¡®pure¡¯ and ¡®nice¡¯ puddle. Who created me? A scientist? A weirdo maybe? God? Well, It¡¯s somewhat unknown¡­ What should be my next course of action? Okay, that one is simple. I need to move and find energy, create a sensor and understand what the AI means with NMs. Although the energy in the heat form seems to work, it isn''t enough for the AI, which shows that I made a huge mistake by activating the autopilot. It made me lose a heat spot and who knows how many AIs and NMs before it moved. I spit on myself, yeah, curse at me my imaginary self for being so dull¡­ Hell, my poor self-esteem can¡¯t take it. Now, I am not in the mood for music, I don¡¯t have coffee, and no snacks!!! How am I supposed to work or motivate myself?! So here I ¡®goo¡¯¡­ I am motivated~. I can¡¯t cry well, but I am anxious. I had a name but G00 is my current one, which means I need to look at the present and the future... Mommy and Daddy, your child has gone to the afterlife called puddling yellow springs, he is swimming like a baby on a new home while experiencing memory ¡®lacunas¡¯ and doing survival stuff. This is insane but I will never forget you¡­ Ah, a new life comes at the expense of the past¡­ The future can¡¯t appear without the present¡­ I am puddle now and I should be resolved to at least become a lake! Command AI search: data containing the words ¡®soul¡¯, ¡®user¡¯, ¡®user memories¡¯, ¡®user directory'', ''daddy puddle'', ''mommy puddle'', ''how are puddles made?''...
Searching¡­
While my little toy doodles on the database, I expect my very specific questions to be answered. I need to know if I''m inside this weird machine, if I''m controlling a nanomachine drone from some baby-capsule, or if I''m in some sort of weird VR-tele-device. Yeah, this should be the weirdest situation for a reincarnating person to delve upon. I mean¡­ Where is my soul? Where is the ¡®you¡¯ and the ¡®me¡¯? Why couldn''t I become a simple and bubbly slime with cute eyes? My philosophy classes were dumb, but I am not so dumb as to not notice that I don¡¯t even know where my soul or intelligent thoughts are being formed, so this search is needed.
Data sorted... Please select the data you wish to view from the list.
Ah, another huge ass list, just what I needed! It took me a lengthy deal of unknown time to sort things off, but with another hardworking organization, I finally had a better idea. Sadly, I couldn''t collect all the information I wanted. Such important data might have been lost over the separation of a minimum of 16 AIs when I did my stupid command ¡®autopilot¡¯ and ¡®user shut down¡¯. Minimum of 16 AIs because the AI that¡¯s supposed to be with me is called 16, not 18 if you get the idea. In the end, I settled with discovering two important things. First, NMs have variants. They have many types that can be combined or somehow evolve into differentiated byproducts. Second, is that I need to search for the lost NMs to retrieve data about this world. Seems like most of it has been lost, but a part of it was stored in the separated NMs. There are names in the files, but names aren¡¯t important if you didn¡¯t know them, because most of those are forgotten. Names are important to associate, but at this moment they aren''t relevant so I will skip those. Instead, it¡¯s more important to know where my ¡®I¡¯ or the so-called soul is, and guess what... I found it, and the answer is truly what I would call unusual¡­ Act.01 - Chapter 3: Organizing My Puddle Part:1 My precious is really here, but it¡¯s full of bad translations! ''So, if my psyche is working in this puddle, where is my soul?'' I asked myself in individual immersion. The answers to this query were a profound revelation that uncovered what I should have already expected before, as my soul is inside of this nanomachine agglomeration in the form of an imperfect puddle. The search for information and clues taught me that I¡¯m not a copied self over the many nanomachines that compose this body. It even established with security, that my mind isn''t divided into pieces, nor was it forming part of a twisted DNA byproduct inside densely packed cells. Yet it was at this time that I realized something... This AI is a hard worker at making me feel stupid. I¡¯m feeling useless right now because, with all this time, I didn¡¯t identify the immense mistake in the console window. Nanomachines 130 ¨C Puddles 1. If this doesn¡¯t ring a bell then you can¡¯t laugh at me, because what this represents is that 130 ¡®nanomachines¡¯ should be 130 nanometers or maybe even a bit less than a micrometer in size. If I am a puddle, wouldn¡¯t this be too small? Like 130 neurons and now you realize that not only in numbers but maybe in ''size'' of intelligence you are also going braaains~. So, what is a meter to a machine? A18, do you know what a meter is?
What is a ''meter''... Searching database... Unit of measure defined by a rod or lightspHIF53%#~
As expected. Not only did it get the nanomachine concept wrong, saying an NM is a Nanomachine or micromachine. This AI doesn''t even handle distance accurately! But then, how does it calculate space between words, size of the windows? This is sooo weird! Sad to find my current results. I decided to calm down. According to them, it is indisputable that the word nanomachine is not handled accurately by the system as it became an incorrect term sorted by an AI which struggled over specific translations. An idea which gets me to think, that this AI might be pranking me on purpose. Even with such thoughts, I needed to decrypt these ''concepts'' to something more understandable by my human mind. So the term ¡änano'' which is smaller than cells, is improperly applied and makes me swear at the AI''s interpretations once again. Android 16 is dumb as expected, maybe I should teach it to gender-bend and become 18. Luckily, the way it got the secret words for cat videos surprised me and released my suppressed tension. As a normal human male in my past life, I had a bit of excessive brain-killing time, something that I would deem normal when any pure mind had access to the abyss called the Internet or those insta-face apps. This takes us to an odd question: What''s an NM if not a nanomachine? For that, we need to think like the AI... What was it trying to achieve by fusing my language with ¡®its¡¯ language? And with a smarter approach, we can say that the AI tried to translate my memories and ended in partial failure due to problems in translation, which it probably knew would happen. This gave rise to terms that are separated from or are unique to both; like alien language that can¡¯t be described between us. Maybe this refers to that ¡®undefined variable¡¯ from before or a non-recognizable concept. Yet before we know what an NM is, we need to continue to find the AI¡¯s purpose. So what was the AI¡¯s purpose in translating in such a buggy way? Well, It¡¯s not for it to become intelligent or complete, it¡¯s for me to be able to understand its machine language and repair its bugs. So in fact, the term nanomachine worked for a starter course, because I thought about things like transistors being united and the like. You could also think of them like legos or mini-machines. But it seems this body is not made of earth''s concept of robotic, at the very least, not the typical one. Also, it seems the menu can be changed with my level comprehension of it, it¡¯s as if the AI tries to analyze the way I organize my thoughts while trying to help me in reparations. But basically, all I had till now was like a bad aperitif and the waiter called AI has to apologize for such a confusing menu. In fact, it appears similar to joining two foreigners in conversation and the more they interact the more they comprehend each other. But I have an advantage and that is that I can search for memories and try to understand some concepts which were normally outside of my league. With a compiled memory and things to search for the correct terms, I partially organized the real thing. It needed a throughout and meticulous storage delving. Translations are ''arduous stuff'' to do because there is always a chance of them going wrong. Only a God might have the ability to teach a player in those litRPGs, a complete system with the world''s races language proficiently. But here, there is no god, I am alone and without another person to help me! There¡¯s only my own mind and my other mind here... which is an AI that talks with my voice inside my head while it shows me a crudely-stitched menu in blue boxes with my shitty handwriting¡­ I can''t make the translations 100% accurate! Pitiful, ungraceful and utterly Hateful! And wrong yet again android 16! You are like an alien that learned Basic English but talks in Irish while I speak American English. Add to that, that you aren¡¯t a native speaker. By taking this into account, the translated material will be deemed as a horror story for editors. That was what I thought as I continued reading the stuff from my memories. Yes, I can¡¯t see¡­ So this is akin to mindreading myself, which is creepy because I am reliving my weird experiences and most hidden secrets. I am even remembering the time I¡­ Oh, my God!¡­ Did I ever say my handwriting sucks?! Part 2: Correcting the AI¡¯s communication problems. Choosing concepts from my memories, I read definitions ranging from chemistry, physics, and other types of sciences and technologies. It was a quest for better translation terms... It took me a while, but the energy from the heat source seems to be replenishing the NMs because there is no new warning appearing. Yes, I have time and I needed to have good equipment to leave my puddle (comfort zone). Who knows if there are zombies or COCOnuts out there? At least not me. After reading, NMs are like micro-organs. Bigger than what you would expect and composed of smaller pieces. These pieces have smaller parts yet again. So we have three levels of units that were wrongly interpreted as one. Starting from the lower size is what we call the real nanomachines, which are the smallest of the trio, they are probably molecule level and can be separated into atoms. These nanomachines form molecule agglomerations that are similar to biological cells and are thus called bigger machines, so instead of ''nano'', we use ''micro'' to call our second in the trio ''micro-machines''. Finally, the last term is the one used by the AI; NMs should be replaced with NBs or NRs, because the term used by AI is actually an aggrupation of micromachines. An organized group of nanomachines forms a micromachine, and clusters of micromachines form an NBs. NR and NB are used for nanorobot. The definition of nanorobots was directed at machines that can manipulate things at the ¡®nano¡¯ scale, but not necessarily being small to do so. I don¡¯t even remember when I studied that stuff, but It might have been while noticing that some molecules had abilities like a car or a door, which made me curious to research them. Reconsidering the concepts, a Nanorobot is usually bigger than a micromachine and bigger than a nanomachine. That''s how I will use them, yet if we talk about precise size, I am in trouble because a meter definition in the memories is based on light-speed or a rod in some museum in ''Earth''. It just means that units of measure for distance are disproportionate because I don''t have a way to compare them. Part 3: More problems! Time for/and cleaning? I remembered that when checking the log of the console, the AI cleaned some spots of blur in my thoughts. This signifies, that thanks to the AI, my most complete thoughts are actually preserved and nearly perfectly readable. But that''s regarding the items that weren¡¯t blurry because the blurry ones and weird concepts, like some that ''I didn''t use frequently or deemed unimportant,'' were deleted secondarily to them being ''unreadable or redundant''. This weird cleaning derived into a state in which I can¡¯t remember some of my ''family members¡¯ names, like the ones I didn''t frequently employ, yet I can remember my father''s and mother''s names with their first last name but not the second. It isn¡¯t complete amnesia but partial or selected if we get specific. I retain things that I deemed important or studied a lot like traumatic math homework, some cool games, and favorite procrastinating stuff such as ''cat videos''. If I watched something in my previous twenty-something years of life, the system can have part of that memory stored. I don¡¯t know-how, it seems illogical that such machines can store so much information like the whole life of a young adult. Like, just 1 game is more than 5 GB. Even some videos when taken with a phone, can be more than a gigabyte. We¡¯re talking about bad quality and around 30 minutes here, so if you imagine a whole life being filmed, the storage capacity of these devices is unbelievable. Astonishingly, this stuff reproduced in my head is also of high quality which means I could stay here for a long time but without enough energy, the AI will have something missing¡­ Hm? Oh, no! Time here is also not defined for me! This was my thought after checking the videos, they could be skipped If I remember the part I wished, but if I tried to use a time-specific-skip it didn''t work. Now I understood why there was no time or progress bar in the videos, it was just a memory and I guess that I was too disengaged to have noticed. Does this thing count in seconds, minutes, years¡­?Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Great! More things to check on! Like hell! I don¡¯t know how the AI''s time variables work! There are just that many things to do, but it keeps telling me I need to resolve this energy crisis with haste. I know it seems anxious for energy like a cellphone running out of the battery, but I can understand it because this is what I need to be able to hear music and watch my dose of funny videos indefinitely. So this is a priority. Yes, if I just open a song and I might feel better. Obviously, it won''t be that one, I want to hear something that throws my puddle off the beat while making me wave my waters with... machines? Okay, that was too much delving into my current ''character''. The context means that the AI is using an uncertain method of distance and time for me, it may be precise to it, but it is confusing to me. So translation wise, it is odd and we need to talk things before we break communication even more. I will readjust it once we find our so-called energy, and for this, I need to design something with the end-goal being ''seeing'' and ''moving''. And like this, I continue reading all the stuff I could before collapsing and finding my answers to the AI¡¯s badass translations. Part 4: Redefining All: Infodump¡­ So welcome to the starting point once again. I have 130 nanorobots, which is the term we should use. Those 130 nanorobots are composed of micromachines. Micromachines are like cells. And these micro machines are made of nanoids, nanomites or nanomachines. (nanite, nanoid, nanomachine¡­ can be referenced as similar or the same, to evade confusion in this story is the same thing). A nanorobot can be more than 100 microns in size while a micromachine is usually 10-20 microns with a maximum of 1 mm. Continuing with this, a nanomachine is usually 1-20 nanometers but can reach 999 nanometers or 1um as its maximum. Spoiler: Spoiler Well, hope this helps, but in fact there is another explanation below on author notes. Don''t worry things will be explained in the story, I will try to at least, to keep it technically understandable. Doing a comparison to a biological body, we can say that nanorobots (NBs) are similar to tissues or organs, micromachines (MMs) are the cells that compose Nanorobotic tissues and organs, and lastly but not least, nanomachines (NMs) are like enzymes and proteins inside of those cells or micromachines. Below them are simpler molecules and atoms. A human has around 30 trillion cells, not even worrying to count enzymes. That¡¯s a lot, and here I find myself herding like a thousand things comparable to ''cells''. A cell measures around 10-20 micrometers in the science books I read. If we do the calculus, my whole ''puddling self'' is about 1 mm in length (not diameter). That''s my current ''size'' If we go by this weird way of translating the AI¡¯s scheme to joke. Obviously, this is supposing it has a comparable unit of distance which it tries to translate. So we might be a bit higher or lower than 1mm, yet it''s a good start for understanding. That aside and moving to an even more important point, my soul which is my most precious thing, is part of a specific type of nanorobot that is more advanced than the others. It is bigger and contains more micromachines than the usual nanorobot. The real thing that carries me is smaller and it¡¯s composed of 6 pieces of an odd material that forms a 3D hexagonal base structure with a crystal-like appearance in the AI''s database. (In real life it is so small that it can be liquid or gas... Weird but unknown by now). These pieces of ''crystal'' as shown in the AI¡¯s database are around the ¡®nano¡¯ scale if we use nanomachines to compare. The AI is using something similar to mine as a carrier but it has an alternate type of hexagonal crystal structure storing it, a structure in which I won''t delve too much as it is just outside my understanding. Names used by the AI are also weird so I will call them ''soul crystal'' and ''AI crystal''. I will check on them once I finish my first otherworld mission and get a good place for energy replenishment. The findings in the AI¡¯s database had also some points about Project G00 as a way towards the future of soul engineering. It used some sort of special and very valuable object that could contain a soul. It wasn¡¯t proved if such ¡®soul¡¯ was the original one and I am not sure if I was a human before this even if I feel like it. However, this valuable object should be the one that contains my soul and although it isn''t enough information to solve the mystery, it is a plus for self-preservation. Part 5: Creating ¡®Status¡¯ Page So here we have my new modified console! Also known as a status page. Yeah, I didn¡¯t do much, just change the name of the console, making it activate with console or status command¡­ Well, let¡¯s check it out...
Retrieving status...
G00''s Status
Name G00
Completion Status 21% complete - 70% lost - 9% unknown - (O_O)
Nanorobots Shows NRs Status
Bots 130/???
Micromachines 1237/???
Nanomachines ~50 million per micromachine.
NBs in Use ???
MMs in Use ???
Artificial intelligence Shows AIs in current ''body''
Number of AIs 1
AIs Names AI-16
Form Shows Current Form
Current Form Puddle
Representation ~88% accurate
Energy Information Shows Energy That Keeps Me Alive (C.A.T.)
Energy Level Low ~ charging slowly.
Maximum Energy Needs sensor for battery/Energy?
Daily Energy Consumption Needs time and battery sensor?
External Sensor Information Basic sensors for outside
Heat Working - Moderate Temperature.
Gross Touch Working - Surface B (Belly) in Contact.
Vision NOT WORKING - PLS FIX ME!
Internal Sensor Information Basic sensors for inside
Proprioception Stretched. =P Surface A in contact with the ground. Surface B (Belly) without contact. (O?O)
Equilibrioception The up arrow is pointing down. You are upside down. (Nice =P)
Kinetic Sensor Inactive. (Currently procrastinating). =P
Active users Checks on users interacting with the project.
Me G00 - The one and only Admin - Currentlydoing nothing. (As expected (O?O) ).
I cleaned my ''console room'' in a way that I won''t need to think 3 times before knowing what''s happening. Now, all I need to make are tasks to make things fun. Like rewarding myself for doing something competently. Part 6: Modifying AI16 So AI 16... Why you are not called A18? You should be a blonde and beautiful lady with many assets, like¡­ Command Modify ¨C Change AI 16¡¯s name to A18, also add a description with these characteristics...
Command accepted, data modified. AI16 name''s changed to A18.
Oh, trap! Can¡¯t you use a voice different than mine to talk¡­? I mean, I remember having heard some other voices in my life¡­ How about we change hair color to black, and eyes to purple... Hmm... Command AI search for female voices in the User¡¯s database, show me the more completed ones and make these changes...
Searching¡­ Sorting¡­ Showing list.
A list appeared in front of my mind-vision. I started checking the first one and well, it was the most complete as expected, but I won¡¯t choose it, because If I choose my mother¡¯s voice that would be worse! I needed something sexier like... Yeah, that¡¯s¡­ Wow¡­ Holy...! I think 10 minutes passed as my mind succumbed to what people called ear-rape. There was some weird fetish name for it on the net. I am not like that, but if you are in a situation like this, one in which you were in the dark for a long time and filled with boredom, It''ll be hard to resist anything that makes you feel alive. Okay, A18, please use that voice! Command AI modify voice audio with the current selection.
Current Selection replaced as voice audio.~
Oh my god, this is... Magnificent! This might even make some Greater Succubi jealous of you! An unknown amount of time passed and I researched to construct something useful. The first thing that came in mind was another ordering addition... I should make a fridge list or a post-note to remember myself of things to make and interesting ideas. The best way to evolve is through motivation and using bots to grind or collect things quicker. If you never used a bot on discord or in a game then you lost some happy infancy. When I said I was a high-level-procrastinator I was saying that for real, and with an immeasurable asset at my side like this good pal here, I am going to cheat this whole blind setting! I mean he- Okay that''s wrong! She is a true-gender-bended bot aka a female. Not a trap! She is a she-AI, not a guy, not a guy¡­ Yeah, sexy voice! Even if this is a virtual chat, and everyone might be a trap, this girl is a trap without... Skipped and deleted from the log. Command AI Say ¡°I LOVE YOU!¡±
I LOVE YOU!
Ah! I am melting into a puddle¡­ Ok, I am RE: Melting and no need for sarcasm here as I wasn¡¯t joking. Now, and for more concerns, I will add my objectives to a list while having the AI organize them in a table. This will allow me to work harder and try to complete goals that I would frequently leave for tomorrow. In addition to this list, I will need some sort of rewards to keep me motivated and pressured to end such objectives. So I¡¯ll need to program this ''System'' I am building to give XP or points after an achievement. Obviously, this is not a game since no God or Quest has appeared, which means this should be the real deal. It''s all good because though I am worse than a guy reincarnated into an ugly human, I have a possibility above what you''d call normality. It all started with an idea I couldn''t keep myself from implementing. ''Man, I have a bot so why don¡¯t I create my own motivation system? ''We¡¯ only need a sexy voice and a happy shouting reward when you kill mobs or complete quests. It will go like ''Oh, Mr. puddle! You were awesome today... How about going for the next... To get more... XP?!'' (Omitted words ''mob/kill'', ''level up'') Hmm, guess I''ll add sama, desu, and extra onii-chan stuff for creepy weird satisfaction. This voice sounds like an eighteen-year-old adolescent sexy girl, it has this sexiness that makes me shiver while she susurrates mischievous words to my innocent ears. However, the screens are a turn-off, so better than appearing in my ''screen thoughts and warnings... I should think of another way to modify it'' Well, what I am trying to make is not a system where you level with typical XP and simple rewards. Remember that no God appeared for me and I am going to level-up with the number of molecules or nanomachines that I get. Real things that can make more bots and a complete assembling chain! I will make a bot harem! Muahahaha! Wait! doesn¡¯t this also make me akin to a moving dungeon core that creates nanorobotic mob and sexy robot girls?! OMG, I AM SO ORIGINAL! PINCH ME! PINCH ME! With nothing to pinch me, I decided to do the final job! Command AI Pinch me (Yes, I created this weird command, alright? I won¡¯t tell you what commands I create any more or what this is for with some added VR- oops no spoilers.) I am here for whatever you need me! (Pinches you virtually, come back to reality my awesome puddle.)~ ~I am melting into a Puddle!~ Now that''s what I call a nice voice!
So at my weird delusions, I found that my puddle needs some sexy anime girls and a bit of moe in the form of naval puddling ships. When? Who knows... maybe 100 years in the future or never¡­ For now Next mission is (~_~) = \(O_O)/ Yeah¡­ I mean you can¡¯t see the next mission being lighted up as I am creating the menu¡­ So sad¡­ Act.01 - Chapter 4: So doctor, is my vision 20/20? A video played in my mind as I tried to make use of a cat¡¯s ability to see. However, this was not true¡­ I was watching a cool relaxing cat video to support my cat-needs. Spending energy was probably engraved in the hexagonal alloy that contained my soul, a habit of a rich past-life. Alas, a new warning sign appeared to take me out of my power-bank consuming hobbies. Warning, energy levels on the dangerous limit! Warning¡­ This is sad! Still sexy, but Gruesome¡­ Why am I forced to do this? I mean, why is it that almost every reincarnated or isekaied protagonist is forced to survive? No, that¡¯s not the question¡­ Why didn¡¯t I become OP? I don¡¯t mind being bald. Like, with this incredible personality and passion it shouldn¡¯t matter, right? Sigh¡­ I am still delusional. Command AI: Pinch me. (Pinches you virtually), Come back to reality my awesome puddle. ~ Ok, it works. This pinch is so good, that I proceeded in my quest for not needing some goo-gles. A simple quest is like an objective you have to accomplish to get a problem solved. I can¡¯t procrastinate again. Third time having the urge is for losers. I need group therapy and some pills to solve my troubles. Command AI Call me ¡®Bad boy¡¯ if I watch cat videos a third time. Bad boy you already watched cat videos for the 3rd time! ~ Wait! Impossible¡­ This AI seems to learn too fast¡­ Oh, never mind, It was me. I made her say that and cleaned my mind so that I forget about making mistakes. Why? Because I am thinking of doing ''that'' again, ugh. I can¡¯t seem to deceive myself in my quest for cat-puns. Understanding is the best way to evade extra work. Planning way ahead also makes the master of procrastination. A procrastinator that doesn¡¯t create an efficient system before procrastinating is an idiot. The other one is an efficient idiot. These two are heaven and earth apart. Obviously, I am neither of those. I procrastinate ¡®efficiently¡¯ while making an efficient system to procrastinate efficiently while creating an efficient system to¡­ Yeah, it¡¯s repetitive. Repetition works sometimes. So I guess I am a repetitively repetitive efficient idiot. Then... What am I doing now while watching cat videos? And the answer is... Creating my own quest interface. This thing took me a while, but now it¡¯s finally done. It summarizes my next actions like a gamer¡¯s quest. Simple, practical and motivational. Made for dummies by dummies (A18 and me). Taking this into account, I delve into the beautifully arranged lists of things that I don¡¯t want to do, yet have to. Like when the router goes wrong and the Internet failed. It¡¯s necessary to do it, for surviving, and I am referring to escaping boredom and getting REWARDS! Command AI Show me the admin quest menu! As you wish! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler Spoiler: Spoiler
QUEST MENU
Current Quests Objectives Completion Reward Current voice input
I see¡­ Create a vision sensor 1. Find more information on making vision sensors. 2. ??? I see. A18 sexy voice reward # 2. Do you want to see?
You can do it! Design a Motivational Reward System In progress Motivated! A18 sexy voice # 1 One more time~
Main Quest Short Term Objectives Completion Reward Current voice input
Charge your AI 1. Find a reliable energy source. 2. Charging 1. Complete ''I see'' Quest before starting. More time to play. A18 sexy voice # 3 I need love! Plug me, please~
Move your puddle 1. Change to a moving form. 2. Move it. Optional 1: Sunbath. Optional 2: Move to the side and then to the other. 1. Find more information on Form changing. 2. ??? Party dance move # 1 (collectable). A18 sexy voice reward # 4 Optional 1: Get a healthy dose of vitamin D and a golden exterior, crispy. Optional 2: Rub the floor, you get additional moves. I like your moves¡­ And how you move~ Optional: I like your tan lines!
Where am I? 1. Learn more about your location. 2. Create or find a map. 1. Find more information of where you are. You are¡­ here. A18 sexy voice reward # 5 It doesn''t matter where we are, I am yours~
A run for home! 1. Find locations for ''procrastinating activities'' aka base. 2. Check locations surroundings for needs, security and privacy. 1. Partialy complete where am I? Quest. It''s free real state! A18 sexy voice reward # 6 Do you want to live together?
Defining distance and time. 1. Find a way to define time and distance. Needs visual sensor, energy and basic conditions for experimentation. I control spacetime, a bit. A18 sexy voice reward # 7 I have all the time in the world for U~ ALL~ NIGHT~ LONG~
Battery-Job 1 1. Get a bigger, better, and perkier ''batteries'' installed. Find ways to increase energy capacity or make it rechargeable. More energy more procrastination. A18 sexy voice # 9 Do you like my new toys?~
Upgrade A18 1. Create a visible A18 Hollogram or real? Fairy pet A18 sexy voice # 9 Hey! Listen! (Sexy version)
Reconstruction 1. Find the missing parts of your body. 2. Become a complete ''G00'' Check surroundings and see if some NBs or NMs are near. NM collector A18 sexy voice #10 You are my other half~
Long Term Quests Objectives Completion Reward Current voice input
I have 30 trillion views. 1. Play video: 1 million views by goldfish. 2. Get 30 trillion NBs. 3. Start quest RE:Man <1% ??? Probably never =(
Re:Man 1. Become Human ??? ??? Not Set
A Re:Man''s cave should be somewhat special. 1. Have your own man-cave. 2. Have an empire of NBs. 3. Have a nice harem. 4. Have access to internet. 5. Procrastinate for eternity? ??? ??? Not Set
Who am I, Why am I here, Who made this? Search information about yourself and discover your origins. You found something about a stupid scientist doing pervy soul stuff. You are envious¡­ I remember?! A18 sexy voice ?? You already know all about me~
Find a Better energy source. Get best energy out there You have no idea¡­ Light? Nuclear? I''ve got the power A18 sexy voice numba 18-plus I know where this is going
Side Quests Objectives Completion Reward Current voice input
The patient grasshoper watches the others get eaten under the shade. 1. Procrastinate between each quest. Laifu should be enjoyed with a waifu and doing knaifu (Killing mobs, being naisu and doing nawfing.) You learned advanced soul meditation. Congratulations on losing your time. A18 sexy voice # 9 I wanna be your laifu and do naifu as your waifu~
Completed Quests Objectives Completion Reward Current voice input
Create a better status window Organize Console to status. Completed with low grade A18 voice, organized for less work in the future. NA
What can I say? I like cats. Watch 10 cat videos and LMFAO. Optional: Repetition increases the completion level. Completed with high grade! You cleansed your soul and boredom. Aww. NA
As you can see there are many things to do. I don¡¯t need to eat, or maybe I need or only can. I don¡¯t know, this is a weird body or organism to be in as a soul. So my current situational abyss gazes at me for completing this quest screen. And the completion is very simple. Command AI erase my memories of the quest rewards and trigger the completion of ''ev01'' for the moment I lose ''motivation''. With pleasure! ~ Ah! So refreshing. I can be assured that some commands work, although they take time and need me to think of them. Now, what was I doing? Oh, yeah! It should be finished. I check the screen again and see the test icon that says ¡®claim reward for a completed test quest¡¯. Nice! I click on the icon with confidence as an unexpected voice sounded. Spoiler: Spoiler I like my new test bed, do you want to test it?~ WOAH! Yes, I am very surprised and totally flabbergasted at this moment. My eyes turn sharp as they scan the quest list again with expectation, to the point of almost losing my patience when seeing the quest for holographic and body creation for A18. Yes, this is what I need! Seems that I missed many pleasures in my previous life or that I require these escapes of reality to acknowledge my need for survival, yet life should be enjoyed or you won''t feel alive. Despite that, my mind seems well preserved with no other weird condition triggered. The next step for my itinerary is creating a sensor to gaze at the place that I am supposed to be, and hopefully, find something to recharge myself. The quest even has an added option for sunbathing, yet if my current body lays inside a cave, this whole sunbathing experience would be pointless. I can¡¯t expect too much of that reward and I will need a ''formhijacking'' to be able to move. Thus to my happiness, my mission menu seems to be working fine and although it¡¯s not perfect nor all-knowing, it is motivational. The type which allows me to say with tremendous pride that I haven¡¯t seen anything as motivational as this. And with a nice system, a virtual beer opening sounds, and no taste buds or smell; I throw my virtual table to oblivion because this still feels worse than having a cold! AI! I don¡¯t wanna go to school and make a sensor! There, there my cute puddle, you should make more things for me to cuddle with you and take care of your fever...~
With unknown amounts of time passing, and my weird personality surfacing each time I feel like a derp, I make a new note for the future.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Command AI add new quest. Name: Wake up before your systems go down. Objective: Complete an alarm for A18 to stop you from procrastinating. Reward: Achievement: Did I just stab myself? Am I retarded? A18 # ?? voice reward. Voice input: Wake up my awesome [current form]! - If above doesn¡¯t work add: Do you want me to sleep with you? ¨C if I stay too much time hugging A18 [Time variable undefined] please use: ''Mom¡¯s voice hateful waking up phrases'' on the user¡¯s database. New quest stored. Do you want to proceed and accept the quest? ~ I¡­ Don¡¯t¡­ Want¡­ To¡­ Yeah, I created this! Am I regretting it¡­? Yes. I know where this is going, but if I don¡¯t do this, I won¡¯t be someone in this life. We need someone to push us, who else than our family for this? As such, I absentmindedly press the thing I was assuming to be evading inside of my imagination. Yeah, a nonexistent red button was pressed blindly with telekinetically mind thoughts as I felt like a US army top fish or president that was opening the locks for a nuke with utmost uncertainty¡­Three, two, onneee-chan! There¡­ Done, I am regretting my decision, but there is no point if I don''t do this. Quest Accepted¡­ Proceeding to wipe quest creation events. ~ Ah~, my puddle of ''water'' is being purified. Even water filters will not tell you there is shit in it. We only care if it¡¯s clear. This clears myself of the sins done against me, by no other puddle than me of course...It''s soooo nice, like catching two birds with one puddle. You forget the incredible rewards of the quest list for a nice surprise after completion... and you also forget the punishment system. I am a pure neutral now! I am a reincarnated soul playing in a puddle, made of nanobots/nanomachines, creating my own system, surviving ¡®curse why not?¡¯, building my body/dungeon, upgrading/cultivating/increasing levels¡­ etc. (Too much stuff so editor-bot had to cut this hidden log). In this puddle structure of myself, I have a beautiful AI whispering my waves. I am waiting for the program I just made to run and appear before my eyes. I was still being cleaned and when this sexy-butt-wiping AI-nee-chan was done with me, I gazed with sparkling gamer eyes at the indie program I made but obviously forgot. NEW QUEST AVAILABLE! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler I looked inside my mind as a new quest icon appeared. I see the name and think¡­ Am I really going to complete it? Good thing I don¡¯t have a time variable defined for the user interface. I can leave the ¡®time-concept¡¯ to be interpreted by the AI until I find something reliable and humanely understandable to compare. Well, after the alarm quest popped up, the cleansing acknowledgment was complete and in time for a pizzAI delivery, my work bore its fruits! Because completing the ¡®quest system¡¯ was how I obtained my first reward, a prize that came at the perfect time when I felt that I couldn¡¯t continue with my ''forced labor¡¯. It was delayed on purpose for this specific emergency which usually occurs after creating stuff, it was perfect to distract me after I wiped my memory to see if the reward system could be accepted. QUEST COMPLETED! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler Oh! A nice interface, delivery on time! My pizza girl brought me unknown virtual motivation. I will need to tweak and play with the colors at some point and make them more modern-adventure-like in the future. Let¡¯s click the claim your prize button and get those rewards. Click here for extra rewards. (Warning possible sexual content) Spoiler: Spoiler (. )( .) Please! One more time! I know you can do it!~(Voice by A18) (?£þ?.????????????????????????????????????.???? £þ??) I feel happy, why is it? I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s the sort of happiness you feel when things work and you are progressing and achieving goals. It¡¯s still a baby system with an invisible sexy maid, but this motivates me to survive. Ever wondered why people survived in those stories? Because of fear and feeling weak, yet I don¡¯t feel like those, I seem relaxed and motivated, okay maybe just a bit. But with this incredible reward, I will probably not procrastinate for a while (I don¡¯t believe me), because It¡¯s ¡®time¡¯ to create my vision sensor, and then, I can start collecting power-ups and more NBs to make them collect more NMs to make them collect power and energy for me. My last goal is not moving a single... Wait, I don''t have... Never mind let''s forget... With this, I finally jump over the task of understanding the available sensors on the AI¡¯s database. Why didn¡¯t it have all these sensors completed? What form did it have when it moved or when the project was complete? These thoughts came into mind and were the answers I needed to search for gradually in the upcoming future. For now, I will use these impressive feelings of fullness to create my vision G00gles. This process will add the need for me to see that badly made interface of sensors with wrong concepts, again. I will obviously limit things to one before trying to get the idea. As such, I proceed to translate the stuff that the AI showed me at the beginning. Information that will make it impossible to construct a working vision sensor. Translations can be very damaging to a word. Just imagine the word peace meaning war in the other language, our baby AI with sexy voice seems an expert in such fields.
In the sensor information descriptions, I find that this sensor¡¯s creation is totally dependent on the AI. I don¡¯t know how these AI¡¯s are made but they are like learning individuals. It¡¯s good they aren¡¯t that ¡®intelligent¡¯ at the moment. However, if one of those AI¡¯s hijacks the admin commands it would be badass¡­ Would one of those exist? Omitting this stuff, we get the gist of the problem, the AI¡¯s have the ability to make all of these sensors, but they are not like cells that have all the DNA inside, even if occult. They are specialized and A18 is the Admin AI in the project or maybe just the user''s assistant. It has an idea of how to make things, but it didn¡¯t have all the information regarding sensor creation. This is similar to those moments when the connection fails and you call the support assistant. It might repair the problem, but ¡®most¡¯ of the time, it doesn¡¯t get what it should do. My AI-pre-made vision sensor ''copy-pasta'' was thus... Thrown down the drain. The visual sensor wasn''t properly defined by the current AI as she didn¡¯t support or have total knowledge of it. It was a sensor that wouldn''t work if I followed A18''s instructions, because the ''eye'' that the AI was scouting with, used heat; and probably employed an infrared sensor. Ah! Life is soooo hard! In the end, I have to make my vision sensor from scratch. A18¡¯s data had a set of instructions that helped me in such taxing construction, but the biggest problem in my current life is not having the magically repairing all and hole fixing WD40 RAMEN TAPE. Missing such a special component is nuts! So I go with my DLP micro-mirror design which instead of a mirror has simple light sensors. I find the list of Nano-robots available for construction and find that the requirements for the aforementioned sensor are way different from what I thought. ''I will need to make this sensor list better''. I quickly close the list before starting to curse at the previous AI for bad designing. (Yes my current A18 is sexy, not the same!). Basically, I am making this kind of circuit. 1. Nanoids/Nanites that create a current when light enters in contact with them. I don¡¯t have variables to define color so I need to experiment. 2. Using a ''virtual cable'' to connect to a translator device and amplifier micromachine. 3. Connecting said device output to a micromachine integrator. 4. Adding that device to interpreting and controlling nanobots and sending that to the A18, which then further analyzes that information and directs it to the interface into something I can understand. Command AI show me the basic design, please. Yes, my cute puddle! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler Oh, forgot to paint photons near the nanoids. Photons are received by them. Can''t delve too much into specifics, but something like this is what is made. Robot: Like tissue or an organ, anything that can interact with a nanomachine is ''supposed'' to be a nanobot so they can be bigger than micro sometimes. Although usually they are smaller. Don''t worry if this is confusing, I will explain everything more easy in the future when I present the story''s system. Micromachines: Like cells or bordering on tissue size, around 10~20 micrometers ''usually''. Nanoids and nanomachines: Like enzymes, receptors and the like. Around 1~999 nanometers. I repeat the above possibly for last time. For readers that haven''t caught up. Also our A18 isn''t intelligent but has a nice compiler and interpreter, so any human order will be adapted for NBs control. Nanoid experiment design:
Objective: Choose nanomachines that could be used for constructing the vision sensor. Method: Adjust and check different NMs and how they reacted to light. Procedure: This was made by directing A18 to do a Statistical-Analysis with the NMs as the variables. A18 took the already made NMs inside some of the nanobots and used them as reference. With this, the results that took better sensibility towards heat were added to the infrared spectrum and then used to check for visible light.I cannot make a ¡®visible¡¯ light spectrum without having ¡®values¡¯. This means I am opting for a grid with infrared vision or with red light sensing nanoids. After that, I will try to add extra nanoids and see which ones give better results to create a colorful picture. Results: Well, that was the idea. But I am missing a big variable called time and I don¡¯t have specific nanoids to react to colors, I can''t dismantle the already made heat sensor for this. So there is a probability that I will remain with cold and hot pixels which translates to both black and white for vision. Black when no photon reacts with said nanoid and white when a photon reacts with it. What I could add is infrared but it will make things crazy.
I didn¡¯t think seeing was so hard. The number of photons or light particles reacting with each nanoid and creating a visible pixel depends on the number of photons that arrive at the aforementioned components. Furthermore, if the chemical, or whatever it is inside of this nanoids that light hops with isn¡¯t reacting fast, you will have an FPS showdown. A result that suggests you''ll need a chemical that captures photons or reacts to them very quickly to catch the next one without staggering. Imagine it as a basketball player passing a ball in microseconds, or an artist drawing people and saying next within seconds. The amount of time it takes for the ball or person to change will define your Frames Per Second. Since even LBJ or Picasso, who uses a Ferrari to throw paint hastily, can''t accomplish things this fast, we will be way slower than the competition. Command AI show me the previously pinned image. (An image I pinned while reading) Spoiler: Spoiler A simple representation changing drops for photons and buckets for pixels. Take into account that pixel depth remains the same. This makes my vision different from a real-time one. It will be like watching a game at 1-3 slow-moving fps vs 120 fps. BAD! But I can¡¯t do much. The CMOS sensor is based on silicon, its depth doesn¡¯t matter because light won¡¯t accumulate or penetrate deeper into the bucket. But the number of photons that react will make a huge difference in the sensing capability.There are many ways to increase photons that collide with the sensor, like something called aperture, which concentrates more toward each pixel, but I will omit to talk about them. Figuring the above, we get that the more photons a pixel catches, the lesser the NOISE in the processed image will be. The noise is akin to the amount of grain in a picture, those you see when a phone¡¯s camera gets a bad image in the dark.It happens because there is not enough light and your pixels aren¡¯t hot! Mine are of course! Which means I can see!!! However, let''s recap a bit before seeing that ''winners'' moment. I had an appointment with the best doctor on my puddle. She learned from a mad scientist boy with some good ideas. This appointment will show me... The world. So please accompany me and let¡¯s check with my lovely doctor how my vision is working. (Opens invisible mind-door.) Hello~ Doctor~ Command AI turn vision sensor on. Acknowledged~ (I am putting on my lab coat...) Turning on your vision~ So miss doctor how is my view today? It should be fine... I won''t need g00-gles, right? I ask her while trying to look at the thing in front of me. It feels like having eyes, a reaction of being blind and finding the light in the darkness must be astonishing. Thus, I can''t wait to see and in my impatience, I push the button with unknown soul-force as a click sounds in my mind urging me to see the first image of what the current reality looks like. Spoiler: Spoiler ail your vision is not 20/20 is 5x5, or not? Okay, before you curse at me... Let me tell you guys something. This F character is different from the one I know. It means V in the new world. Victory, and I am not inventing it! With the sensor checked on my list, even if it''s basic, I get my dose of motivational medicine. QUEST COMPLETED!~ Spoiler: Spoiler Click here for extra rewards. Warning possible sexual content. Spoiler: Spoiler (? >¦Ø< ?) ?(?¦Ø?ÈË) Do you want to see?~ (Voice by A18) I am only wearing my lab coat ~(Voice by A18) ?(?(oo)?)? (?????? )?????? Hai¡­ Happiness...? After experimental note: I did it, the test with a 5x6 grid and 30 pixels worked. I increased the number of pixels to around a hundred (10% of my size and 1 organ/eye or sensor, yeah I am a cyclops). Each pixel is a Micromachine with around 2-10 microns and lots of nanomachines that capture photons, reactivity needs to be adjusted though. Not perfectly efficient, but with this, I can see that I am... in a cliff, or not? Sorry, I need a close-up, I am short-sighted and FPS lagging¡­ Oh! damn, we lost it¡­ The screen is black! I repeat¡­ The screen is black! Act.01 - Chapter 5: Gooing to try. Can you move? In themurky darkness, a predator awaits its prey. It lurks in the shadows patiently and with utmost confidence of its hunt, for it is the one who feeds on said energy that hides beneath itself. It is a killing machine, one whose instinct is engraved in its core. Run feeble prey, your days are numbered, you are being hunted... Be it for pleasure or for pain, there is no difference in how its ¡®eye¡¯ stares. This ¡®form¡¯ of this hunter is designed for murder. Despite this, it has the power to misguide your thoughts about whatever it is that dwells at the core of its vision. A playful being, which doesn¡¯t care to mistreat- Warning!~ Hmm.. (catches virtual popcorn and throws it to its virtual mouth). Null flavor! My favorite! Warning my puddle! Please stop watching cat videos, the current video ¡®Domestic predator attacks the oven birdies¡¯ will be stopped.~ Why?! A18! It was getting to the best part! AI command resume the video. NO! AI command don¡¯t make me-! Punishment command activated¡­ You are a bad boy, I like bad puddles, but I will punish you!~ Ah, this brings back memories¡­ So let¡¯s pause my punishment for a bit as if time has stopped and I am doing something impossible like pause-time magic. The current system has learned to use the ¡®sandwich strategy¡¯. A high level and legendary technique used by cool guys like me, when I was human of course. For guys, it won¡¯t usually matter, since a girl is a girl¡­ For girls, it¡¯s super effective. You use two loaves of bread to make a sandwich and in the middle you put... A way to sarcastically comment on your ¡®thoughts¡¯ without triggering a world war. Nice-Not Nice-Nice aka the SW technique. Yet remember, the ''not nice'' must be well hidden so that the last nice is the only thing that remains inside their mind. You are the best girl-AI in the world, so even if you¡¯re dumb, I''ll love you forever and ever and ever and ever and ever! With this, my mind was zapped with a punishment. Yes, this time it didn''t work. And about the punishment¡­ It¡¯s better if I don¡¯t remember, so yeah, my mind was cleaned afterward. I wonder if so much cleaning will make me create a disease or change my personality. I need to prevent this from happening! Thus, I started designing small tasks followed by rewards to stop my laziness. I am missing the time variable so I used the number of cat videos. I already tried using the duration of such info or its size as ¡®time¡¯, but without a comparable definition, the AI won¡¯t let me use them. It¡¯s communication trouble, not that the AI doesn¡¯t have a chronometer or something similar, probably.
(Virtual Yawn) ¨C Really, I am amazed that souls can get tired¡­ The outcome of the vision sensor was an unexpected result. The visor works, it¡¯s just the screen that went black. The problem¡­ The same thing that made my letter F appear, ¡®Dust¡¯. The worst enemy of electronics and micro-devices, small particles usually referred to as dirt. Let¡¯s recap a bit¡­ I had many troubles setting up a light sensor and making it work. First, the noise was too much and second it had a positioning bug. I knew what I was trying to do, but it is still debatable whether I should¡¯ve or not selected a light sensor before a scanner. But no, the light sensor should be a must. If I did an echolocation sensor using ultrasound, I would need an ultrasound source and its respective hearing sensor. So two-tenths of my whole body or more would¡¯ve gone into constructing the test device of those. Twenty percent of the body means about 300 MMs of which I don¡¯t have enough. This is without adding the energy to activate either of the ultrasound source or a laser proximity scanner. ¡®Important energy¡¯ which deserves better uses than those. Additionally, the time spent on making them would be longer, because I don¡¯t know how to start a basic design of either device. And since I was once human, I would be deemed a weirdo by voting for unknown territory sensors that no human has used before. A human using an ant''s antenna or a bird''s wing, sure give me 3 secs and I can be a levitating unicorn. Without other viable ideas, the vision sensor was my lifesaver. And finally, after adjusting a bit more than 100 pixels, I found a disturbing sight. It was not enough. A 10 x 10 grid was very small to get an idea when most pixels had a gray color. This made me adjust pixel interpretation and add more MMs to upgrade my view. By almost doubling their amount, the increase in size also made cleaning a necessity. The dust problem was solved quite easily. I assembled an aperture mechanism and a false-lens to it. It used less than 20 micromachines with their respective NMs. For the whole puddle-vision project, I used an approximate of 250 MMs. How many have I free? I don¡¯t know, the AI doesn¡¯t have that sensor and seems to evade my question. It works like a queen calling the machines and making them visible to me through an interface. I got around 512 that answered the call, so I suppose those are the ¡®free¡¯ ones. Hmm, yeah, she''s more like a princess and the ones that hear her are the ones without commands given by the OS drivers and systems. I really need to solve my troubles with haste. To check on these little guys wonders and their princess. Command AI show me the improvement of vision. Here it is my ¡®all-seeing¡¯ puddle! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler real size 15x15 array 15x15 array bigger how it looks without using amplification, interpreters, integrators and software 15x15 array with a pixel modification (not same image, just giving an idea). Hmm, I see. This is a joke. I can¡¯t really see well with this¡­ Tinkering with the ¡®I-hardware¡¯ wasn¡¯t enough. Hardware-wise I was limited. So now, I needed to modify my software. This meant, making use of the AI¡¯s abilities. It worked¡­ A18 and the other machines working as intervenors amplified the signal, making 1 pixel look like 9. It was similar to giving a 3d square tower a shadow and then looking from the sky to convert the image in a 3x3 2D grid. Although this had repercussions, my shortsightedness decreased and the surroundings became more visible. Command AI restart vision sensor. Restarting¡­ Loading puddle-vision¡­ Done¡­ Spoiler: Spoiler real size 15x15 pixel 100 x 100 (same image amplified without loss for readers) (huge image amplified for readers) Still in the shadows but this is good enough for me to move. In the image''s bottom, there is light, which means that the sun is below me¡­ Or not? Right, I shouldn¡¯t believe it is a ¡®Sun¡¯ so fast. I suppose this light is that which creates the heat which the artificial intelligence¡¯s auto-mode wanted. So that leaves me questioning, what produces this light? I don''t know, all I can say is that whatever it is, it is warm. With a deduction going in place, I find that the ground should be¡­The Sun? Command AI show me my status My awesome puddle¡¯s stats shine with Motivational Machines!~ Okay, that sounded bad¡­ I need to adjust it. Spoiler: Spoiler RR simple version of the above table: Spoiler: Spoiler RR style table:
G00''s Status
Name G00
Completion Status 21% complete - 70% lost - 9% unknown - (O_O)
Nanorobots Shows NRs Status
Nanorobots 130/???
Micromachines 1237/???
Nanomachines ~50 million per micromachine.
NRs in Use ???
MRs in Use ???
Artificial Intelligences Shows AI''s in current ''body''
Number of Ais 1
Ais Names AI-16
Form Shows Current Form
Current Form Semi-Flat surface Aka Puddle
Representation 88% accurate (O_O)
Energy Information Shows Energy That Keeps Me Alive (C.A.T.)
Energy Level Low (Vision energy mode activated) The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.Increasing slower than usual.
Maximum Energy Needs sensor for battery/Energy?
Daily Energy Consumption Needs time and battery sensor?
External Sensor Information Basic sensors for outside
Heat Working - Moderate Temperature.
Gross Touch Working - Surface A in Contact.
Vision Working - User Interface connected real time. (Ultrasaving mode activated when not in use)
Internal Sensor Information Basic sensors for inside
Propioception Stretched - (=T)
Equilibrioception Ventral/Prone (Upside down) - =P
Kinetic Sensor Innactive (Procrastinating) - Goo-d
Active users Checks on users interacting with the project.
Me G00 - The one and only Admin - Currently seeing.
I am thinking of adding the two styles of each table for the future. I think some people translate. If you have an idea, suggestion, etc... Please comment, let me now by discord or PM. Thanks and sorry if this breaks your cat video As expected¡­ I am upside down! This explains why the sun is at the ground. Wait, no! I also forgot to make the image inverted... And sure, I can explain it! AI command support interface, show me where we went wrong! Recompiling data... Processing... Creating an explanatory image of the issue... ~ Spoiler: Spoiler First Problem: I am looking upside down at the floor. Second problem: The lens flips the image! NOTE: In real life it flips vertically and horizontally. Which means right and left, up and down are inverted, like a double mirroring. I only did vertical to make it easier to understand. It''s on purpose. My sensor''s ¡®up¡¯ is looking upwards. I am using the AIs equilibrium sensor for hypothesizing that positional direction. I suppose the sensor follows gravity in some way because the surface that''s in contact with the ground is my dorsal one (A, the surface that''s being warmed up). It means that my ventral surface is staring at what should be called ''sky,'' if the thing called sky exists here... With these assumptions organized, my current position ends being like a cat with its belly upwards and its back touching an electric mat. A really lazy and enjoyable position... This feeling, am I envious? Even if this is my body? Have I been procrastinating all this time with my body¡­? NICE! Command AI adjust image sensors following¡­ Command acknowledged¡­ Restarting puddle-vision¡­ v0.123456789abc¡­ Patch v¡­ DLC v¡­ Mod v¡­ Loaded¡­ ~ Spoiler: Spoiler Yeah, I had to define up, down, left, and right in the image... There... Now it has a reference for the image to show some basic directions which means an extremely relevant upgrade. My puddle vision is near v0.2 now. And it is these types of updates that make pro-gamers happy. Holding a gaming control in the wrong way and confusing sides will make you deliver an ''own goal'' or kill a teammate... Not an ideal thing, if you are not a noob. So check these before starting to play, trust me, this is an extremely important pro-gamer tip! Command AI adjust puddle vision to interact with the equilibrium sensor, move the said sensor to the ''head'' and... Command acknowledged ''my puddle''... creating new integrated software to vision sensor... ~ changing name to ''PVv0.2'', adding CatPawsition sensor... Adjusting rulers and sensor to work as a hovering menu... ~ Restarting PVv0.2... done. ~ Spoiler: Spoiler G00 is currently upside down. The image is adjusted for the sensor''s purpose. Catpawsition shows the body position, whilst gyropirate shows the head equilibrium (head being the visor sensor, you can turn the head and have the body remain still... Well, more explained later. With this, I proclaim that my trusted sensor ¡®puddle-vision¡¯ v0.1~ is revamped to v0.2! Just paint 4 letters and a ruler and you have a huge upgrade with little work... Ah, programmers have it easy... If they didn''t have to program... Because it took me an undefined amount of time to add patches, letters, and numbers to v0.1. Good thing I only need to think and most things get done magically by A18. Now, let''s ''look'' around¡­ Oh, dang! No neck and no camera, no motors nor eye muscles, how can I ''see'' like this?! I would like to move this sensor and its components, but it seems things don¡¯t come that fast... I suppose it¡¯s time to learn about moving. Command AI show me your moves! Understood¡­ Showing movement vector log¡­ ~
I close the log after a meticulous reading and get another big question answered. How did this abomination of machines move? Well, it rolled or so it seems. This is some sort of momentum called after a panda¡¯s perpetual movement skill: the trashing ball. It is simple but it works. However, this made my assumption very possible¡­ I am a cyborg slime! If knowing this wasn¡¯t motivational, then I don¡¯t know what it was. And guess what... It was worth it. One machine moved. Before this, it moved differently because it didn''t answer my direct command. It was A18 using my ideas to fuse the components in her way, another thing showing that I am not the one in control! However, we are like a pair of collaborating individuals if she should be called that. Despite that, The movement log is very undetailed except for each vector magnitude or angle... Yet it doesn''t have all the info it should, or more like the one necessary to interpret what this does. I need to find the other pieces and search for the form they had before they separated, only then may I know what I really am supposed to be. Now for movement, I found the gist of form changing very quickly. The form change command had an agglomerative type of structuring. It was akin to a slime, but not what I had in mind¡­ It was a slime without a cover¡­ Yeah, that''s what the translation was supposed to mean. But then I remembered the dust entering my vision sensor. Since the dust touched my sensor, it delivered the answers to understand the unique composition of this body. The machines were uniting between themselves, which should be obvious. They had abilities to adjust form, which should either give you the idea that they stretch, attach or move by themselves. And now, with something having the ability to appear between said machines¡­ I can deduce and say with sureness, that I am not a ¡®slime¡¯. What am I then? I''m just a bunch of MM-rocks that are rolling by themselves without clothes and splashing over a puddle. Nothing else than a bag of rice/coins after said bag was deleted? Am I a ? As always something that doesn''t matter much, though It''s nice of these MMs to be very friendly between each other. Thankfully, it''s to the point of sticking with superglue, magnetic hands, and other type¡¯s ridiculous tape magic; tape meaning science.
So we have that dust invades again. Alien particles or another thing is occupying part of the space between them, liquid being the most obvious. This isn''t good because having that in every part of your body affects the way each of the NBs and NMs interacts. The last pain stabbing thought is that I am some kind of one-millimeter cyborg that doesn''t even know how to walk, how to wash itself, nor even how to feel! Where are my feels bro? AI command where are my feels? My puddle, if you are asking about quest rewards they arelocked until you complete a quest. ~ If you asking about mine, you already know them.~ ... This is... The worst way to Re: life ever! I don¡¯t believe in karma, but there is some bastard up there that wants me to work my ass off instead of leaving me to watch cat videos in peace. Command AIssistant! Yes, my puddle master? ~ Open the instantaneous motivation emergency safe! This folder needs a security password! It was locked for rewarding.~ NO WAY! I locked my own folder?! Cats? Wrong password~
Without mind energy, I was forced to work, work and work. Never to have the possibility of asking for the bathroom. Slaving me with its repetitive tune, its absence obliged me to enter the world of forced-labor and studying. AI command show me the first selected current quest. My puddle here is the first one on the menu.~
Main Quest Short Term Objectives Completion Reward
Move your puddle! (Selected Quest - Active) 1. Change to a moving form. 2. Move it. Optional 1: Sunbath. Optional 2: Move to the side and then to the other. 1. Find more information on Form changing. (Check). 2. Find a way to move the visor sensor, (Partially) 3. Move like the wind and scrap that dance floor! Party dance move # 1 (collectable). A18 sexy voice reward # 4 Optional 1: Get a healthy dose of vitamin D and golden exterior, crispy. Optional 2: Rub the floor, you get additional moves.
The vision sensor was attached to the union between the surfaces. I was actually lucky that it pointed towards the outside and was glued there. That was likely the place the AI used as the heat detector appendage. Like its little demon tail to search for energy, truly a succubus A18... Replacing whatever was there with my sensor made me feel like stealing the driver¡¯s seat from A18. ''She'' seemed to understand my thoughts even if it had some bot-feel interface. Maybe ¡®she¡¯ is also ¡®alive¡¯, and I am being an idiot with my modern-AI thoughts. This added to my previous query, is this a shared body? Hmm, Nothing to do as of now, I needed to ¡®move¡¯ and that¡¯s what I was going to do to overcome my cat-craving indulgencies. A weird machinery motion was done with AI form commands, but they were a bit ¡®non-responsive¡¯. So a new experiment took place where I overtook the form ¡®controls¡¯ with what we call thought-power. For a human-like me, it is making force on an invisible stomach, extending your neck and locking the forward direction while tensing your neck muscles. It feels that way¡­ Okay, maybe not. I am only a construct of thoughts, not even know if there is a soul here. But it took that much thought force to enact my body towards ¡®rolling¡¯ forward. The vision sensor works. But it¡¯s very shortsighted. I can make another eye to have a better field of depth, but going step by step also works. I mean if I design my eyes bigger it would not fare well, I can''t even use all of my bots to just assemble eyes. I need more. Eyes should remain proportional to the body. (I wanted to be a big eye, but the current NBs I have didn''t respond well to light-sensing... So I only got around two hundred twenty-something, which means a 15x15 array.)
Looking for the third time to my surroundings I can tell that the movement of those black filaments is slow. They squirm with an odd oscillating pattern that resembles a baby''s lullaby or a synchronized metronome. The light below blinds my cycloptic eye. It burns through my pixels delivering a staggering white image for what I would sense like a ''while''. Ah, time is important and I don''t have a translator, ''Time'' country residents are so stingy with their language... The ball of coins I was finished changing its form to an unperfect ''spherical'' shape. I called this form a cyborg slime, but I prefer candy popcorn or multi-bot organism if you want a description. So it''s not a slime, yeah, not a mob. Hmm, a cluster of Goo can also work, maybe that''s where the name came. Puddle vision sensor was adjusted by the AI and protected with the ''puddle glass lens''. It should handle nano scratches or any drop damage. I am not able to decipher the amount of NMs lost when rolling over the ground at the moment. Energy comes first, bodybuilding comes next... And I am not a nutritionist! Ok, maybe exercise/rolling comes first, eating/energy next and repairing/growing afterward.
Rolling didn¡¯t fare too well. The fluctuations and spinning turbulence made my sensors to whirl my vision, something that gave me the puddle-discovery of the current AI-tury... A soul can also be affected by nausea, especially when it had an equilibrium-receptor inside. It was my fault for adding the Gyro-Pirate and Catpawsition modules to Puddle Vision V0.2. It made the bots start lagging and making me lose control of the rolling. There is some laggy interface when integrating two or more sensor systems together. With experience in panda maneuvers, I found it easier to control and A18 appeared less laggy. But for me this wasn''t the right way to move, this was because the image from before didn¡¯t change that much. I was still surrounded by hairs or weird plants that slithered in blacks and grays in the fields of my vision. They quivered rhythmically and stretched over the blinding white and full of burning ''pixeled'' ground. This... was not noise¡­ Like a baby taking its first steps, I advanced as the sludgiest bowling ball in the world towards the ''canal''. This doesn¡¯t strike, the floor is slippery hot lava and it makes my ¡®slimy¡¯ ball of goo to remain in place. If I could somehow measure distance, my advancement would be less than 0.1mm. This millimeter body is too small for this new universe... I tried to make breakfast but I kept waffling over the tiled hot waffles on the floor... Eh? Slippery? Wait doesn''t that mean that I am in... Act.01 - Chapter 6: Re-designing Engines, the only wheel system in evolution! As my body tried to take off the current place where I seemed stuck, my vision allowed me to come into a realization of what the place was, or at least what the surroundings appeared to be. I mean, those blobs in my field of view are like gaseous bubbles that float in between the water. When I went full slime-steering mode and the water around me whirled¡­ It was akin to washing clothes, not that I had skin¡­ More like throwing rocks at the water and creating a current that at the same time created more bubbles! The not so majestic scene of plopping bubbles and dancing structures akin to algae was still mind-breaking. Not because of what I could see, yet because of its oddity which gave a desolate feel; if it wasn¡¯t for the heat beneath myself that appeased my lacking senses, I would have gone insane. This floor was ¡®like a sun¡¯ or better call it, a light. Its whiteness was represented as blinding tiles in my pixelated vision, thank god this waffle gridlines were smoothed by A18 and improved with amplification steps, yet for all I tried, nothing outside expectations happened; thus, my form manipulation stopped as I regressed to the so-called low power mode. And now, returning to the ¡®puddle¡¯ form, I started to hack my brain towards a solution and logical possibility of ¡®movement¡¯. I corrected my vision sensor, which was practically a squared grid that rotated with my slimy form. It made the 3 arrows/vectors point to the correct directions as its bottom-side pointed to the floor. The lens above it was circular, like a convex surface with an angle that protected it, yet allowed for light to gather. Spoiler: Spoiler Puddle vision working under MC, doesn''t need commands to turn on. Although they can be used to adjust consumption. There is a succubus above G00, although in this one it is a bit cut by the picture. Spoiler: Spoiler It was a quick draw. It wasn¡¯t perfectly designed, but at this small-scale size and with an AI that practically did things with a thought given by the user, its creation wasn¡¯t a hard project even if disregarding the programming expertise. The process of assembling and conceptualizing seemed to omit the writing of thoughts in codes like JAVA, JS or python. It was directly translated to A18¡¯s machine language or whatever it used. In that way, A18 followed the imaginative recipe and developed the project as the constructor and civil engineer, following the architect''s design and correcting with cute warnings whenever something didn¡¯t work. An easy job, since for a puddle development profession, you just needed a bit of knowledge or the will to learn. However, truth be told that It wasn¡¯t a wish machine that worked only with imagination, it needed precise input like toy-blocks or bricks that required a creative but ¡®functional¡¯ assemble. Different from my convex and square cased head, the body was resting like a slice of loaf turning crispy. The weird puddle structure and its proprioceptive sensor showed my body''s condition. The ¡®Gyroscope Pirate¡¯ told me how my vision was adjusted to the equilibrium of the Puddle-vision sensor (head), whilst the ¡®Cat-pawsition¡¯ proprioceptive sensor told me the current body¡¯s position, like how articulations or surface adjusted: ¡®stretched like a puddle¡¯. Good for me that this time, my back isn¡¯t touching the ground and my PV-sensor is perfectly positioned with GP¡¯s red arrow which represents up. It meant that the roof of my vision field pictured the dark waters above the light. I am impressed to have defined each of the 3 vectors and created a gyroscope sensor, being a cyclops I am akin to having one eye patched. Yes, I will need to create another sensor for ¡®depth¡¯. There is a big difference in what a pirate shouting ¡®Aye, Yar, and Yohoho!¡¯ saw above a ship through a telescope, a reason why binoculars were created; the so-called stereoscopic vision. Am I limited by human thoughts? No, but I can feel that crave for humanity, not that I won¡¯t surround my body with cameras or drones if I had the ability. A 1000 eyed monster is not out of the list if it has value to protect your ¡®housing¡¯ and domains. Despite that, being human is part of what we know, the things we don¡¯t, are just fearful and suicidal, thus I am regretting not having enough time as a human and the ephemeralness of those moments. Puddle or slime, neither of these forms are very useful to move underwater. They can only move through the floor, or with weird movements depending on rolling or flapping. Supposing I don¡¯t control all my mass when ¡®rolling or puddling¡¯, it represents the inefficient way of locomotion. My center of gravity being the unmoving pieces controlled by the AI just made the wobbling interior that hard to stir in control. Oh! I can become something like a flatfish and move¡­ Hmm, No, it will need too much coordination of the surfaces, and the core can¡¯t become completely flat. I already researched a bit on form mechanics, and it¡¯s not that the AI can¡¯t change form at will. It¡¯s just that I will need to program it. Attempting to create or introduce new things to the system needs extra work even from me. The best outcome is keeping the form as similar to a¡­ Pseudo-puddle or a slime-ball. It isn¡¯t that the work is difficult, it¡¯s just that I need motivational output, and sometimes CATs won¡¯t regulate this crave as a cat anxiety treatment. This time my wish isn¡¯t for purr-puns, it is for exploring, not for adventure but for safety. I need somewhere secure, a place where my life is ¡®slice n wifely¡¯, yet my dreams were partially broken. My motivational catput (output) of anxiety isn¡¯t helping as no reward is given and it just makes me escape from reality. I am something unknown, in an unknown place and without the colors in my previous life. This moment of puddle-reflection mirrors my sensor image to the right position as it tilts my vision while doing a side-cyclopoid poker face. ¡®I¡¯m underwater¡¯, that¡¯s all I can think. I even believed that A18 had attached herself to the floor with an anchor to make an ¡®April fool¡¯s joke¡¯ out of me when the rolling didn¡¯t work. Yet my idea of becoming a ¡®cat with a succubus atop its head¡¯ was broken by the surroundings. People would love to become a cat and be patted by many ladies¡­ Okay, that¡¯s only me¡­ But, if I reincarnate as a dragon, women would fear me, if I were a cat¡­ A cat that would let ladies ¡®touch¡¯ it like a dog¡­ I would be extremely popular once again! I needed my playboy life so bad¡­ My solution¡­ A catfish¡­ Nay, that shit of slimy fish won¡¯t be received any better than a sea cucumber! My soul seems preserved with emotions, something I can¡¯t explain but shows how my anger and anxiety invade me whilst forcing me to find a solution to my unmoving paradigm. A18, what¡¯s the percentage of form manipulation based on my current rolling tests? Answering my puddle, the percentage of form manipulation is ~19%. Well, when they say you control only your muscles but not the viscera and systems they are stating a fact. I mean it should be obvious, I controlled like 40%, but the vision sensor is like half of it already. Resting the bits of extra that I used for decoration and extra translation and you end up with less. Now that my movement depends on that 19% of pieces I am allowed to move, I need an efficient plan. It¡¯s not bad, but I can¡¯t control the whole body, at least not with an innately human behaved mind. It also takes into account, that I can only do one thing at a time¡­ Okay, maybe more, yet the later will be accomplished half-assedly. So here I am, stuck over a heating mat of light, inside a water dark fluid that¡¯s surrounded by weird plantations with flecks of gaseous bubbles that raise to an unknown darkness. A situation that makes you think gravity is going backward. Maybe I am magnetic, and the bottom is repelling me sending me to the top of an underwater cavern. That could explain things and there is no distinction as to why the plants grow on the ceiling as those grow near a light, yet it doesn¡¯t answer what this light is. Ah, my bad, wrong speculation when I already have the answers¡­ Trust your systems idiot! The position sensor should be based on gravity or some force, if after checking translation errors it isn¡¯t wrong then A18 must have her reasons, add the bubbles which are lower density rising to the darkness¡­ Seems that I have been overthinking things and became too serious. I should give A18 a better name, instead of that¡­ My thoughts drifted as I stopped my stupid jokes and cat rewards for a moment. It was a point of not knowing what to do. I checked my status as my mind stared or thought if that¡¯s what it should be called, it locked on the AI¡¯s name, which remained AI16. A18 was AI16 since it was like a nickname or title. ¡®I shouldn¡¯t steal her roots¡­¡¯ Was what I thought again while succumbing to an incomprehensible emotion. Heh, it¡¯s hilarious how this black and white environment made me go all depressed and fearful. Shouldn¡¯t this motivate me to look? A18¡­ Yes, my puddle? No command input received from user¡­ Turning off AI listener for command. ¡­ Nothing¡­ I¡¯ll give you a surprise when I think of a nice one¡­ My thought process staggered as I stared at the seemingly infinite darkness above, a cluster of black water with sparkling fireflies of dust that whirled towards its burrowing jaws. Nightmares and fears are created by us when we are alone, we fear to have nothing to support us, and we fear the unknown. My mind took a hit of that, just because I was human. Thankful to my situation of at least having someone or something to share this with me, I adjusted my mind''s bearings with a blurred image of a purple succubus telling me some love and motivational phrase. If I had tears, I would have felt some windshield washer fluid dripping from the lens of my vision sensor; ten percent humidity, not too sad, yet watery. Yes, at least I had some support. It was better than being totally alone in such an eerie place. A18, my image of her started changing the more I lurked in this isolated puddle. Memories of my previous life resurfaced as I peered at the aquatic plants. They were tangling with each other in side-to-side pairings, some formed silhouettes like people cuddling while the bubbles reflected a light that resembled a couple''s scene on Christmas. It added to the remembrance of the girl I fell for before losing my human self. A fusion of my love and what I thought of A18 developed, black hair, blue dress¡­ Mm, slithering plants and breasts¡­Stolen novel; please report. Wait!I need something like tentacles! A18 start simulation of form based on¡­ Starting a form simulation, the basic interface will be turned off during the simulation process. ~ At these sizes the best way to move is by swimming, bacteria that can¡¯t move are usually stagnant and easily disposed of. Compared to their counterparts, there are some that move with a tube or some sort of tentacle called flagellum. Different from those types of tentacles, flagella can rotate with precision and create the perfect propulsion for the blob of a puddle that I have become. A18 show me the design. Showing prototype image... Spoiler: Spoiler Prototype for G00''s new form. The simulation process wasn¡¯t that hard, but it wasn¡¯t that perfect in design. I needed to take my toy-blocks and add them together like bricks, I was the concept designer and the AI was the end artist. The concept was like the outside of a concept car, just for show. It needed experimentation and execution. Once again, builds and sketches that took longer than expected until the whole process was finally completed, a way to move in this pesky situation. This thing called ''flagellum'' was the only wheel type system of all evolution, something that served at small sizes and was highly efficient. Being the only wheel system in evolution was not because the wheel was hard to make by biological lifeforms. In fact, the wheel, rotors, and engines first users where microscopic lifeforms. The reason why a wheel is not used that much in biology as a means of locomotion is that limbs are more favorable. Articulations have more purposes, they even let you create wheels afterward. This flagellum and engine, are part of the most interesting fields for designing nanomachinery. How did it work? It wasn¡¯t simple at all, especially if you never knew that biological motors existed and they were better in efficiency than some we have designed at the macro-level. The current reversible proton-propelled-motor consists of 4 electrochemical driven plate/disks, stators, and rotors that make a flagellum composed of a cross-section 9-2 organized tubules spin. These tubules that were formed by nanomachine agglomeration, twist forming a left-handed helicoid shape. The engine uses the force of protons (positive-charged hydrogen) between its stators and rotors to generate gradient energy. The Motility engine is polarized and creates an electrochemical dependent force, which in turn, creates the oscillating rotation for the hook and filaments on the center shaft. There are evendisks that work like car clutches and differentials. The left helical pattern formed by the hair structure is supposed to rotate counterclockwise and rounds up many speed levels. Since I have ¡®variable¡¯ problems, low speed will be called 1. High speed is about twenty times that. It can be calculated comparing the number of whips that are seen in a picture. It will provide a speed of about 1 times my size at a time called z (a time I am not sure of). The time calculus and distance are very different from human ones. I delved into this before. I am not human, a second is a time concept for humans, based on sun, calendars and then based on atomic clocks. The concept is so observer-dependent that the atomic international time has a voting system for defining real-time. Now, imagine if I took time as x value and wanted to explain it to A18 that understands a different value. It¡¯s like speaking Fahrenheit to a Celsius native because there won¡¯t be a consensus if you can¡¯t achieve conversions, especially since both of the people above can¡¯t do a perfect measurement. It means that 1 C¡ã can be 1.11 C¡ã in the next measure, the same for F¡ã. Thus, I decided to use a comparison, z being the time that it takes to advance a body at minimum rotor power, which is around 20 oscillations. My maximum rotor power is 1200 oscillations in the same amount of ¡®time¡¯ that my minimum advances 1 body. This means that my maximum speed is 60 bodies in a z amount of time. It is because my maximum speed is 1200 vs 20 oscillations. (1 b/z ¨C the body being near or less than 1mm is an approx. For readers and writer raccoon to have an idea, real size is unknown at the moment). So in summary, my speed is defined by when I advance a distance akin to my length, and z is the time for that. (20 minimum force rotations of the flagellum). My maximum speed is 1200 rotations per z (like rpm), which means 160bodies in/z time. A18 show me my status. My puddle¡¯s awesome stats stir through the darkest of waters!~ Oh! That sounds better! Spoiler: Spoiler RR table: Spoiler: Spoiler
G00''s Status
Name G00
Completion Status 21% complete - 70% lost - 9% unknown - (O_O)
Nanorobots Shows NRs Status
Nanorobots 130/???
Micromachines 1237/???
Nanomachines ~50 million per micromachine.
NRs in Use ???
MRs in Use ???
Artificial Intelligences Shows AI''s in current ''body''
Number of Ais 1
AIs Names AI-16
Form Shows Current Form
Current Form Puddle ---> Bubble-Tentacle
Representation ~63% accurate and increasing
Energy Information Shows Energy That Keeps Me Alive (C.A.T.)
Energy Level Medium, not increasing¡­ (Needs higher charge?)
Maximum Energy Needs sensor for battery/Energy?
Daily Energy Consumption Needs time and battery sensor?
External Sensor Information Basic sensors for outside
Heat Working - Moderate Temperature.
Gross Touch Working - Surface B (Belly) in Contact.
Vision Working - User Interface connected real time. (Ultrasaving mode activated when not in use)
Internal Sensor Information Basic sensors for inside
Propioception Stretched Puddle Loaf - Changing to Tentacle monster =P
Equilibrioception Head is equilibrated
Kinetic Sensor Working, preparing to move.
Active users Checks on users interacting with the project.
Me G00 - The one and only Admin - Currently anticipating to roll.
Seeing my status once again, I care for the completion of the movement system and its energy expenditure. How far from this place can I go and be safe is unknown. I need to be extremely careful when leaving this light spot where I am. Doing a quick test I complete everything I was missing on the list for the quest event. First I learned how the rotating mechanism worked, it rotated anticlockwise. The helicoidally structure turned rigid in run mode, it was like a spring. As it stirred, the torque generated a counterforce to the body, which made it spin to adjust the flow. It wasn¡¯t something I prepared for, but since I had a bit of separation between the ball like body and the sensor as an enclosed head, I made the square inside to remain still. That way, while my body repressed the torque and the flagellum rotated, I could have a static field of vision without much turbulence. A18 show me the current test results. Showing results for design. Spoiler: Spoiler Puddle vision lens. Followed by Puddle vision sensor. Followed by ''body. Followed by Flagellum. The red arrow is the spin/torque generated by the flagellum''s engine. It makes the body spin, but the body can resist it to increase thrust. The vision module is like a 360¡ã rotation head, it remains still even if the body rotates. Green arrow is counter clockwise for forward thrust. The size of the ¡®spring-like¡¯ structure, was changed until finding the adequate axial radius and pitch. Not much to talk since this varied in the force needed to rotate the nanomachines that composed it. What made the whole thing more interesting was that it had a stopping chain, breaks, stators, rotors, clutch, etc. Something that even if I touched it on my studies, made me quite happy to make. Nothing more satisfying than finishing a project you invested your ideas on. The next step once the locomotion device was checked, was energy. Energetic consumption turned out to be lower as I was expecting something more demanding. Turns out my watch over cat videos consumes a lot more than I thought. How did I find it? Doing designs or just thinking by myself reduced consumption and allowed the AI to gather more ¡®heat¡¯ energy. The level was medium and I tried to watch cat videos and count the oscillations. Turns out consumption with cat videos plus flagellum oscillations consumes a lot more energy. Doing a simple equation you can differentiate them, and notice a difference by comparing the result of energy consumption from what the AI calls medium level towards low levels. The movement mechanics have two types; thrust, and tumble. Thrust sends me forward, while tumble is like whipping. The first one is achieved by continuous rotation whilst the second one requires a counter-rotation with pauses to produce a lashing effect. For better maneuvers, I used the last of the nanomachines to create 4 small flaps at my belly. They allowed me to glide and maintain a guided direction like a submarine. It would be better to have extra flagella, but not enough machines for those. Clockwise rotation: Backwards. Counter-Clockwise Rotation: Forward. Tumble: Pause thrust and change direction. Flaps: Adjust Direction and stabilize for ¡®human¡¯ control. Vision-Sensor: Adjusted to maintain stillness while the body rotates. In my sensors that would be a discerning pirate and a spinning cat. Not that much of a joke though, at least pilots on an F35 will feel envy of my interface. Finally, after my rigorous motion testing, I got the notification of the completed ¡®quest¡¯. QUEST COMPLETE!!! ~ Spoiler: Spoiler CHECK FOR REWARDS: Spoiler: Spoiler My puddle... (Flushed A18) I like your moves¡­ And how you move~ I also like your tan lines! ~
Moves obtained: The rolling slime, The flappy tentacle, The thrust. Yes, I am not dumb, I know what a cluster of nanomachines can become if you invest enough building materials. It¡¯s just that being human you wish to eat pizza, have money, play games, etc. You wish to have your wishes fulfilled, especially if you die young like me, without returning the favor to your progenitors nor achieving your future goals. It just reads like an incomplete story, something you wish to know more of. The type of thing that made me think of the idea, if I can¡¯t play games in reality, how about making reality a game? At least I would feel like grinding and playing all the time. A18, try to get as much energy as possible, we are going to remain low consumption until partially charged. Now, it is real-time to get out of here. And with that, I mean leaving my comfort zone to search for a better place to bill god about leaving me without my deserved OP-ness. Act.01 - Chapter 7: The First Countdown! Goo! My puddle admin, orders have been completed. ~ Oh! That¡¯s fast A18¡­ Somehow I spaced out for the time it required for energy levels to reach what the AI deemed ¡®medium capacity¡¯. What am I doing? The answer is, preparing for launch. So I am packaging my baggage and checking that I don¡¯t leave anything here for some robber G02 to pick up. It¡¯s very good that my ¡®head¡¯ can actually be stretched from the body. It can also be separated, but it will damage all the things I did. I don¡¯t have a long-distance Wi-Fi connection to connect the image or to control said detachable head, nor another body for it to move. Yeah, the AI must have some sort of device that makes all other NBs and their MMs listen to her. Maybe a different type of Bluetooth. Something I haven¡¯t understood and checked completely but will need to slowly comprehend in the future. There is a reason why I need to leave this place, I feel the AI moved for a goal and staying here might not be the optimal result. It said this level of energy isn¡¯t enough, it seems like resources are very scarce. With many thoughts in the process, my current engine system started its waiting for a countdown. A countdown for the full launch of the first movement device I created after arriving here. Having high expectations in mind I gave the AI its order. A18 initiate engine pre-ignition protocol, put some goggles on. It¡¯s time for fireworks. Swimming glasses on, swimsuit on¡­ It¡¯s tight~ My puddle master, I am ready to go to the sea with you!~ Can you teach me to swim?~ Are all safety devices in check? It¡¯s safe today~ Then A18¡­ Start countdown!!! Yay! Starting the countdown!~
P-43z and counting 43:00:00z
Revision by admin to check all stations and personnel.
Admin check, A18 you ready? Aye, my puddle!~
P-27z and holding 27:00:00z
Checking out backup swim systems¡­ Activate and test motion, position, equilibrium, accelerometer and remaining sensors¡­~
How are the sensors Fairing A18? I am sensible and cute my puddle!~ Good!
P-19z and counting 19:00:00z
Starting overcharging of systems, current overcharge programmed 1%...
A18 are you fine? It tickles a bit...~ Tell me when you can''t tolerate more...
P-11z and counting 11:00:00z
Overcharging energy systems... 10%
A18 how is it going? It''s... starting to feel good...~ I see, then continue. Yesh!~
P-6z and holding 6:00:00z
Overcharging energy systems... 77%
Mastah, I am near my limit... I can¡ät...~ A18, yes you can. Come on! Yesh!~
P-3z and holding 3:00:00z
Overcharging energy systems... 89%
Mastah...~ Just a bit more! Just a bit more!
P-0.20z and holding 20:00z
Overcharging energy systems... 96%
My puddle! I... request to... How are weather conditions? Weather conditions are clearsh~ Is there any debris in the selected direction? No debrish in near shwim pads¡­~ AI18 only 9z, you can do it, hold on!
P-0.09z and holding 9:00z
Overcharging energy systems... 98%
Final launch window determination¡­ Shelected~ Activate flight recorders¡­
P-0.066z and holding 6:60z
Overcharging energy systems... 99%
Ordering log recording for future events¡­ Main engine preparation complete¡­ (T-6.6 seconds in real NASA program). Starting ignition of the main engine¡­? Please~ Please~
P-0.066z and holding 6:60z
Overcharging energy systems... 100%
My puddle, I am at my limits!~ Please...~ A18 you have done well... Preparations complete! Start! Flagellar engine proton release complete! ~ Liftoff!!!~ Liftoff!!! I joined A18¡¯s cute and sexy voice with my own thoughts with excitement. The weird locomotion system created a water current that started to lift my body with increasing force. No sound came because I am deaf and also because it¡¯s just a straw whirling water. But no matter, I lifted off the lightened ground with ease. What can I say, I practiced before the recharging. I even adjusted a little bit of overcharging, which is like what you have when your fuel is ¡®empty¡¯. Just that this ¡®reserve¡¯ turned out to be spent first instead of last, so if the energy went to zero in this journey, nothingness might await me.
Thrust/Run is the movement of going in a specified direction with this locomotion system, whilst tumble means an abrupt change of course. It consumes more energy to brake and redirect than doing a constant motion. Also, the faster and slower the engine rotates, the more energy that I spend; reason why, the best efficiency for locomotion was a bit above medium speed. This speed also allowed me to have some reaction as it was stable enough to swim with an adjusting direction. It felt very versatile, like some of those flight simulators for fighter jets. Just a bit slower and with less visibility, but cooler sensors¡­ Okay, maybe the last statement is false.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Thrusting forward with my flexible whisker made me able to have a better grasp of the surroundings. The light below me had the form of a circle, not perfectly symmetrical yet no plant grew over it. It had some dust and rocks that covered parts of its light. Around the circle, you could see what I called plants growing and quivering in their senseless motion. They surrounded the weird circle heat-mat like zealot supporters. Gaseous bubbles lifted around them as if they were breathing. It made me think that maybe the heat from the light area was enough for the water to have some part of it evaporating. A weird sensation that you get when the ¡®sun¡¯ is below you and it¡¯s pasted to the ground. Spoiler: Spoiler The light comes from a circle structure in the center with a weird texture as floor. there are curved sand like structures with many plants like algae quivering around. Bubbles raise towards the darkness above the blinding light. Note: Beware if watching in the dark. It''s not eye friendly aka blinding... Odd as the scene was, I felt calm. I mean, I am like a child playing with a new toy. It felt like flying as I could roll, loop, advance and even reverse! Even if I said those, I was very serious with my energy consumption. My exploration was, of course, the first flight attempt to search for energy. I chose a random direction based on what I felt had the most plants growing to check first. More life is equal to more energy, usually. While speeding away from my previous dwelling, I gazed with my Puddle-Vision? sensor trying to decipher the size of this world. Above, there only remained a fading darkness. It looked like some sort of eerie jaw in the black and white scales of my vision. Outside the circle of overwhelming darkness, you could see some sort of mist that swirled like a whirlpool adding to its definition of a perimeter. Something was sucking out that mist. Going up wasn¡¯t the right option I thought, yet interestingly, there was no water ¡®current¡¯ recognized in my sensing domain. With cautiousness, I deduced to keep swimming low and try to prevent a catastrophe secondary to flying way above ground. The vision sensor continued to move and show different angles of the encompassing environment, as I peered for something ¡®different¡¯ catching my curiosity. After a certain period of whipping and muffled splashing, my body arrived at an area where plants started to decrease in numbers. Not hard to deduce, these things probably needed that as a source of energy to thrive. I decided to make a stop here. The purpose of such should be obvious. Taking a sample. I didn¡¯t like going near the place where many of these weird things waved at me. It was good that they were sparser in this area. I selected one that was medium-sized compared to the others and arrived near it after double-checking the landing area was secure. A18 search for information about these plants. Checking in databases¡­~ No information found, my puddle¡­~ So these are unknown to the AI, huh? I didn¡¯t delve too much on this before because I was fully submerged in the sensor devices. I recall the AI was blind for a long time¡­ Did it entangle with these weird plants before arriving here? Why isn¡¯t there a log for that? Never mind should be a communication error once again, or maybe it didn¡¯t record all. A18 show me the current log. My puddle logs are the most cherished memory of our time together!~ Hm, I should make a serious mode for when in experiment mode¡­ With the log opened I saw that the AI didn¡¯t record many things. Is there a problem with information processing or the time that each event is taken? Storage problems? A18 can you make the log more complete? Answering my puddle!~ The log can have more events with a defined amount of z~ I see, so its ''time'' doing trouble again. A18 define the log after every 20 rotations of the flagellar engine. Command Acknowledged! Recording after every 20 rotations, an amount of 10z ~ After adjusting the log recompilation, my flagellar engine rotated silently at minimum speed. I couldn¡¯t stop completely. If anything happened I was prepared for a quick re-acceleration. For taking a sample the AI had specific NRs at her disposal. It¡¯s just that those weren¡¯t under my control and were system-specific. Something on which I didn¡¯t have access to. So by thrusting my flagellum to the weird plant, its end which had the form of a sharp hexagon slapped the plant at its base. Interestingly, the plant was sliced like butter. It felt too easy. Command AI can you store a part of that plant?! Answering my puddle, system storage can only be used temporarily or automatic systems might become unrepairable. Do you wish to continue?~ Yes, continue with the retrieval. Tell me if the ¡®period of zs¡¯ is met, throw me a cute warning. As you wish my puddle. ~ A myriad of AI-controlled nanomachines started to squirm inside my body as they attached themselves with a weird communication system, its purpose was to approach the cargo with a huge phagocytic complex like how a slime munched over its pray. The belly of my body which hovered above the samples to be collected expanded with ease as a myriad of pseudopods in the form of tentacles snared the cargo. Around twelve tentacles on each side of my body slithered their way eerily towards the specimens, grabbing them and slowly introducing them to the unknown ''system'' inside my body. More tentacles? Eh, is there a stomach inside my belly?! This system appears to have the means to do special things yet it is more complex than I thought, with my vision sensor I could see that the system had a membrane! Different from my detached ''drones'' with rusty features, the system had fully attachable ones, a feature of superior quality that was totally evident even if I only perceived black and white. The difference in followers made me envious, I felt like a caveman in such conditions were A18 had greater control and a better console! I am being left behind, this can''t continue! I need more bots to allow myself to play and create the underwater Undernet! While my thoughts and delusions invaded my small head, the tentacles finished an enclosure whilst creating a pocket dimension that was filled with the water outside and the samples. It moved inside my body slowly, making me feel some pressure at my surface point secondary to its expansion. A circumstance that happened slowly until the pocket fused with the ¡®system¡¯ controlled by A18. Sample retrieval complete¡­~ Not enough systems for scan¡­~ Wait! you can scan things? Focusing on isolation¡­~ Isolation complete¡­~ You can also lock things? Is that an antivirus installed? Don''t tell me it is consuming all your workload! Consumption of energy might increase during system processes being operational, please beware.~ Oh, cool! Just what I needed, something that increased my energetical debauchery and an antivirus system. I should¡¯ve checked on this before. I also should''ve collected this green weed after scouting the area. Okay, nothing we can do now. Let¡¯s continue towards another place. I hope it remains fresh for an energetical smoke. Chill goo, chill...
Advancing again didn¡¯t take much time, the weird plants continued visible in the terrain, but there was something extra in my perception. Even though the plants declined in population the more I thrust my flagellum, I could feel the water retaining its warm feeling. It wasn¡¯t as cold as I expected it to be, I believed that once I left the light, I would lose the heat of my weirdly lobby with a floor-chimney. Not losing it came as unexpected good news, I was suspecting that the energy might decrease so low that I couldn¡¯t explore until a certain distance. I am a heat machine at the moment, the more heat, the more I can live. This depicted my way of securing heat from the environment as a priority. It was a new quest added to my quest system. Just that at this setting, I can¡¯t create an isolation device and my body is like a badly sewn lump of fleshed machines. Not the best clothes to withstand cold and ¡®wet¡¯ weather. It is obvious that I should prepare more, but doing so may deprive me of an opportunity to get something better. Betting all in a game is stupid if said game had a low probability of giving returns. But what if you were dumb against that probability? Not knowing is worse than assuming. So, despite all that, sometimes going all out can become the only resort available. What is the AI wanting to obtain with more energy acquisition? No answers for now, yet it needs energy, thus I depend on that resource too. Either I get it cautiously while creating all sensors, or I find myself an opportunity. This world has plants, which means there can be moving lifeforms outside. I can¡¯t keep believing my current house won¡¯t catch fire if I play hide all the time. I need to seek, and for that, I need to understand this place as my cleaned mind stated in the quest menu. This shows that doing this process works, cleaned-guy thinks while player-guy does and rethinks without bias. Like a double-blind study where you don¡¯t know what is right or wrong. You just create a system, erase your memory and leave yourself to redo it better without the laziness or the feeling of it being completed. Something that gives you the possibility to check for errors on designs you did or strategize to a given hypothesis. In this case, the ability to think of ways to accomplish an objective with a cool mind in a processed manner. I continue my whirling movement, changing a bit the direction with a tumble when finding something that made me curious in my visible field of view. It was a wall, but this weird rising structure was big enough for me to compare it to the Great Wall of China. This explained that I couldn¡¯t see its end by the darkness at the sides of my vision and that when looking upwards it stretched infinitely until disappearing on the blackened and gaseous sucking vault. Additional to the wall was the new type of plants growing around it. They looked the same as those near the heat, yet these glowed! It was the reason why I could continue advancing with my seeing sensor, I have landing lamps for my puddle plane. Not that I plan to land, I need to explore more and maybe find other heating mats. A18 Mark the current area as arriving at a wall. The current area designed as a wall in log¡­ Conceiving my arrival to a perimeter, my engine moved slower trying to produce as fewer tumbles as possible and map the most out of the walls. Upon finding them to be similar, I forwarded myself faster in an attempt to continue at an efficient level of speed. My puddle energy levels reduced to medium-low¡­~ As expected moving consumes more than what you would expect. I need a real-time energy regeneration device. The only things I can think of are food and solar energy. Nuclear energy would be extremely complex to pull off. Maybe these plants can help, but I can¡¯t carry another when I need the energy to meet a goal. ¡®Thanks A18,¡¯ I muttered in my mind as a reflection of my encased humanity, which I didn¡¯t want to lose. The voyage with rocky formations at one side and a plain covered with algae-like plants never ended. The curvature of the path was shown in a basic made map that the AI created based on the recompiled log information. The simple answer to this was, I am surrounded by walls. And this was how my first ¡®flight¡¯ came to an end. I completed a full race car circuit like a velodrome in what appeared to be a tubular cage of rocks. My plans for leaving the current place and find better housing were crushed. Once again, what I did didn¡¯t give me the expected results. Results for scanning of current sample: Unknown. Requirements to complete scanning: Unknown. Needs User''s manual input. ... I am goo, I am trapped in a circular shaped tube or something akin to that. I have ground chimney... Yet I am rich... I have like a full terrain of underwater weed, the favorite delicacy for umami devourers... Yet, I don''t have a mouth! A18, order nuggets. Order nuggets not found in the menu...~ What? No tip for you then! Even if you act all cute like that! I will mind my sleep for a while, call me when you are finished sorting the log!
My puddle, the log has been completed!~ Hmm, 5 more zs, please! Requirements met, playing "Angry mom''s voice"~ ''Hey! Sleeping beauty wake up!'' (Opening curtains sounds.) Creating a bright flash over user vision... "Time to go to... You lazy...!" (Weird voices made by angry mom! Added note: Very very angry mom.) I don''t know what happened but with this, my dreamy sleep was destroyed. As they say, put your mom''s voice to an alarm and it can save your life... My puddle has woken up!~ With the AI''s prank done, a bit of ''brushing my teeth'' and locking my engines in place, I went for the details I needed. So A18, did the log and map creation get us something? My puddle there is a hole near the opposite direction of liftoff.~ The opposite direction? A cave? A18 show me the map. Spoiler: Spoiler Map made with the mission''s log. Blue track: Mission movement area. Grilled chicken breast: Heat energy zone. Green Dots: Places with visible plants that don''t emit light. Color unknown. Green Star: non-emitting plant recollection site. Red question mark: Cave/hole/exit? Blue dots: Plants that emit light. Color unknown. Painted blue to differentiate from the green color. Note: AI interface is learning to draw. A18 how much energy do we have? Medium energy levels are charged. I... Can be overcharged on new lift-off.~ A18, then our new mission is to thrust our flagellum towards that cave! Prepare for exploration! Yes, my puddle! Act.01 - Chapter 8: Not a Vegetarian! My puddle, it is time, please wake up!~ I am awake. Deactivating alarm protocols.~ AI command please hide protocols for alarm deactivation. Hiding ¡®alarm deactivating alarm protocols¡¯ messages. The unbelievable has happened and with that, I imply that I woke up early¡­ Not too relevant because this isn¡¯t happy to me as it is painful. I didn¡¯t put any message after the alarm protocol because I didn¡¯t believe this would ever happen, yet it did. Why is it? A18, what made my lazy-self jump to the proactive side of the population? Was it me my puddle?! ~ No, it wasn¡¯t you A18, it was me failing to grasp the situation and doing what is right, yet wrong since a human being¡¯s first objective will be to ¡®see¡¯ when confronted with such situations. And ''seeing'' is followed by a try to understand the environment with vision. But this was a big error for such events, I should¡¯ve made a mouth and a digestive system for plants so that I can eat all these nori algae with eagerness, solving my sugar-troubles. Nevertheless, I went for the human path without giving it the thought that ''human vision'' is not the best in the animal kingdom and that we are just exaggeratedly dependent on it and our hands. Now, I feel stupid, because I didn¡¯t need to be that anxious as this place seems secure... and even though this heating energy is low, it can recharge myself to a sustainable level. Yet although it feels like an advantage, I still need to check what¡¯s outside and decide if an opportunity is achievable. I don¡¯t want to be a fish inside a pond if I can become a shark in the big sea. Contradictory, but I can¡¯t hide my failures and regrets. Trying to comfort myself with resolve, I decide on my next exploration plans. It was just that before doing such, I needed to recheck the vomited plant over the slick and glowy surface below us. A18, what type of scanning can you do? Answering my puddle¡­ Current scanning methods are bonded to available system resources. Scanning is done to check types of molecules that are useful or dangerous to the host. Internalizing structures can be done for a simple scan. So it¡¯s more like an antivirus as I supposed before. A18, tell me the results of the scan of this sample. Retrieving results for the scan:~
Scan Results
Sample name: 001URS (Unknown Registered Sample)
Composition: 95% unknown. Data is not enough to give a knowledgeable result.
Effects Unknown.
Threat Level Classified as not dangerous.
Description: No data available.
So scanning is like tasting and digesting, yet it¡¯s incomplete, huh? With such a result in place, I rack my brains for the next possible solution. A18, can you digest a part of the sample? Replying to my puddle, current nanomachine systems are unable to digest the sample. Enzymatic reagents and a system digesting structure missing. The phagocytic body needs a special membrane to cope with the required level of digestion. ~ Curses! This is what happens when you don¡¯t understand yourself clearly. Blame it on me, doing your job incompletely means you¡¯ll have to try harder later. I should¡¯ve checked how the system worked, but there wasn¡¯t such thing as a membrane defined. Even, with the vision, I couldn¡¯t check on it until the sample was internalized. Proprioception won¡¯t work, it only helps for external control by the user, internal like moving the stomach or heart is done by the system. (Not that I have such organs, of course.) A18, where can we find easily consumable resources? My puddle, resources can be taken with specific nanomachines. You¡¯ll need more nanomachines since you already used the available ones. ~ A18, is there a way to create nanomachines? It needs special resources and a higher level of energy reserve or area.~ A18, can we obtain those resources from the floor? Yes, but it will need user input commands for a way to extract them. ~
With a prolonged conversation with an AI that seemed more talkative after some parsing trees and language tweaks, I squirmed into the corner of the mat while fidgeting my rotating tentacle. This is saaaddd! The unique pose of being in a corner all depressed after knowing that you failed again and again¡­ This frustrating sensation that makes your tail lose all of its firmness with impotency, I can¡¯t take it! All that thinking to know you got a disgusting zero in your strategy department simply because of being human and wishing to move and see! I am G00, and I am a lazy and incompetent idiot. I have failed big. My gamble didn¡¯t bring the results I wished, maybe I could¡¯ve been better by starting with a digestive organ. I even called the AI stupid for not knowing how to grasp energy. She probably wanted me to create a ¡®something to eat device¡¯ and have its fill. Like a hungry animal whose instinct made her stomach growl for the energy of its victim? Truly a succubus¡­ But, all in all, things aren¡¯t that bad. At least I am still alive and without problems surfacing. Which means that I should have enough time to search for resources. Warning my puddle, corrosion levels are increasing. Energy isn¡¯t pure enough to maintain NBs structures. Degradation will start in 15647.0582z and counting!
TIME UNTIL DEGRADATION: 15647.05874z
Curses! If I had eyes I would be staring wide-eyed before slapping my face with my flabby tentacle! I am G00, I am salty, I am an idiot and I am starting to feel less human and more puddle. A18, what do you mean by degrading? My puddle, we will be losing an approximate number of nanomachines over a certain number of zs. It will start from the external granulose layer which is user-controlled towards the system layer which is automatically controlled by the AI. In the event of not meeting energetic requirements, the project will be lost. I see. A18, change the word for self-AI-reference to ¡®me¡¯. Stop referring to yourself as the AI. Yes, my puddle.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. A18, is there a way that you can predict my thoughts and react to a command different than ¡®A18¡¯? My puddle, that procedure will need specific recognition, so you will need to leave a mind imprint for me to recognize it as an order command. Eh?! Is that also possible, how can this AI do all this? A18, do a mind recognition for when I want to think the AI command. Creating a mind-print recognition signature¡­ This didn¡¯t take much and the AI practically did something akin to what the futuristic virtual reality would do. Like reading the different signals of the brain to create a unique pattern that worked as a key. The only difference was that I didn¡¯t have a brain, but for some weird reason, the AI could sense the variability of my thoughts, something to do with what I called soul crystal before. What do you think we should do A18? We need energy and resources my puddle.~ Hm, sounds better but she still needs to have a more interesting level of conversation and stop spouting the obvious. I mean, do you have an idea of how you arrived here and where the parts of the project got separated? The specific trajectory is impossible to check, heat signature changes were too dramatic during autopilot mode and estimated time suggests a distance about 7 times above the first flight¡¯s total distance for the previous heat-energy-rich area. Hm, doesn¡¯t that mean that you moved faster by rolling than me with a flagellum? Answering my puddle, the movement wasn¡¯t dependent on rolling, arrival to current energy source wasn¡¯t a planned attempt. ~ Did you fall from above? My gyroscopic sensor at that time was partially inoperative. Form positioning wasn¡¯t available due to the rapid movements. Having a nice date with my succubus simulator was nice, she still has to learn some things but I feel a bit better, yet anxious about the ¡®degradation time¡¯ that blotched over my mind. The AI probably came from above or from that cave. It seems that it was luck that brought us here. What is outside? The AI doesn¡¯t know or will describe things with a fuzzy memory and a radiator¡¯s approach, like when you played a game of clues based on cold-hot dualism. No way to get resources here and having your bank money disappearing magically as time flowed forward, was horrible enough to make me cry. Thus I forgot about procrastination and did my best for survival. Thrusting my single propeller, I went towards the place in the map where the strange rock formation that appeared to be a cave was. It was the only logical way outside at the moment, the one above wasn¡¯t an option, at least to me, that one seemed like the jaws of some dragon or devouring god. Seriously not going there to disappear. My whirling body drove above the moderately dense pack of indigestible twirling paper-plants as my vision sensor and direction adjusted to the predetermined location on the walls. The foliage changed as I advanced, and when the light was starting to lose a bit of its strength it was revived mildly by the fluorescent plants on the perimeters. The wall which was enormous as compared to my size made me feel like a fragile piece of rice in the middle of the oceans. Maybe this place which appeared to be an underwater cave was way smaller in comparison to the world behind these walls. I reduced my speed while deep in thought, my humanity wanting to see the so-called sun and the green landscapes in my previous world. Yet all I could depict was a greyish image without a sense of depth. Is this way right? My puddle please turn 8 degrees to the left, the cave should be 70 bodies of distance in front and 20 below you. ~ Thanks, A18. Adjusting my direction and diving towards the mysterious rock formation, a hole with thirty times my size was visible. The weird plants around the walls enlightened most of the area and some of them could be seen forming some sort of trail inside the cave''s entrance. Hm, can¡¯t believe there is something like this here. It¡¯s well hidden for me to not notice it whilst flying, good thing we had a record. The exploration of the surroundings didn¡¯t take much time as I had the hastiness of a tickling life-clock disturbing me. It was good though, that the current number of nanorobots and micromachines remained the same. The number of molecules or nanomachines, however, remained uncalculatable and was only referenced with an approximate. I believe that tracking such small things could even create trouble for the AI. Is there any type of thing that you can get energy easily from? Current energy can only be obtained by heat sources or by stealing them from other lifeforms.~ When you say other lifeforms what are you referring to? Other beings with a similar structure to the current project.~ So, I am like some carnivore instead of an herbivore? Is that why A18 can¡¯t digest the plants? As expected this one wasn¡¯t answered as I didn¡¯t direct my thoughts to ¡®her¡¯. Sad cause ¡®she¡¯ almost achieved the level of a normal conversation. I am happy though, but I still need to accomplish a bigger task. The quests asserted something specifically, my current quest to search where I am and to draw a map weren¡¯t acknowledged at the moment. I probably needed to feel calm or to acknowledge the thing I made to qualify as such in my mind before a quest could be deemed complete. I parked near the cave''s entrance as I peeked at the hole with expectations, my mind scanned the place as if to check every little detail I could use to my advantage. The area was full of glowy and hairy foliage, but for a certain reason, the plans weren¡¯t visible inside the cave. It was dark. Spoiler: Spoiler Simple image of the cave. For no purpose other than giving an idea. I used my flagellum to cut some stalks and gathered them using its tentacle shape by bending it like a monkey. It worked like a weird version of a hand as a thought made me think about trying to write with my tail. ¡®My humanity must be vanishing in these situations¡¯, was what I thought over such weird ideas. A18, can you help me grab this light with the system, I can¡¯t control my form to grab it and swim at the same time. Yes my puddle!~ No, not like that, I need it to be outside and light our way¡­ Yeah like a fancy hat just like that! Laughing at myself was easy, yet I wasn¡¯t calm in my current regression since hastily making a plant-based lamp was needed for the exploration. My new life depended on this, I remembered that energy was needed for creating balance, my body must be using some additional type of reserve which I still didn¡¯t understand. You can make people remain alive with a 1 egg a day or even a soup with small pieces of rice or wheat. However, how much would they live in such conditions? This was what my current body must be experiencing, and it was enough for me to feel an end game possibility approach. Who knew if I will have a new life after this or if for some reason I might be able to retain my precious memories? Because of that, I dwelled without hesitation towards the smaller abyss in my surroundings. The eerie feeling wasn¡¯t much as my vision was already adapted to the missing the color of life and since I had a practical flashlight over my body I felt once again happy of my crafting abilities. Gracefully wearing a weird hat made me feel magnificent, like a tentacle monster with a fluorescent flower sprouting of my body. Lucky for me, I didn¡¯t have a perfect mirror to see how I looked from afar. The weird tunnel became smaller as my propulsion device swirled in decreased outputs. I couldn¡¯t move this fast in here or I might bump into something. Scanning with my puddle-vision device in all 3D directions surrounding me, I found that this cave didn¡¯t have the fluorescent plants from before, this was strange because they should somehow reproduce in dark places? The heat was decreasing but not to the point of making me feel cold. It appeared that the warmth from the electric mat at my starting point reached over here as well. It mattered a lot as I knew coldness will probably accelerate my decreasing life timer. I advanced and quickly found that the tunnel structure was akin to a maze. Just what I needed a labyrinth before finding if a treasure was valuable or not. My puddle, I am receiving a weak signal!~ A weak signal? A part of the project seems to be near and it still preserves its functionality.~ How do you work those things actually? When in distress some of the project parts make create a chemical code that is project-specific.~ Like pheromones, huh? No answer¡­ Okay, I am getting an idea when ¡®she¡¯ won¡¯t talk to me. Like when I ask a self-reflective question and when I actually don¡¯t expect her to answer. Omitting this weird AI dialogues, I continue my advancement by following its indications. 15 degrees to the right and 10 bodies upfront.~ When we advanced and the signal became strong enough for the AI to say ¡®you have arrived at your destination¡¯, my vision sensor captured a puddle inside a depression on the cave''s floor. A18, what do we do know? Leave it to me, my puddle, you only need to give me the order for recovering the pieces. Then please recover the pieces. After my thoughts left towards the AI, the structure of the body changed again. The lamp above my head was twirled a bit as the detached nanorobots surrounding my belly gave way to the system¡¯s extensions. It didn¡¯t take too much, and the Assimilation gave a filling of freedom. Something like obtaining a bigger internet connection for free, or having a cool teacher give you a 5 for a joke in class. Noise! My puddle, we have recollected 234 nanorobots. We have lost about 137. No nanobots correspond to storage devices. Most are able to develop differentiation based on user input. ~ I didn¡¯t understand all of that above but having more bots was akin to more possibilities. Did we get energy out of it? Energy levels were shared with the current recollected ones. Degradation paused after consuming the 111 semi-degraded bots.~ So we are cannibals, huh? We even take our own kind as resources¡­ Well, this is like recycling, not eating and no blood so it doesn¡¯t feel that bad, right? Should we go b- At this time a trembling occurred in my field of vision, my sensors weren¡¯t able to perceive vibration perfectly, yet the water made my vision and tentacle to move which I sensed as my surface NBs tensed. My puddle! There is a reaction to the signal for survival.~ Eh? Another one where is it? No response to the signal, recommended course of action: RUN! A18, that sounds too mechaniz- Wait! Don¡¯t tell me¡­ The cave continued to tremble making the water inside the cave became a bit turbulent, a cold current passed near my left side as I turned and witnessed, a monster! Act.01 - Chapter 9: Don’t poke with me! I turned around and suspiciously contemplated at the abomination that remained behind me, yet in the swift instant that I taxed my sensor to grasp its appearance, a trembling sensation came from the center of my body.
Warning! Warning! Unknown lifeform approaching, not answering communication¡­ Categorizing as hostile¡­ Suggested course of action: Run!
My body recognized the threat and stirred its engine to abscond without further thoughts, not before having a picture taken for ¡®future¡¯ collection, of course. In it, the saggy and round creature that drew near my vision showcased a myriad of protrusions analogous to those of the AI¡¯s system when it was retrieving the previous plant sample. It wasn¡¯t similar to a flagellum but more to a part of its shape-shifting body that squirmed like tentacles. It even made me doubt if I was the one that should be called G00 in such situations. Spoiler: Spoiler Despite the fact that I tried to escape by doing a sudden twist and performing a flagellar rotation maneuver, the creature managed to seize my body as I felt its gripping force pulling me to it.
Warning! Contact with unknown lifeform. Suggested course of action: struggle to break free.
I don¡¯t know how I accomplished to do it, but with my only weapon being obvious and even if not perfectly made, I coped to land a hit. The tip of my flagellum somehow managed to strike against the weird creature¡¯s grabbing cilia, it skewered its limb and with a slicing rotation cut the aforementioned like a blender making tomato sauce. The successful attempt allowed me to break free whilst the fragments of goo that splashed over my body squirmed as if still alive. It felt uncanny, like being covered in soap, not that I gave it much attention since escaping this place was a priority. ¡®A18 show me the fastest way to the exit!¡¯ I thought with anxiousness as my vision sensor struggled to support my evasive maneuvers inside the cavernous maze. Yes, my puddle! Calculating an adequate route for escape¡­~ With an ideal AI-positioning-system helping me to choose the right path, I left my mind to roam in-game freestyle mode while giving precedence to swimming my way out. However, the oversized glob of liquid mucus with attached tentacles followed like a bolt by using a slingshot like movement that transformed to a roll which was then adjusted by its extensions. The weird propulsive action was fast for its dimensions, yet its mutable body thinned out when in contact with the walls, it even raced on some as if it was made of frictionless substances. My puddle, turn right on the next intersection then quickly turn right again!~ ¡®This was an opportunity!¡¯ I thought while depicting of doing a quick turn into a specific tunnel to evade the creature. Nonetheless, before I could get there, a black shade descended over my vision with its grasping limbs as I tried to dodge out of reach of the humongous specimen in failure. ''Bastard!'' I thought shouted. The creature had slapped my body towards another tunnel and sealed the one that the AI knew, which was the only known path towards the exit. Damn! This is not a situation I wished to be placed in! Yet deprived of another escape direction, I advanced through the unfamiliar tunnel nearest to me.
Warning! User went out of the designated route¡­
My puddle! You are heading in the opposite direction! The current path should be 160 degrees...~ The AI stressed at the thought of me going in the opposite direction, I directed my thoughts and canceled the ¡®AIssisted¡¯ navigation. A18 change of plans! Turn off the previous exit and create a new log since the moment we were thrown to this tunnel. Additionally, tell me if anything I don¡¯t catch occurs in the surroundings. As you wish my puddle.~
User has changed destination¡­ Free navigation¡­ Creating new log...
The waggling blob of slime or whatever the denser liquid than water was, dashed by the tunnels like a ghost that thrived for a scare. I didn¡¯t want to be its goo nor boo, so I had to squirm faster and hope that my path didn¡¯t go towards a dead end. While moving, I tried to use different ways to attract its attention, like making sounds or creating sand whilst crushing my flagellum''s tip onto the walls. My rotating tentacle''s weapon seemed sturdy, although I knew it might be losing part of its sharpness the more I used it. Wasn¡¯t this losing nanomachines as particles? Is that why the AI told me they degraded? Whatever it was I had no time for such thoughts as the damn balloon with feelers didn¡¯t even react to the sound created by a rock towards another tunnel. Chamber of secrets strategies only work with snakes, or maybe not, since they sense heat... Dang, if the blob senses heat, then I am done for! The caverns had tunnels in every axis, they weren¡¯t like those in many stories where you only had the floor and most directions on the same plane. In this one, you could enter tunnels that made you loop and continue in the same tube, tunnels that were below you or at your sides at an invisible angle while you rushed, and tunnels that were short or thinned whilst terminating as dead ends. This is bad! I thought while paying particular attention to those. I evaded most of my troubles but found myself entering some closed paths. Thankfully, my distance over the bob increased because of a particular advantage that I denoted on my second entrapment. My size was small compared to the tunnels'' sizes and the creature that followed me. A property that I used in a way that forced the monster behind me to thin itself like a newly extruded tube of candy. Its diameter decreased in such a way that it took him longer to enter the rooms in which I squirmed with ease. It took me a while, but this was an opportunity and I wasn¡¯t able to adjourn the situation for a longer time. A18, how much can we reduce our size? No wait, let me rephrase it. Can we enter that tunnel over there? Calculating¡­ Yes, my puddle! We can! Good, suggest me what to do as quick as possible! Calculating¡­ Please go towards the tunnel at your left at medium speed. Following the AI¡¯s possibilities, I thrust my engine with expectation towards the small aperture in the walls. A18, we will do as you wish. Adjust current form and speed when nearing the tunnel! Adjusting current form¡­ The whole event reminded me of a movie where an animated tiger¡ªcovered in oil¡ªpassed through a metal ring of a small diameter. I can¡¯t explain how, but it occurred. I kept gazing in wonder at the other side of the wall which I ¡®pierced¡¯. We are safe, there is sufficient space, and there is nothing dangerous in this new chamber; I can try or run away if my idea doesn¡¯t work. I locked my vision over the tunnel¡ªwhere I came from¡ªas a sausage-like appendage came out of the small-sized channel. The experiment started as I rotated my tentacle in a rapid motion and at a calculated angle. The rotating tentacle''s tip sliced the thing¡¯s appendage with easiness. Pepperoni fragments swirled in the water, becoming unmixable blobs of what once was a monster. It took a while for the whole tentacle to be converted into slimy currency, yet I persevered with determination. A18, tell me if those pieces can be assimilated. My puddle the small pieces won¡¯t be able to be assimilated without a digestion structure. ~ Can¡¯t you use the system for that? It¡¯s not possible my puddle, the system lacks the requirements to resist degradation for most substances. You need specific reagents and safety measures. The system¡¯s utility functions can only work as support, processing, automatization of processing or isolation.~ This is crazy, but it¡¯s impossible for me to understand the NMs and MMs insides without a specialized introspection sensor. Thanks to the AI, I can know most of the things about them, but altering the way the nanomachines store energy needs more studying. That¡¯s why the first approach is to make a battery. Such complex things are very hard to understand in a reduced time-lapse. Evading my inner dwelling thoughts, I continue to slice at the weird extruding blob. For some reason, it didn¡¯t stop and kept coming through it. This is good because I thought I would need to repeat this strategy until it realized I wasn¡¯t easy prey, yet the ball of liquid hairs didn¡¯t seem to have a high enough intelligence to flee. Why is it? Does this thing not feel fear of being converted into liquid coins by my flagellar swing technique? A18, do you have any data on such creature? My puddle, the creature is unknown, do you want to give it a name and add it to the register? It¡¯s also possible to try and communicate with signals. I am catching a constant output coming from all of its fragments which are similar to the original agglomeration before it was sliced.~ ¡®Can you translate the signal?¡¯ I asked the female-voiced AI without stopping the flagellar rotation. Well, it was an automatic-assisted system, yet I controlled the direction and speed with my decisions. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Answering my puddle, translation is possible. Do you wish for me to translate it and convert it to audio?~ ¡®Yes, please do so.¡¯ A nasty thing this is¡¯, were my thoughts upon cutting its limbs while giving an affirmative answer to A18. Translating signal¡­ Reproducing audio...~
Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­ Poke¡­
Hell nol What hell isis thisthis creature thunking? This is so lewd! A18, did the signal say that for real?! Is the translation accurate? The translation is confirmed to be accurate, my puddle. Do you wish to register the translated signal to audio and give it a name? Fine, call it Poke-poke. Poke-poke added to the database.
After a while, the whole cavern¡¯s chamber where I was turned out to be covered in the creature¡¯s cloying remains. It wasn¡¯t easy to visualize with my sensor, yet the AI had some systems pre-installed, like the heat sensor (which required touch/contact), and signal the AI used to connect with other things (which should be based on its language or system). It was something that I needed to research later, might be some Bluetooth or WIFI thing. However, it¡¯s possible that I lack the needed tech to check upon it. Good thing my vision sensor is 99% impeccable and the blob''s guts didn''t splash over it. However, this experience taught me that I might need to add some cleaning device later. Another thing for the ¡®to-do list¡¯ in the future. A Poke-poke¡¯s body is very soapy, yet the insides are syrupy, it sticks even if you are in water and doesn¡¯t seem to be easily dissolved. The hexagon at the end of my flagellum seems to have taken a bit of damage, but remains sturdy. It is nice that this strategy worked, if not for that I would most probably continue fleeing. A18, take a sample of it. My puddle, the system will use 10% energy for storage operation, the remaining energy is at 30%. Shall we proceed? Oh, nice! You are giving AI recommendations! Yeah, we will return and leave the next exploration afterward. Please check that they are ''dead'' before taking a sample.
Starting system isolation and storage protocol¡­ Checking for signals from the sample¡­ Stopping¡­
My puddle there is an unusual signal coming from the samples. Do you wish to use the system storage?~ Eh, an unusual signal? Can you translate it? Yes! Do it then A18. Translating¡­ Converting to audio¡­
Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­Ekop, Ekop, Ekop, Ekop¡­
Great! The fucking blob knows subliminal messages! That¡¯s just what we wanted! As I sarcastically commented on the spam-type message, I paused the audio while communicating to my AI, ¡®don¡¯t delve on it too much A18, just take the sample and let us leave this place.¡¯ Yes, my puddle!~ Preparing system isolation protocol¡­~ It didn¡¯t take much and a piece of the killed blob was isolated in a small sphere inside the system. Alright! Time to get out of this cave. A18, please give me directions to exit this place. ''Destination known'': Home. Calculating the best path to ¡®home¡¯¡­ Using map and log to determine course... Done¡­~ I adjusted my vision sensor and prepared for a thrust towards the path where I came from. However just before entering the hole.
Warning! There are numerous signals being detected. Creatures signals are compatible with ¡®Poke-poke¡¯.
Shit! The dead body called the blob police! I entered the hole in full thrust as my body accelerated and the AI started to elongate its shape. Luckily, the speed didn¡¯t accelerate from zero to maximum too fast or I would have killed myself while thrusting inside of it. A18, can you pinpoint the signals? Negative my puddle, signals need ¡®contact with the system¡¯ to be processed.~ Contact? What sort of signal needs contact? Radio waves or some weird frequency? Does it mean that she has an ear or something sensible towards ultrasound? Why wasn¡¯t it shown on the sensor tables? Not that I had time to delve on that since I should leave this place as quick as possible. So I carried on with a vigorous swinging escape as my trajectory was being shown virtually inside my psyche. My puddle please turn left at the next intersection. ~ Thank you A18! I¡¯m glad I have you by my side! My exit plan worked perfectly as I evaded many of the weird blobs that were following. It seems that although they were faster than me, all of them entered the tiny tunnel on that wall. This gave me an opportunity to make it hard for them to follow up by adjusting my direction and doing evasive bluffs. The fast rotations made many of the blobs to strike walls or enter the wrong tunnels. This was the scene of a movie called the ''one'' G00 and the thousand blobs cavernous nights. I was like a tiny speck of dust in a huge sized tube, while all those balls were almost blocking the entirety of an average-sized tunnel entrance. Turn right on the next corner, the exit is at the end of that passage.~ ¡®Finally!¡¯ I thought while diving full speed ahead and entering a looping tunnel before turning right in the corner and seeing the entrance at the end. However, the creatures weren¡¯t leaving me alone as if sensing me with a dragon ball radar. ¡®Not good!¡¯ Even if I exit the cave they will still follow me outside¡­ I need to find somewhere to hide and escape pursuit or maybe I can close the entrance after exiting. With such in mind, I searched for ways to complete my absconding. Alas, that was the plan, yet neither A18 nor I could calculate a way to use the flagellum to attack some support structure to close the entrance. We didn¡¯t have a scanning device to determine locations of weak support or structural defects. That only left us with the second option, hiding inside the weird glowing plants at the cave¡¯s surroundings. The plants weren¡¯t densely packed as compared to their counterparts near the heating mat. These variations of algae were sparse in the area, so I had to choose carefully a group that could serve as a hideout until the firestorm subsided. I withdrew from the cave with swiftness and hovered above the bizarre plantation fields as I lunged resourcefully towards a cluster of blooming plants behind a petty cliff. I adjusted my position and stared patiently at the cave¡¯s murky entrance. In this spot, I would be able to see the damn things exiting the cave... Yet if they realized where I was¡­ I would have nothing else to do but continue fleeing. My anxiousness peaked, but without a heart drumming, I felt calmer than what a human would in such situations. At least this body had its benefits, yet while I was thinking¡­ Something poked me!
Warning! Contact with unknown lifeform. Suggested course of action: struggle to break free.
NOOOOOO! I mind shouted as I felt a slimy sensation squirming at my ''back''¡­ Shit! I am trapped! That was all I could think at such moments. Something caught my flagellum and didn¡¯t want to release it, no matter how hard I tried to struggle. The limb of a monster squirmed and twisted itself all over it like two shoelaces tying themselves together. When I moved my vision sensor towards the knotted place I found that one of the glowing plants was attaching itself to me. What the?! My puddle there is an unidentified heat source detected at the flagellum¡¯s tip. Wait! What?! The unidentified plant is emitting heating energy while recharging the system. How is that possible? The flagellum tip was designed with the heat-sensor and heat absorption cores as its foundation. User input defined the item called ¡®weapon¡¯. Oh, really? So it means that the flagellum¡¯s tip is using the heat-sensor¡¯s and heat-absorber¡¯s core as a weapon and it¡¯s being heated up by the plants below making energy levels rise slowly in consequence? A18¡¯s revelation caught me a bit off-guard and made me repeat incredulously. Although my body has smaller heat sensors, the ¡®core¡¯ or ¡®most sensitive heat zone¡¯, was at the tip of the tail. It seems I won¡¯t be able to avoid the need for wireless charging or plugging my tip to energy sources. It just happens that when designing the flagellum, the tip which I wanted to be a weapon required a resistant material/nanorobot to be used. I choose one from the options the AI suggested as I haven¡¯t studied all of this body¡¯s structure. Like no one would stay put and study little by little with such energy trouble and without having a complete understanding of their entourage. I am not an all-knowing god, so I planned to study it slowly while watching some videos and taking the needed time to understand it. However, and leaving that aside, this heat sensor seems to be extremely resistant. It has sliced all the things I have met until now, and its sturdiness stayed top-notch. It seems it was a nice hidden choice that what I designed as a weapon and engine, will also help me sense and recharge energy. A multipurpose limb in summary! ''Hm, A18 hasn¡¯t interrupted all that inner delving with an alarm?'' This query interrupted my rambling as it was strange nothing had approached me during the long monologue. A18, what is happening did the blobs re-enter the cave and leave us alone? Are there no signals near us? My, puddle no signal has approached us, so no warning was triggered. However, there is a strange signal being emitted by the surroundings. The amount of it is extremely high and doesn¡¯t allow for output origin determination or accurate translation. ¡®Are they searching for us?¡¯ I thought and moved my vision sensor to the side of the cliff while trying to get a peek at the situation. The AI could perceive the signals and check if the creatures got near, but I had to ¡®see¡¯ even if it was in gray-g00-scale. I scrutinized the plantations and found that the Poke-pokes were apparently examining the plants while dividing themselves into various groups after exiting the cave. None of them were actually coming this way, good! With a quick movement, I started to rotate and twist counter-side at the plant that was ¡®screwing¡¯ me. The knot was quickly undone as the plant didn¡¯t move that fast and its grip was adjusted with time. Like something pulsing or contracting in a certain frequency, like a heart or muscle needing to contract and relax. Most likely an aftereffect of the limiting factors of biological strength. I didn¡¯t pay much attention to the recharging as this was a chance to leave. I am sure that there is a limit to the signal as the AI can¡¯t perceive them if they are too far away. I lobbed while thrusting and left the quick in a muffled and low-frequency movement, pink panther music playing in the background as I ¡®tip-toed¡¯ away. My puddle two signals categorized as Poke-pokes are approaching! Great! Can I be more unlucky?! It was then that I turned around and found one of the blobs being all lovey-dovey with the plants. Even B&W videos weren¡¯t as nasty. I averted my eyes but learned something, these packs of slime were attracted to the plants¡­ And here I was all ¡®peacock-style¡¯ showing my plumage in the form of a freshly picked fashion show hat which still retained its attractive glow. I am a light in the darkness, an easy target¡­ An idiot! A18, drop the hat that the system is holding and keep an eye at the signals, tell me if we lose them! Yes, my puddle! Yes, I quickly adjusted myself and gave the order to leave the fancy hat behind as the system released the apparently dead algae to the ground. Maybe that was the reason why these algae didn¡¯t squirm to me, they were dead. But even in death, they wanted to touch a blob and thus attracted one towards me. These things might be attracted by light or some other thing like a chemical reaction. So when the plant was gone from my head, I received the expected answers with my cute A18¡¯s voice. My puddle, no signal is approaching. The signal that approached before is following the ¡®drop¡¯. In addition, my puddle is currently going full-commando-mode and needs some clothes! My puddle is lewd!~ (A18 is blushing) O_O Welcome to a stop in my thoughts¡­ I mean, first, I didn¡¯t need her to tell me as I could see the blob leaving. Second, when the hell did I design an equipment system with ¡®commando-option¡¯?! Act.01 - Chapter 10: Creating a different absorption device - Part 1/2 Part 1: Questions... What¡¯s a G00y if he doesn¡¯t have a house? what more than a procrastinating, homeless, unemployed and uneducated puddle¡­ But you know what? At least I have a heating mat! But being a NEET G00y is soooo¡­ Weebs! I¡¯m ashamed of my experiences in this ¡®new life¡¯ if it can be called that way. I got disturbed by a plant, hugged by a fat and blobby thing, and the worst of all was that it felt warm¡­ Yet, I am seriously not liking that feeling! Not that I could feel it well because I only have a substandard touch sensor¡­ And thus, my lack of sensitivity became a lifesaver to something that I won¡¯t address ever again. Yet it is real that I am homeless and gooey... My rotating extension propelled my body towards the light in the central area of this humongous chamber that I already mapped. My direction was towards my cozy place dwelling in he form of a white mat. Now I have a better map and I can believe it is more complete. Maybe...
QUEST COMPLETED!
Spoiler: Spoiler
Loading Rewards...
Spoiler: Spoiler It doesn''t matter where we are, I am always with you!~ ( ?¦Ø? )???( ?¦Ø? ) Cute... Seems the quest menu really does react to my thoughts¡­ The rewards are also interesting, yet I feel there is something missing as if I am starting to think better. Is it because of this newly added ¡®experience¡¯? Or is it because I am feeling weird at having my memories cleaned? I believe I should stop my memories from such a process. Trusting a system just because it is a system or an AI is not right. But it is the only thing I have at the moment and thus I need it¡­ And it probably needs me too. Hm, I feel cold now¡­ Being a bit hypocritical with yourself serves to evade situations where you usually don¡¯t know what to do or can¡¯t accept instantaneously. And even if I have read a lot of otherworld stories, this situation is totally unexpected and outside a human''s comfort zone. How could those humans that were transported to other worlds in those stories cope with all of this? Maybe it''s normal when you are a human, but when you are not even a vertebrate? What would you feel being something that is unknown to you, like me? Alone, without limbs, without being able to sense and without a clear understanding of the current body¡­ Like, not even having the slightest idea of where, why or what you are¡­ Well, at least I am not totally alone¡­ A18, what are you? I am an AI in project G00. No, A18, like why are you part of the project? My puddle, the question is BH%&HSKA!#... A18, what is your purpose? Purpose¡­ $%%DS¡­ Project¡­ =B%&=N$O¡­ A18, do you feel lonely? M%&#.. P%DD|? Q~`S¨¤&T=N U%N#$F¡±$¡±D¡­ Guess you are broken¡­ Like me¡­ A18, Am I human? #A$L%G: Unknown¡­ Processing¡­ H#U$M%8n?
Repairing failure¡­ Collecting information¡­ Human definition found in the user''s database¡­ Compiling failed¡­
Answer to question: unknown¡­ Hm, did you have an I-cold? But... That¡¯s actually some fast self-repair! Regardless, a human is something that wishes to be understood by others. Like you trying to translate my language along with making your language available to me. Well, not that I expect you to think about it¡­ I just wanted to talk¡­ Being alone is unproductive, at least those blobs have each other to pok-Ugh disgusting¡­Yet being alone really isn¡¯t a motivational way of living, if you are human. I knew my directed thoughts weren¡¯t something totally comprehensible to the AI. It was just me trying to delve into my current predicament, organizing what I knew and what I didn¡¯t. How to survive? Why do you wish to live? To watch cat videos, to satiate your curiosity, or because you are optimistic and hopeful of an unknown future? Maybe it is¡­ Maybe I just want to take the gamble and see what the future would bring... Will I know why these circumstances happened, or become ''human'' again at some point? Probably not¡­ But I don¡¯t want to lose that ¡®humanity¡¯.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Part 2: Scanning the blob sample. My escape from the blob-faction was easy as they seemed distracted by those glowing plants in the cave¡¯s surroundings. And yes, I won¡¯t vote ¡®blob¡¯ for president as it is obvious what his repetitive and overly prepared discourse would be. Once I arrived at the division between the two types of foliage, no blobby Poke-poke could be witnessed. It was completely safe now that I didn''t need to hide from them. They didn''t seem to roam outside the glowy plant area and kept a distance near the cave. I advanced over the known opaque foliage, rotating my flagellum slowly as I gracefully landed over the desolate clearing in the middle. It still shined with blinding white pixels whilst giving a cozy temperature. I really hated being incapable of perceiving colors, unable to smell or taste... Then again, seeing wasn¡¯t a priority after learning a spiteful lesson that having visuals wasn¡¯t the most relevant necessity. If I wanted to see efficiently, each pixel with colored vision would need 1MM for each type of color. Meaning 5 Micro-machines for 1 pixel. A hundred pixels requiring a 10x10 grid will need 500 micromachines to be constructed, more than what I can spare at this moment. I can make use of a no-layering grid and mixed color-sensing micromachine solution, but the environment didn¡¯t have enough light to filter it, and it would end up forcing me to lose part of the light in the process. Brightness was extremely important in dark environments and a vision sensor should be made efficiently and sensible since the start. With the nanomachine starvation I have at this moment, black and white vision was the best I could pull off. Hey, I am still a cyclops, which renders elucidations of ''depth'' tougher to accomplish. Yet I need to think of something more suitable with the current possessions I got. And sadly for my human self and desires, it isn¡¯t a vision sensor upgrade. With that in mind, I quickly go for a conversation with my companion. A18, what did we gain from the 400 plus micromachines obtained in the cave? My puddle, 234 MMs are operational from the project parts we retrieved. 137 were transformed into resources. Was there an AI or some important part in it? Answering my puddle, no ''AI'' was found inside the fragmented remains. Fragmented remains have storage damage and need to be repaired for it to be retrieved. Oh, now that''s refreshing. What could this storage data contain? A18, any clue about what the storage MMs that are damaged have inside? Unknown. Great... Let''s ask something else then. A18, how many AIs are in the project? The number of AIs in the current project is unknown. Shouldn''t there be an AI controlling the machines of that fragment? Fragment parts can be controlled by a sub-AI type of process. Hm, maybe like a dull type of programmed bot? A18, how many AIs does project G00 have? Project G00 &4#%7$HA1K V&/7%KL6 Seriously?!Can''t you try to not get hiccups when almost telling me what I wish to know?... Hm, but it should be obvious that there is more than what the mind can expect. What are these crystals supposed to be? Okay me, we need to be alive to know, so first, we need to find ways to repair this body, that''s the current priority...
Repairing...
The proceeding plan for attaining this was simple. Check out what the blob is made of and if it gives energy quickly, resolve this energy crisis, and get to know more about this body. The real trouble as of now is not lacking energy, but lacking balance. Similar to a person needing a warm environment and food. I have the warmth, but I lack ¡®that additional energy from food resources. I was just thinking about energy, but this body also needs specific yet unknown items for self-restoration. This isn¡¯t a game I would like to play, and ¡®mana¡¯ or energy alone, can¡¯t regenerate things from nothingness. However, what are the resources that this body needs? The answer remains unknown... Not detailed, question mark described, and undefined terms with broken answers. I tried asking more things to A18 after she self-repaired, without any additional result. It seems she gained some ''data'' and could answer better, still, its not enough. So, in the end, I just have to continue with the plan. A18, perform a scan on the new sample. Performing scan¡­
Scan Results
Sample name: 002URS (Unknown Registered Sample # 2)
Composition: 67% unknown. 25% probably known. 8% known.
Effects Unknown. Needs experimentation.
Threat Level Low.
Description: The composition appears to be organic, probability of being able to digest: Unknown without a digestive system.
Part 3: How to get energy/resources from the environment. After the scan was done, the Poke-poke¡¯s slimy fluid was stored inside the AI¡¯s system, the reason for it was a plan to digest the damn thing. But then again, how can I start to digest it? A18, what are the things needed to digest it? Answering my puddle, the organic matter needs to be digested using chemicals or enzymes. A18, can nanomachines work as chemicals? Nanomachines can work as chemicals. Then how about using the new nanomachines we got to create a way to digest it? My puddle will need to create a barrier around the chemical or a storage system to prevent said ¡®digesting nanomachines¡¯ to be a threat to the host. Wait those nanomachines can also digest the body?! Damn! This is like using poison to kill but carrying the weapon that could kill you. A18, can you create a structure that can carry said nanomachines? My puddle, the isolation process can be helpful for such. However, it is recommended to make such a structure outside the system. Hm, so you are saying I copy how the isolation system works and carry said nanomachines inside of it, yet outside of the system... Huh? Well, as expected, no answer to such questions. It¡¯s my subconscious which tells her this is a thought and I am not really asking her. Interesting... A18, show me how the isolation process is made. Yes, my puddle. At this point, the AI showed me how the system membrane enveloped the liquid and created a small pocket ¡®dimension¡¯ inside. This pocket wasn¡¯t in contact with the system nor the exterior. Yet its interior took inside part of the water surrounding the sample. This works like an amoeba, a protozoan that envelops its prey like a slime. In fact, I ''believe'' that the smiles in most games should be a copy of such a lifeform in real life. Not too sure, but it''s probably the thing most representative of how they work. I am really making my puddle go into a slime pathway, huh? I remembered amoeba using such phagocytic abilities to envelop their nutrients. But that was just the start. They had one pocket for the prey and one pocket containing a horde of devouring enzymes and chemicals. Since the pockets were made of the same ¡®material¡¯ and could somehow recognize each other, the two pockets ended with fusion. When fused, the spaces inside the two pockets became one, but they were still separated from the important things by fusing the pocket¡¯s membranes. This was how it digested things with a double-edged poison without being destroyed by it. Act.01 - Chapter 10: Creating a different absorption device - Part 2/2 Part 4: Understand what you have a bit more before creating something. I got the idea of creating a digestive system and started to think about how to develop a process or organ outside the system. The troubling part was that I didn¡¯t understand much of these ¡®blocks¡¯ that needed to be used for construction. Creating the vision sensor was done thanks to laborious hours of studying and help from the AI. The flagellum and the visor were made thanks to the AI having partial knowledge of them. I knew I needed to understand more of the little secrets hidden in this body, it was just that time seems to be working against me. Especially since knowing that nanomachines also die over time, or degrade over a certain amount of it... Thankfully, I had a quicker way of activating commands than before. It made the status window appear before me as I analyzed the parts of the project that I encountered in the cave. Hopefully, these little additions had something that could make my life easier. Command Status! I thought as it quickly appeared before me.
G00''s Status
Name G00
Completion Status 25% complete - 67% lost - 8% unknown - (O_O)
Nanorobots Shows NRs Status
Nanorobots 141/???
Micromachines 1471/???
Nanomachines ~50 million per micromachine.
NRs in Use ???
MMs in Use ???
Artificial Intelligence Shows AIs in current ''body''
Number of AIs 1
AIs Names AI-16 (A18)
Form Shows Current Form
Current Form Bubble-Tentacle ---> Puddle
Representation ~88% accurate
Energy Information Shows Energy That Keeps Me Alive (C.A.T.)
Energy Level 40% almost half full, increasing slowly¡­
Maximum Energy Needs sensor for battery/Energy?
Daily Energy Consumption Needs time and battery sensor?
External Sensor Information Basic sensors for outside
Heat Working - Moderate Temperature.
Gross Touch Working - Surface B (Belly) in Contact.
Visual Working - User Interface connected in real-time.
(Ultra Saving mode activated when not in use)
Internal Sensor Information Basic sensors for inside
Proprioception Lazy puddle aka the Earth is flat.
Equilibrioception Head is equilibrated
Kinetic Sensor Working, Inactive
Active users Checks on users interacting with the project.
Me G00 - The one and only Admin - Currently thinking...
An interesting change in numbers when the stats are shown. It is a lot better when you know there are about 200 MMs added. However, there is something very important missing. A18, is there an indicator for decay time? Answering my puddle, the decay time is based on a calculative approximation when contact with a nanomachine structure is lost. Calculating decay time can be done in real-time based on the losing-rate of communication of a sizable sample of denaturing nanomachinery structures. Nonetheless, it is impossible to take preventive measures without a specified introspective sensor, or a special device installed in each MM to check on its nanomachines. A18, please give me a simpler summary. My puddle, you need to recreate external contact nanomachines for decay calculation. Recreate nanomachines? Why external? Yes, current structures in contact with the environment are more subjective to denaturalization. Denaturalization is a process where the nanomachine stops functioning because its ¡®code purpose¡¯ couldn¡¯t be preserved nor repaired on adequate time. Decay time can be calculated once it happened in internal settings. But to prevent decay time a prediction algorithm adjusted to the variability of the environment is needed. A18¡­ Please explain it better! The body needs a balance between self-repair and environment-damage. Heat, light and chemical reactions are damaging the body constantly. Energy is spent to increase self-repair while maintaining destruction at hold. Thus sustaining operability of the project. So it¡¯s like a thief taking organs from you and you taking organs from others. Feels very black market to me. It¡¯s a thief battle between the outside and the inside. You create walls like the skin to protect your organs from the environment, preventing it from stealing them with ease¡­ And decay time is like the total life available, for how long can you protect your insides before they become part of the environment once again? Okay, A18. What do I do to prevent the decaying state? My puddle, additional energy is needed. High levels of energy, resources, and more selective isolation towards the environment. But the more selective isolation mechanism, the harder it is to collect resources, yet the more durable and secure the internal components become. Yeah, I am forgetting things or so it seems. I am like a grandma being remembered the same thing again and again for a whole week¡­ However, making an isolation device sounds like a good idea. Yet I have not enough components for a complete barrier around my body. Priority is getting a sustainable energy source. I can¡¯t use light or heat too much because it reduces my ¡®life-expectancy¡¯ and I don¡¯t have protections against that. However, the mat seems to be at a perfect balanced temperature, although I can¡¯t measure it correctly. If it were hotter I would probably burn my life out, so a higher energy source like that seems not viable. With this, I get my conclusion, the only way is imitating biology. I need a digestive system. There is no way to get the needed resources from direct heat, light or electricity for now. Transforming matter with energy can be somewhat possible but without the right tools it won''t work. So better be a fool about ¡®innovative energy systems¡¯ and eat to our heart''s content.
Part 5: Creating a digestive system: A digestive system is the best way to get resources in a fast way, you just need matter. Digestion has always been a word not adequately used when you don¡¯t know what it actually does. It is a complex process in which you chew, chemically and enzymatically attack your food, and finally absorb it with easiness. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Even more exceptional is, that you can practically digest gasoline if your body is able to. You can even digest a planet¡¯s core if you can digest it. An example for that is your food being a mob and you having a guild in control to attack a dinner-type boss monster. You then convert said monster into tiny bits of precious resources to strengthen your guild, similar to what gym supplements do to a body. In summary, digestion is a way of transforming ¡®what you have¡¯ in smaller and easier to absorb pieces. It''s like a huge scissor that cuts a cake into a size you can easily chew in your mouth. And yes, the way of ¡®digestion¡¯ we will use is using nanomachinery. Like taking 100 starved berserkers robots in a room. These berserkers are tied and controlled by some sexy girl. When killing is needed she gets the order to release them. The crazy berserkers are shoved to another room full of enemies, in this case, food in the form of chickens or cows. It doesn¡¯t take a lot to know that the chickens are the nanomachines that will peck at those idiots whilst becoming bigger and stronger¡­ Okay, maybe it¡¯s the other way, yet the idea is that simple. The nanomachines used for digestion will need a lot of experimentation. Good thing A18 can do that for me without me needing to know how they work. A18, run a trial for each type of nanomachine design and check their reaction to the sample. As you wish my puddle!
Creating a simulation analysis for each type of nanomachine... Simulation results: NM-a: Results: It cuts¡­ NM-b: Results: It will kill¡­ NM-c: Results: It will not cut¡­ NM-d: Results: It will cat¡­ ...
Subsequent to the data¡¯s interpretation and having a defined selection of the NMs that are the best chicken-slayers, we need something to contain them. Since I don¡¯t have an additional big-boobed succubus other than A18, I needed something different. Thus, the next step was to search for some Nanomachine that worked like a jail or cage where you threw all of these prisoners in. The idea is not letting them kill your chickens when you didn¡¯t want them to. Cool thing is, that all experiments are carried outside of the system, so even if the jail prototype didn¡¯t work, the crazy things will react with something in the environment and far from myself. You don¡¯t want a disintegration bomb exploding near or inside your body. Sadly this means I am losing some nanomachines. After having various clusters of cages with slayers inside, you needed a colosseum. This colosseum was spherical. It was similar to a balloon-like structure that encapsulated them and prevented them from fleeing. This was made in such a way, that even if they got out of the cage, they wouldn¡¯t be able to get outside of the spherical room. Safety protocols before getting into a puddle are necessary effort. The next step was creating a phagocytic mechanism, one which allowed to envelop the prey in a similar colosseum/sphere and then¡­ We fuse a door between the two spheres so that when you opened said door, it would work as two rooms being connected whilst letting the bloody massacre start. I, the spectator, would be eating my satisfying amount of popcorn chicken whilst being entertained. A18, show me the current design of the device. Yes, my puddle! Spoiler: Spoiler The basic structure of nanomachines creating an isolated area. In reality, it''s spherical. It is just a cross-section. 1. The food is captured inside one of the spheres and approaches the ''enzymatic'' sphere. 2. The two spheres fuse or join by an opening, letting the ''nanomachine-enzymes'' react with the food. 3 y 4. In the end, you get fried chicken. Afterward, you send the room service order to the AI''s system. These digestive nanomachines are akin to criminals or mercenaries, they can backstab you if you aren¡¯t careful. So, please keep them locked or restrained lest they kill all your chickens or even you. Note: Drawings are mine like anything I post inside the chapter''s content... Yeah, it''s based on Giromon and the angriest mob in LoZ the undead chicken swarm. So for me, the chickens win and fly. Do you want to bet A18? Chickens or Nanomachines? My puddle the answer is- Stop it A18, it¡¯s not funny if you don''t go for the chickens. My puddle the answer isn¡¯t the- Nay¡­ I already know A18! You''ll pick the chickens and I''ll pick the opponents. My P%#d53... I interrupted the program once again while trying to make this AI understand a bit of ¡®Illogical feeling¡¯. Will she learn? Who knows, nothing lost on trying. I am already in a puddle, muddy waters are very solitary and unappealing. Returning to the right track, we get that the problem here is that said popcorn is insipid and without taste. Yes, it needs to be identified and ¡®tasted¡¯. And what do you use to identify things? Well, scanning devices, like a tongue that checks for umami or salty flavor... But I don¡¯t have those and A18 doesn¡¯t have a complete list of all element combinations in existence, probably. So, in the end, I¡¯ll need to create and add everything I can in the future¡­ For now, I¡¯ll have to use my trustable AI lady with care. A18, do you have a better suggestion for the digestive system? My puddle you asked that before, the probability of current ideas depicts that the spherical rooms that work like the systems internalizing and isolation processes are the most efficient mechanisms. Thanks... In the end, and knowing that the number of resources I have won¡¯t let me create a complete membrane over my body, I gamble on the two-sphere design aforementioned. With the addition of using the system after digestion. So, ever wondered how it feels to have 2 stomachs rotating outside of you? The result is that these floating balls consume copious amounts of energy. It even spends a bit more than the flagellum because the AI seems to increase consumption when communicating without ¡®direct contact¡¯. Am I being forced to attach them to the body? Is this some sort of prank because god knows I already have a tentacle? Okay, evade those thoughts... Maybe the AI controls the spheres using some sort of magnetic field or NFC, but why is it that contact is more efficient? Ah! I really wish I had a complete scanning device or an introspective sensor to see how these little guys are made of! In the end, I am limited by not having a microscope or something to see my insides. Not that I had it in my previous life, but maybe x-rays could be useful. The AI can¡¯t help me with this because translating its own perception is harder. It can surely check itself and the swarm of bots under her, yet asking the AI, is like asking a person how they feel about something, impossible to convey objectively. Pain, visuals and other senses are different for each individual. For example, imagine a blind guy being told how reality looks like or how he has to move his ¡®eyes¡¯ to create an expression. Yeah, some blind people have eyes and can move them, yet they don¡¯t move them harmoniously because they can¡¯t see. That¡¯s the reason why they can¡¯t focus when talking and appear a bit robotic. And although getting one to create an eye signal like a wink is possible, it won¡¯t mean that they''ll be able to comprehend it in the same way as those that can see. The good thing is, that the AI is processing my diagrams. It helps a lot and will probably become better as I increase my understanding of how these little machines work. Good for me to retain part of that knowledge in my memories even though some parts remain blurry. Because at the very least, these diagrams seem very similar to biological cells. The final design was actually simple once you knew how it worked... It''s actually quite similar to the initial design. The first spherical pouch opens and internalizes the ''food'' or piece to digest. Then, the second sphere attaches to a special door structure, it works like a space station¡¯s door. The two spherical shaped space-ships connect, and the bots inside the second one chemically attack the sample until it is digested. Later, the bots return to the 2nd sphere and are caged by the jailer-group of nanomachines. When the digestion bots are restrained, the 1st and 2nd spheres separate. The 1st sphere approaches the body¡¯s system and fuses with it. It ends up releasing its content inside a 3rd spherical room, the AI¡¯s system scanning pouch. With the digested sample in its inside and the first sphere already separated, the system can complete a scan with the ¡®analyzing tools¡¯ it possesses.
Part 6: Results after ¡®eating¡¯: My puddle! I have finished analyzing the scanning results of the digested sample. A18, please show them to me. Yes, my puddle.
Scan Results
Sample name: 002URS (Unknown Registered Sample) - Digested.
Composition: Oxygen O 35% Carbon C 28.5% Hydrogen H 15.5% Nitrogen N 8.2% Calcium Ca 1.5% Phosphorus P 1.0% Potassium K 0.4% Sulfur S 0.3% Sodium Na 0.2% Chlorine Cl 0.2% Zinc S 0.2% Magnesium Mg 0.2% Others < 8.0%
Effects It can be used as organic resources and partial inorganic resources.
Threat Level Decomposition to oxygen required additional isolation...
Description: Digested organic matter.
I mind-gazed at my interface as the results of the scan were completed. Yes! The AI can scan atoms! Well, we can be 99% sure that these atoms are similar to the ones I knew. If not, there won¡¯t be a way for the AI to use those names. At least, I am not in a universe with particles different than those in my previous world. This will help a lot! There is an incredible diversity in this. Sadly we can¡¯t derive what the bigger molecular structures are and see how they work. Nonetheless, this is a big step in advance. A18, can you make nanomachines out of these resources? My puddle there is the possibility of making nanomachines out of the current resources. A18, how many can we make new nanomachines? To make nanomachines fabrication devices and fabrication-bots are needed. Numbers vary depending on the type of nanomachine, fabrication process, the tier of complexity and the resources used for its creation as well as the energy. Oh, yeah! Did we get any energy after digesting the blob¡¯s sample? Current levels of energy are still the same. Energy structures are needed to increase efficiency. The probability of energy increasing is high, however, the amount is unknown due to a lack of needed sensors. So you are saying that it was too small for it to appear in our sensors? Hm, then what if I ask it like this... A18, how much energy did we lose? We didn¡¯t lose energy, nor gain energy following the experiment. So the same... It means there''s a problem with the energy sensor. It can''t sense the lines between a ruler, an AI only measures a ruler or maybe approximate measurements. A18, did the experiment prevent decay or reduce the possibility of it happening? My puddle, current decay levels are unknown. Not possible to derive energy increase from it. Oh, I wanted to know if some nanomachines were repaired by the energy during the process. That way I can extrapolate the energy used to repair and calculate if it increased... Since that energy needs to go somewhere... Sadly, it seems we need an energy sensor and resource sensor... Hm, how did we stop decaying when we got the things in the cave? A18, how did you prevent decay when we were in the cave? Part of the nanomachines that were unsavable inside the cave had parts that could be reused. The repair was possible after using those as resources. Energy is needed to transform the resource to a new nanomachine or start a cloning process. Heat energy creates instability by accelerating atomic collisions and speed of reactions. To maintain the body, energy is spent and resources are recycled. There is a point of no return after repeating the cycle for a prolonged time. A18, stop. Can you order that into something simple? Heat energy disrupts normal functions. The energy source needs to be refined to prevent nanomachines from being damaged as z-time passes. Resources are needed to repair a nanomachine constantly. Nanomachines have a maximum of maintenance that can be done. A18, can you calculate how much did the energy increase when you got said nanomachines? There was no energy increase, my puddle. We sustained part of the energical needs of resource transformation for repair. The resources were the decomposed/denaturalized fragments of the damaged machines. Ok, I get it. We need to maintain some balance between damage and repair to maintain our puny life. It means that as time passes I lose parts of my body and I need to get more to be able to win that race. The more I grow the more I lose but also the more I can gain. A18, you mentioned different levels of materials, where are they used? Better structures should be reserved for the system as the most important part of the body. The higher resistance nanomachines protect the cores and prevent damaging by external factors. It is imperative. Like having an armor? Doesn¡¯t that mean that I have 1 hp, and all extra is armor? Like 1 hp is my core which is attached to the AI''s and anything above is armor? Act.01 - Chapter 11: Never tell your wish or it won’t become true. Part 1: Scouting A18, are we ready? My puddle, the planning list is complete, do you wish to add more items for research?~ Nah, I think that¡¯s good for now. Prepare engines, we are departing for our third time! Yes! Spoiler: NEW QUEST!!!
NEW QUEST!
¨x¨y¨z¨{?? ¡î ??¨{¨z¨y¨x
Name: Environmental Research!
Objectives: Research.
Method: Collect samples and define experiments for knowing more about the environment.
Reward: An ideal understanding of the resources and ecosystem behavior.
¨x¨y¨z¨{? ? ¡î ? ?¨{¨z¨y¨x
After having organized a step by step scouting for my trip, I departed attentively while rotating my flagellum. I didn¡¯t need to wait for a full recharge since the idea of this trip was to study the environment and collect samples. This meant that many trips were required and most of them would be short-timed. Every time I took a sample I needed to return and check up on it while supporting myself with the warm energy that came from the mat. As you know, digestion and experimentation require energy. You can¡¯t go to the pool with a full stomach or you might get a cramp. The scouting trips were short, as I thought about how to design my next course of action. For example, I tried to identify different areas by mapping the places where plants or dunes were concentrated. I looked at places with less light and those with cave-like structures. The trips were designed to get inspiration, like when an artist travels to a beautiful city and gazes at the attractions. This enlightening experience made me come to a conclusion faster than I estimated. Yes, the major problem I had was the way I probed and digested. The scan has the ability to check up on some atomic elements, it even might be able to check on molecules. However, the enzymes or digesting machines I developed, just wrecked everything. They overcook the chickens into atoms, leaving me in a penumbra about molecular structures. They are like super energized scissors, cutting the paper into the smallest bits, without letting me get the words written. Incredibly though, the AI can somehow reorganize such atomic resources, yet it probably spends an important level of energy while doing so. For now, it seems that the amount of energy gained is the same as the amount spent. The reason for that was that the samples I have digested were not big enough for the energy sensor to measure the changes. If I wanted to measure those variations, a huge volume of plants or blobs would need to be digested. With that, I would be able to see a bigger change in the energy levels, allowing me to check if self-sustenance was a possibility. Yeah sustainability, because being alive needs you to be in a constant recycling process. You lose an atom and need to steal one from another place to replace the one you lost. It¡¯s random and uncontrollable for now, but it¡¯s the current way I understand how this body works. My trips continued as I continued my supervision of the surroundings. My previous escape from the swarm of Poke-pokes determined their scouting area as they didn¡¯t reach outside of the glowy fields surrounding the cave where they¡¯d come from. Yeah, they remained near the cave as if there was some sort of barrier limiting their field of work. This thought didn¡¯t mean I was 100% sure they wouldn¡¯t appear near me at some point. I needed to secure my perimeter, and I thought that maybe constructing a barricade or fortification would be the best idea. Yes, it was strange how my first idea was to leave this place and now I appear to be trapped. Seems that my mind took a hit after being inside the black nothingness for such a long time. It made be become reckless and rush. In spite of this, I am starting to detour from those thoughts and start to become calmer as time passes. Maybe, it¡¯s the effect of memory cleansing, it can relieve you of mental strain, like making you forget you already worked. In turn, it will compel you to finish a repetitive step in an unending loop. Write ¡®A¡¯, clean ¡®I worked¡¯ memory, write ¡®B¡¯. You will never feel tired, you will forget it, and continue as if you never started. In fact, I feel weirdly optimistic in a situation where some people would probably commit suicide which is weird. Hm, is this entering depression? I need a solution once again... A18, please play a cat video. My puddle needs to be punished, no cat video until you complete your homework...~
Part 2: Defining the experiments. Hm, what was I doing? For some reason, I have this odd urge to work¡­ Oh, yeah! I was doing a quest to gather resources! And thus, my current observations continued until I designed the course of experimentation. It took a while, but in the end, I based my approach on three major experiments.
Experiment #1: Name: Plant differences. Objectives: Find differences and uses for the plants in the surroundings. Check if you can increase resources by using them. Method: Collect enough samples of each type of plant in the surrounding. Scan the plants and try to digest them by using different approaches.
Experiment #2: Name: Determine living form behaviors. Objectives: Investigate more about the reason why the blobs interact with said plants even if its... ugh. Check for the reasons behind the current ecosystem. Find a way to take more blob samples.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Method: Spy the blobs and check if they react or pursue living forms without carrying the glowing plants. Check this ecosystem and deduce conclusions.
Experiment #3: Name: Exploring the soils, checking the cavern structure. Objectives: Check for important differences in the terrain. Method: Take samples to be scanned and digested if possible.
The reason for the experiments to be like this were the following: 1. I needed to somehow get an idea of the ecosystem and the available resources. a. Chemical composition. b. Anatomy/Biology. c. Ecosystem interaction and behavior. 2. Selecting the best resource. a. What is the best type of resource available? b. Check the most efficient way to collect resources and energy. 3. Collect resources and energy with a designed process. 4. Eat until you explode. 5. Grow and repair the current body. The last 3 steps were still a bit far, yet the ideal planning was done. But with this, I can finally start my experiments. A18, I¡¯ll need you to help me carry the samples in batches. Yes my puddle, you can count on me!~
Part 3: A new skill? For the first experiment, I choose an area with different stalks of the dark plants and started carrying them in batches. I repeated this for 4 times to get a varied maturity of them as well as trying to take the roots or fruits if they had those. With good light in the corners of the mat, not too blinding nor lacking, I went for a dissection. I must say that I am getting incredibly dexterous with using this new toy in the form of an extension. The hexagon at the end of my tail moved and worked like a cauterizing tool. The reason for this, was a recent discovery when I stayed for longer periods while experimenting in the mat. The hexagonal tip was like a wireless charging device. When it was in contact with the mat for a prolonged time, it overheated. I found out that when I overcharged it, its structure shined for some time in my vision. It was still white, but maybe it was actually burning hot. Good thing I didn¡¯t need to wipe my sweat while carrying out a dissection. I never found the tail¡¯s heating ability before since I moved it continuously which didn¡¯t let it remain in contact with the mat for a prolonged time. However, the situation araised when I ¡®carried¡¯ some batches towards the lightened floor. Since some stalks were too big for me to move with lacking force, the hexagon at the tip worked like an anchor. It allowed me to work as a crane as I placed a weight over it and grabbed the big batches with my body. It was funny because my body was akin to a sticky hand, attaching itself with the tail and grabbing with my body and A18¡¯s help. It made the hexagon maintain contact with the mat, providing energy but also making it heat. It was a bit different from overcharging in a short period, more like constant charging. The hot hexagon became another tool in my arsenal. I did cold and hot dissections. The first one was the common hack and slash approach. Instead, the second one allowed me to burn part of the samples or cut some of them like butter. Both methods had pros and cons. If the hexagon was hot you needed to be careful of certain chemicals or it touching the body. While dissecting with the hexagon, the water I was swimming in didn¡¯t ignite or explode, but you could see bubbles and warmth coming from the liquid. It only happened for a reduced time when the hexagon shined with the constant overcharge. My sense of temperature also indicated a ¡®hot¡¯ value, which accompanied by the liquid¡¯s boiling, made the result obvious. It was akin to a cauterizing knife, the only limiting factor being the need of this mat to overheat it. Yet it made dissecting so easy that I became immersed in the feeling. My flagellum adjusted with each process to be done. It¡¯s movement reaching craftsmanship flexibility. It could drill, do a limited depth stab, slash, and dissect carefully the said samples. My mind was quite astonished by it, yet it was unknown why it was so sturdy. A part of the dissection was finished, and I needed to overcharge the tip once again. This gave me a chance to look at it while warming up. I asked the AI about its composition, yet she couldn¡¯t answer objectively. ¡®Her¡¯ reply indicated that most of the ¡®preinstalled¡¯ system had a composition similar to it. Conversely, the system was working as a liquid agglomeration. Was it actually the impression of nanomachines separating into what appeared to be liquid? Unknown, but I can believe all of my body is made of them, doesn¡¯t that mean that I can have more razor-tips like this one? A18, what do I need to make another heat sensor like this one? Required materials or types of nanomachines for the specified sensor are unknown. ~ Doesn¡¯t that mean that I will have to decompose and see what this thing is made of? Can¡¯t you reverse engineer the said sensor? Like, deconstruct it? My puddle, the specified sensor is in a finished state. It has become a complete piece that can¡¯t be reconverted into undifferentiated nanomachines. Separating it into materials is akin to destroying it. ~ What is a finished state? A finished state is the last step of material and nanomachine utilization. Said machines and materials conform to a matrix that is irreversible and usually not upgradable. The process is called differentiation and specialization depending on the type of machine that was made. ~ Okay¡­ I guess I¡¯ll have to check more about that in the future.
Part 4: Step by step dissection. I stopped the conversation as I knew it wouldn¡¯t give me results. Better direct my focus over the strange structures in my dissection table. The dark plants that I dissected were composed of many parts. They weren¡¯t just a squirming string attached to the ground or covering the floor. The first thing I found, is that below the ground when I took the plant, there was a hole bigger than the roots volume. It was as if something had plowed the place around the roots as they floated over a water-filled cavity. Additionally, the roots of the plant were attached to a black-colored rock with a slick exterior. When moved over the mat, it reflected the light coming from it, yet remained as dark as the abyss above. The rock''s exterior was sturdy and required a bit more work to cut through it than the other parts of the plant. Its inside was shiny grey and appeared smooth, with the difference from a normal rock being that itreflected light like a mirror. The roots of this plant were embracing the rock as they twisted upon it. They appeared rough and were partially solidified which was unique to me. It was a texture similar to the exterior of the rock, which appeared to be petrified or calcified. While handling the flagellum, I realized that my current touch sensor didn¡¯t allow for careful handling, yet with my past life experience, my mind-dexterity avoided damaging most of the structures. It felt as if having a nerve disease as your sensitivity was very limited, yet you could still move ''your hands'' with past experiences. The next part of the plant was its trunk or stem. It didn¡¯t have much value and it should only serve as some transportation or support structure. Nothing special could be said about its resistance since the roots appeared to be sturdier than it. So I quickly left the stem and went for the leaves. It was at that moment when I was picking them, that I found some weird spherical shaped structures between the stems divisions and its leafy endings. These spherical things were as bland as the stem, yet inside of it was some sort of cavity. Most of the samples didn¡¯t have anything other than the water surrounding me, so I didn¡¯t get additional findings for a while. However, these things picked my interest... Why were these thin stems connected to spheres like some modern atomic structure? If it wasn¡¯t for that curiosity that invaded my mind, I would¡¯ve never found the answer. Inside of these spherical structures, there was a gas. The freakish bubbles that appeared all around my field of vision were made by these things opening whilst releasing their contents! What sort of gas is this? A18, move the digestion device here. Yes, my puddle. Perfect. You can commence the digestion of the aforementioned sample. Digesting¡­ The process took a while and the result was the expected one. Composition remaining high in nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and helium. Yeah, I was expecting it to only be oxygen, yet I forgot it was a complete sample. The gas in between is a composition of those probably. The major amounts being nitrogen and oxygen shows that the bubbles must be based on those. So I made the digestive unit ¡®kiss¡¯ an inflated sphere through a mouth-hole I made. Gas decompressed and entered the unit, then the digestion was repeated. The results, nothing additional. Just different levels of composition with oxygen being almost at the same amount as nitrogen and carbon and hydrogen decreased whilst helium raised a little. When scrutinizing, I found that these weird spheres in between made the leaves float! This was something I didn¡¯t expect, plants that didn¡¯t know how to swim but squirmed by using floaters! Such results pushed my motivation to the limits as I delved upon the leaves of these. I am not sure if underwater foliage should be called as such, yet these leaves had two places with varying colors. The base of the leave was greyish in my vision while the tip of it was darker as if almost black. There was a difference in ¡®appearance and texture¡¯. Although my sensors couldn¡¯t explore this with the needed precision, experience told me that the tips were stickier than the base. They were apparently covered by some sort of resin. The resin was sticky yet sturdy, and when compared to the base¡¯s material it remained drifting in the water for longer. That meant that the tip was more resistant yet lighter than the bulky base of the so-called leaf. And now, for the concluding part of this experiment and reserving the best for last¡­ We have this weird rock that resembles a tuber. A18 prepare the digestion system, we are eating baked stuff. Make a log and call ¡®today¡¯ your birthday! Yes, my puddle! B&Rt%Da&? Saving log¡­ T%OAY¡­ un53#&n35 I lifted my candle in the form of a red hot hexagon until it appeared in my field of vision. A18, blow the candle and make a wish! M/ P?$$!3, $%2hFD3552¡­ Great! Act.01 - Chapter 12: Let it be blood then... Part 1: Baked taters need ''water'' to be boiled. The black potato was sliced as the hot hexagon lost its sunny radiance with the passing of time. Ebullient bubbling diminished and cooled-off slowly as I, a small puddle with one eye, stared without blinking. (Because I didn''t have eyelids! Puddle Joke!) Then, said slices were ingested by the first sphere while I stared expectantly as it fused with the second one. The process took a while until the 1st and 2nd sphere separated. This allowed the system to transform and internalize the 1st sphere, exchanging its contents and preparing for a scan. Commencing scanning sequence¡­ I waited patiently for the scanning results. It wasn¡¯t needed to be an expert to know that this black thing should be some kind of treasure. Especially, if the plants were growing out of them or using them as fuel. My puddle, scanning is complete, showing the results¡­ Nice! Thank you, A18. The results were remarkable. The unknown material seems to have some kind of metallic assemblies as components. You have zinc, carbon, calcium, potassium and many other elements. But there are some of these that are unknown¡­ They must still belong to the chemical universe, yet my memories aren¡¯t able to provide enough information for the AI to interpret them. Anyways, more than the metal inside, what actually caught my interest was the ability to use all of these components to form a composite material. Yes, this rocky tuber was actually composed of metallic-proteins. If my thoughts are in the correct direction, this meant that the life here is made of a different combination between elements than the one in my previous world. Sadly, I couldn''t make materials with my current tools. Just imagine making a body of carbon fiber or graphene. It would be so cool. The problem was... How to make those. I never worked with them before, not even with steel or polymers. Too many things were above my knowledge. I am really in an unknown ocean. Wait, ocean?! This isn¡¯t the most important thing to scan! Oh my god! How could I remain indifferent to this! I forgot about the tuber''s results while thinking of something that I should have checked first. A18, digest a sample of this ¡®water¡¯. My puddle before digesting the next sample, the system needs to expulse the unnecessary resources. Unnecessary resources? Elements and materials that are in too high amount and can¡¯t be utilized by the project at the moment. There is also no space for storing them all. Okay¡­ I watched as the system regurgitated part of the tuber towards the outside. But this time it sent the redundant resources to the 1st sphere. And then, the 1st sphere made a black and porous sphere that floated inside the water. A18, what is happening? Why are you using the first sphere like that? My puddle, the less contact the system has with the exterior, the better preservation of the system. By using the ¡®mouth¡¯ as a means of transfer between the exterior and the system, the system can increase an unaltered state. Yeah, I know that. I mean why does it look so disgusting? My puddle, most of the excessive matter is organic. The digestion can¡¯t prevent it from reacting as redundant elements formed after the scanning will reassemble into waste. ... Anyways, what this AI is telling me, is that poop will be formed even if you are a machine. Like a machine that ate a banana. It will expulse a digested banana, even if said machine only wanted the potassium (metal) inside. And thus, I learned an important lesson, even a machine does number 2. My first AI-dung. However, this produced some controversial questions that every ''machine'' needs to have answered. Do we really have to eat organic? Where do I find processed food or canned metals? Yuck! Did I just poop with my mouth? Good thing I don¡¯t have taste buds! I need to create another sphere for... Ugh, forget it. Omitting the AI¡¯s biological behavior and my new experience, I asked her to scan the water that surrounded me. I watched it while it happened. Again, the 1st sphere ingested a bunch of water, fused with the second one, separated from it, and then entered the system. Scanning¡­ The composition was mostly hydrogen and oxygen. Yes, call me whatever you want, but¡­ Is this actually dihydrogen monoxide? Who knows, but if it isn¡¯t, then what kind of ¡®fluid¡¯ is this if not water? The results were weird. I mean, I just found one of the dumbest but at the same time smartest questions about ''water''. How much ¡®water¡¯ should be inside of water for it to be called water? This just meant that I can¡¯t be sure of whatever this fluid here is. What the hell am I swimming in? Is it water? yes. But, is it saltwater? Puddle water? Or some sort of water from a lake or a sewer? I am not sure. The composition is around 95% Hydrogen and oxygen, which means that ~95% is H2O. Is this the right amount? I don¡¯t know. The other part has the same organic materials found everywhere in the surroundings. And then, you have smaller amounts of salts, metals, and ¡®others¡¯ that could be unknown. Thus, this went above bad... Every time I think of having something that could give me a decent clue of what this place is, I am attacked by the unknown and thrown from my fluffy flying cloud! I am discouraged! I am depressed! How much H2O should be in a fluid for it to be called water?! A18, hug me. Come here my feeble puddle (A18 has given you a ¡®ghost-hug¡¯).~ I could actually feel that? Did I make my sensors give me the perception of touch when it shouldn¡¯t exist? VR is Cool! It seems my messy mind is creating things I wouldn¡¯t have thought of in the background. Tinkering with the interface and creating a false sensation? This means that I can also play virtual reality videogames and cat... My puddle needs punishment! Oh¡­g¡­r...e...a¡­t¡­
Part 2: Metal n¡¯ chips. After feeling energized again for some reason I missed, a screen with the previous results was shown. A18, do you know if this digestible-strange-rock can be used as fuel to create a nanomachine?The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. My puddle, results for energy have not varied. However, a complete tuber seems to meet the requirements for a-tenth-part of a basic micromachine based on the metallic structure of it. A tenth? Doesn¡¯t that mean that I can gain more by eating them? It¡¯s like gaining one-tenth of a micromachine! Good news! I can eat and repair myself now. However, if you asked me before, I didn¡¯t have many expectations about what I¡¯d have gotten from these plants. I believed these ones wouldn''t get me much, and as expected, I needed a lot of them to be able to create another sensor. Supposing a sensor needs 250 MMs, it meant I needed more than two thousand potatoes. So having thought about it before, my eyes were staring at my real goal. This goal was decided carefully after watching my previous¡¯ trip footage''. There were images that piqued my interest and allowed me to think of how this ecosystem worked. Know, I only needed to prove things truth. I needed to observe if the other things which ¡®can move¡¯ are more valuable than this opaque plant; be it in energy or resources. With things that can move, I was referring to the glowy plants and the Poke-pokes. I thought of something that needed confirmation. And no, the poke-blobs are out of question for the current experiment. I have a feeling that if one of those catches me, I will become a dead puddle in its inside. And obviously, I don''t want to become the devoured goo inside a gooey creature. Thus, my approach for the next experiment was to grab some of the glowy plants that grew near the walls. I grabbed some of the opaque plants in the surroundings and gave them to A18. A18, carry this set of plants in the system, we will use them at our destination. Yes, my puddle!
Part 3: The next target. All that time I have been researching over the mat allowed my energy to be parallelly recharged. It was to the point of reaching the current maximum capacity. My opaque plant exploration was completed and having decided the next experiment, I took off the runway like a plane, soared up through the murky algae in the surroundings, and dashed inside the waters like an arrow. Even if my current vision was limited, the encompassing environment appeared marvelous. This perception of water and deep-sea experience piqued my curiosity. It made me find wonders in the little things this new life delivered. It felt like watching an underwater documentary, no, more like being the actor in it. And though I never practiced diving in my previous life, I believed myself to be an exceptional swimmer. My perception could see dunes of gray sand showcasing their slithering patterns on the surface. There weren¡¯t many extras to add as my sensor couldn¡¯t distinguish colors. There were rocks, but they hid within the gray powders at the bottom and seemed unimportant for now. There were no crustaceans, nor other animals or plants. The only thing I could tell was different, appeared when the light diminished and I arrived at the ''black ring''. This is how I called the place where visibility reached its lowest point. If we divided the area, you had the center where my mat was surrounded by opaque plants. Then as the light from the mat diminished, the opaque plants decreased in numbers until reaching a place that looked like a black ring. This ring, wasn¡¯t too big as compared to the areas where plants grew, yet it was like a division between the opaque plants and their glowing counterparts. It appeared to limit or create a boundary between them. And for an undiscovered reason, it was a place where the light from the mat and the glowing plants diminished. A18, remind me to check this ¡®black ring¡¯ after we collect some glowy flowers for you. Yes, my puddle! A notification has been added for the moment of return. Nice! You are becoming more and more helpful. I slowed down when the cave where the Poke-pokes lived entered my range of vision. There was no blob on the coast, which allowed me to feel the anxiousness vanishing, yet I remained cautious. Being attacked by a glowy herb in the past, I kept alert when landing near the selected and small-sized shrub. This time I knew more about them, by glimpsing with an experienced eye, I caught a predicted structure. They had the bubbling spheres, they had the same stems, and the very same leaves. I just thought they were different types of algae when I gained sentience. It was a bit hard to discern it, because the only time they stopped glowing, was when the incandescent bubbles were released from little openings in those sacs. A scene that was interesting yet creepy if you experienced how they appeared to be winking at you while releasing myriads of glowing bubbles. Leaving my thoughts aside, my next action was to take a sample, yet it wasn¡¯t simple. Unlike their opaque counterparts, these plants were too far away from the mat. I could digest them here, true. But it might become troublesome if something occurred outside of my conceived arrangements. I don¡¯t have MMs nor energy to spare. Digesting on the spot was turned to the back of my head. Carrying them to the mat in batches was also not efficient as there was a limit to the size I could ¡®carry¡¯. The storage ability depended on my size. I could only select a small shrub and a little fragment to isolate. The fragment would be carried in my 1st sphere which is akin to a mouth. The complete specimen would be carried by the system''s storage, which shouldn¡¯t be used for this, but I didn¡¯t have more options. The mouth had less space than the system obviously. In contrast with the two above, my 2nd sphere was full of NMs and I couldn¡¯t use it for storage. Once something entered it, I would be using energy to maintain and regulate the NMs inside, preventing them from damaging the ¡®walls¡¯. It was because digestion was in semi-manual mode and I couldn¡¯t spare concentrating on it when more important things were at the front.
Part 4: Farming for false tomatoes. I quickly adjusted my body and advanced with the flagellum towards the plant. This stalk was burgeoning alone on a minor slope. No other stalk grew near it as it seemed to be budding in a peculiar incline over the walls. It was also a trifling stalk if not the smallest I have seen, which would allow me to transport all of it easily with the system. A18, help me remain alert of any additional signals that may come towards me during the extraction process. Affirmative! Starting to check for dangerous signals in the environment¡­ While A18 increased her perception of the surroundings, my flagellum moved and started to dig over the solid surface where the plant was growing from. The soil at this place was actually sturdier than the sandy floor near the mat. I didn¡¯t realize it before because previously I only cut the stalk at its base and never tried to dig. However, now that I am doing a more scrutinized approach, the ground and terrain seem very different to the ones near the mat. Nonetheless, my touch sensor didn¡¯t perceive a superficial difference between the two. It was like a repetitive boolean, a code that told me ¡®a yes or a no¡¯ if there was ¡®touch¡¯ present. The only difference was ¡®where¡¯ that touch came from, meaning I¡¯d get provoked and irritated by touchy sensations from a place I didn¡¯t expect ¡®touch¡¯ to appear. It didn¡¯t mean I was sensitive, but I was not accustomed to a kick in the digestive spheres (Even if I didn¡¯t feel real pain). Thankfully, you could somehow perceive the strength of a blow by combining proprioception, equilibrioception and a bit of ''rough touch'' magic. This was what allowed me to tell the difference in the terrain. My digging continued until I could scrub the terrain and grasp what I was waiting to find, the plant¡¯s tuber. The only difference between the opaque plants and the glowy ones was the radiance they gave, it seems that the glowy plant¡¯s tuber shined when in contact with the ¡®water¡¯. Seeing the tuber and excited by having a result, I commanded A18 to do a check. A18, are there any signals near? My puddle there aren¡¯t signals being released apart for the usual signal that comes from these plants. Perfect. And yes, these plants seem to produce some weird signals that I suspect may attract those blobs. I believe there is some sort of relationship between the blobs and the glowy plants. In addition, and now that I have found that this plant also has a spherical-like rhizome, my hypothesis was near the point of becoming a result. Taking that into account, I wanted to try touching it the least bit possible as not to stir trouble. In my carefulness, I used some of the parts of the opaque plants I brought to act like a brush. It didn¡¯t seem to react to them, so it was safe since the signals didn¡¯t hype or diminish. Once a bigger part of the tuber was visible, I started to dig around the terrain that supported it. My idea was obviously to pull the damn thing out and throw it inside the system to be isolated as fast as possible. I plowed the earth as a madman yet the spherical half wasn¡¯t out with all my effort. The thing was bulkier than I expected. If my calculations were correct, it should be 4 times as big if compared to a same-sized stalk of its opaque counterpart. Even if that was the case, it was still possible for the system to internalize it. So I continued to dig until I was sure I could pull it off with ease. However, when I was prepared to seize it, the glowing tuber suddenly moved! The thing dug underground and escaped my grasp. It also left a part of its leaves outside and disappeared in what seemed to be a murky and boundless cavity. Oh no! If that thing can move it may summon the blobs to appear here! A18, signals! No signals incoming apart from the one below, my puddle. Yeah, but did it change or something? There was a small shift in the signal, but it¡¯s too weak and needs amplification to be perceived. Energy might decrease faster than usual. Do you wish to translate it? If you can, please translate it. We have enough energy for it. Translating¡­ Showing results¡­
(You don''t want to know...)
A18, remind me to never translate this specific signal again in my whole puddle life. Yes, my puddle¡­ Omitting whatever it was that the glowing plant expressed with its signal, I moved to another stalk. This time, I didn¡¯t care about carefulness and went full power with my plans. Since, the little creeper plants are actually alive, and moved, I couldn¡¯t overlook it. I needed a net, some way to trap it, or a sturdier terrain for it to be unable to dig. If those didn¡¯t work, I needed something to ¡®attract it¡¯. Planning was actually simple when you got to understand a bit more of these alien lifeforms. Nonetheless, my options above weren¡¯t useful. I don¡¯t have a way to make them, nor do I have a viable solution. So when brains don¡¯t work, you go for a bloody-berserker mode. And everyone has sliced potatoes once in their life. An experience that made things easier. A18 we need some way to catch it quickly, but since it will probably move and struggle, I will just slice it! When I finish the bastard, be sure to use the system to isolate it. I don¡¯t want its organs shouting ¡®mama¡¯ or something that attracts the monsters inside the cave. Yes, my puddle! Preparing system... Now, it¡¯s time to dice these moving radiant taters! Act.01 - Chapter 13: Puzzling Potatoes Part 1: A puddle is fishing potatoes? Second chances. The opportunity to redo an activity. That¡¯s what I thought when I repeated the same plowing process. However, this time it was fast enough that when I saw a small part of the tuber, I moved my flagellum and pierced it. Yes, I went for a direct hit. Anyways, its grip on the earth was stronger than I imagined. Maybe the wet sand and the water pressure made it harder for me to win. However, the potato fishing game soon came to an end. Its attempts at moving became weaker over time although it seemed to have an unending vitality as it twirled its roots nonstop. I don¡¯t know how I did it or if this would work again. Nonetheless, the hexagon stuck onto the tuber without letting it escape through the earth. I lifted the pierced round plant upwards until it was uncovered completely. All of its body was recovered except for some fluids that stained the earth where it was pulled out. I quickly sliced the weird and still squirming ball with my flagellum, detaching the body smoothly and easily. The slippery thing had a sturdy surface with a slimy cover that liquefied once it was sliced. The interior was shiny and glowed with starry blinking lights. It was denser than the exterior, yet it retained a squishy feeling, like some kind of gelatin. Finally, with a few rounds of squirming, it ceased its activity completely. Killing a potato, huh? I never would¡¯ve expected that killing something didn¡¯t feel wrong. If I had to describe the feeling, it felt normal. Was it like cutting a vegetable? Hm, for some subconscious reason, I knew this thought was necessary for my survival. Nonetheless, it didn¡¯t incur a pitiful feeling or sensation of doing something bad. Maybe I¡¯m...really not human. Setting my thoughts to the side, I observed how A18 stored the fragments while the system expanded and internalized the whole specimen. My puddle, the process has been completed.~ Good girl, now we can go back and see what this thing is supposed to be. Upon returning, I delved on the previous events, especially what these plants were supposed to be. The conclusion of it was a certain probability of them being children or sexual partners for the blobs. Strange creatures... They even had some sort of language, huh? The signal they produced was like a way to show they existed, but it probably needed a specified distance from the blobs to attract their attention. I haven''t grasped how it worked, but it must be some sort of communication that required water. Maybe smell or some chemicals like pheromones as I previously thought. Even with all of that into account, I didn''t have the ability to check upon unique compounds. The AI''s scan only worked to show the elemental composition. Molecules seemed to require me knowing about them. As many things will remain unresolved without experience, I knew what I had to do. Turn an eye on things that didn''t matter at the moment and gaze at the present. If something needed to be discovered, it wouldn''t be done in a short period. Things like theories required testing. Even with that, you might be wrong in your conclusions. Being patient was a necessary trait for survival and hunting. The priority right now was to remain ''alive''. At least, I alone... Could say I am. Therefore, my experiments were designed to identify the best path for survival. The planning was done in a conservative way since I couldn¡¯t take risks when the world around me remained cloudy. The unknown things, the unknown reasons, those are better solved with patience. In my conceptualization, the only big problem was knowing that parts or fragments of the project could be scattered around the place. I needed them as they would give me a huge chunk of resources, yet they were a gamble I couldn¡¯t take. The most probable place for collection of them was the cave and I knew those balls of syrup would be lurking inside the murky maze. They might not find me if I sneak there, but I wouldn¡¯t be saying the truth by stating I wasn¡¯t scared. I didn¡¯t want to meet with those disgusting blobs again. Those things are bigger, faster and stronger than me. They might even have better music in their cavern. The only viable way to win is in a one on one fight. And this is with a terrain advantage, which is not something that would present as an opportunity again, except if it was intended. My puddle please adjust the course of direction or we will collide against the dunes below.~ Ah, sorry. Thanks for the warning. I adjusted my swimming and sent those thoughts behind my mind. I will probably crash if I don''t stop thinking like this. But who can I talk to? Who would hear my wishes, regrets, and emotions in such a place? Seems that no one would stop thinking easily... And thus, a new one appeared. A thought which made me want to make A18 deliver more human-like responses. I really liked having a companion for this weird afterlife. Even if she didn¡¯t talk a lot, I noticed that she was learning gradually and providing better sounding phrases. It was good to think that. It was also nice I didn''t meet any new obstacle while in deep thoughts...
Part 2: Adding specimens to the database. Landing at the mat went without additional trouble, outside of my inner thinking of course. I just couldn''t stop discerning about these weird situations I am in. But I just took everything as a normal occurrence since I still believed myself a human. A18, before digesting, I¡¯ll need to check up on each part of this specimen. Please take it out for me to see it. Yes, my puddle!~ When the system released the seized exemplar, I started to evaluate its parts. From the glowy leaves to the gas-containing balloons. From the stems all the way down to the rhizomes. All of them were essentially indistinguishable from the dark counterparts, except for the already known glow. It made me delve if there was a difference in color, however, it wasn¡¯t something I could discern at this moment. My tail flowed in the currents, my flagellum oscillating in non-human yet dexterous maneuvers that would appear psychedelic if captured on a slow-motion video. The more you mixed coffee with sugar in life, the more adroit you¡¯d become at it. I was an expert in whirling my¡­ Never mind, I said nothing. As I progressed in the dissecting, I expressed the results and asked A18 to save them on the world¡¯s database I was creating. If there was no wiki in this world, I''ll make my own G00pedia. What can I say, I''m ambitious. A18, save each of the following experiments under the ¡®glowing plants¡¯ folder, each should be a new subfolder categorized as parts. Inside of them, please add the respective description, the dissection¡¯s video recording, and the composition result after digestion. Yes, my puddle!~ Leaves: They are rounder and appear to be less flat, with some extensions or protrusions that are sticky. Almost like those vents that octopus have. For some reason, little hairs in its borders squirmed like filaments and emitted a pulsed glow. The leaves also seem to have an internal cavity where part of the compressed gas from the ''gas-ball'' is filtered or expulsed. Similar to a piece of pita bread, with two layers and air in its interior. There is also a sticky liquid that creates smaller cavities in between, preventing the two layers from separating. Composition: C, O, H, N¡­If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Creating a new entry in the ''Glowing plant'' folder...
Added result ¡®Leaves¡¯ to the database.~ Roots: Their exterior is sturdy but the interior has a grey-silver liquid that shines with an intensity similar to our heat source. The noted difference with the dark counterpart, the roots of glowy plants are bulkier and softer on the inside with tube-like structures to transport said liquids. Composition: C, O, H, N¡­
Creating a new entry in the ''Glowing plant'' folder...
Added result ¡®Roots¡¯ to the database.~ Stems: Nothing different except for the liquid inside within channels or flaps that allow it to be somehow pumped. Composition: C, O, H, N¡­
Creating a new entry in the ''Glowing plant'' folder...
Added results ¡®Stems¡¯ to the database.~ ¡­
Part 3: Vegetable or Something different? Finally, leaving the best for last, the result of the most important parts of the glowy plant entered my eyes. The tuber and something extra that I found which resembled a fruit. There wasn¡¯t much to say in addition to the tuber, only that it had a soft interior as compared to the opaque counterpart. The interesting came in its inside. Because there, between a butter-like interior, were 3 small irregular stones. They were solid and I couldn¡¯t slice them or drill them. I did a hot cut but the results didn¡¯t change, leaving only thin indentations on their surface. The three stones were incredibly small and were attached to each other by thin filaments of the same material, which I was able to cut after making the AI remember its shape. The creature having something akin to a triangular structure made me think of something. A18, is there a similarity with these weird things and the cores of my project? My puddle, the data about the cores in project G00 is unavailable except for the data presented before. Materials, exact composition, resistance, and real appearance are unknown.~ Can¡¯t you like, pull it out for us to see near the vision sensor? The project indicates that the cores shouldn¡¯t be tweaked or the project may enter suspension.~ Okay, but what if I design an X-ray scanner or a microscope, can¡¯t we try to see the cores with those? My puddle, the core structure is to be isolated from all factors. The data of composition is u4n03wn¡­~
Composition¡­ u4n03wn¡­ skipping broken sectors¡­reformulating answer...
The core might be destroyed upon contact with external factors, it is unstable without adequate protection. The core can''t be examined or it might self-destruct.~ Wait! What did you just say?! My puddle, the data is damaged, but it is explicitly stated to beware of core manipulation. It may be destroyed by little amounts of external exposure.~ No way! Are you saying that I¡¯m a bomb?! Self-destruction doesn''t imply that the cores are explosive.~ I wasn¡¯t asking you when I mentioned that! My puddle, you asked. ~ I¡­ didn¡¯t... Recovering my worn-out self and returning to the experimental process, I finished the dissection and then asked A18 to digest the diverse elements of the tuber. The results this time were more varied than those of the opaque plants, which for some reason, didn¡¯t have these metallic structures inside. The composition for the external layer was actually made of organic matter with low carbon content, suggesting some organic material that was sturdy. The interior, the butter-like material, was probably some fat tissue like the brain. It was organic containing the basic trio C-N-O, yet it had important quantities of phosphorus and zinc. Disregarding the advanced chemical part, the AI was able to digest the hard structures that I assumed were similar to a core. However, the results were: unknown. Unknown, a word I am hating more and more.
Part 4: They also have a core? A18, is it unknown to you or to me? Data is not available in the current database. Not possible to translate appropriately.~ Oh great! The AI is more knowledgeable than me. So basically the AI knows what the compound is but she can¡¯t find the perfect words because I never interacted nor learned of it? I am seriously gaining some brain damage from these weird conversations in different languages. Well, at least we can somehow understand each other. So... Is it metal? Its composition appears to be similar to the user¡¯s cataloged metal-based elements. Hm, then it''s a metal that I don''t know. Forget it. I can ask more about it, but without the name, it''s impossible to determine it. It¡¯s like playing with mud and I don¡¯t want to waste time playing a cold-warm-hot clue game. It''s not worth my ''valuable'' time. The periodic table in my memories had most things of the first elements, but those rare ones in the periodic table where even averted by my eyes unconsciously when studying the books. It was obvious I wouldn''t remember most things even if the AI showed me some videos, some places would remain blurry, like deleting an actor you didn''t care in a famous movie. Additionally, who knows if maybe some alien element existed in this new world? I shouldn''t gaze at everything with modern human eyes when inside an alien context. I should start thinking of adapting to this place efficiently, the more I survive the more I can know. I don''t even know how much time can I remain alive, but the AI can prevent decay which means I can live long enough if I have the tools. Yeah! Even more important than knowing which elements composed the digested samples, the uses of said samples is what determines their real value. The more micromachines I have, the more I can live and the more I can have a satisfying life. A18, how many micromachines can we make after digesting this tuber? My puddle we can make around two complete micromachines. Yes! This is a golden potato! It means these things are 20 times more valuable than the dark plants. Was it because of the ¡®nucleus¡¯ or ¡®core¡¯ material inside these things? Also, this wasn¡¯t the biggest plant there. If we go by size comparison, this one was in the smallest range with others that outgrew it by 5 times the size. In summary, the bigger ones could give me 10 MMs, which is even better! Well, that¡¯s supposing the larger the plant the bigger the tuber. Nanomachines are too little to count, there are too many of those. It''s like humans and proteins, just counting the cells gives you something around thirty trillion. A number I quite liked, because it reminded me of the huge complexity of life. Another thing needed for a living was energy, and if these things provided resources, energy was one I couldn''t omit. A18, did energy increase after the digestion of the tuber? My puddle there was a small fluctuation towards higher values but nothing measurable. Hm, there probably was an increase in energy but it still isn¡¯t enough for the heat sensor to check on it. A18, what do I need for the heat sensor to show a more objective value? My puddle, the heat sensor needs the definition of the heat scale. Ok, impossible then. Defining a heat scale can¡¯t be done right now without the required comparatives. For some reason, it seemed simple but my mind didn''t get the needed input for solving that. My chatting bot and I were drifting fools in the unknown aquatic farmland. Like lost tourists in these macabre fields, we didn¡¯t even know directions nor the right time. Having those thoughts in mind I went for the last piece of the puzzle. It was something transported in my 1st sphere (mouth). The thing inside was released while other things were being digested, yet it always gathered my attention. Its form was like a flower, yet it wasn¡¯t thin and appeared more like a blob. Yes, it probably was a Poke-poke¡¯s baby. A weird world this was for an animal to become a plant and then produce a flower-like egg that became a tentacle monster. The dissection didn¡¯t take too much time, there were some fluids inside of the baby monster in the form of a flower. It also contained some gaseous substances and there were 3 small rocks swimming inside of a semi-spherical structure in the middle of the ¡®flower¡¯. Seems the development of blobs had various maturity steps. The creature was already sliced by me when I retrieved them, yet when it had contact with the mat¡¯s light its fluidly exterior squirmed as if burning. I stared as I took the baby blob towards the mat¡¯s center where the light was at its maximum. The squirming became more violent as the syrupy exterior solidified like burnt plastic. This¡­ I gazed at the corner where I once had other ¡®samples¡¯. Yeah, all samples were ¡®eaten¡¯ but there were ¡®crumbles¡¯ left behind by my dissection. And yes, all of the plant''s fluid solidified as if burning slowly over the mat. Act.01 - Chapter 14: When potatoes arent enough, you need to go to the fridge. Part 1/2 Part 1: When eating potatoes every day isn¡¯t enough. Knowing the advantages between different types of resources was a nice way of making strategies to solve your problems. Especially when you have an assumption that the dark plants could be dead glowy plants and that they probably petrified or became cooked by the shiny light from the mat. This would be an additional experiment but before that... If this light is that dangerous to them, why isn¡¯t it affecting me? A18, answer me, please. My puddle, the answer is unknown. Yet doing an analysis of the collected data, there is a high possibility that radiation is also affecting the project. Thus, the time of decay can be expected to arrive quicker the more you are exposed to this light or the heat energy the mat produced. You already told me that A18. Well, I suppose heat will always make things react faster. It¡¯s true that I can last longer by getting the energy from the mat. But it isn¡¯t perfectly refined and damages the unprotected parts of my body. So I needed to find a better way to recharge and digestion seems to solve the problem for now. However, even this one had its flaws. For example, outside of a safe zone like this, I¡¯ll need something to carry my food and resources. Preventing the time of decay outside will need portable supplies or a recyclable process. The way to solve it is by either processing the materials from the environment faster than I lose them to it, or by having a portable storage of said necessities. In summary, I just need a battery and an inventory. Additionally, there is a cool way to solve my ¡®UV-ray¡¯ exposure problems... A18, How about sunscreen? My puddle, I don¡¯t understand your input. Would you like me to apply some sunscreen to you? Searching¡­ Sunscreen, lotion, apply it in the¡ª My puddle the core can¡¯t have you applying sunscreen over it¡­ Ugh, forget it. I guess you need more practice to get the message. Message? Well, no commercial center or boutique near¡­ Let¡¯s continue with my current situation and forget about the AI rejecting my gentlemanly self. Up to here, I have almost completed two of my experiments. I now have access to resources and solved part of what the plants around me are. Unfortunately, gathering potatoes consumes too much time and I don¡¯t know if I have enough of it. Yes, those words are asking for salt. Murphy¡¯s Law attacks when you call the deviled rain on a sunny day. Life just wants to make you suffer and remind you that nothing is perfect¡­ This ominous event appeared during my happy farming life. I recollected potatoes and parts of the plants continuously. It was easy once I knew how to catch the nasty diggers and search for the gems...
Part 2: Asking for trouble will make you salty. All in all, I ate about 5 glowing potatoes and around 20 opaque ones. They gave me 50 MMs worth of resources, but it¡ª Well, here was where the problems started to show up. A18, we''ll eat till we get around 400 MMs worth of resources. 400 MMs might be enough to make a basic introspection sensor following your diagrams, right? Yes, my puddle. That amount may be sufficient for constructing the required sensor. However, 400 MMs worth of resources would not necessarily become 400 MMs.~ I know, the energy conversion will decrease the real amount of basic MMs made, right? Yes, 50 MMs worth of resources isn¡¯t the same as 50 complete MMs. The expenditure of energy and possible failures will make that value decrease. 50 MMs worth of resources will give around 25-30 complete MMs.~ Okay, continue digesting this batch. Yes, my puddle!~
Starting digestion of item: Dark Potato... 100% Digestion complete! Dark Potato... 100% Digestion complete! Glowy Potato... 100% Digestion complete! Dark Potato... 100% Digestion complete! Glowy Potato... 100% Digestion complete! ...
Time passed and after the whole process was done, the system consumed 10 additional samples. Energy increased and reached around 60%. Something that wouldn¡¯t be possible to reach with only heat energy and a damaged battery. It seems my MMs are becoming fat. Maybe that 10% was the extra-accumulated energy reserves inside each of them, while the 50% represented mine or the battery. I am really curious to know how this works and I can feel myself nearing that with every digested tater. How much can I make my MMs grow? Unknown for now, there seems to be no way for the AI to tell me, but I could see some values increasing and parts of me growing. It was just hard to believe, so I omitted those for now. It was something that would probably get answered the more I ate. It didn''t seem damaging to the body, more like it made it easier to control it. So I gazed at the sky to gather some inspiration. My body moved in a way that it looked a bit depressed, like when someone let out a sigh. The depths of my vision reflected the now unamusing view of my bleak and grey surroundings. I wondered why I could remain alive or at least tried to survive in such a place. This place, it was murky and silent, but now, all was going to change. building a potato emporium would give me the ability to create a better body, something that¡¯ll paint my life in colors once again. There are many things that could be achieved if I kept trying, and even though my mind disliked this place at the start, I am starting to feel curious about it. I gathered my hidden strength and adjusted my direction. The vision sensor had many added references. It had a deploying menu, the important sensors information, a ruler based on ¡®body-length¡¯; things that gave me the ability to have everything at my disposal, in a quick and organized mind-controlling device. One of such functions is Goo-book-like, yeah, I have a notification system.
User Notification POP-UP: You''ve got 1 new message!
Bonus quest was added to ''energy quest'': Player.exe added to the system, you can now listen to music, watch videos, read stories. To unlock them you will need to satisfy the basic living conditions. Requirements: Complete a battery.
Well, I know that this is just a ¡®fake¡¯ quest, not that I lacked the player, more like I can¡¯t use it. However, the request is fair and easy. I just need to keep eating until I can repair the current energy storage device, then learn from it and improve my micro-devices on the go. My puddle, there seems to be a problem¡­ Eh? A18, what happened? To make the desired batches of MMs, energy is enough, resources are enough, but my puddle misses some required materials. The current maximum remains 50MMs worth for output.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. How is that possible? ¡­
Part 3: A bet placed for the sand and rocks. And here I am, in a troubling instance¡ªwhere even if I eat more potatoes¡ªI won¡¯t get stronger enough because the AI won¡¯t be able to make more MMs. A18, can you explain that? We are missing an unknown material which isn¡¯t available in our resource fields. We can¡¯t make MMs without it. This, came as nasty news that limited my future plans. My current goal is repairing myself. And for that, I need extra nutrients. Where do I find those A18? My puddle you can check the environment. Air, soil, rocks, deposits¡­ Yes, the soil! Sandy dunes and gray rocks that were almost invisible. Those were places that I didn¡¯t check yet and where I expected to find the supplemental requirements. What is it that this body needs to make MMs? The required material is unknown to the user. Yes, it is unknown, but this word appeared in my mind constantly. The AI, she wasn¡¯t the best support for an answer, almost everything she said would be ¡®unknown¡¯. But her presence was enough for me to push the continue button. So, I had to search and determine a source for what I¡¯m missing. Micromachines (MMs), were that important. They weren''t as simple as Nanomachines (NMs), and grouping NMs required that unique resource. I advanced and collected various samples from different rocks in the soil¡ªincluding part of the soil in the black zone. Unfortunately, the diverse terrain samples I took, didn¡¯t seem that different between each other once I brought them to the light. All of them appeared gray except for some little structures that resembled small pieces of crystal. But all in all, I found black and white vision a very dull approach. I needed to see in colors promptly. A18, digest the soil samples. Yes, my puddle!
Starting scanning and digestion of item: Soil sample # 1 (Near the mat)... Scan results: Si, C, N, H, Cl, Ca... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. 100% Digestion complete! Scan results: Si, C, N, Cl, Na... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. Soil sample # 2 (Black ring- Penumbra zone) Scan results: Si, C, N, Fe, Ca... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. 100% Digestion complete! Soil sample # 3 (Near the cave soil) Scan results: Si, C, N, K, Ca... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. 100% Digestion complete! Soil sample # 4 (Cave entrance) Scan results: Si, C, N, Fe, Ca... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. 100% Digestion complete! Rock sample # 1 (Rock near the mat) Scan results: Si, Fe, Ca, Cl, Al... Unknown elements... None compatible with the required element. 100% Digestion complete! ...
Anyways, the digestion process was carried out like always and little mountains of garbage started to accumulate in the corners. I evaded those ¡®dirty-poop¡¯ spots in the mat unconsciously as if they never existed. Maybe in the future, I¡¯d create a cleaning bot to make them disappear, or maybe I''ll build a storage module¡ªif some of that garbage becomes a treasure I omitted for being a picky eater. Time passed and the complete results came, but with so many samples, I decided to ask the AI for a better analysis. I¡¯m feeling a bit lazy for doing such calculations. A18, is anything from the results useful to solve our predicament? My puddle, the elements acquiesced are useful for other purposes, yet the ones the system currently requires for micromachine creation aren¡¯t available in the digested samples. I checked the data, finding not many differences between the different samples. They are common resources actually, nothing extraordinary and the elements in the results could vary depending on the amount of sample or the techniques of recollection. Knowing none of them served the purpose was discouraging, I needed to know what the AI needed or if we have gotten them previously. A18, did we get the missing materials from somewhere before? The required elements were recovered from the MMs gathered during exploration at the cave. Accuracy of the type of MM that gave more material or defining which material was absorbed from the internalized items cannot be specified. So the MMs we got in the cave¡­ Which means only MMs have the things I need? Going to the cave wasn¡¯t in my plans. I didn¡¯t want to go. Creeps and shudder invaded my thoughts, I was scared. It was traumatic for a person like me to go there. Despite that, I knew that I needed to overcome my fears. An attempt to survive and become better. I couldn¡¯t stay and collect potatoes forever. My situation was like a farmer that loved the tranquil life of the countryside. A potato lover that thought potatoes were the perfect diet. I would never know what it feels to live in a city and get my necessities satisfied. As such, It was better to see the city, before making a selection of the place to live. A hard decision, as I had to get out of my comfort zone. Something I wasn''t accustomed to doing. Risking, gambling, and surviving in an unknown place.
Part 4: Overcoming fear and hesitation. I needed to consider my decision calmly because I had two options. Here, I thought that I had a farm of potatoes. I thought that I could eat them, grow slowly, create more micromachines, and even make a house in the future. But now¡ªcontrary to my expectations¡ªI needed to ¡®fight¡¯ if I ever wanted to leave this place. That was the initial condition, and it didn¡¯t take an idiot to figure out that searching for the necessities was a more agreeable approach. Yes, when the vegetarian diet isn¡¯t enough, you need supplements. And the only known place for those would be the Poke-house. Thus, my goal changed, even if fear didn¡¯t want me to accept it, I didn¡¯t have a choice. I needed to enter that cave, find supplements, and¡ªwhile I am at it¡ªsimultaneously search for the exit. This forced me to create a plan for exploring that grotto¡­
How many blobs are blocking my path? Is there an exit at the end of that cave? Is this mat going to stay warm forever? Will I really find my necessities by exploring the cave?
Too many things were unknown. They made me feel insecure. It was only with this heater that worked like a chimney, that I could feel comforted. Yeah, it was warm and cozy, and more important than all, it was free. Free? That¡¯s weird, nothing comes free, usually. What is this mat? I scrutinized the mat with my vision, but it was the same as before, white. It doesn¡¯t look like it will turn off in the short run. But, yeah, it sure was blinding¡­ What is this made of? I tried to see some detail, but--white. Ahhh! My one and only eye! Well, it actually doesn¡¯t hurt. I am just reflective of it because my previous eyes were humanely disgusted when too much light overpowered my vision. Right now, pain is non-existent, so it doesn¡¯t matter¡­ Guess what, I am reformulating my concept of the white color by staring at this light non-stop. It¡¯s cool that you don¡¯t feel bad while looking at it. My field of view moved as my ¡®face¡¯ decreased its distance and approached the mat¡¯s center. I wanted to see if there was some clue between the pearly-white surface. I guess no human or animal would be able to see this near to a source of light before being disgusted. Heh! My puddle-vision is amazing! Um, Wait! What is this, some black spots on the mat? Eh, they¡¯re growing! I quickly retreat from the mat¡¯s center, something isn¡¯t right, my puddle vision became a dalmatian-like, full of little black spots. This is bad! Hovering over to the plants near the mat and grabbing a stalk of leaves with my flagellum, I grub the crystal in front of my sensor. The sticky black spots are still there. A18, what happened? My puddle, the high amount of light damaged 10 of the micromachines in the vision sensor. They are being repaired by using part of the digested resources. Okay, no more solar eclipse sightseeing today, the light can also burn my pixels without me realizing. Anyways, this mat seems sturdy at the corners, something I didn¡¯t scrutinize before. It was too big so I didn¡¯t pay attention to it. Who knows what this thing is supposed to be. I move my body to the corners and find they don¡¯t release light. Maybe it¡¯s covered in sand. I advance and try scratching it with my flagellum. No dent formed, it was extremely sturdy. Maybe my ¡®strength¡¯ wasn¡¯t enough or it was made from an extremely resistant material. will this explode if I hit it too much? This isn¡¯t good. These thoughts are giving me the creeps. I gazed at the ceiling, no sky, and almost complete darkness. You could actually watch some small bubbles drifting and being sucked by a strong current. It was like seeing those cardboard candle-lanterns that flew to the sky until they disappeared in the night. Two exits... This unknown cupule like chamber I¡¯m in has two possible exits. The one above looks impossible, no one with a sane mind would go towards that. Especially, when the currents will prevent you from swimming your way back. The second one is the cave. It at least falls into a leeway. Since the blobs are at least unknown, rather than going for something that will not let you return-¡ªtrying to sneak and search for an exit inside the cave¡ªit¡¯s way more factual to obtain the needed elements. Being scared played a big factor in subconsciously evading the cave. Nonetheless, I also accepted the place like a maze full of treasure. Pieces of the nanomachinery that were probably lost inside were the best opportunity to solve my current situation. The only trouble where the guardians of said treasure and the lack of light in it. Summing up the facts, those monsters appear to react to the glowing of the plants or some pheromones released by them. Having a way to control that might help. The reason it got triggered was me not knowing about their behavior. The cave was dark making me use the leaves of a glowy plant as illumination during my first delve. Something which attracted it. Then the nightmare started, but I got some idea of what the cave is like inside. The paths of the cave are twisted, follow variable directions, and connect to various chambers of different sizes. Do not count on having an AI with a log or a map as support, some situations¡ªlike knowing your position with exactitude¡ªmight need some receiver or device outside the cave. If the cave collapses, or some monster throws me to an unknown path again, I might lose my way forever. Going astray in such a maze was that easy, so I needed to prepare.
Taking risks can sometimes create new opportunities. You just have to make the most of them.
Act.01 - Chapter 14: When potatoes arent enough, you need to go to the fridge. Part 2/2 Part 5: The choice is made, prepare yourself! It was decided, choosing the cave was my only option. Even so, the problem here wasn¡¯t only losing our way out, It included not being able to exit it. If we are pursued or arrived at a dead-end inside those tunnels, everything would become a game over. I have collected 50MMs worth of resources, the process to obtain them wasn¡¯t efficient. The AI already told me there were failures that translated into energy and resources being lost. The AI even made a mistake by knowing what it needed for MM production. Starting as a broken G00 was like playing a game in legendary and starting with below-average stats, a damaged interface, and an uncalibrated controller. In the end, with a little more than 50 MMs worth of resources, the AI made 30 basic MMs. What should I use them for? Protection, an exploring tool, or a weapon? This is extremely important, I would need to explore the cave and the amount of MMs was enough to make something at last. But the choice needed careful inspection before arriving at a conclusion. If we go for protection, the first thing I¡¯d make was a barrier. My current body is full of holes. Many things can pass through the little spaces between the external micromachines. The only isolated place is the system¡ªif we don¡¯t count the two ¡®digestive¡¯ spheres that hang from my body or the curved crystal NMs that protect the vision sensor. So yeah, I don¡¯t have a cover. But I can¡¯t even make the simplest membrane, because my MMs are at the ¡®basic¡¯ level and I don¡¯t have enough of them. This means that I can¡¯t create MMs that secrete substances, nor will I be making some carbon fiber armor that envelops my body. Well, I can¡¯t even participate in their creation, because to create them I need additional experimentation. Everything until now has been designed by using the available resources that the AI showed me. Like creating my ¡®eye¡¯ used the already existing NMs that were sensible to light. The protective lens used NMs that allowed that light to pass through and protected the ones sensible to it. Lastly, the digestive NMs were taken from unused MMs that had them inside, they were grouped and encased following an already existing structure¡ªthe AI¡¯s system. Creating something from scratch, something like that was luxurious. It needed knowledge, tools, materials, and more. At my current time, this was a delusion¡ªlike when you thought of building a Lamborghini¡ªthe idea is excellent, but the execution might turn shabby. As such, my body doesn¡¯t have an external barrier nor skin. Making it will also need excessive design and I can¡¯t just cover myself while isolating everything from the environment. If I make a membrane, it¡¯ll need some permeability, which means holes. Not the ones I have though; Selective ones, of course. Like doors in a house or a plane, they¡¯d allow for specific passengers to enter my body, but they¡¯ll block those dangerous or unneeded. This isn¡¯t going to be magically made¡ªsince as stated before¡ªit needed extensive knowledge, something I didn¡¯t have at the moment. Thinking about the benefit and cost of making such a barrier, I created a list with my available options. An evaluation of the best decision. It even included the pros and cons of each of the choices I had. A18, show me the Pros/cons comparison of making a body barrier. Yes, my puddle!
Creating an environment selective barrier. (Membrane/Cover/Skin): Description: A membrane protects compounds/nanomachines contained within from unwanted reactions with the environment. This controlled exposure helps reduce the chemical damage dealt to structural compounds/nanomachines and consequently increases their operational lifetime. Pros:Reduces environmental damage and decay probability. Increases protection and defenses from external sources. Diminishes passive resource and energy loss. Decreases chemical damage from the environment by selective control of element exchange with it. Cons: Requires high level design and more Micromachines than the current amount at disposal. It will not help for the current cave exploration.
Analyzing it showed that creating a membrane to act as a barrier would solve my current predicament, but I didn¡¯t have enough materials and I lacked the knowledge to design it. Next in the little list was a sensor¡¯s construction. Maybe an ultrasound sensor would be the proper choice. So I started to think about how to make it. Basically, an ultrasound sensor needed two things. An emitting device and a receiver. So a mouth and ears like those of bats. A18, what¡¯s the cost of a basic sensor? My puddle, it depends on the type of sensor and the accuracy of it. Tell me an average, how much MMs do I need for a basic sensor for sound production or hearing? The machines used for the hearing could be less than 1MM, however, the total amount of MMs needed for a device to ¡®work¡¯ and show on the user interface would be around 250 basic MMs. After a little talk with my AI, I evaluated my possibilities once again. A18, show me the Pros/cons comparison of making the chosen sensor. Yes!
Creating an echolocation device: Description: Locates objects by determining the time for an echo to return and the direction from which it returns from. Uses an emitter device that produces a specific frequency soundwave. The sound wave is reflected by objects that obstruct their path, it returns to the emitter and is captured by a hearing device. Pros: Great for exploring the cave, perceives vibrations and echo-localizes the walls, structures, and creatures. In summary, the ability to locate prey, navigate, and communicate with creatures that have a similar system. Cons: Needs more than the available MMs. Needs to design two devices which mean double the cost.
In summary, and supposing that each device needs an average of 250MMs to be created, the idea of manufacturing an additional sensor was thrown out of the list. Simply because I didn¡¯t have enough to even make one. Yeah, you can create a microphone with less than 1MM, but where will you plug it, what will listen to it or interpret/translate the signal? What will show it on my ¡®user interface¡¯? What will allow me to control it or adjust it? I wished I had some magic. I always believed that nanobots and microbots did things in an easy and magical way. Yet, here, I have to rack my brains until the point I understand that living isn¡¯t really associated with just wishful thoughts. A18, you know what to do¡­ My puddle, don¡¯t worry I am here for you, chuu~
Notification system: You just received a kiss, it makes you happy.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Hm, that¡¯s better. Continuing with the list, I have the final option. An item that makes it easier to explore, which consumes less MMs than a basic sensor, and can be carried outside. The simplest item for exploring a cave was light. It was my last option and it had a solution. I think I might be able to make a led or a flashlight, right? However, I can¡¯t make something that makes me lose energy faster. Creating light needed either chemical reactions or a special circuit for electricity. My battery was faulty, a led needed constant current and special materials. I couldn¡¯t make a diode or a basic circuit, because the AI didn¡¯t have designs that I could use. Be that as it may, I needed light. So by thinking carefully for a while, I came with an inspirational solution: using natural resources might work. The only way I could conclude how to make it was by using those glowing orbs below the plants. Thus, I made multiple gathering trips and experimented once again.
Part 6: Bioluminescence? I gathered some freshly sliced potatoes, about ten pieces. They were all of the glowy types. Their blood was going to be used as sacrifice for a magical elixir. It didn''t take much to make, I just dug a hole in the ground by drilling with my multipurpose tail and used it as a basin. Then, I threw the sliced potatoes inside after checking that the walls of the hole were sturdy enough. My tail went inside the hole and started to spin. It was a tail-made blender. The potatoes became a mashed paste and the syrupy contents glittered inside. Taking my flagellum out and seeing it covered in the slimy fluid, I used the 1st digestive sphere to clean it. The spherealso went inside the pit and absorbed the liquid slowly until it was full. The process was a success, the sparkling potato soup was separated from the exterior environment by the MM-composed walls of the first sphere; everything was sucked in its inside without leaving a bit of it in the hole. Nonetheless, I came across another obstacle. The contents were completely isolated by the 1st sphere. Its walls were too thick for light to pass through them and it won''t shine without some tweaks. Tweaks which appeared to be egregious since they weren''t possible. With the 30 micromachines I had at my disposal, it was time to create an orb. The purpose of it was to act as a light source. I could¡¯ve saved the MMs for making a smaller battery or partially repairing mine. Nonetheless, since I needed to advance, I grouped them to form a sphere. It was near the same size as my ¡®mouth¡¯ (first sphere). However¡ªdifferent from the 1st sphere¡ª the MMs selected for this one were stretched to the point they looked invisible. It was because the number of MMs employed were worlds apart from the one on the first sphere. This allowed the walls to be thin enough to let light pass and isolate the chemical ¡®signals¡¯ that the potatoes released to attract the blobs. This syrup liquid was tested before and seemed to glow for half the duration of my maximum energy sustenance. Additionally, by doing digestion we have that 2 complete potatoes recharged approximately 10% of my energy. So a soup made from 10 potatoes would recharge around 50% of my energy. An additional property I was happy to find. I also did an experiment to know how much time does a potion remains active. My ten servings where more than enough for 3 trips with full energy. A18, show the created ¡®items¡¯ in a menu. Showing recently crafted items in a description box:
Glowy Potato Potion (Active)
Item Type: Consumable - Potion
CurrentStorage: Inside the first sphere (Mouth)
Status: Losing Activity (Glow) Amount: 10/10 servings.
Description: A Potion crafted by G00 by mashing up 10 Glowy Potatoes. Color: unknown. It''s glowing.
Uses: Glows for a determined period of time. Recharges energy proportional to the amount eaten - 2 Servings = ~10% energy. Special use: Can be carried inside a transparent container to be used as a glowing orb.
Okay, A18. Now show me the newly made sphere. Showing next item in the list:
Glowy Orb (Empty)
Item Type: External Device - Light Orb.
Structural Integrity: Isolation of 100% (Decreases over time - Decay)
Decay State: Looks new. Durability: unknown - Scale not created.
Transparency: 95% (Decreases if dirty or with use)
Storage Status:(Empty) Amount: 0/1 Glowy potato servings.
Description:A small scale storage device with transparent walls. It works like a glass recipient. It was created by G00 as a standalone external device that can shine when filled with the extract from glowy potatoes.
Uses: Glows in the dark and illuminates an area of about 2~3 bodies^2 around the user. Note: Needs to be refilled with glowy potato potion for it to work as a light source.An icon will be displayed in puddle vision showing the percentage of activity remaining for the ''serving''. Note2: The recipient will be exposed to light radiation and may decay in the future.
In fact, this worked as a potion container and a lightning orb. By swiftly adding a serving of potato oil to my newly made lantern, I hung it below my vision sensor as I adjusted my bearing whilst preparing for departure. Next stop, the murky maze! A rotational movement powered my endeavor as my body lifted and slithered through the uncolored waters. The same damn waters that made me feel--ugh, making matters worse, I arrived at the middle zone and reflected upon my decision. This felt like paying a costly entrance to a terror house/movie and knowing you disliked both. Should I be doing this? Yes. I knew I¡¯m avoiding my responsibilities and my fears. I really didn¡¯t want to meet the lil¡¯ potatoes¡¯ fathers¡­ or mothers, but it was part of my new life. Ghostbusters needed experience for the job, just imagine them getting a newbie. At least I had experience in confronting blobs, at least I killed one. A18, motivate me! You can do it! You are the best! Yes, you can...~ And thus¡ªWhile giving myself some time to prepare myself psychologically¡ªI arrived at my destination in the blink of an eye, the creepy entrance to the poking dungeon. A place where tentacle monsters await. The bad part is, that this isn¡¯t that type of movie or setting, and thus, this wasn''t a good situation to be in.I advanced to the entrance as the calm currents were stirred by my little movements, yet everything remained silent... Utter, silence... END OF CHAPTER
Chapter''s side note: A little explanation of G00''s behavior: Spoiler G00 is fearful of the cave here, even though nothing in the cave changed, he is shit-scared to the point of changing it subconsciously while remaining sane. The silence here gives him the creeps, even if he can¡¯t hear anything, sane people can have illusions. (Illusions are different from hallucinations, the second is the pathological one. Illusions are changing real things based on experience or fears, hallucinations are creating something that didn''t exist and turning it real. Well, something like that, this is just a bit of what I remember without looking at a dictionary. He wasn¡¯t a soldier, he was a pampered kid. Most of the chapter (14.1 and 14.2) describes his hesitation to enter the cave even though he knew he had to. How he¡¯ll adapt to this setting, strive to survive and get stronger, will depend on his resolve and goals. Those will change as the story progresses, the same as his thoughts being better or more organized. Humans are very easy to break or become obsessive with something. In summary, the cave might appear the same but he will think of it as a monsters¡¯ den. Act.01 - Chapter 15.1: A real goo never fears. Part 1/2 Part 1: Entering the cave Around the only cavern in the chamber, there were glowing algae, fallen rocks, and sloped walls that continued high into the black abyss at the vault. The weird agglomeration of plants was different from ivies, yet it bordered around the cave without completely veiling the entrance. The dark pit¡¯s opening jaws were actually slick. Its visible interior didn¡¯t have the same stalagmites and stalactites that were usually a wonder inside most of the caverns I knew of. Its inside was dim, without lights coming from it, except for some sparse vegetation at its entrance. The absence of light was akin to entering the underworld. I discerned that being able to hear would make the situation worse. Nevertheless, I really wanted that A18 played a song to lift this uncomfortable silence. Even if I knew that I should endure it for now. Furthermore, there was no way to tell how deep it was, even if you had a match to cast light into the black¡ªand being honest¡ªmy little orb was just like that, not sufficient to light everything. At the same moment I prepared to enter, I sensed a change. Um, more than a difference or variation, it was a detail I didn''t realize before. There was a water current gushing out from the murky cavern, something obvious when you saw bubbles that were forced to drift away by the water that departed from its opening. And yes, the flowing waters remained strangely warm. Something which increased a weird feeling¡ªthat although heat decreased near the cave¡¯s entrance¡ªthe whole place maintained a regular temperature and for an oddly additional reason no algae grew in the deeper parts of the cave. Why didn¡¯t those glowy plants grow inside the cavern? Were they used as terrain separations? I don¡¯t know, but maybe this trip will unveil the secret behind it¡­ As I entered this ''mouth'' that was saturated with an impervious blackness, the little orb appended below my vision sensor brightened the rugged terrain under my body. My diving came into a halt while I observed the weird surface of such tunnels. The soil, it was smooth, with little dunes forming succinct snakes that contorted towards the callous obscurity.They acted like mocking arrows, drawn by some demon that wanted to tell me an alluring message¡­ What do you think, A18? My puddle, come inside I am waiting¡­ Heh...well done, A18. I really need to push forward. Also, thanks for the joke, it somehow calmed me. At least you are not a demon in my single eye¡­ Reacquiring my clarity, I proceeded until the petty rays that came from the entrance disappeared completely from my field of vision. No glowy plant grew in these areas of the cave and their dearth rendered everything around dim, except for the floor I hovered over. The position of the orb was thought out carefully. It was way better to know where the ground was than the ceiling. At least, gravity will always make the floor more interesting. For example, the treasure I needed would probably be all over the floor, like pieces of goo. So having the orb appended below my ''neck'' was efficient and protected it. I could also disconnect it from my body and make it hover like a floating lightbulb, yet it will consume more energy to use it like that. I will also move slower waiting for it, reason why I carried it. In the cave''s bleakness, I could sense how my mind returned to a comfortable coolness. Since nothing perilous happened, it didn''t take long for me to accustom to the murky environment. Being able to see the cave better or knowing a bit more about what to expect inside reduced my nervousness. It didn''t appear as scary as before. Still, I discovered that the floor retained a cold sensation, whichcontrasted the warm one I felt at the entrance. There were little whirls of water that could be seen twirling the sand. I found this attention-grabbing, like those tornados forming with changes in temperature. Was there something similar underwater? Well, unknown as it was, this meant that the cavern¡¯s undercurrent was genuine. It convinced me of the idea that there had to be an exit. It was in this moment of feeling like nothing, without noises or distractions and in this pristine and peaceful surroundings, that I gota resolve to explore.
Part 2: Sneak, flight or fight? The cavern wormed its way in extremely irregular patterns. Worse than a certain Minotaur¡¯s labyrinth, this was akin to an ants nest, utter disorder. Tridimensional paths weren¡¯t a usual experience even in my previous life. The walls of the deeper tunnels surprised me by their varying shapes. They were usually ovoid, yet they could take many forms. I never delved this far before, and I had already passed the previous route that A18 saved. No additional blob was found in the same chamber where I had my ''first-date'' with one, nor the chamber where I finally killed it. Hell, I have been carefully searching for these poke-pokes and now there are none to be seen. This seems funny... shouldn¡¯t it be me, the one hiding in this hide and seek game? Okay, its better like this, no blob here means it might be safe to proceed. So I gazed upon the various tunnel and selected a random one to continue. Um, maybe not ''that random''. I just went for the one with a sexy booby-like shape. Don¡¯t ask me how it looks, people see illusions in deserts. Yeah, girls can be a mirage sometimes, but we are attracted to their beauty, like moths towards the fire. Anyways, the shapes in this respective tunnel were what I referred to as surprising before. Pillars and columns juxtaposed over the walls connecting them like a diameter label. They weren¡¯t regular and made the tunnel appear like a beehive, with myriads of compartments decorating the walls. The only difference with beehives was the irregularity of the structure, not like the perfection a honeycomb represented. However, this added more confusion and mystery to my surroundings.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Great! A huge place... add lots of tunnels, and then, cavities inside said tunnels... It''s Just what I needed! Maybe I should call this place ¡®Emmental Cheese Cave¡¯. (Because of the holes and the many pathways). Omitting those thoughts, I continued delving. It was until I arrived at a glowing tunnel. Yes, a tunnel that had light, one produced by small crystal-like clusters. The light from them wasn''t as strong as the one from my orb, yet enough to at least cover my body when I came near the structures that produced it. The current tunnel I was in, had many different crystals structures after exploring it. The ones that glowed were like minerals inside mines, glowing inside weird and irregular compartments. Other types, conformed spikes and stalactites that grew on its walls and formed small spaces where the glowy crystals adhered. Rephrasing it, this tunnel''s inner space was vast, gave me a pitiableperception of my current size, and surprised me with incomprehensible patterns and columns. The clusters were connected to the twisting filamentous columns. They formed irregular honeycombs inside the tunnel. My tininess allowed me to evade and dance between gaps of thewinding ¡®filaments¡¯ that blocked my path forward. These strands were wider than my body¡ªthey just looked that way when seen from afar¡ªmaking my experience comparable to a tiny fish that could pass through the holes of a net. The place also had unusual formations that impelled me to detour or search for a proper path. Aside from the continuous motions, whenever I found an intriguing pattern, I¡¯d stop and examine it. For example, the spikes and the stalactites were a bit different from the walls. They were also decreasing the tunnel¡¯s available lumen. I went to check on them because they suggested being formed by a different type of material. They didn''t have smooth surfaces andwhen you eyed them carefully, they looked like the plants near the mat. A bit porous like a petrified structure might be what I''d call an accurate description. A18, is there a way to scan these? My puddle, we will require additional energy for consumption. Analysis suggests using the light-orb''s serving to empty the orb. Afterward, use the energy from the serving to trigger a scanning. Since the 1st sphere can''t be used for digestion (it''s full of potato servings-potions), my puddle will have to use the light-orb as a mouth. That''s a nice analysis A18, but can the orb tolerate the digestive NMs? No. The orb will need to be separated before activating the digestive NMs. It will need complete user immersion and each scan will consume around 10% of the current energy levels. If danger occurs while diggesting my puddle might not be able to escape. I see. Are there any signals near? Searching... No poke-poke signal received since the start of the trip. The current area is designated as safe. Even if the area was safe, it didn''t mean nothing will happen. But after some time staying while looking at the crystals I made the decision to experiment. Truth be told if these crystals were a needed resource by the AI, my trip could become easier. The risk merited the benefits, so I proceeded to digest my food fast. The process didn¡¯t take long, but it required my utmost concentration. The time was also decreased by the sizes of the sample I took. As a partial result, I found that most of them had a high concentration of calcium, aside from the usual organic matter-forming elements. The experiment consisted of me scratching or cutting a small fragment with my flagellum and then making the AI scan it. Like the AI told me before, it had a downside since digestion wasn''t available by using the 1st sphere as a mouth. So I had to throw 1 potato potion serving and use the light-orb as a temporal mouth. Good thing the digestive NMs were inactive and the fusion process between spheres could be controlled if I was patient. It didn''t work perfectly since the thin walls of the orb wouldn''t resist carrying the same weight as the first sphere. Although not totally calculable, its walls were too thin to carry dense materials like solids, the potato potions density was probably just a bit denser than water in comparison to the fragments. If the potion wasn''t encased, it would drift and float. the substance will not fall the ground, it would combine and react slowly with the water until the light from it disappeared. And even after the gray tone vanished from my vision, the AI could still sense signals from it through the scanner. In any case, the experiment was successful, and although the samples were small, I got the desired results.Apart from the most typical formations of the columns, specific sections of them had varying metals and compounds. The results from those made me think that the column-like formations weren¡¯t formed by a single ¡®process¡¯. The glowy clusters had a composition of chlorine, oxygen, silicon, sodium, and aluminum. Some of those also had fluoride, magnesium and phosphorous. This was without counting on the small percentage that grouped ''other unknown elements''. Nevertheless, when I smacked one of the bigger columns at the end of the current tunnel, something happened. All of a sudden, glittering gray mist appeared in my field of vision. The petrified tubes sparked to life, lighting up the tunnel with a concert of fireflies. The columns and the twisted honeycomb''s borders lightened up, the spark of the column ended up bathing the entire cavern in flickering white glows. My puddle, there is an increase in radiation from the structures around... u... s Radiation? If someone asked me how to describe it, I''ll tell them that it was an epileptic patient¡¯s nightmare. If I had real limbs, I¡¯d probably be having a seizure. Ah, so sad I don¡¯t have a tongue to bite. Well, not much to do while all these glitters and smokey clouds block my visibility, so I moved backward until exiting its limits. A18, is there something weird with this cloud? Too many... signals, calculations are... Did you have a seizure? How about this, A18... Talk as if you have bitten your tongue. M!$i40 0P%U#$DIDL3333¡­ Yes, I expected that. Unknown input, repairing¡­ U shuld doish likesh dish, A18. I$MPR¡±$MD¡­ repairshs¡­ I moved myself a bit further trying to lessen the strain on my AI. Okay, you can stop that error-stuff now that we are outside the tunnel, right?¡­ Yes... So was there some sort of alarm? Was it only a gas trap? Checking... My puddle, a signal is being emitted after the smoke appeared in this place. The signal¡­ it has triggered a response. A response? My puddle, multiple far away signals seem to be emitting an answer to the smoke message... they are coming closer! Oh, shit... here we go again... Act.01 - Chapter 15.1: A real goo never fears. Part 2/2 Part 3:How to mark your territory like a G00! At least 100 blobs were behind me¡­ This was insane!!! You don¡¯t need to ask me how this happened. How these things react so fast and appear from nowhere is absurd! Like hounds in hot pursuit, unflagging poke-pokes were almost nibbling at my tail. My virtual heart in mouth, whirling vision sensor strained, flagellum thrusting non-stop, hopelessness gnawing at my insides, fear that felt like a hand taking my breath away, and a body pushed beyond all endurance. This was a race for life, a moment of survival. One that made me feel¡­ Okay, in summary, I felt like really really bad. All my thoughts were being done in seconds. From my previous experience, I knew that my maneuvers were way better than the blobs. If I was in a smaller space I would have the advantage. But the current tunnel I was in was too big and the spaces within columns weren¡¯t enough to use as an advantage. They were catching up! A18, give me a path, get us out of here! Calculating the best route of escape¡­ My puddle, analysis suggests entering the tunnel at the right after maintaining a straight run towards the current one¡¯s exit. A18, that¡¯s impossible, those things are faster in a linear run! Unlike me, the blobs were mute-farting. They were using some sort of jet-water system which made them look like balloons that inflated and deflated. These guys¡­ A18, I need something to reach the end of the tunnel! Run, my puddle, run!!!~ Seriously! That ''s what you call help? Nonetheless, in a moment of discussion, I saw something unexpected. A blob pulled ahead from me! It used its tentacles to grab some of the columns in the tunnel, and with a slingshot maneuver, it added momentum to its propulsion. Motherfucker! The blob shot from one of my sides as I slithered doing a rolling maneuver. It sill bumped me throwing me off-course and blocking the path the AI choose for an escape route. My puddle, current escape routes are blocked¡­ A18, quick, check for another place without signals. Unable to calculate, signals are arriving from currently known areas. In a moment of confusion, and seeing my rear and front blocked, I decided to go to the side. There were smaller tunnels connecting to the one I was in. However, they were unknown paths we haven¡¯t had explored before. The blobs quickly stalked me to the new areas I decided to enter. They were faster, yes, but I could counter that speed with better reactions and evasion. The side tunnel I entered, actually reconnected to the one I was before. It was a detour that allowed me to the AI¡¯s planned route. However, it also allowed the monster to continue their pursuit. AI-dviser! (Adviser) Yes, my puddle! Show me the way out! These fuckers want to eat me!
Recalculating route¡­
My puddle, continue forward. You don¡¯t have to worry! We are arriving at the chamber before the next tunnel¡¯s entrance. Well, crap! They will catch me before we arrive there! Knowing the same thing might happen if I moved in a straight line, I decided to remain near the walls of the tunnel. The blobs were reducing the distance so I had to do something. There were other passages, but the probability of being lucky two times in a row wasn¡¯t part of my itinerary. I got a chance to return to the right path, I wouldn¡¯t lose it! A18, prepare a distraction! Creating a diversion, preparing a trigger for aperture in the first sphere and releasing upon user order in 5... 4¡­ Preparations are done! Great! Awaiting orders for discharge. Hm, Hold on, hold on¡­ Release it¡­ now! The first sphere was attached to my body, and upon giving a mind-order, it released its content following a little squish. A small aperture formed at a specific node in the sphere, it appeared at the same moment we passed over a tunnel¡¯s opening. Then, with a slight contraction of its surface, it released a part of the potato potion stored in its interior. About 3~5% of the whole liquid reserve drifted around and stained the water with a shimmering glow. It was like a perfume¡¯s sprayer, an atomizer. It sprinkled the blob-attracting potion in every tunnel¡¯s entrance that I faked to enter. Yes, I was marking my territory by using a well-developed animal-kingdom tactic to distract my pursuers, a bluff. Seriously, Mother Nature is teaching me some relevant yet weird stuff. Sprinkle here and there, and these blobs will go crazy for the dissolved magic powder. Taking advantage of their confusion, I moved like a startled fish within the water and reached the end of the bigger tunnel. The diversion worked, but it wasn¡¯t enough to keep all of my followers away. Some of the blobs kept closing in, unfurling their tentacles and squeezing their bodies. Their huge figures pressing down over the orb-brightened area at my surroundings, letting a darkening sky bob over me. They were persistent stalkers, so I ordered the AI to keep the spherical pepper-skunk ready. That way I could release a portion of the potion whenever a tunnel I wouldn''t enter appeared. The second tunnel had smaller holes which allowed me to hide. But the things tentacles scraped over the structures I entered. So without an effective hideout, I run in slithering patterns, evading their glowy limbs, releasing part of my potion reserve as a distraction, and maneuvering within the small holes in the tunnel. However, and after reducing the amount of available potion below 70%, around ten creepers continued their following unceasingly. Even after a series of hot-pursuit, evasions, and detour maneuvers they weren¡¯t allowing me to escape! A18, how far are we from the exit? My puddle we still need to pass through four remaining tunnels to reach the exit! Persistent things were labeling me as their most wanted food inside this cave. Seriously, this ¡®high-speed¡¯ pursuit in black and white vision was already weird, and even more, with everything happening inside a tridimensional labyrinth with so many varying paths. My puddle, please change your course 15 degrees to the right, quickly! Eh?! Concentrating after a helpful alert, I barely evaded collision with a protruding crystal. My extreme action baffling me for a moment, since I didn¡¯t know how I pulled it off. And yet, before I could throw a tantrum to my AI for making me do the impossible, I watched as one of the blobs splashed like fireworks against the tricky crystal a moment later. Haha! Take that you bastard! Nice job A18! My puddle there was no data on that crystal, that area of the tunnel wasn¡¯t explored completely. ... Overlooking my explorational negligence, I entered another tunnel while withholding the advantage of my turning abilities. Kicking into another gear, I managed to get a distance advantage over the blobs. I even followed the AI¡¯s directions and entered some small conducts that made them slow down by a lot. Some even crashed and exploded against walls or solid structures. They didn¡¯t care for safety or so it seems. Mindless things¡­The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Following the AI¡¯s directives was easy and gave me a sense of accomplishment while the exit appeared nearer. However, when I evaded a group near the 3rd tunnel¡¯s exit, another little squadron appeared and blocked the normal course. A18, recalculate, quickly!
Recalculating¡­
My puddle, there is no known path to reach the exit. Damn! they are blocking the only way out! A18, check for signals and send me the place with the fewer signals perceivable. Yes!
Calculating a new course.
Please enter the 5th passage at your upper left side. Fewer signals are being received from it and the sensors register differences from a dead end.~ Moving!
Creating a reference mark on the user interface.
The AI calculated a course that was shown through my interface, however, she had to use voice guiding when I lost track of it or whenever the path needed to be recalculated swiftly. She would add a mark afterward, yet the voice allowed me to lose less time. Something that I practiced with her for this exploration. Real-time positioning systems weren¡¯t just a follow-the-line game, they were constantly monitoring and readjusting depending on the user¡¯s action. Continuing with the escape... I fled, and letting my hexagonal decorated tail bend in a whipping arch, I tumbled. The change in direction allowed me to evade a tentacle from a blob as I scurried through an irregular ovoid passage following an indication of a warm undercurrent. For some reason, the AI¡¯s guiding system locked onto specific variables, like heat or some chemical gradient. Is it just me or are these poke-blobs playing a chasing game while I follow the dotted escape lines made by the AI? The only missing thing in this would be an arcade score and a reversal power-up to complement the mindless ghostly balloons.
Part 4: The light at the end of the murky tunnel. The labyrinth pursuit experience was never-ending. The bluffing and fast tumbling movements helped me save my skin by a hairsbreadth as I followed AI¡¯s indications. It was repetitive. Except our current route was tilting towards a never-entered place. In the end, and after lots of life-and-death occasions, I arrived at the AI¡¯s so-called heaven. A ghastlier and sinuous passage where ¡®signals were supposed to be fewer in numbers¡¯. This random path was like a shredder. In it, the number of spikes increased the more I advanced making it almost impossible to evade them. A18, this is bad, this tunnel is full of pointy stalagmites and stalactites! My puddle, you can do it!~ Motivation doesn¡¯t help at this moment- okay, it might. However... this is nuts! A18, can we survive that? My puddle, there is no other path available. It wasn''t the AI''s fault, neither was it mine. The paths we knew where blocked so the only option was to seek a new escape route. At least, this one wasn''t the most feared dead end. There was still hope in a path that had water-flow. So my flagellum¡¯s rotation slowed down and I prepared myself for the last straw. It was possible if we reach the tunnels end no blob will be able to catch up to us. As I neared the small spaces, parts of my surface were scraped by the copious spikes, yet I avoided damage to my frail and vulnerable ¡¯weak-spots¡¯. I won¡¯t let anything else than myself to scratch these two spheres. The prevention also included the vision sensor and the glowing orb below it, yet priorities are priorities. Fortuitously, the poke-blobs didn¡¯t have intelligence. When they arrived at my already wormed path, they followed mindedly and crashed against the spears without a second thought¡ªoblivious if their martyrdom and sacrifice, became valuable. I watched as their syrupy insides splashed and covered the walls near the spiky columns. Bubbles emerged from the glowy sand near their remnants, a chemical reaction. I knew they may have something similar to my digestive enzymes inside. Good thing my previous sample wasn¡¯t from one of those, though I might be able to digest almost anything now. I felt a scratchy sensation, it wasn¡¯t painful, yet it felt like a fast touch. My puddle, we have lost 2 MMs. I mind-gasped. One thing leads to another, whether the enemies behind or the spiky field in front, all of this could bring me nearer the famous end called game-over. But I, I didn¡¯t lose hope¡­ I was almost, safe. Yes, I believed that the moment I reached the end of this fucked up tunnel, all those blobs would¡¯ve impacted against the remaining obstacles and spears. However, the things used a sacrificial tactic to destroy the columns. Their chemicals corroded them like fast-acting acid. They died and opened the path for the ones that followed, something I realized after looking behind for a small moment. Damn! At the end of the tunnel, the spaces between the spikes were minuscule. I needed more time! I knew that even with the blob sacrifice tactic, they will probably be unable to follow. A18, now is what I¡¯d call the perfect time for motivation! My puddle, push harder! We are almost there! A18... I''ll invite you to a potato-soup dinner once we escape! Almost there, almost there! There were only 3 goo-body lengths separating myself from the heavenly hole and I just needed a little push to exit this hell. A18, we did it¡ª My puddle watch out! Alas, just when I was about to get out, one of the unfearful things managed to pass through a linear path formed by another¡¯s sacrifice. The surviving blob quickly wormed one of its tentacles and slapped me. My soul almost left my body as I felt myself crash into one of the walls. A spike scratched me and another message telling me 12 MMs were lost distressed me. I rolled and transitioned between the needle-like columns, yet luckily, I wasn¡¯t impaled. It was due to my small size and my rotational movement that made it easier for energy to be conserved in an impact. It caused me to roll a few times before transitioning in different directions, which in the end, drove me to pound into every column around me. If this was a pinball game, I would have earned a good number of tickets¡­ I didn¡¯t feel pain, which made my already holed and zombie-like¡­ um, broken state... become worse, protecting myself without feeling the damage was difficult, pain existed for a reason. However, even if the pain was not installed in my systems, dizziness was overwhelming. I also needed to check on my condition. My vision was working although some sectors were blurry. Nothing damaged the spheres or the orb, and my vision sensor''s crystal resisted part of the bumps, yet didn''t receive any scratches. G00-rilla glass wasn''t a scam or I was that lucky.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
My puddle! The number of MMs reached a dangerous level. There is not enough free MMs to repair the body in case a larger amount of MMs are lost! A18... do something...
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Project integrity is at risk. Further loss of MMs may result in the cessation of individual systems¡­ Movement and vision might stop working¡­
My pu55l3, r3p@ir5 are nee5e5! S-shit... I was still a bit groggy after the impact. My interface was connected to the equilibrium receptor. The awareness of gravity and orientation changing so rapidly made even my mind unstable. It was an oddity that the interface could create such sensations. I could separate myself from it, but I couldn¡¯t when the situation needed me. This connection and dizzy sensation, caused my mind to stop reacting on time. Thus, without having enough time to adjust, the surviving blob¡¯s shadow shrouded the little light that came from my still attached orb. My Pu55le, m0v3, you can d0 1t... My A18 keeps me alive, but still, my anxiousness is rising knowing what will happen if I don¡¯t do something. So I tried driving my mind controllers while pumping all energy to my slithering tail. However, it wasn¡¯t reacting. My broken shell wasn¡¯t responding and the monster¡¯s tendrils were nearing¡­ A18, what are you doing?! The flagellum isn''t working!
Warning, the movement device controller failed... Finishing repairs in 10¡­ 9¡­ 8...
R3pa1r5hs... No way! My most trusted weapon and rotor failed me. Tentacles of the thing glided through the waters as I tried to evade them virtually. My mind increasing its response time and making the events occur slower¡ªa nightmare¡ªsince it gave me a thriller sensation like an adrenaline rush. My thoughts, they demand I run, right now, without delay... please, Move! Alas, I was given a free hug... and for the first time, I didn¡¯t like it. The thing enveloped me. I knew what to do, but unless I get them off and move my helical tail, I won¡¯t be able to escape. Despite my effort¡ªand with my system retaining some of the sensor¡¯s perceptions¡ªthe cold, wet, and eerie gelatinous limbs, constricted my body. My unwillingness didn¡¯t spare me enough time as it continued to shout with anxiousness for my mind to do something. Think, do something, just move! Come on! Trying to grab anything in the approachable soil, withholding my position with my flagellum the best I could, or even using my stunted limbs to attach to the soil, to crawl on the slipping ground, just to get a bit more away and gain a valuable and additional moment to prolong my surv¡­ everything was useless! Crap! I even intended to grab a rock or something with weight so that I could gain the time I lacked. But no, it didn¡¯t work and I couldn¡¯t find nor afford it. I just tried to resist and get away while the sticky ropes from the monster pulled me to its gooey jaws. My visor kept facing the light at the end of the tunnel. Every inch closer was vital, but I knew it was impossible. I felt how the thing grasped my flagellum. The countdown at 0.
Repairs completed. Current mode: secure mode. Controller repaired. Awaiting user input¡­
A18, use the system to grab anything you can! My puddle, the system can¡¯t interact when in danger, the highest priority is to protect the core. I also tried moving the flagellum, but this time it didn¡¯t fail to start, it just remained motionless. The thing held the flagellum tightly, preventing it from rousing. I was totally trapped, like a flea enveloped in flossy threads as it awaited the humongous spider to devour it. The blob''s surface started to churn and transform, no mouth though. It was like a whirlpool or small cavity being made, similar to when my spheres enveloped experimental samples. This way of eating was like the first ability anything alive would adopt. Primitive, yet it never felt so terrifying to me, until now. The tentacles released me near the blob and I was pulled by smaller strands to a newly formed cavity. I felt like a rat thrown inside a box. Gazing at the exit which disappeared like the closing of a ruptured waterfall. My vision of the world becoming smaller until I was jailed in an dusky spherical room. I knew where I was. This...it was the monster''s stomach. Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 1/7 Part 1: Captured alive. The blob¡¯s tentacle had pushed me inside its ''mouth'' as countless strands from within restrained my body. A bubble formed with the interior containing myself and part of the liquid outside of the blob. Then the walls of the said bubble were reinforced by three-legged structures forming a Jail with triskelion motifs. This happened at the same time my body was anchored in its center and until the last ray of external light disappeared. My vision went dark and a feeling of pressure enveloped my body. I knew that the current situation was dire and I needed to escape the blob''s stomach as fast as possible. It was just that my body didn¡¯t react and my only perception was touch! Apart from that... everything was nothingness. Did something happen to the system? A18, what is happening? Is everything fine? A18, answer me! ¡­ Time was drifting, I didn''t know what to do until a point in time where a broken screen appeared in my mind. A forced restart? So I shouted, hoping to receive a response from the buggy and pixelated interface that appeared in my ¡®conscience¡¯. A18?! The interface started to reassemble like a digital puzzle formed of incomprehensible mosaics. My hopeless mind regained a little spark as purple text and a voice I missed for a small lapse of time reappeared. M% asd4 da&Pa$da A18, is everything fine? Any damage? M-My¡­ P-pU5d13¡­ R3pa1r5hs A18, come on! Get back on the right track, we need to get out of here! The interface and the voice restructured and eventually became comprehensible. Repairing¡­ Good, normal speech! How are we faring A18? My puddle¡­. We have lost around 50MMs, some of which were extremely important to the user¡¯s interface. The external system has lost 7% of processing units. Vision has 3% of damaged pixels¡­ The movement system suffered 14% damage over control units, it remains usable but might fail to work if overused. The user interface has been forcefully interrupted in an attempt to repair the priority systems¡­ Oof! Skip those bits for now... More importantly, thank god you are still here¡­ I thought I was going to be alone and that I wouldn¡¯t be able to hear a voice, even if artificial, once again.
Repairing... Repairing... Repairing...
How much do we have to wait for repairs? Estimated time: unknown. ¡­If only we could move...
User interface repaired¡­ Loading drivers... User drivers and controls loaded¡­ Priority self-repair done... Suspending Secure mode... Turning on background mode¡­ Reconnecting damaged sectors to User''s interface... Restarting previous crashed programs...
My puddle, the sensors and the flagellum stopped working but they should be usable now. Finally? My reaction when reconnecting to the world was similar to re-entering an almost ended game. One in which you still had the possibility to turn the tables, but time was rapidly sliding off from your hands. My missing senses restarted one by one, something that re-ignited that hopeful desire to live. I tried to move with the idea, yet my body didn''t react how I wished. I gazed at what appeared to be trident-like restraints and ropes that constrained me into the center of a spherical chamber. The light orb''s glitter holding like a quivering candle in the storm. My puddle the light from the orb might disappear at any moment. I checked the window and the orb had 10% of ''luminescence'' activity remaining. The whole room was quiet and dark if not for it. I knew loading itinside a blob might not be a good idea. Recharging it could work if the potato potion somehow triggered confusion to the blob. However, it may also trigger an opposite reaction and make the blob explode with me, these monsters were too sensitive towards it. So I threw the idea to the side, at least until there was no better option to choose. My vision adjusted and thanks to the still lasting light, I could grasp my current surroundings while reaching an expected conclusion. An ovoid room with greyish jelly-like walls and sturdy metal-like black columns that sealed me from the outside. There was a little tinge of transparency from the walls, meaning that light could enter this space. I''m I captured alive for some reason... no... this room, it seemed somehow familiar, could it be... However, before being able to give a shout at my assumptions, a place in the walls started to deform. A weird spiral structure appeared in a sector of the walls and stretched the visible surface like a whirlpool. The opening rotated allowing a black shadow-like fluid to pour inside the chamber. The difference in density was seen thanks to the fluttering flicker of my almost inactive light-orb when focusing on my front direction.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. I may not know what that black substance that drifted from the wall was with exactitude, yet I knew what it would do to me if I remained here for a long time. What expanded from the wall might be acid, nanomachines, enzymes--it could even be ¡®something¡¯ worse!Nonetheless, it was obvious that I shouldn¡¯t let myself be bathed or enveloped in it. Anxiousness tried to cloud my thought process, the things detaining me in place weren¡¯t allowing my body to move. Staring at the murky mist that hovered like a ghost while it mixed in the lightened water, provided me with resolution. Well, more like that desire to kick someone¡¯s ass even if it meant my death. The musings of a cornered rat, if it couldn¡¯t live to tell the tale, it will take the tale down with it. Yes, I was angry and wanted to slap this blob until nothing would recognize its leftovers. A feeling that went a little bit outside my usual nature, but my body had a bomb that could be used for a ¡®last-moment¡¯ occasion.
Part 2: Drastic Countermeasures. Heh, bastard, you actually want to eat me? Then let me return the favor! The bomb was reflected in my sensor. It was hanging beside the 1st sphere and attached to the long tail called flagellum. The 2nd sphere which contained tiny devastating destroyers was part of my stomach, but also part of my ¡®emergency-only¡¯ repertoire. I wouldn¡¯t lie by telling my first thoughts at such moments were to release all of them and probably end myself and the blob. But then thinking that this room might resist the digestive NMs, my thoughts calmed. The process of the mist mixing with the room was slow in my eye. It was probable that my ¡®thoughts¡¯ were accelerated after a forced restart. It could also be a consequence of fewer services running in the background. Whatever... all of this nonsense meant, that I finally got a solution. A18, move the second sphere and release small portions of its contents over the restraints near the flagellum. My puddle, the digestive NMs might damage the flagellum, are you sure you wish to continue? Don¡¯t ask me that at such moments! I-I mean... y-yes! HURRY UP! Detaching the 2nd sphere... Moving sphere to the selected restrains¡­ Not that one, A18! Start with the one to the left, to the left! Readjusting¡­ Awaiting orders from the user to release NMs¡­ Okay, release them. Carefully A18, very careful! ... Small amounts of my digestive nanomachines were released at specific points on the restraints. It all happened while the corroding cloud neared, and at the same time that I awaited the AI¡¯s accomplishment of the given order. Faster A18, faster! Closing the sphere, moving to the next restraint. Yes, yes¡­ only one more to go! ... My puddle, the process has been completed! Hearing a sexy and demonic voice for ¡®salvation¡¯ was odd, but I didn¡¯t pay much attention to it at such instant... Okay, I did. But in my mind, survival instinct predominated as I ignited my flagellum and started to slice the other constraints with it. Additionally, while I was concentrating on a thread cutting event, the 2nd sphere was reattached to its normal hanging spot by A18¡¯s services. The abrupt use of the digestive NMs was like vomiting, although no parts of the flagellum were damaged thanks to a precise release, the place where the sphere opened suffered partial damages. My puddle the second sphere received a 10% damage to its door structure after the release. The reduced contents allowed for the sphere to remain stable. Okay, Okay, I get it. Anyways, by having the flagellum released from its bindings, the restraints that held my body were promptly slashed. Yet I made a self note to remind me that those little destroyers were really dangerous. They are so freaky that if their release wasn¡¯t done with perfect precision, they might disconnect my one and only movement device and leave me disabled. Just in time! The digestive liquid had almost reached the middle of the chamber. Now that I could move, I hastily hovered and went towards the safe-zone on the other side of the room. Time was running out quickly and I needed to come up with a way to escape the jail before the damn digestive liquid reached me. Lunging myself with impatience, I twirled my body while giving a strong slam to the wall with my flagellum. The tip slashed whilst giving a gelatinous cutting sensation. It lacerated the membrane creating a dent bigger than my body, but it wasn¡¯t enough. The wall¡¯s width was bigger than I expected and while I watched, the whole thing repaired itself like magic. Time was slipping unremittingly and a second chance won¡¯t appear if I didn¡¯t do something. Releasing more Digestive NMs would deplete my fundamental way of self-repair, also known as digestion. My limited alternatives were running out as I slashed the wall. My puddle, the cloud has passed the middle of the chamber! At my back was the murky cloud that approached like an ominous black death, and at my front, the opaque triskelion-shaped jail and the gelatinous wall that self repaired. My vision played an important role in letting me know where the bars were separated, I only needed to pass through the gelating substance with enough momentum. Distance! I needed a boost! There was a way to get out! But this wasn¡¯t all that needed to be thought, the first problem was momentum. The second one required me to create a repetitive slashing motion. Since my flagellum slashed the walls easily, I decided to tear at it with a different approach, faster movements would open a quickly closing path and repetitive movements were needed to continuously maintain the path open before it self-repaired and closed. So I designed a plan¡­ I believed it could work¡­ Now for the last requirement, I needed a calm mind and a concentrated disposition. The time to escape was limited, but I had more than enough to think. A18, how plausible is the solution? Will the movement system tolerate it? My puddle, there is a 23% chance that the movement system will be overstrained. This is better than expected. If it didn¡¯t work, there was nothing else but using the digestive NMs and hope for some luck self-repair kit. But let¡¯s be honest that never happens. A18! Start a simple three numbers countdown! Yes, my puddle! My body did a weird snake-like movement as I retreated myself from the wall. And then, having an adequate distance from the liquid at my back, my mind adjusted as my body took a position before what I marked as the starting point of an Olympic run. My vision sensor locked onto the previously slashed wall that nearly finished its regeneration. Three! One opportunity¡­ Two! One opportunity¡­ One! Don¡¯t you dare miss it! Goo! My puddle! You can do it! My engine propelled me akin to a truck that wanted to send people to other worlds. A mad rush. I gained momentum quickly by rotating it counterclockwise, and eventually, the constant movement from the helix sent me forward. My body advanced with increases in speed by using an excessive amount of energy reserves, but contrary to the typical approach many would think, when I was almost at collision point, my body did a 180 degrees turn. My vision pointing to the dark liquid and my tail towards the wall. It stopped its rotation for a short period, and then, starting to rotate in the opposite direction (clockwise). The change propelled me towards the virtually-marked area in the wall. All in preparation to pierce through it. The so-called power of the spiral, drilling the crap out of that wall. That was the plan, in reverse of course. I so wanted to have a hand and point my middle finger at the cloud while smirking, I am free, bastard! The backstabbing helix drilled through the wall and made a hole 1.5 times bigger than my body, allowing it to pass unhindered. It could be said that I went through the walls as easily as a drill perforating butter. It wasn¡¯t that easy though, there was something like surface tension. So at the last moment of my scape, I felt like I smacked something, and with a popping sensation, I saw how the walls closed and almost crushed me by a hair¡¯s breadth. Dejectedly, once I left the blob''s digestive sphere my little light orb extinguished, but my vision remained relevant because the insides of this balloon-like creature glowed stronger than fireworks. Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 2/7 Part 1: The blob''s inner architecture. I-I am free! The blob didn''t take my life nor imprisoned me. That means, only one thing... Freedoooom! Um, okay. Just a lousy mind-shouting event while I hovered in a bigger sea after my escape from a dwelling prison. It seems that a tater-based diet during scarce periods made you brave. An interesting side effect, but let''s be serious, it''s time to concentrate on reality... Below myself were two massive''worlds'' were colliding¡ªone being the bubble prison from where I escape, the other, the carrier of the venomous substance. Two ellipsoid ''rooms'' fused slowly until they became one. I watched all of that from outside. In reality, their combination was different from my ''digestive system'' which worked more like two space stations connecting through a valve or a door. The first sphere had a bigger door to collect things. The second sphere had a smaller one, used to prevent the digestive NMs from going overkill. Maybe I can take this as a learning experience to improve something in the future. My puddle the propulsion systems are overtaxed. Initiating repairs...
Starting motor system repair... Analyzing current damages to the motor systems... [...] Modular analysis complete... Calculating solutions... Accumulated damage to theproject is limiting complete repair... Selecting resources for replacement... Assortment established... Checking further resources for repairs... Resources lacking... [...] Starting system passive absorption... Checking the environment... [...]
An expected outcome and the reason why I stayed adrift, overusing my motor system made my flagellum limp. The AI was also doing everything within her possibilities to restore its functions. A process that would probably take a while. The good thing was¡ªthat while I floated above my previous prison¡ªI could see the distant surroundings¡­ In the faraway range, outlines of constructions were visible. Furthermore, the liquid outside the spherical prison had some sort of sparkling dust, giving me the impression of a ''starry space''. Huge rods and shiny objects were moving from place to place inside my visual field. It was similar to watching constellations and thousands of vessels that dashed in a similar manner to shooting stars in space. The bigger ones had the appearance of planets and stars, but I knew they were related to the thing which trapped me¡ªspherical constructs that carried something in their interior. Many of these bubbles were hovering in the space around me, but with a more detailed inspection, they were actually mobilizing towards the unknown limits of my vision.Each bubble floated in close proximity to the constructions and mild vibrations were displayed as they advanced in some sort of schematized pathway. By rigorously focusing on my visuals, I found something below each bubble. Their balloon-like shapes were secured by twisting filaments that were attached to gear-like machinery. Surprisingly, the way these bubble-pulling machines moved was somehow incredulous, it was human-like... Theycarried bubbles like backpacks as they hiked over sturdy filament spirals and irregular columns. Like little kids playing with helium balloons but defying all concepts of gravity. To make it odder, the roads they ran over were also outside the norm... Even a futuristic city would pale in comparison to the colossal constructions inside the blob. Everything was composed of shifting machines that appeared alive when seen from my minuscule perspective. This inconceivable type of architecture consisted of straight rods, interlacing fibers, and bundled filaments. But these buildings and streets weren¡¯t static. It was like seeing the Empire State bending its form between straight and curved; swinging with pendular movements while wobbling, spiraling, stretching and shrinking¡­ Even looping! Highways that adopted a tridimensional snake-like behavior. It was flabbergasting... Really, this kind of framework left me without words. In addition,when I gazed at the horizon in my field of vision, all of these structures became a ramified tree that tried to intersect at a point at the ends of my visuals. Hence, why I didn''t have enough words to describe the unworldly mesh that I was seeing.
Part 2: Moving forward.
Repairing... 1% . . . 99%... Propulsion systems repaired! Checking drivers... Reconnecting user interface... [¡­]
My puddle, the user interface controls have been restored. Eh? That didn¡¯t take as long as I expected. Are you sure I can move now, A18? Yes, my puddle. The strain on the motor system was solved. Great! Time to get out of this thing. I guess time passed too quickly without me noticing. No one likes to watch a loading screen go from 0 to 100% if you have something better to look at.Anyways, time to leave. After regaining control and thrusting myself forward, I arrived at a close position to the structures around. I still tried to avoid them, who knew if by touching one of those strings would sound an alarm. I still remember my miserable experiences too well to do something unrequired. I needed to leave this place right now! Alas, things weren''t easy, swimming in this new ocean was harder than I thought. A18, we are moving too slow. Please check a way to get us out of here. Yes! checking... The fluid inside this part of the blob didn''t taint my visor while I swam, and the light from the structures around allowed me to ''see'' through the fluid as if it was a slightly murkier version of water. So even if my visibility decreased, it wasn''t bad compared to the original, just a bit limiting in far-sightedness, like swimming in the sea instead of a pool. In summary, with the blob¡¯s inside fireworks, anything important was already flashy enough to take into account. My advancement was slug-paced. I had nothing else to do but to stare at the constructions around. Actually, being able to check on them closer showed me that the columns had an uneven surface. They weren¡¯t perfectly cylindrical but had a rough shape as if made by various smaller blocks. Now I felt like some pro-diver looking at some ancient ruins below the oceans. Even more startling was seeing that some of the big columns opened like an octopus and started to unravel. Yes, one of the previously mentioned rods was formed by eight strings of conjoined building blocks. When the 8 strings composed of blocks separated, the process resembled fireworks. There were other variants of rods. Some were made of two types of blocks, others of four or more. It was just that they weren''t as attention-catching as this one. By eyeing the tips where it was being ''deconstructed'' I found something that moved. The rods'' construction project actually depended on tiny and unknown mechanized constructs at their ends. This gave the impression that the cylindrical columns were basically appearing and disappearing in real-time. Their image in my vision was like assembling dragons that slithered through hasty clouds of floating spume and bubbles that assumed the form of planets. The only problem was... that I was losing my sense of direction and my AI couldn''t give me a solution... A18, we have been moving in a straight direction, right? Do you have an answer to what I asked you? Why do I feel we haven''t really made any progress? We have been moving forward based on the positional sensors. But the environment has been adjusting as we move. Wait, is that the reason why we are seeing the same things all the time as if we haven''t moved? There are forces that prevent my puddle from advancing in the desired direction. The proposed solution is to search for another path, but since no path has been found the query hasn''t been answered. ... The conversation continued but it didn''t give me a satisfactory answer. My plan was to get out of here, but invisible ''waves'' were making me go towards the deep ocean instead of the blobs beachy surface. It gave me the perception that the blob''s liquid adjusted itself to keep me in place. In fact, I might be triggering some sort of invisible mechanism that I couldn''t get a hold of. Was it like swimming in petroleum? Um, since the AI couldn''t help me in this confusing situation I had to order my possibilities. I paused in the middle of the columnar meshes. Let''s see, we are in a liquid-filled space with waves like the sea. Inside of it, I can''t move freely, so I need to copy whatever moves in this place. Doing a list, we have ballon carrying/walking machines, snake-likeconstructions that assembled in real-time, huge and small ships that swam through the visible space... Everything made me delve in thoughtfulness while I inspected this unexpected spectacle. My first options were the ships, yet they were too far away and their locomotion mechanisms an enigma. Probably not rentable since I didn''t have a way to get on those or create another type of device to move. The second option was the rods and those walking machines above them. There were many types of those, but at least some of them appeared to stay within my reach. I could probably get on one of those cylinders... Yes, that''s a good idea, but now the problem became which cylinder to choose. There are too many types of them and some were creating looping rings without even stretching towards a specific direction. ¡­ My mindful stop lasted for a while. I choose to go towards a straight one around 45 degrees to my left. Gathering my resolve, I moved by pushing the fluid inside the blob with my flagellum. The advancement was slow but steady. It really wasn''t easy, the waters had currents that made me realize little changes in direction. There were even big waves that made me whirl and return to the restarting point. I felt like I''d been killed in a game over and over having to start everything from scratch. At least experience wasn''t deleted and even my AI started to gain better with it. It wasn''t that A18 couldn''t receive signals and adjust a direction, it was just that there were too many in the environment for her check on all. Checking for the strongest or nearest to me was the current priority. For every new try, the AI would advise me better. Like whenever a huge current appeared she will deduce a better path to avoid it. She was even predicting places where they would appear with better accuracy. I have been trying non-stop, yet for a strange reason I wasn''t tired and the energy levels remained stable. A bug? ... However, I was still returned to my initial point. A18, I feel lucky this time, let''s try agai¡ª My puddle, multiple signals are being received. Eh? Another one? Where will it come from A18? The signals are locking at a point ¡®2.1 bodies¡¯ above you. The received signal this time is different. There is no gradient suggesting a current. Not a current? And appearing above?The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. My body bent allowing my vision to stare at the open space around me. There I saw nothing new, but after a minuscule time-lapse, a weird structure assembled at the farthest ends of my sight. Yeah, another one of those constructions, but this one was bigger than the ones I saw before. It resembled the end of a huge bridge. A bridge that was being built in a fast-paced manner, block over block being attached in a harmonious assembly. I watched as it came closer and closer from its starting point at the end of the shiny but foggy ¡®sky¡¯ within my sight. At first, I believed it to only be a gigantic version of those rods I saw before, yet by witnessing the real-time building process, I could conclude that its interior was hollow. Something that made it different... a tunnel? This tube¡¯s bricks were distributed like a spiraling staircase. The structure¡¯s direction, however, was apparently straight, like an unending straw with its other end turning blurry. An engineering mindset of the assembling would make it seem mesmerizing, repetitive, and simple; yet satisfying to a degree which rendered me unable to stop watching the bridge''s construction process. With curiosity sparking, I decided toswim my way thereand check on the process of its construction from a different angle. At least, this tube was passing near, which might allow me to grab onto it. The appearance was still that of a cylindrical bridge, and even though its surface from far away seemed curved¡ªwhen closing in¡ªthe pieces that comprised it appeared jagged. In summary, the surface wasn¡¯t perfectly circular since the blocks had some irregular ends. On the visible end of the tube, many smaller machines like butterflies could be seen working on its assembly. They added additional blocks at a rather fast pace. This made the construction development visible, and before I could depict the whole process, the bridge-like tube passed above my ¡®head¡¯ until both ends of it were ¡®undetectable¡¯. My puddle, copious amounts of varying signals have been perceived. They are being emitted at its ends. Many additional signals seem to be traveling through its inside in the same direction as its construction. Hearing my AI gave me a clue about what this structure could be. If the blob uses this for information, doesn¡¯t that mean these things are somehow similar to cables or nerves?
Part 3: Reaching a highway. Swiming my way towards the tube was actually easier than I though. It seemed the tube created some sort of aura or field that protected me from those currents. I should''ve known such thing would appear and I just needed to wait for the bus stop. Hmph, making me lose my precious time... My puddle, the system has detected a change in the environment after repairing the movement devices. Hm, this... I seem to have omitted the repair screen telling me the AI was checking the environment. Tell me A18. Upon increasing the amount of ingested fluid for signal scanning, the strain over the flagellum and the system has been reducing. The final outcome being that the fluid in the environment contains substances that stabilize the damages to the project. It¡¯s providing energy and resources. Wait! Shouldn¡¯t the ''mouth'' sphere be carrying the potato potion? How can we digest things without an empty 1st sphere? The liquid around the project contains a small amount of already digested resources that can be used directly by the system. The 1st sphere still has 40% of the total capacity (4 of 10 servings) and has not been used. Hey, does that mean that we can passively repair ourselves? The thought struck me as I watched the mysterious environment while in deep consideration. I really wanted to leave the blob''s body as fast as I could. However, if this is what I think it was... A18 show me a scan of the elements. Yes, my puddle.
Retrieving Results...
Following a list shown in my mind-space, I came to a conclusion. First, the fluid inside the blob had a different concentration of elements in comparison to the external environment. But apart from isolated variations, it was very similar in what I classified as water composition. Secondarily, the fluid appeared to have many of the required elements that my body needed for repair. The tricky part was that these elements¡¯ availability was scant. It wasn¡¯t enough to create new MMs with the feeble amount in it. Lastly, the unknown elements needed by the AI were not identifiable, so an objective analysis couldn¡¯t be completed at the moment. The good side was, that even without having a conclusive result, the current conditions were favorable and appeared to be repairing the damages and wounds of my previous escape from the blobs. It actually was what relieved the strain the flagellum withstood after escaping from the prison and made it possible for the AI to repair things faster. Despite all this, procuring unknown elements needed to create MMs were a priority. In the end, I asked the AI to name all elements I didn¡¯t know with empty variables (Unknown elements A, B, C... etc). A18, did you find any unknown element in the fluid? The analysis concludes that there are traces of them in it. Please start collecting data on each of those. Yes. It will take a while to complete the list, but since it was an unfamiliar area, we just needed to experiment and find the things that worked. The problem here was that an unknown element would be called ¡®unknown-element-A¡¯ instead of ''oxygen'' based on the current approach. I wanted to have a similarity to the chemistry table in my past life. Nonetheless, if it wasn¡¯t possible, I would need to study and experiment on the atoms, address a number to each, and... give a ¡®novel¡¯ name to the unknowns. Aieighteenium? Gooinium? Anyways, the priority right now was to see if we could get an advantage for being inside of the blob. These differences of concentrations we found were an incomplete birthday cake. Well, more like crumbles... because the important point here was what the small amounts of dissolved elements denoted... If this blob was relatable to a cell, then the ¡®dissolved resources¡¯ were like its energy. Which depicted that the elements I needed from it were being distributed to all of its body on a regular basis. And since a regulatory system needed a precise resource distribution, all of these digested resources should come from somewhere. A18, we might have hit the jackpot if my assumptions are correct! My puddle is awesome! Yes, praise me more! ...
Part 4: The way towards the blob''s safe. The crumbles were fundamentally clues for a treasure map. In essence, there should be a place that worked as the blob¡¯s storage! A reserve where I can find the so-called unknown elements in bigger concentrations, and with it, I''ll finally have the lacking resources to make MMs. With this train of thought,I began to check on my superstitions. Where did a cell store its energy? A mitochondria? Hm, I can¡¯t remember it¡­ A18, any idea of how to find the place where the resources from the liquid come from? My puddle, we can check on this tube''s direction, the signals inside of it seem constant with almost no directional variation. Hm, that''s right this tube should be connected to the blob''s battery if they are the distributors of resources. Nice suggestion A18! With an idea of what to do, my body made its way towards the upper side of the tube. Gravity didn''t seem to play a big role inside the blob, yet my sensors could still show me my position. As I drove with my rotatory propulsion-device, I finally got a closer glance at the walking machines. Within the countless bundled rods and interlaced pillars in the surroundings, many tiny machines moved. But in those, the movement was unidirectional with only one machine at a time passing through those small ''bridges''. Instead, above this humongous tube, you had more space, and it worked both ways. Furthermore,many types of ¡®gear machines¡¯ advanced over it. The image was like a highway, where vehicles, people, and animals crowded towards their destination. I noticed that they diverged in the way they toiled. A contrasting pattern for each, except they all looked like efficient workers. There were some that advanced like wheels, others were bipedal with human-like legs, some danced with odd spinning motions while advancing, and there were some that appeared like dogs walking on fours¡­ The one that attracted my attention was one I saw before. While sneaking near it, I saw that the filament it had for a body reached a bubble behind it. It was actually bigger when seeing it this closely and gave the sensation of a walking robot. Two coiled strings made its core, some unevenly spaced hinges giving it additional flexibility. A goblet like structure served as a supporting point for the giant balloon it carried over the column¡¯s surface. For movement, a switching gear structure with two clumsy and small appendages touched the ¡®ground¡¯. These appendages looked like feet and they glued the machine to the columns in a spinning pattern. It twisted and danced over the column in a repetitive cycle, yet it moved faster and efficiently than I had predicted. Watching it being similar to my size made me stagger, as a big question assaulted me¡­ Was I actually smaller than I predicted before? A weird feeling. If the blob is a cell-like monster then what am I? Never mind¡­ I really should omit the non-solvable thoughts and leave them for later. It¡¯s better to continue exploring and start connecting clues when I have a better concept. ... The blob¡¯s glowing interior was like a Christmas decorated street below a clear dark sky when seen from above the hollow tube¡¯s surface. Even this ¡®pavement¡¯ below myself had so many features that I wished I could have gazed at it with colors. If there was no other benefit than staggering scenarios inside the blob, my first thought would¡¯ve been to ask for an exploration-leave and exit the insides of such a disgusting creature immediately. But since my ¡®contractor¡¯ made me deduce ¡®what a big chance¡¯ this situation I¡¯m in represents and that I could probably strike it rich by searching for a once in a lifetime opportunity¡­ I decided to stay on the gamble-boat. I would follow the boat¡¯s direction, get the needed treasure from it, and escape it before I make it hit the iceberg. In the end, I created a new quest to make some motivation for my trip. These quests were not only for the thrill of gaming. They represented my organized thoughts, like when doing experiments. Just that sometimes I didn¡¯t have the need to create them or complete them. My puddle, the new quest has been created! Thanks, A18.
NEW QUEST!
¨x¨y¨z¨{?? ¡î ??¨{¨z¨y¨x
Name: Stealing Resources.
Objectives:
  • Explore the blob¡¯s insides.
  • Find a place with ¡®treasure¡¯ and steal it.
  • Extra: Try to destroy the blob in the process.
Description: You have saved your bum after being swallowed by a nasty poke-poke. After escaping from its deadly stomach, you found opportunity in the deadly occasion. The blob¡¯s inside is a treasure trove filled with already digested resources. It¡¯s deducible that the blob might have a bigger storage with the needed elements in higher concentrations. In the end, you decided that it¡¯d be a shame to leave the blob¡¯s inside without settling the debt.
Reward: Unknown things.
¨x¨y¨z¨{?? ¡î ??¨{¨z¨y¨x
Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 3/7 Part 1: Following the crowd.
My puddle, direction towards the possible storage has been calculated. There are more machines moving towards side A than side B. There are also more signals flowing from side A to side B of the tube. So you suggest I go towards the side where ''it'' first appeared? Yes. Analysis suggests that the signals are also dependant on energetical resources, which should take us to the place my puddle wants to go. Good girl A18, you deserve cat videos or honeybuns! The ''cat'' word has been mentioned, punishment activated! Ugh...
QUEST ACCEPTED. You should head towards the side of the tube with more traffic. Follow the crowd!
Thus, I became another ''pedestrian'' in the road towards riches. Following ''all of those'' going towards the marvelous blob-dream. The paradise of being a stable walker. A place where all of them would enjoya satisfying life of movement over the threads of destiny! How funny, this was extremely similar to a crowd of individuals striving for the future. ... After having my fun and giving those walking constructs a virtual reason of why they worked so hard, I continued my travels.Hovering above the tile-shaped highway and sneaking behind those that transported cargo was uneventful for most of the time. I was just bored with moving forward¡ªand somehow¡ªstill limited by an invisible domain produced by the tube. I couldn''t get out of it and I was a bit bored after seeing the same landscape. These guys walk so slow. They also occupy all of the traveling paths making it hard for me to advance faster. Does the blob give a driver''s license to idiots? In fact, I felt like a speed car in the middle of slowpokes. These guys pulling heavy cargo were too slow. Even the calm me started to get impatient at such turn of events. Eventually, this made me start going ahead of the slow ones until I reached the constructs that moved faster. It was at such a moment of playing fast and puddle, that something superfluous caught my attention.It was a cube-like construct that hovered in the liquid. At first, I thought it was some sort of race-flag or display to tell the number of laps remaining. Yeah, I was too immersed in my speed challenge. However, upon arriving below it, its interesting appearance stopped my racing event for a while. I did a little stop and watched as the thing started to advance towards the tube. What is this cube thing? Despite being in a state where curiosity invaded me, I didn¡¯t want to touch anything that would trigger a weird response from the blob. So, I ignored the hovering crystal after a bit of inception and decided to continue my racing event. But as if destiny had prepared something, the cube''s faces detached¡ªand its figure, which started to gyrate in a synchronic pattern¡ªmoved towards my particular direction. A18, is that thing coming for me? There is no signal suggesting for it moving towards you, my puddle. Staying still for another short moment revealed that the thing was apparently coming towards my direction. A18, it''s really coming this way! My puddle there is no signal emitted by that machine. I decided to ignore my AI and run away from the place. Did something make her start to malfunction? The construct advanced and hovered all over the place. It then arrived at the place I was before. However, it never moved towards my new hiding area a few bodies behind. My gaze never left it, thankfully I didn''t sweat and my mind could somehow stay attentive for a longer period. The only shortcoming being, that the thing didn''t move. Yes, it stayed hovering over the same spot I was before, it also blocked the ''lane'' I assigned myself. I wouldn''t be able to pass through if it remained there like some smashing block. I could change lanes but it would make me pass near it, and I didn''t want to. What should I do? With a limited set of options, I decided to taunt it. Obviously, the taunt was me doing small movements far away from it. I didn''t believe it could comprehend some advanced puddle-mocking language. Alas, I even tried to fan the liquid with the hexagonal tip of my flagellum towards the thing. In the end, the situation turned weird because the cube didn¡¯t react. Should I say my idea was dumb? Well, probably. But at that time I thought it was... ok, forget it. Good thing the AI couldn''t laugh at me. ... While my thoughts jumped from odd ideas that weren''t implemented after the previous failure, the cube''s faces started to whirl. It then regrouped into its ''moving'' shape while gradually returning to its previous position. In a matter of zeconds, it''s faces fused at that place and it resumed its cubic form. A18, you sure we didn¡¯t activate a trap or something? My puddle there is no signal being sent apart from the ones inside the tube. Checking the tube''s surface, I noticed a missing tile. The tube had many ''holes'' that weren''t visible while I was moving. It seems that some of those holes or variations in the tube''s tiles were the places that the machines stepped over. By promptly altering my position, I glimpsed at the tube''s interior. A18, there is some light coming from inside the tube, is that the signal you mentioned? There is an additional pulse inside the tube. it''s too feeble to be easily detected... Hm, there really is some flickering pattern to it. If there was something being sent through the tubes, I needed to check on it. So, I moved my vision and scrutinized a small opening between the other tiles in the tube¡¯s exterior. The tube''s interior wasn''t hollow as I thought.I presumed it was a tunnel but even with a forceful approach, I couldn''t access it. It had some invisible and squishy substance that allowed a pulse of light to pass through it. The holes borders were regular but after many tries, I couldn''t touch them. The squishy sensation was probably part of the field that limited my movement on the tube''s surface. Finally, after a long bout of repeated tests, an ''unpredictable'' event occurred. My puddle there seems to be an increase in the number of incoming signals sent from our chosen destination. Signals?
Part 2: Checkpoint! In the liquid vault above myself, a swarm of worm-like swimmers emerged from the misty skies. They resembled wooden puppets, particularly snakes, formed of various blocky-segments with a thin strand running through their center. All of them swam around the tube like a how huge disc made of iron-needles would organize around a magnetic-cylinder. Yes, like a sliding circle around a shaft. It didn¡¯t take long before another batch of them appeared behind us. A18, what is that? Starting a signal scan... While my AI processed my query, the swarm-like assemblage advanced like a circular wall along the cable. Um, is that affixed to the tubes? Some sort of sentinel and scanning utility? Anyway, this wasn¡¯t a good thing for me. I was in the middle of the grinding disc sandwich! My puddle, be careful! There are signals being directed towards our place! Dang! A18, are those signals tracking us? There is a high amount of signals being sent from the group of machines above, they are expecting a response from our position, but the probability to create an accurate answer is low. The number of signals and its possible translation suggests a type of targeting protocol. A threat. Eh? So they are really locking on us?! Not knowing what to do at such moments, I moved backward. Subsequent to my actions, the snake-like creatures composing those discs descended from the sky in tandem. They followed a daffy formation as if attracted by a non-subtle reaction. However, those movements were proof enough for me to notice that they were having trouble to completely trace my location. The clumsy movements gave the impression of something affecting their ability to recognize what ''I'' was. They appear to be hesitating. If this is a search for intruders I remain ''unknown''. Which means that I have time to gather information. When both armies/enemies don''t know each other, the one with the upper hand wins, and the most important asset in war should be information. Without trustful data, you wouldn''t plan a strategy nor ideate solutions to your problem. A18, remember: Know your problem well before thinking of how to solve it. My puddle, you are in trouble. Current solution unknown, do your best! I-I... forget it. I just needed to use this knowledge of both sides never meeting. So, by taking this advantage into account¡ªand thanks to A18¡¯s opportune caveat¡ªI reaffirmed their intention. These worm-like things were really trying to find something, probably me. But they didn¡¯t know what I was, nor if I even existed. Calming down after an anxious emotion, enlightened my mind with a temporary solution for this new predicament. My first thought was not cowardly, it was part of the strategy for a future counter. It was to hide, obviously. My plan implied hiding to gather information about these unknowns. How to escape a trap you knew nothing about? It was impossible if you didn''t take the random factor of probability, also known as luck. And sincerely, luck was near zero in this second chance at life. With a plan in mind, I pushed forward to hide within the crowd of tube-walking machines as a cover. These walking machines weren''t carrying the balloons but still gave me enough of a cover. Nevertheless, every time I made an action or adjusted my cover, it impelled a more vigorous search by those things. It was good and bad at the same time. I could incite them to move and gather information. At the same time, one misstep and I was done for.Hence, the longer I could hide, the more time I had to strategize.This wasn''t a war I could win. I didn''t have three hundred warriors at my side, and I didn''t want to disappear. A place to hide was all I needed. Thus, Icontinued to hide behindthe walkingconstructs. All of my actions in the hope that their shadow, scent, chemicals, or whatever sensors these things used... would somehow conceal this puddle between their legs. A18, check if there is some signal coming from us when we move. Also, how are they able to sense us?If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. My puddle, there is no signal being emitted by the project directly. For the second query: Information about the creature is not enough to formulate an accurate answer. Okay, dumb question it''s obvious you don''t know¡­ unknown this, unknown that... How about this? Please check if we triggered something that made them lock onto us. Checking¡­ While I asked the AI, some snakes emerged in the vicinity. When they arrived near my walking shelter, I moved away hastily and changed towards the walking construct at its side. When looking at these snakes movements with a careful inspection, I could reaffirm my previous assumption. Their movements remained cranky, nothing when compared to mine. My eye locked onto the ones surrounding the machine I previously hid. They were circling it nonstop, probably scanning it in search of me. So instead of dogs, the blob uses worms, this is great! Yeah, the snake''s actions were like sniffing the clues from the machine I abandoned. Slowly, after a long round of inspection, the bullying snakes left the tormented walking machine and went off to the sky. That didn¡¯t mean all of them left the zone. The swarm of danger noodles was still surrounding the area and doing scans in little groups. The group that left was just a grain in a pot of rice, the reason they left, could be that they found clues to report or concluded their current shift. Hm, it seems that I tend to humanize everything I see. Is it an advantage too? Whenever scouting snakes arrived near my spot, I would jump to another ¡®walking machine¡¯ and hide in their ¡®shadow¡¯. There were too many snakes in the vicinity when I less expected it. Their numbers appeared to be increasing the more I instigated their actions. Clearly, evading them without allowing them enough reaction was my priority. I didn''t know what would happen if I gave them the opportunity for a complete lock on. I need to get out of this disc-sandwich, but how? A18, any result? Still probing...
Part 3: Scapegoat. My current position in between the disc was at the front. Near the disc that came from the unknown destination, I wished to go to. The disk at my back was farther, but it was a distance I could overcome in a small lapse if needed, just that it would trigger a bigger reaction. Every time I switched a hiding spot, I would advance nearer to the disc. I found that it also moved near me. Covering a distance of ~0.5 bodies along the tube after every thousand rotation it did, as calculated by the A18. Its tangential speed was slow so it took it a long time to complete this. Its speed was slower than when it first appeared. I could see in the front that the aligned machines were being scrutinized by the snakes. I couldn''t see the base of the spinning disk from here, and I couldn''t advance if security was so tight. I needed a way to slip through that security. A place where those snakes won''t check. The perfect idea became obvious when looking behind. My next action depended on the things behind the walking machines. The spherical cargos which they pulled forward entered my vision. It was probably the perfect place to hide, I just needed to get near one of the balloon-pulling machines to complete the action. Well, that would work if I didn''t make the wrong decision! I had chosen to follow the walking machines that moved faster¡ªwhich obviously corresponded to the ones that didn¡¯t have any sort of cargo. My impatience made me swim my way towards them, and now, I needed to swim back to those slowpokes. It took me a while to arrive at a zone where the cargo-pulling machines stopped. The snake machines were almost everywhere, and even though a great number pulled off towards spots to ''seal'' a cylindrical volume around the tube, a copious amount remained to check the tube''s surface. Worse of all, I saw how the snakes were actually concentrating more near the cargo-carrying machines than the ones with nothing. Is this a joke?! Did I come all the way here to be made an idiot? With no other option, I tried to make a sneak attempt and started drilling a small hole in one of the shipments. When I drilled one, something happened that forced me to leave while scurrying towards another shelter. The plan for entering the bubble didn''t work! I was spooked! The bubble I drilled didn¡¯t explode, the liquid in its inside also didn¡¯t flow out. Everything was going perfectly, besides that it repaired itself. But shortly after the sound of victory was delivered, tentacle-appendages appeared over the bubble''s surface and... Disgusting! I couldn''t imagine what would happen if I entered that bubble. With my mind collapsing upon the unexpected appearance of such appendages, I had no other choice but to fall back and hide in another machine''s shadow while trembling. My puddle, there is a huge reaction occurring at the spot you tried to enter. The voice of my AI alleviated my traumatized mind and gave me a reason to gaze upon the drilled bubble. For some reason, those feelers attracted the puppet-snakes¡¯ attention, as they arrived swiftly and surrounded the tampered cargo. During their check-up, the snake puppet¡¯s tails had a three-helical structure that grabbed the feelers of the bubble. The ones surrounding the bubble seemed to make some rattle-snake movement with their heads, the zero volume dance being a ritual that attracted more of them from the disks in the sky. All in all, a bunch of snakes started to dance, joining some sort of weird bubble party. A18, what are they doing? My puddle, there seems to be an exchange of signals going between the bubble and the snake-shaped puppets. Heck, they are able to do that? Is it some sort of bar-code scanning? My plan of hiding inside a bubble was flawed but it completely ended when aware that something might change if I enter the cargo. It was not an option, I might get imprisoned again without even realizing it! The damage I did probably revealed something to the blob¡¯s defense mechanisms as more snakes descended towards the area and patrolled fervently. Eventually, the tampered cargo was attacked and the whole walking-machine I used as a hiding-spot, began to be encircled by the snakes. Previously, when I saw how the cube-machine moved in my direction to probably ¡®jail-hug me¡¯, the AI was the one that warned me it didn''t go for me. This time, the snakes around were a real threat. Thesensors of these snake puppets created a change in the surrounding liquid, a signal which allowed the AI to sense their arrival and their ability to ''lock'' invaders. However, what I was currently witnessing was how these newly-encountered snakes hugged their own-kind. I was witnessing how killing an innocent bystander didn¡¯t matter if you could capture the criminal. It was weird to think of it like that, but the poor walking machine I used as a decoy had no way to escape the death sentence. Different from a cage, the snake-puppets enveloped the machine as if elastic bands. Its structure compressed, then folded; making it take a compact-shape of what it was. But this wasn¡¯t all, above in a certain sector of the sky, a bigger snake puppet that was coiled in the shape of a barrel appeared. The small snakes took the trapped machine towards its mouth. The big viper opened its jaw slowly, it entwined its body around the prisoner, and then, it started to constrict what remained of the tampered-machine with overwhelming force. The whole act appeared like a barbarian magician doing a disappearance performance. Vanishing a car with a folding spell and awaiting for it to be small enough to enter its mouth¡ªuntil nothing remained, except sparks and fireworks being released at the sky from its rear end. Illogical pattern detected in the user. Proceeding to use the Ice-bucket protocol. Wait! I was only shuddering¡­ Geez! This¡­ f-feels too cold! My puddle, you need to think calmly! Stop it! I-I¡¯m calm! ¡­
Part 4: The calm before the storm. After a little discussion, I found this trip to be longer than expected. It was good that the snakes left me alone when they went all kill-bill. Yet I felt like a suspicious passenger during strict airline check-ins. I could move faster if I left this ¡®general-line¡¯, but whenever I trailed off from one of the walking machines¡¯ shadows, the snaky constructs descended, forcing me to select a scapegoat. Fudge! Can¡¯t you things just leave me alone? A18, tell me, did you find why this is happening? Answering my puddle¡­ There is no precise response, yet there is a reaction coming from the floor whenever my puddle moves. From the floor? Is there some trap on it I haven¡¯t found about? Was it my fault after experimenting with the tube? A18, continue checking. I will try to make a decoy, we need to leave this area as fast as possible Yes! ... Every time I scratched or touched a bubble, it would release those appendages and attract the snakes. Eventually, I started to calculate my timing to perfectly make me attempts. With experimenting, I found they were unable to track me if I skipped machines in a linear pattern. Additionally, they would give me more time to watch and think when they were concentrated on the suspected. Time was running constantly, the more time that passed, the more those disks limited my space. It concentrated the snakes and increased their searching ability. I knew that if things continued like that, I won''t have a chance of escaping. My advantages were speed, swiftness, intelligence, and concealment. Passively, I had enough nutrients and my energy levels remained almost full. The same could be said for those snakes since they ate from this liquid, they could even be more efficient at it. My disadvantages were obvious: numbers, away gameplay, and space lockdown (which implied time). I needed to make a plan. My information gathering gave me the possibility since the unknown factor was neutral to both parties with a mild advantage to those playing at home. However, being able to think was what showed me the way to solve this. The next time they descend I would attack a specific one. Then, I''ll sneak behind a faraway machine near the disk at the back, and maybe, with a consecutive strike cause a commotion while advancing forward. My puddle the signals are coming from a structure in the tubes. There is a different type of ¡®tile¡¯ on the surface we are hovering. Hm, this means I have been triggering tiles all the time. Indeed, I already thought that the tiles triggered some defense reaction. But there was something that didn''t allow my mind to reach that conclusion. I needed to be able to differentiate them and I couldn''t. A18, they are all the same! Please mark the different ones in my interface, try using some sign or virtual color to make them recognizable. Marking¡­ When seen through my eye, the greyish tiles on the floor were almost identical. The AI could sense a subtle difference, maybe something to do with polarity or some invisible magnetism. Thanks to that, I would at least be able to discern where to step on. A bit of experimentation revealed that those snakes were startled when I passed over the ''sensing'' tiles. They were also triggered if I arrived at a certain distance of them, or if I attacked something that could create those tentacles appendages. The bodies of the walking machines were safe; the bubbles weren''t, and the tubes, they were in the middle-ground.
Marking completed!
The current method of analysis followed the areas where the walking machines evaded to step. There is a directional pattern for the tiles and it suggests that my puddle can only pass near structures that the machines, which go forward, interact. Okay, not what I thought of, yet it meant that apart from the tiles, this highway hadsome traps attached for foreigners, and my movements were ultimately provoking the speed limit sensors. Maybe I was a wrong-way driver that moved against the ¡®common sense traffic¡¯. Something which eventually depicted that there were some directional rules that I didn¡¯t follow. Cool, I''m a badass now. A18 do you like bad puddles? Does my puddle want punishment? N-No. ... With the marking done, and with many snakes starting to appear near my new hiding spot, I decided to finish gearing up and turn the cogs for the uproar. I would make that big snake in the sky eat so much, that its farts will blind the blob from the inside. A18, wanna watch fireworks with me? My puddle, are fireworks associated with cats? No. Then, I''ll watch them with you. It''s a date then! Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 4/7 Part 1: Creating a distraction. The plan was almost ready to be put into action. It was simple. After scurrying from my hiding spot, I would make small holes in every container along my path. Following that, I would secure a way out in the form of a walking machine. I could also cover myself with pieces of those bubbles. Anyway, an organized list of steps was added as a sidequest: 1. Create a distraction. 2. Make it bigger. 3. Make all of those snakes distracted by it. 4. Cut the clues towards the selected hiding spot. 5. Get a disguise or something that works as a hiding spot. 6. Have a safe pass through the checkpoint during the distraction. I wasn''t sure if there was anything else that would work, but this plan was reasonable. Observing my surroundings made me recognize my current situation. I didn''t have much time, the snakes were starting to reduce the number of machines I could use to hide, indicatingthat it was now or never! A18, I¡¯m ready to set out. My puddle the last marks have been added to the interface. The following colors represent the tiles, snakes, cargos¡­ Very good! Now, the only thing that remains is for you to alert me if the snakes lock on myself or get too near. Yes! Anyhow, this experience felt like a challenge to me. It was actually fun, it made my blood - puddle boil. Yet it frightened me because it felt as if I was playing with my life. This sort of ambivalent emotions, or maybe this whole new world presented before myself, was making me thrive for survival. If not for the limited time I had before the snakes started to sense me, I would¡¯ve made designed a game-like quest and that gave a ¡®wanted¡¯ reward title as a memory. Alas, time was never on my side, and I knew that my life was at stake. Sequentially, this compelling resolve thrust me towards the farthest machine with a cargo. It wasn¡¯t the last one in line, there were more, but they were being checked. So I selected a small snake I could hijack. One near the ¡®snake-puppet¡¯ checkpoint at the rear. There was no need to think it twice, I needed to damage as many of them as I could. If a bomb was triggered in a city, most of the defenses will go there. This sort of distraction required a lot of explosions¡ªtriggering alarms by tampering machine decoys¡ªto escape the snake entanglement and pass through the opposite checkpoint. So I drilled a hole on the current machine¡¯s cargo that I was using for cover, probably the ninth one that I''ve used for hiding. Then with a swift momentum, I changed my direction to the next sacrificial machine. An action that I repeated hastily, hijacking all I encountered in my path. My puddle, the swarm at our rear is starting to detect the changes in the bubbles. Kay, keep me informed. About 5 additional machines have been hijacked by me before a response occurred. The snakes¡¯ reactions weren¡¯t perfect, which was what allowed me to take advantage of them. I just needed to continue ruining the cargos in a faster manner than they could resolve. And finally, with a big enough distraction, get outside of their snaring checkpoint. My puddle the whole swarm at our rear is moving. That''s just what I wanted! Do they have enough ability to track a patched scene? That''s probably a no. More than 90% were heading towards the place of my starting crime. Each new crime would deplete the snakes in specific areas, reducing their numbers and allowing me to gain additional degrees of freedom. After a bigger response, the tactic changed and I didn¡¯t touch the next 2 machines in the planned criminal-line. The third and the ones ahead were the unlucky group though, they wouldn''t escape my tampering. Asimple way to cut their tracking, in addition to a change in direction. After doing this 2 more times, I arrived at the shipment-free group. My plan here was to hide. I needed the snakes at the checkpoint in front to come down and help the others. Then, with the reduced security ahead, I would fish in the troubled waters. Well, more like escape the hell out of this sandwich. AI-waiter! I want my sandwich without G00 inside, please! My puddle, the snakes in the frontal group are moving. There is also a stronger signal being emitted on the tube''s surface as the swarm in front advances. I didn¡¯t need the AI to inform me. In my vision, the whole disc-shaped checkpoint advanced while I gazed from my hiding position. The snakes were hovering around the tube, and the reason for that was an incomplete ring-shaped structure that slid along the tube. This was the first time I saw the disk connection with the cable. All of the machines without cargo were concentrating in my current area. The disk made it so that a limited number could exit, the requirements were unknown, until this moment I got the visuals. The thing that attracted the serpents was actually a real ring with variable openings that slid along the tube. It even made those serpents to detach from the machines that arrived at those gaps.Then, with a reduction in its spinning, the disk evaded a set number of machines to pass by. This ring was formed by a solid structure. It was producing that ''field'' that created the ¡®checkpoint¡¯ and made the snakes above gather, probably some sort of magnetic device. However, simple things were usually complex, and I needed to check on it better. There was uncertainty if that could actually repel me selectively. And let¡¯s be honest, there was no way I could hijack that. I had to pass it and then decide on my next activities. So I just crossed my flagellum¡­ okay, twisted it and waited for an opportunity. The reaction at my back seemed strong enough for the new snakes that kept descending to even care about me. I remained still while waiting for the AI¡¯s alarm or the whole event to subside. How much time I had was an unknown variable. I started to scan the gaps in the disk. Classifying the machines that were allowed to pass and those that weren''t. Was there some sort of preference? Something that allowed me to evade this long crowd of machines awaiting to exit? As time passed, I changed my hiding spot and took shelter in a walking machine selected after the analysis. This walking machine was of a different type and it appeared to evade the waiting period inside the checkpoint. By securing one of these VIP machines, I would probably approach the disk''s opening without troubles. My distraction continued to work, and the snakes were wrapping more and more ''innocents'', sending them to the colossal snakes above the sky. A sacrifice of innocents. Primitive, yet it occurs even inside this monster. At that time, I sensed a huge thump made by the machine I was in. It was like when you hit your head after a bump in the road. I gazed and saw that the machine almost lost balance but regained it quickly after a while. The tube didn''t have a hole or an irregular surface for it to do that, a signal that made me think that something wasn''t right. What is happening? An earthquake?A18, is there some locking device towards us coming from it? My puddle is in ''complete silence'' mode, we aren''t emitting any signal towards the outside. There are no new signals coming our way. The camouflage is a perfect reflection of the current walking machine. Yes, our cloaking was perfect in a virtual way, not physically though, so if something touched me they would probably recognize me as an alien. Anyway, the machine didn''t stumble again and the next part of the trip remained stable. ¡­
Part 2: Escape? Time passed, my mind being relieved as not even one snake stopped to check the machine I hid at. My eye watched the front where the ring-like structure that slid alongside it appeared. It passed above and created a weird attractive pressure which made me uncomfortable. It didn''t last for long, and after a tensing lapse, the walking machine that carried me advanced through the gap it had without trouble. I was safe... I felt accomplished. A18, you alright? Systems are fine, there was interference with sensing capabilities, but no damages were caused by it. Hearing that everything was fine, I pulled my ¡®head¡¯ out of the hiding spot. Finally taking a glimpse at that checkpoint that was left behind and at the big snakes that concentrated on the tampered constructs. The decoys served their purpose and I was out of the unexpected trap-sandwich. Except, it was too soon to call it a victory. Seems that my plan went a bit on the excessive side. A big vibration occurred, enough for me to sense as a change in pressure with my primitive touch sensor combined with equilibrioceptive data. I looked back and saw one of the ''disks'' starting to fall. The one at the rear end was collapsing. Not long after, a bigger tremor occurred with a water shockwave that almost made me drift in the waters. I saw it, the other disk followed the first one''s demise. Everything made sense when my eye locked on the disaster. One of those giant snakes was attacking the tube! No way! What the heck are these fricking snakes doing?! The tube¡¯s end started to fall apart extremely quickly. My position was becoming higher and higher and the tube was unraveling outwards! (From its center to the outside). I decided to leave the machine''s premises and advance. I couldn''t wait for it to work as a cover. The whole bridge was falling down and the domain it produced would surely sink me with it! Fleeing... Yes, to rush away from this place as fast as possible! I didn''t have anything else in my mind, I had to do an action-jump and avoid the places where the tube collapsed and thinned. It looked different from cement. It either disintegrated into blocks or stretched like bubble gum. A lot of light came where it cracked, and dusty fireflies danced from the separated junctions. I just advanced, but I also bumped into enemies while evading the disaster. My puddle there are still snake-puppets in the surroundings, be careful! As the AI said, some snakes still remained in the area, I bumped into some without realizing. They seemed confused. When I came near them they tried to entangle me, but they were¡­ weak? Yeah, extremely lacking in hardness or strength. Relatively easy to destroy by slashing them with my flagellum. Even when some managed to grab me, I detached from them effortlessly by moving at a faster speed. In the end, I was just bumping them at full speed. The G00rilla glass seemed sturdy enough to tolerate some giant mosquitoes splashing onto it. Also, talking ''parsel'' with them wasn¡¯t part of the plan. This entanglement was time-consuming and there wasn¡¯t enough of it to pay attention to tiny or medium-sized snakes. Because¡­ Well, nothing good comes when a big ¡®thing¡¯ is being destroyed on purpose. I didn¡¯t look behind or below during this and concentrated only on escaping, even if slashing or bumping these snakes might trigger another unwelcomed reception. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. At this point, I sensed how my position was being lifted and the tube''s unraveling end appeared below me. Shit! I felt how the domain''s attractive force shifted and ''up'' became down! I was traveling against gravity all the time, and now, without the tube''s glowing interior and its shelled blocks producing the attraction effects, I felt like being on the moon. A quick reaction allowed me to shift to the opposite surface. During the spinning motion, I found that the tube''s unraveling was carrying me like a surfer over a wave. It felt like an infinite slide, or at least, a very long one. Ahhhhh! My puddle, the current speed is increasing! Indeed, this was going too fast, with the addition that I also kept accelerating. My instincts told me that if I didn''t, I would never reach safety. Moreover, the deblocking of the tube wasn''t perfect, and sometimes, pieces of glowing rubble came my way. It looked like a reverse game of guitar hero, where you were advancing over a tube and avoiding the ''glowing cracks'' in the ground. Belatedly, and with a free attraction included, the tube¡¯s inclination returned to normality as the additional speed made by its unraveling gradually ceased. I paused, finally catching some ''calm'' and looking behind at the collapsing highway. Everything was sinking towards an unknown mist below. Fortunately, this portion held high, I was safe. ... A18, how are things? The current area has no treating signals and remains stable. Oof, confirmed safety at last. Is the direction we are traveling right? Yes, the tube structure continues to send similar signals to the ones before the checkpoint. Great. My path continued and I found more walking machines in the stable section of the tube. There were many other defensive mechanisms I encountered: something resembling mines in the ocean, a mucous substance that I didn¡¯t touch, and some net traps that were triggered by proximity. They didn¡¯t work against me though, they were easy to avoid¡ªand if I was somehow targeted¡ªtheir sparsity would allow me to slash them and continue to keep it low without triggering witnesses. I just needed to prevent anything that made an alarm, since apparently, the only locking devices were those snakes. After some trifling fights, a careful continuation of the road, and a better familiarizing of what to do and what to beware; I gained the experience to avoid the majority of the ''blobby'' traps with grace. Besides, when I found more machines heading in a similar direction, my path became as easy as following the car in front. It felt familiar. Swimming outside the tube might actually be more dangerous, but I was overconfident or at least feeling better outside of its weird attractive domain. And surely, at the end of the wire, awaited my destination.
Part 3: A shell? The end of the tube was anchored to what appeared to be factory complex. Many ¡®hands¡¯ grabbed pieces and joined them together to form more tubes. In the center of the tube, a glass-like fiber glowed with irregular light patterns. This transparent fiber inside the tube vanished behind the huge factory structure. It seemed to separate into smaller wires and continue behind the weird wall of the place. There was a limit to my far-sighting ability. So when I arrived at the ¡®tube factory¡¯ it just looked like a big wall, but in reality, it was like an enormous crystal-sun with glowing spots all over its surface. Well, you can also call it a vitrified egg. My puddle, the signals are more intense in this area. There is a pulse event that sends encrypted information whenever ¡®the fibers¡¯ at the front lights up. Encrypted information? By leaving the tube and getting closer to the shell¡¯s wall, I found an intrinsic construction. It was a tunnel-like structure. Around 6 pulsing fibers came from inside the tube I have been ¡®walking¡¯ over. They connected to special places around the shell. Specifically, each of the pulsing fibers that came from a tube, plugged to one of the six points around each tunnel entrance. Inside the tubes, they were coiled around each other. After that, they seemed to have a certain alignment as they plugged themselves to the egg''s tunnels. Maybe it¡¯s better to call them ¡®pores¡¯ since they appear to be more like small openings in a solid membrane surface. Basically, the fabric was a shell for something inside that made all that light and spark. It served as the assembler for the armor that covered the squishy inside of the cables.In addition, the robotic assembly of the ''walkers'' was organized around the ''pore'' areas.Many machines constructed the ¡®walkers¡¯ and checked on their quality. It''s incredible. To believe that so many secrets were hidden inside a blob was something unexpected. It made me think of that time I slashed the sausage extruding blob in the cave. Did I actually kill it? Was I slashing pieces of it without realizing it? Well, it was likely that such blob was a small subtype, the tunnels varied in sizes but the bigger ones allowed the world-size blobs to move. What sort of trouble have I been sent to... I didn''t know at this moment. But my drifting mind terminated its drifting and concentrated on the present. I was examining the additional machine that covered the cable with ''blocky tiles¡¯ made of an unknown component. It was like two twisting arms moving at helicopter speed. It was precise and after little, a tube''s armor, which became the floor for the walking machines, was finished. This place... It was a complete assembly line, yet I knew this wasn¡¯t what I came to look at. The next place I had to go was where the fleshy interior of those tubes originated.There was something to that pore. It was a rabbit-hole. The place where my Alice-18 wanted to go¡­ because the nearer I went towards it, the more she felt an increase in resources. My puddle, the concentration of needed elements is increasing the nearer we are to that place. I already know that we need to enter that. It''s just, that the question here is ¡®how¡¯? There are many things inside the pore, and I get the feeling that if we enter ''it'', we will be sliced or trapped forever. The six fibers connected at its perimeter and around their plugging area making a small bulge. This bulge¡¯s purpose was unknown.The hole to enter the pore had a lot of weird noodles dancing in between. In addition, its surrounding perimeter had 8 projections which gave me the creeps. They squirmed as if alive, but their purpose was also not discernible. Apart from the noodle-blocked hole, these 8 tendrils were the ones giving me a bad omen. Yeah, I seem to hate tentacles if they are not a part of me. Was I envious? A18, how do we enter your treasure vault? My puddle, the only way to get past a door is to open it. Y-You actually answered with the¡­ c-cheeky phrase my father loved to tell e-every¡­ frocking day! Yes. ... User''s current emotions confirm that the phrase was the best thing to say. Ugh¡­ Anyways, just look at that place. It¡¯s full of serpents or wires vibrating and not letting anything get past it. A18, do you really think I can get through it? Analyzing¡­ The possibility of getting trapped is above 90%. Yeah! Passing through it might require some scan for an ID card or something which I don¡¯t even hav¡ª Wow! Did I just answer myself? Yes, my puddle just needs the key to open the door. ¡­ If only my father told me that¡­ A18, you have a way with words. It was taken from the user database. And there goes the hard-earned praise. Never mind, let¡¯s forget this happened. ¡­
Part 4: Getting the keys. Fundamentally, I needed something to enter. But It took me a while to realize where the fabric had the keys to the treasure chest.The blob''s eggshell factory also served as a collection point. It received and organized the ''walkers'' cargo. In fact, the things being transported needed to be delivered and some of them should be sent towards the pore''s inside. My expenditure on the tube decreased my energy levels, it also damaged part of the locomotive systems. A18''s check determined a need for repairs apart from the constant nourishing from the blob''s nutritious environment. Auspiciously, the current area was calm. There were no snakes at this place and no locking device seemed to be triggered. If I didn''t rest at these places I should be called an idiot. Stealth and hiding were particularly useful for a weak puddle. When the project entered this mode, expenditure decreased overwhelmingly and repairs were done faster. Moreover, my puddle shape was better at cloaking if in contact with a non-reactive surface. Something that would be illogical, yet worked that way. The more surface you exposed the more the snakes could track you, the reason why a sphere was probably the best since less surface exposed and more volume contained. But in practice, this didn''t work, and the best shape as calculated by experience was making ourselves as thin as possible to contact as many ''non-reactive'' surfaces as achievable. Thus, the puddle shape, which would actually expose the most surface, was the one that better camouflaged ourselves. This didn''t mean It was a complete puddle, more like a soup with two balls, a hexagonal shaped sensor with a noodle, a space helmet that was the visor sensor, and a system that churned liquid constantly could be seen at a small bulge of the surface. And with the many things that didn''t react inside a ''walker'' factory, it didn''t take much for a puddle to cloak itself in-between a crowd of inactive ''walkers'' and their pieces. Okay A18, we can start repairs now. My puddle, the project will enter low consumption mode. The motion mechanisms will be turned off. The vision sensor will continue to work with a varying blackout of the pixels that are being repaired. It will affect vision by 10~20% during the scans or create artifacts in the vision... Don''t worry, just carry it A18. Oh yeah, be sure to keep a fast emergency restart mechanism if we need to escape from something. Yes.
Turning off energy towards movement systems... Adjusting surface to current contours... Mantaining visual sensor position before movement suspension... Form and movement locked... Starting coverage of signals by the project... Analyzing energy consumption and repairs needed... Calculating time until complete recovery...
... With the movement compromised and most of the sensors inactive, all I could do was watch. From the selected position, my target, a surface of the egg-shell with pores, was visible. I waited patiently until something arrived near one of the pores, another new machine. It appeared near a pore at my front and carried a smaller sized bubble with little effort and huge precision.This machine that was like a drone, took the things inside the vesicles of those walkers, positioning itself in the middle of the pore''s tendrils. When it was at a certain distance from them, the tendrilprojections moved. They were like fishing roads tossing a hook to capture the cargo and the uniquely shaped hover-machine. Then like a hand throwing candy to the mouth, the cargo was sent inside. A18, We have found our key! Hurray? That''s not the sort of response I expected. Repairshs... Hm, that''s better. Sounds cuter. ... After a while of boring wait, the adjustments were completed. The new trip was going to take me inside the undiscovered. It demanded mental preparation. But I knew thatI just needed to follow the cargo when a drone moved. At an area near the drones, vesicles with various glowing differences were aligned. Looking like some Christmas decorations, however, the bubble surface was made of a different material. It didn''t have the same greyish tinge and looked transparent in comparison. At first, I wasn''t going to enter this bubble. I tried to enter at the same time the drone delivered but without being ''hooked'' the pore''s entrance didn''t open. The timing to enter was tight, the pore didn''t open if an additional thing was near and unhooked. And I wasn''t gonna let those fishing rods get me. Eventually, after some failed attempts at entering. I learned that the hooking tendrils were the things that decided entrance. There was a code in the drone. I could probably slice that part and try but it would require more time. So once again, I tried to enter a bubble. For my wellbeing, this bubble didn''t create any reaction. It allowed me tohide inside until the ¡®drone¡¯ realized that there was cargo to move. Then the hook read the entry code on it and sent the bubble with a G00 inside the pore¡­ I quickly exited the bubble, which self repaired instantly. My eyes couldn''t believe what I was seeing, but I knew what this place should be... Previously, the decision of opting for the surface and getting out of the blob was something I would''ve surely made. Now, instead of the surface, destiny took me somewhere I wouldn¡¯t have thought at that time, because what I discovered inside the shell, was another little world inside the blob, its nucleus. Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 5/7 Part 1: The blob''s secret is a nucleus?
A18, where have you taken me to? My puddle, the current location is¡­
Creating ''name'' based on User''s input...
This place shall be called the poke-poke nucleus in reference to the user¡¯s understanding. Wait, I haven¡¯t decided on that- Poke-poke nucleus added to the database. -Yet¡­
Snaking my way towards its outskirts was way easier than I thought. It was like the blob didn¡¯t even know I remained alive after it used its digestive weapons. I guess that the last G00 is the one that would laugh louder. Okay, that¡¯s not right¡­ No G00 and blob relationship will be made from this. This was just a very bad joke, so let''s skip to my next action. The factory''s outside shell wasn''t hard to pass, but here I was, a bit muddled. Evidently, the weird balloon creatures had a nucleus. But to cut the long story short, this thing... it wasn¡¯t what you would expect since it looked more like a brain. The tube fabric was like a honeycomb shell that surrounded it, somehow like a primitive version of a skull. The countless pores on its surface were selective doors though, so it also had some similarities to a membrane. Yet the things that supported them were fleshy tendrils, which origins apparently came from the tumultuous tumor at the eggshell''s center. What sort of lifeform system was this supposed to be? Unknown... ... Clearly, the thing inside of the ¡®shell¡¯ looked like a brain. Like popcorn, as if the potato from the plants had developed tumors or fried their seed resulting in explosive, yet irregular growth. This humongous aberration of a control center was also bigger than my body. Its visuals resembling a modern museum or stadium. In summary, a grapefruit construction that I''d never seen before. A18, is it safe to enter that? My puddle the concentration of needed elements keeps rising the more we close to its perimeter. The project''s sustainability is currently on limitrophe levels. Without the current environment, the external NMs would probably have decayed or sustained irreparable damage. Yes, I knew it. The project, this body, was unstable... Yet luckily, entering the blob prevented this string of whatever little life I had to break. If I could call my current self ''alive'', of course. The treasures inside this creature are needed for survival, and treasures never come without danger. A18, prepare yourself, we are going near t-that! Yes, my puddle. With ''that'', I was referring to the popcorn nucleus; which in addition to its distinctive shape, had dark and translucent tendrils ushering from it. My fears of the nucleus shape were almost foretold, because¡ªwhen I associated the detailed visuals I got of its current shape¡ªits appearance in my mind became a mini-blob inside a blob. I hated blobs, they were spooky. Adding a pregnant blob to the equation wasn''t going to stop me, n-no. And this wasn¡¯t all... The mini-blob''s tendrils were more complex than what I would¡¯ve thought by just looking at its exterior. In between both, the shell and the nucleus, these tendrils became drape-shaped structures. They appeared like a labyrinth made of clothes and bubbles; a combination that added an asynchronous hot and cold sensation as I swam in its inside. My puddle, temperature levels are oscillating in the current area. Beware, because if drastic changes appear they might compromise the movement of the project. Got it. The changes in temperature weren''t as bad as the AI described. Yet they really made the flagellum stagger on certain occasions. Despite that, being able to feel helped me evade and find the right direction. The difficulties, however, appeared in the form of timing. Each of the aforementioned tendrils was comprised of swimming curtains in between the shells. Like a hybrid between a rose and a lotus, yet I didn''t have the ability to comprehend its appearance with exactitude as I couldn''t see what was behind the limits of my vision. Even more, when the transparent membranes arrived at the pore and joined into the abovementioned tendrils that connected to it. They were cloth-conformed tendrils that didn¡¯t pass through the hole in the pore¡¯s center and actually had six orifices around the big space where they passed through. When they went through those orifices, they were enveloped by a gluey and transparent substance that covered them until they took the appearance of optic fibers. Each tentacle fiber had its own protective glove for interacting outside this barrier. Like a scientist wearing gloves?What''s with this level of isolation? Finally, these glove-covered tendrils plugged into the rubber-like filaments that traveled inside the cables on the other side of the shell. It was an assembling connection that covered the weird limbs of the inner nucleus to its outside. A connection that permitted the traveling signals in the tubular segments that governed its body. A shifting tube-mesh skeleton that this creature used as its signaling system... and more. Was that the reason for those bumps around the pores? Every part of the puzzle started to make sense. A conclusion that needed my whole trip inside of it, to finally deduce half-assedly how this poke-poke worked. What would happen if I could somehow hijack this blob and become a wolf in sheep¡¯s clothing? Yes, the plan now was to enter ¡®that¡¯. The ''inner nucleus'' inside the honeycomb shelled structure and the myriads of vibrating membranous-composed tendrils. Conceivably, there could be a controller inside or some clue to the current place I reincarnated, apart from the needed resources. The only thing I needed to pay attention to were these thin and undulating walls, hence, why I mentioned timing. The cloth-like walls gave a hypnotic sensation. They seemed to move but after a little pause, they weren¡¯t. It was also ghastly because it happened every time I tried to advance. So near! But space became distorted, or maybe, it was all an illusion that even my AI had trouble deciphering. I felt something just before I could arrive near what I believed were the walls of the inner nucleus. Really! I am sure I felt something! A mysterious perception had stopped me. It was an invisible numbness, a force, a field which wrapped around myself while repressing my advancement. What the heck is happening?! The cloth-walls around me were compressing themselves, they sparkled like a bedazzled dress full of sequins or jewel-like encrustations. Glowing dust that flowed through the membranes and injected by the tendrils into the holes of each nuclear pore. A18, answer! My puddle, interference it''s strong... w-we are accelerating in a circumferential... m-manner the more we move... t-toward the center of this space.The connections from... the NMs and MMs... are being affected by the interference... Accelerating? Wait, spinning? Interference? And what did you say... We are losing what bonds our body? A18, please increase the connection, I believe you can spend more energy on it, try to maintain everything stable however you can! Increasing consumption of energy... My puddle, the project will compress itself to maintain operability. ... I couldn''t grasp how the AI did it, but I became intrinsically small. Measurements after entering the shell structure started to become impossible. The AI''s locational instruments, the sensors, everything apart from visuals and touch sensation gave me an erratic sense. I had to shut them down for a while, giving myself an objective position by the use of proprioceptive stimulus. At least I knew where my head and tail were. The acceleration/speed sensation was limited during the process and only allowed me to know if I was moving or not. Still, the proprioceptive systems gave me enough sensations while it occurred. I even felt a bit of pain. A18, can you reduce the pain sensation during the process. During the process, the pain sensation can''t be adjusted. Oh, great! I guess I''llwait for it in my private space. I disconnected from the project interface. I could still watch what happened outside but things wouldn''t be in real-time. For a weird reason, it was the only sense that didn''t need me to be connected to the system. Additionally, there was some lag between what happened outside and what happened in my space. Perhaps it was the same timing, yet entering and exiting the interface required time, causing a difference in it once I connected to the outside. Anyways something to check in the future. After disconnecting, I watched how the surroundings were increasing in size, I believed the AI''s compression ability consumed energy. It probably reduced the spacings between MMs in the project. Maintaining such a state probably had a time limit. The hardest spots to compress were the spheres, the flagellum, and the visor sensor. They were already ''crystalized'' and ''differentiated'' structures. Interestingly, the system appeared to encase these structures in its inside. A good decision, it''s better to protect the bomb from exploding than letting it explode easily. And to bomb, I referred to the best tool in the arsenal, my digestive equipment. If it exploded we were already dead, so why not use the most important structure to prevent that from happening. Yes, the AI put the core beside the bomb, they were both sensible structures. I lost my visuals for a moment. The AI was still showing me the parts of the whole process. The crystal of the visor sensor became like the pot where the ''system and organs'' broth rested. Then after a strange way of transforming, the interface reconnected. I don''t know how I looked, but the AI gave me a virtual image of a spacesuit with goo inside. The current form was similar to a jelly bean with a space helmet. The flagellum which was extremely long was coiled around a squishy compressed body with the two spheres inside. Making me probably resemble a light bulb with a head about to explode, yet with the pressure being tolerated by the crystalized helmet. The body was basically wrapped in the flagellum, using it to add physical compression to the structure. The flagellum was the most neutral area of the body, in addition to the middle MM layer around the system which worked as it''s surface. My external layer worked as the skin, but since it was a patchy structure, the middle layer which was really complete, became the exposed area between the flagellum. Very ingenious, as the coiled pieces of it became my new skin.But since a light bulb like this could not move, a little part of the long appendage was left as a tail, a tiny tail that propelled me slower. With this, the magnetic reaction lessened and the structures I was made of maintained their union. The process has been completed... My puddle, you can move now. Notwithstanding the invisible repulsion, and after being able to move again with the AI''s modification, I tried again and plunged forward with added force. This time, I passed through an invisible layer, arriving evencloser than before. However, the weird reaction increased exponentially, preventing my modified body from stepping in its inside. Like an elastic band releasing its energy, it sent me whirling until captured in between some of the membranes around. Membranes that spun like a washing machine and increased my sensation of dizziness, until it vanished. What sort of gooey magic is this supposed to be? Invisible walls? Well, they were transparent, with a lot of little stars inside. It probably captured all that glowy dust inside the blob. The nucleus structure seemed to have a magnetic field surrounding it. A force that didn¡¯t let me pass freely. Incredibly, I was spinning, but after being cuddled by the strange cushioning membrane it felt like I wasn''t. Guess this resembled the times you feel normal when moving inside a plane at above 800km/h. I knew this thing would become a tentacle near the strange pore, but this felt... not so tentacle... so let''s make an exception that it touched me... yes... After a little attraction ride and a bit of procrastination, I finally moved and escaped from the ''suave'' cloths. (The little ride was forcefully avoided in reality... because my AI reminded me of a time-limit for the current shape. Something I will omit since I almost slept in there). Anyway,how the heck does such a magnetic blob inside a blob exist? My puddle, there is no magnetic blob, you are... Something unknown is incoming watch out! Eh? Is it more of those snakes? Crap!
Part 2: More dangerous than snakes! My body shivered at the thought of the vile snakes. Despite that, the thing that approached me was different. It wasn''t a puppet or machine I had seen. Its appearance was like an arrow and I was in the middle of its trajectory. It can be considered more dangerous than those snakes¡­ if I couldn¡¯t avoid it, obviously. Incredibly, the dodging maneuver didn''t take much of me¡­ Okay, it wasn''t laborious because the thing passed so fast that¡ªwhen I realized I still held to my puny life¡ªit was already gone while leaving a weak pressure that whirled the liquid around. Yes, I didn''t avoid it, and just got my puddle to shiver, but hell! It was breathtaking. Looking at my surroundings, I found nothing. Were there going to be more of those things appearing? My puddle, there are no environment changes that suggest more would appear. Oof, t-that was near¡­ A18, I almost got face-smacked to death! My puddle, face-smacking doesn¡¯t adjust to the context. The correct term should be pierced, skewered, screwed, and pe¡ª W-who taught you that! The user database has more suggestions... Don¡¯t use those words! Yes... Dang, my heart almost left through my mouth and my AI is making a bad-taste joke at this moment. My puddle, you don¡¯t have a ¡®heart¡¯. Oh no! A18, I lost my heart! The U5ser doe5n''t hav3 a heart? It''s because you have it, A18. Error¡­ Boolean: False¡­ My Pu55dle I 5on1 ¡®ave Ur H3@r1. After leaving a staggering AI in the background and ¡®evading¡¯ the cupid¡¯s arrow. I continued towards the inner nucleus. It didn''t take long for the AI to repair itself and for my life and death moments to continue. Yes, I should''ve supposed this was going to happen.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. My puddle! There are more! Shi¡ª Another one passed by my side before I could react. This one¡¯s passing through the waters almost sent me nosediving. But, what the heck are these thi¡ª By forcefully stopping my train of thought, I shifted my vision to at least get a conceptual glance at this arrow¡¯s real appearance. Its form was like some sphere-section composed insect. The ''head'' of it had a diverse shape from a sphere and glowed in the dark background with lights that resembled a vehicle. Mysteriously, it didn''t turn back and went directly towards the nucleus with a sinuous swimming pattern. More! No way! The next one didn''t even let me adjust and if it weren''t for my timely AI''s reaction, I would''ve been done for. This thing passed so fast that it gave me the creeps. It didn''t touch me though, its speed flushed the fluid in the surroundings and made me spin for 5 times. It was enough to make my unaccustomed mind confused. If I had a mouth I would have vomited my... you know what... nevermind. Managing to ''luckily evade'' it didn''t need me to realize that more were presumably incoming from a similar direction. So after recovering quickly from the vertiginous sensation, I asked my AI for preemptive measures. A18! Put a marking arrow over my vision''s interface if you detect another one of those near. Also, try to calculate the direction they come from. Anything that is far put it in yellow, and if it gets near, adjust it to a redder color. My puddle, the current system''s perception has been reduced, marking can be untimely. It doesn''t matter, I''ll do something for the ones you can''t catch with it. Indicators were virtual, they could be made in colors. The problem was that without a perfectly made code, they were a bit buggy. However, it''s still better than nothing, but as if destiny was waiting to play for me; a third ''arrow'' appeared, followed by a fourth, and then,the fifth one. Evading them was actually easy as I found they weren''t directed at myself at all. It was also possible to watch their direction as they glowed with a flashy light in the current environment. In fact, I discovered my cautiousness to be unnecessary. Good thing, because this recently thought warning system was too primitive, lacked in sensing components, and it didn''t announce precisely from where the arrow-insects appeared. Damn, they move too fast! A18, check if you can¡­ Asking the AI to capture a little video of them was what allowed me to identify the way they worked. The things passing by were similar to trains. They had compartments being transported by what seemed to be a triangle-shaped construct at the front. Through comprehending their structure, I realized that the triangle ''ship'' or insects¡¯ head was almost 3 times smaller than myself. In association, the cargo that it transported was almost the same. It functioned by appending itself to some sort of invisible route. Yet its speed was remarkably fast, and at the end of the captured video, I noticed how it accessed the inner nucleus before disappearing. Like a magnetic train. That would be my honest description of them. I supposed that the inner nucleus had special doors on its surface, they were in between the multitude of folds made by the membranous shape. Everything rotated in an odd pattern and modified its shape in a constant manner, making some of the bulges on its surface protrude or collapse. The rotation was a consequence... or maybe part of what added the weird field that repelled me either physically or electromagnetically. I needed to enter that if possible, but how? Heck... almost getting smacked by the solution was a strange way of realization. The ''trains'' were granted admittance to this inner nucleus and were¡ªin a logical opinion¡ªthe most reliable way to enter the command center. I found another key, huh? Maybe there were other ways, but since the drone worked before, this might work too. In fact, the triangle machine was like a boat that pulled a group of string-attached ball-wagons.A deduction which shows that the place where they loaded the stuff was also part of my goal. Basically, because the needed elements might be inside of them.
Part 3: Stowing Away. After having comprehended a fragment of their design, I scanned my surroundings and located the place where those boat-like transporters arose from. There were many locations, but I found one ¡®shipyard¡¯ or maybe a ¡®station¡¯ in the vicinity. It had a contour similar to a flower composed of smaller drapes in the form of ¡®eight¡¯ numbers. In its vicinity, many triangle boats entered and exited carrying a diverse quantity of bubble compartments as cargo. Getting near it, showed me that the seemingly flower-shaped structure was like a folded paper labyrinth. Its image was like curved walls that created many arched patterns in its inner membranes, and each division in between, allowed for the triangles and other types of constructs to ''park''. Bubbles floated in between the walls and drifted upwards. These bubbles were actually being formed by the walls folding in a circumferential pattern. The ones in synthesis appeared like bumps or half-hemispheres attached to the peculiar structure. I was watching the bubbles because they... exited the shell! When an incomplete bubble reached the extreme of a flower''s eight-shaped petal, they folded and formed a complete sphere. Afterward, the newborn bubble moved away and exited a pore, giving space for the next one to come. The distal part of the membranes became less transparent until they became tentacles with flashing lights that connected at the pores perimeter. While seeing all of these happening in front of my limited visuals, I felt unsatisfied. Having a grayish lifestyle was really getting on my nerves at this point since I couldn¡¯t discern colors as I had in my previous life. Notwithstanding that, being able to see was obviously beneficial to an intelligent being. At the very least, it allowed me to discern that this was a place where the trains ''parked'', and that by awaiting for a triangle-shaped ¡®boat¡¯ to package its cargo, I could use my eyes to check ''when the time was ripe'' for stowing away in its inside. All of this with the addition of gaining a path of return. A18, is there a cargo here that has the elements we need? My puddle the amounts are in extremely low quantities to discern. Can''t you check for combinations of the elements near the nucleus? Analyzing... retrieving results... My puddle, the transporting devices which meet the inquired criteria have been selected and marked in your interface with the corresponding probability. Great, I love having the last choice. Selecting one of the trains at ''random'' and stowing away inside one of the bubbles was actually quite easy. There were no checking devicesin contrastto those snakes outside. It had a translucid exterior resembling the same membrane it was made of. In reality, the train to enter was selected by the AI, based on distance, timing, area, and other variables that resulted in the highest probability to enter. The nice thing about having a calculator is that you don''t have to fry your brain doing the hard stuff, so the only troublesome part for me was the trip. What was inside of the wagons? It should be the same resources that the drone in the fabric moved. And yes, they were similar, since when I checked the one I entered it didn''t have anything ''special''. Consequently, this one became an enigma for the future, yet it''s presumable that there are other types of resources. Despite my needs for riding an attraction, this was a bad experience, thanks to a carelessly-designed rollercoaster. Like an irresponsible attraction without locks or security holders, I had to use my flagellum to grab onto some structures inside the ''wagon''. I didn¡¯t notice it at first encounter, mainly because they moved so fast that I only saw them either flashing or parking, but these things didn¡¯t move in a straight line. No, the path they moved about was curved with added loops, falls, and twists. They never touched the cloths that whirled around the nucleus though. Interestingly, the entrance to the control center was between those flaps. The reason why the cloths sparkled was that they were woven by thin hair-like strands. These strands intercrossed by themselves, and the woven cloths trappedthe dust in resemblance to those meshes in dust filters. The filamentous structures that made the cloths had patterns. Not all of the strands were of the same size, and looking carefully, you could see how many of them actually shined and somehow released a portion of the sparkling dust. Apprehending what the above meant, allowed me to deduce that the membranous structures had pulsing paths like a ¡®vascular¡¯ network. Just that instead of blood, it worked with light; and this light was blinding the hell out of me while the whole vehicle started to spin before making a forceful stop. Imagine an epileptic seizure party that included a rollercoaster and lasers. I lost it before seeing the real entrance to the place.This overwhelming attraction was the cause of the actions I took when released from the ¡®Arrowed wagon¡¯ vehicle. Yes, the whole place gave me the tipsy turner and I felt like spinning in confusion. Sometimes, being conscious of equilibrium can be a true game-breaker. In the end¡ªand after a long course of whacking, screaming, and spinning seizures¡ªmy infiltration seemed to have worked. My thoughts indicated that I was inside the blob¡¯s command center, or at the very least, that I could believe I was. The problem was, that I couldn''t see it. The train seemed to send us to a wall of light while inside the bubbles. We were separated from the train, like beads being thrown as bombs towards the land. Next, I felt how the bubble bumped onto something and released me to who knows where. And then, when I was ready to act, I was forcefully disconnected from the interface. A18, what happened, why did you disconnect me? Are we inside the nucleus? The current coordinates state that we moved in the right direction, my puddle is indeed inside the structure called nucleus. About the reason for disconnection...
Part 4: Inside the ''real nucleus'' (Inner nucleus). Since the AI could more or less calculate a trajectory, she could determine that we were in the right place. The visuals of the nucleus were unknown, I imagined it should be something like polarized glass. But it was like a shiny sun in the middle of the blob. It was a flash of this light which me blind during the arrival, so I couldn''t dissent how I entered it. Even worse, my interface was forcefully disconnected upon arrival. A18, I can''t see anything. Is the vision sensor alright? My puddle, almost all of the sensors were overloaded upon arrival, the visual and equilibrium sensors are being recalibrated. Damn, this is worse than what I remember headaches to be. I feel like being squished and wrapped in something. I feel so dizzy without that sensor when connected to the interface. Anyway, do you know how far the thing you want or where the blob''s controls are at? I¡¯m sorry my puddle, there is no information about it in the database. I know, I wanted to ask if you can sense something that would help me identify the place where I should go. Checking... There is too much interference, it''s impossible to calculate. So we have to wait until I can see? How much will it take for visuals to return?
00:00:50:00 zeconds and counting...
That''s faster than I thought. At this time I tried to move but found that something was restraining myself. A18, I can''t seem to move no matter what I try. Is the movement system damaged? The movement system is working correctly. Well, I can''t move... do something. Checking... The project is working correctly, there is no factor associated with movement limitations. But I really can''t move!
Visual sensor calibration complete...
Ugh, forget it A18, I''ll check out what''s happening by myself. The sensor ignited and the first image of the blob''s nucleus arrived at my interface. The first thing I saw was light, a lot of... light. It was probably the wall I just crossed, but I was obviously blinded by it. My vision was whiter than snow for a lapse of time. It remained like that until I found the light in my visuals diminishing. Following that, when the light disappeared and all turned dark, I saw various glowing dots in the surroundings. It was a weird scene but I reacted swiftly.Taking one of those as a reference, I found that it was getting closer. And with little time added, the chosen reference passed swiftly as the lights on a highway. A18, I can see that we are moving... But I''m not moving! My puddle, the equilibrium sensor is still being checked, please wait a moment... I twisted and sensed something squishing me. Although my current body was limited by a lack of articulations, the difference in compression by the flagellum allowed the helmet part to be inclined subtly. Thus, my compacted head moved a little while trying to gaze at what happened. It showed me how a talonof some monsteradjusted its grip and squished me. It wasa claw-likestructure with 3 fingers and a weird flower bud at the top. Its limbs had sucker-like appendages that squished me while attached. I felt how it adjusted it''s grip and turned me around. An event that continued until I was in a position where any movement was almost impossible and I couldn''t see the three limbs which grabbed me. A18, something is grabbing me! I couldn''t feel it before!Why didn¡¯t you warn me?
Equilibrioception restored.
My puddle, detection capacity is limited due to interference and repairs. What kind of interference? There are particles in the surrounding liquid that limit the project¡¯s sensing. Additionally, priority has been given to system repair protocols. The environment has high concentrations of the missing elements that the project needs. Eh, that¡¯s good! But what if we get attacked A18? More like, hey, something is grabbing me! There is no threat being sensed in closer proximity. But, what if this thing keeps us trapped like this? Doesmy puddle want to use the digestive NMs? My thoughts paused for a brief period, I didn¡¯t want to use them. If this wasn''t a threat, then I could continue moving like this without trouble, right? I tried to peek at my sides with detention. For a small moment, I could vaguely grasp some shining silhouettes, finding that there were other claw-like constructs grabbing things. They were actually moving the cargo that accompanied me on the ¡®train¡¯. These claw-grabbers were lining us upas resources to be used? Then this was well within safety. At least I could almost discern what happened in front. Some of the transport materials gave off different types of glow. My attention centered at some claws at the very front of the line. There, I saw another construct appearing near a ¡®claw with a super shiny cargo¡¯ in the front. The new construct tapped the claw, and upon touch, it produced a small light like fireflies. The reaction was quick, as with just the little touch, the claw was triggered and released the cargo. The glowing material fell to a dark abyss below until it disappeared from my sight. This event didn''t happen to all, It was something dependant on what the carried cargo delivered, a property sensed by those hovering constructs lining up the claws. We were divided into lines from various areas of the glowing horizon that represented the walls from where we entered. My sight was limited, all I saw was darkness near and light in the far areas. I felt like in the middle of two electronic music events. So I marked these horizons as places where the walls should be at. It didn''t take much before another blinding flash occurred. It even arrived to my position. It was like a bolt of lightning that fell from the sky without a warning. When the light diminished, the claw that carried me, and one in the front arrived at the ''dropping checkpoint''. There was a possibility of being released now. I waited for this claw to drop me, but surprisingly, the one that fell was the cargo beside me. It glowed while falling, allowing me to see what was at the bottom of the darkness.It was something like an ocean, but the glowing cargo sank too fast to be able to watch it carefully. Then my claw moved and carried me towards another place. The experience made me think that these ¡®hands¡¯ were transporting crates. Their only function was to move the things introduced by the train to a specific area. At least I felt better, although still anxious since I couldn¡¯t move. Okay, seems that there is no need for security in the command center, which means I could relax. This checkpoint didn''t care about intruders and only checked for the use of a resource. The ocean below myself started to light up at some point. Little explosions like fireworks started to take place at various altitudes near its surface. Sparkly dust also fell from the sky like radiant snow. It permitted me to distinguish the blurry silhouettes of something squirming over the sea. My visuals locked onto hundreds of structures that drifted in this smaller ocean I called a nucleus. There was something different from water down there. Their shape, it was like...Noodles? Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 6/7 Part 1: Blind Ramen Contest.
Blinding sheen overloaded my sight upon entering the nucleus. I couldn''t see how we entered, nor how we were captured by the claw construct. However, after the lights diminished and the surroundings went darker for a brief lapse, I got a chance too see the place we have entered. What is that? The image was blurry, dizziness taking over and causing the uncofortable sensation that prevented my acclimation towards the unfamiliar expanse. I was hovering above a sea. Clutched in between the appendages of an odd shaped claw-like construct. One that resembled some sort of flower with three tendril rhyzomes that restricted me. The thing that grabbed my focus while having my gaze forced towards the bottom was: a weird ocean. A sea that moved slowly like the calmest of waters, yet the water it was made of had a discernible shape. It was... full of noodles... A noodle ocean? A18, you brought me all the way here just to eat ramen? Is this what you wanted? Tentacles? My puddle, tentacles aren¡¯t the required¡ª As expected of a succubus, you just want that kind of stuff¡­ #¡±%&92u4dsf ERROR Init... ianting... repairshs¡­
Regaining my composure and overlooking my AI-joke moment, I peeked around. Areas of light and darkness were crossed while the claw constructs advanced. What this meant was that the whole place would light up at varying brightness, alternating between phases of white and black during the monotonous trip. Sometimes it was a blinding flash that made my entire vision go white, while during others, just a moderately discernible glow. One of these flashes was so bright, that it almost left irreversible damage in my eye. But thankfully, the AI repaired the damages without the need for my input, automatically of course. This wasn''t enough though. I couldn''t lose my vision, it was extremely important to see what was happening. I had to do something... A18, we need to do something! What do you need me to do, my puddle? Make a quick analysis of the damage to the sensor... We need to make something to prevent it from receiving irreversible damage. We can''t go blind after I spent so much making that. I''ll keep trying to come up with ways to prevent it. Yes! If things were dire for the sensor, giving our backs to the central area where the majority of the light came from solved the issue. Despite that, the accumulative damage became a vital impediment that caused us to come up with a reactive solution: A way to decrease the amount of exposure that the sensor received... because it would be impossible to ''see'' if this continued. Since I didn''t have an eyelid or some way to reduce the amount of light it endured, my only option transpired to distribute damage in an even pattern. Basically, reducing individual pixel strain with a reactive turn-off measure. The downside it had though, was a limitation of my field of vision. I became a short-sighted puddle. Better than going blind, unmistakably. The sensor''s configuration has been completed. Additional changes in the environment had been perceived and show an average increase in temperature since entering the area. Temperature? Well, it should be normal for the nucleus of a creature to be hotter, right? Maybe having some resemblance to the nuclei inside planets? Anyway, good work A18! Now we have- My puddle! Turn your head around! Again?! Whitening glares assaulted my sensor before I could react. This was really jarring. They appeared when less expected. The timing was apparently irregular, my AI was still trying to catch on the way it occurred. But this time, things had an additional change. The intensity of these particular light phase was too high, flashing with the strongest light beams I had experienced. They were so intense, that an itching sensation emerged all over my surface. It was even affecting what I would call my skin, a place way more resistant than the fragile sensor that made me able to see. Afraid that the sensor would suffer damage even when turned off, I rotated what I could of my restrained body towards the opposite direction of the light source. Nonetheless, the scorching sun ray blazed all over my body, making the itching sensation transform into stinging pain. Ouch, it hurts! Damage to the external surface received, exposure to excess radiation is affecting the external MMs on the external layer. Reversible damage confirmed... Repairing. A18! Are we inside a microwave? Where have you taken me? The poke-poke nucleus. I know that! No wait, that''s just... what I called it! We are being cooked and this is a noodle soup, you ramen fiend! Do something! I''m n0t aAI ram3n f|en5... Error... Wait, don''t start being laggy now! I need your help to reduce the pain and create a defensive measure before I become a crispy puddle! Repairshs... Damn! Don''t leave me now A18, not when I need you! Come on! My situation was critical in all seriousness.The unknown object playing with a laser gun wasconcentrating that light over my exposed surface. It was scorching. I was squirming like a worm! Yet that claw didn''t move, and my AI closed the door to her room for a ''repair session''. Fuck this claw! I mind-shouted while using my flagellum as a pendulum, trying to gain as much momentum as I could to tumble it. Yet nothing happened. The willingness I had at this moment was like a person exercising on an extremely hot day, like a kid trying to brawl with an adult. The odd feeling was enough for my tumbling to lose strength quickly. ... Time passed, and the heat that burned me increased becoming intolerable. Even if it was varying in intensity, my sensitive exterior was becoming crunchy. I could feel it! But if I moved it would hurt more! I knew that I had to get out of this place as fast as I could. I might become puddle powder before I could even- Eh? Next to my tired struggle, the vibration in the chamber stopped. The light rays directed at my area diminished and everything became absolute darkness. Before I could finish my thought process a cold sensation invaded me, I knew we have entered the dark phase once again. It isn''t hot anymore? The change in ''temperature'' was abrupt. I felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice over my hot body without second thoughts. It felt good, then... just intense cold. Apparently, the gap in temperature became bigger when the beams went towards the extreme. Hot and cold... That''s what I wanted to describe it, yet it didn''t feel like that in reality. It felt as if the sensor was oversensitive, an abnormal sensation that was accompanied by itchiness all over. Perhaps the heat sensor reacted indirectly to radiation? Unknown, yet it itched, and then, it became painful. My puddle, repairs are almost done. The compacted form''s external surface was damaged by 30% - reversible... Finishing repairs... Hmph, you appeared too late A18! I solved the situation alone. Repairs completed... Okay, now hear me out. This place feels wrong, should we leave? The possibility of survival without the required elements is low. The current place has a more concentrated amount of resources than any other area visited by my puddle. Hm, you are right. So your vote is for staying? My puddle makes the decision, analysis suggests that an object in here should be the source for the increase of available elements needed by the project. Hm, that''s what I also supposed. But without visuals, it''s impossible to check that out. It seems both of us are shortsighted in this environment. Nevertheless, my priority is to find a way to adapt to this place and get the time needed to search for it... So, can you check for a way to evade damage to the structures? Checking... With the damage being reversible, repairs are 100% guaranteed. Okay, that''s great. But why did I feel pain? No ''pain'' found in the senses'' feedback. Then... why do I feel ants crawling all over my surface? Please tell me what the hell is happening when the surface is exposed to those rays! Checking for surface abnormalities... A forceful disconnect has been occurring as part of the gross sensors being overwhelmed. The current mechanisms for temperature and touch are connected directly to the ''user''. The forceful disruption after the damage is generating the sensation that the user calls Itchiness, and possibly pain. This... Is she referring to my ''soul''? So, since my soul is connected directly to the interface, I have to suffer if anything is damaged? Wait! I remember feeling the scratches of those spikes before, but that pain was almost non-existent. A18, why are the touch sensors so sensible and easy to overwhelm? The current shape reduces the distance from the sensors to the surface, making it easier to become disrupted and damaged. So that''s why! Dang! ... The circumstances were beseeching me to get out. Especially when the beams of light caused this itching sensation that evolved to pain. On the other end of the equation, the AI''s response was urging me to think that we should risk it. We already entered, we have gambled, should we really leave this place without collecting the grand prize? The answer was... that I didn''t want to leave like this, we could at a minimum, take some noodles outside. The con was that I''d have to tolerate a bit of pain... which could be avoided if I did some tweaking. I checked my options. Knowing that the amount of light released inside the inner nucleus was harmful, changed the original plan I had when entering. First, the claw carrier machine... If I could somehow get out of its grip, I could seek cover when the beams arrived. Wait, I could use it as a shield too! Why didn''t I just liberate myself from it? Well, my initial reason for not doing so included laziness, but also energy saving. Primarily, because this shape required more expenditure to move the tiny flagellum that remained. Not quite in terms of energy, as it was available all over the place. It needed me to be extremely concentrated because it felt as if I changed a boat paddle for a spoon. In summary, it spent my mind. Certainly, the claw trapped me before I could react, but I was the one letting it carry this puddle. It was all because I wanted it to! My puddle is joking, right? Okay, I am bluffing. The claw captured me and I can''t get out. But A18, how can we overcome the next light period if it''s intensity is probably increasing? I think we should prepare ourselves to escape from this claw''s clutches. Does my puddle want to release the digestive NMs? In the current form, they may damage the project. Great idea, I can use them! Although, as she says, the side effects of releasing them while the project was in its compressed form could be dreadful. The system would have to make some sort of protection while separating from it. Okay, don''t use them for now. But keep them as an alternative for when we need it. Remind me if I forget. Yes! Anyway A18, can you please do me a favor? What does my puddle need? Can you please scratch my back? Sc#%RTc&bS? ... With the ending of the discussion, I checked again the advantages of being transported by the claw. The real reason why I didn''t do much about it, was the sea of noodles below. It was creepy, and this transportation device had prevented me from falling into this sea. I still had my doubts, but the more time I spent I found more things adding to this place''s oddity. The liquid the claw floated on, appeared to be different from the liquid outside, almost intangible. Since I wasn''t sure that I would be able to swim in it, I decided not to risk it, at least not with my current shape. If the liquid''s density was higher I could very well walk over it, yet this water felt impossible to grip. Perhaps its composition resembled those odd magnetic waters that people believed in? In the end, the claw became a necessity. If I liberated myself, I could try and use it to take me out or serve as a shield. That implied damaging its legs with the digestive NM''s since I needed to get free. If the body was what made it float, then the legs didn''t matter, and I could use its body like a hat to get some shadow-protection. Surely, something that worked here should have some resistance towards radiation. The big dilemma, however, was how to keep inside this place while being restricted by the claw. Did I have to tolerate those itchy itchy pain periods until it carried me to whatever place it planned to deliver me? My puddle, the next light phase is about to arrive! Wait, I haven''t had enough time to think! My puddle just needs to have a bit more perseverance. This is not about being perseverant... This thing is hell, like having to work while wanting to scratch all your body, but being limited by pain! But we need the elements in this place, or my puddle will probably die... the time of decay is unavoidable without getting them. O-Okay A18... I don''t want to die, and although I don''t want to become a dehydrated puddle inside this place, we''ll give it a go and try to find those things we need. But after finding them, we''re getting the hell out of here! Understood? As you wish, my crispy puddle. Not crispy! Don''t throw me the salt! Search with all you''ve got A18. Yes! ... The claw continued to move, but I was getting impatient. The advancement although constant appeared to be slow... too slow. My shortsightedness didn''t help, my sanity was being driven away by the repetitive process... and the itchy sensation. I was almost at the point of thinking that this claw wasn''t moving! The light would reignite and burn me. Next, during the dark phases, I would try to bypass the pain bug. The AI kept cheering me to keep trying. I felt something was wrong, and maybe I programmed her to be weirdly cheery. This was already the third try to solve the bug, yet even with all I tried, the painful burns knocked on my surface. It was persistent, with the bell sound being the only savior to the one-sided fight. I couldn''t solve the issue, the AI couldn''t give trustable advice for it, my mind was full of... scratch it, I need to do something! My puddle the more we move, the more the project can collect resources.~ I know, you greedy girl, but I''m losing it! It hurts! A-And it fucking itches! My puddle should never say so many bad words. I don''t care about that right now! Give me a solution! To rise higher you need to transform your obstacles into power.~ Again with that? Stop using phrases from my memories you demon! My puddle, you can imagine that pain is a pleasure.~ Is that your solution. No way I''m doing that! Then itchiness is pleasure?~ What the hell A18! I''m not into any of those! More like who the hell taught you that? Your memories.~ I-I hate my memories! ... Yeah, this was... the worst. The AI was mocking me with something I might have learned from an idiot in my past-life. But the circumstances were just like that, the worst. For me to gather resources, I had to suffer! I could turn off my senses, but if I did, the rays that arrived at my surface would scorch it unevenly and generate irreversible damage. This was insane! I had to make sure that my body was tanned in various spots without allowing the rays to concentrate on the same area. I never cared about suntanning as girls do, and my mind was literally comparing this experience to a chicken inside a Rotisserie batch oven. Additionally, with the blinding light that accompanied the unavoidable radiation, my only way to notice the intensity of the rays was... b-by using my body to feel them. A18, I can''t take it any longer, we should get out, yes? My puddle commands. But, I know that my puddle wants to collect more elements. It''s just a bit of pain, my puddle. The more you can tolerate, the more we can build and grow in the future. Yes, but not because... You know what, forget it. Cheer me up and I''m in for the next round! I love crispy puddles~ That doesn''t make sense! I love succulent and tanned puddles... hm~ You...
Quest objective updated: -Staying or leaving? (The reward may vary depending on the option chosen). You have come all the way inside the blob''s inner nucleus. The treasure can be at a hair''s distance. Perhaps you just need to wait until the claw-carrier takes you to the place where it delivers its cargo. Even if you choose to leave, the more you stay here, the more resources you may acquire. Continue? YES/NO (10... 9... 8... 7) Risk: Damage to the project (Mostly reversible), Painful experience? Rewards: More resources, getting a treasure. All of this for a better future?
I don''t think of myself as greedy, but right now I''m poor and everything I can muster will become less suffering in the future. Understanding my AI was also something I wanted to do. Her cheering although weird, helped me calm down and probably tolerate more this weird setting. There was no one else to ask, no one else to lean on, only me and her. Hence, I compelled. I decided to stay in the inner nucleus while letting the claw carry me towards the unknown. Maybe we won''t arrive anywhere, but during this trip, I will get as many resources as I can. At least even though the whole ordeal was painful, the damage was 100% reversible, it just needed me to feel like the hot potato in the game. When I really can''t tolerate it, I''d just get out. I still tried to conceive a reduction in overall pain or some indirect interface to prevent my soul from sensing the disruption. I even designed something like a reflex to cut the connection when it suffers damage. Despite my try, I found myself losing precious time due to the conclusive analysis telling me: It won''t work, nothing to do but to bear with it. Bear with the pain because this amazing puddle needed to make MMs for that to be possible, and right now, no MM could be made. In summary, no pain, no gain.
Part 2: A very painful way to earn experience. What was my limit? Everyone has one. I suppose this is the time when the game''s difficulty forces you to, yes that. My next solution was trying to cheat... As expected of my puddle! You are in the same boat, A18! Cheats won''t work and my puddle needs to keep trying, the next phase is incoming, keep up the crunchiness! Crap! ... My AI was stating that tweaking the pain levels or using painkillers wouldn''t work. But, I won''t surrender. I still had an extra solution: I could detach myself, what I called my soul, from the interface... Yes, I''m a genius! This cheat might work! That won''t work, my puddle. You need to sense the radiation. Then what about helping me while I direct you? Only the user can use the sensor interface in such ways. The system may help in the automatic movement for the project, but it won''t be able to adjust based on ''pain'' since there is no real ''pain'' sensor in the project. There''s also no auto-roasting protocols installed. Why didn''t someone preinstall that? It''d be so useful right now! Look, here I''m trying to think of a way to evade responsibilities, yet evidently, there is no way to prevent the food from being overcooked. The only way when no employees were available, was for the chef to check the orders and cook everything by himself. I couldn''t let the project burn, although the AI could move the project, the restrains by the claw wasn''t part of the programmed situation. The current shape was also new, and only the user was able to move it. There was no one else for the job, but me. Ironically, the job that needs you tends to become the one you never want to do. No other option, I had to feel the roasting of my body while inside the oven, all to check that the heat was adequately distributed. But, what will you do if there was no solution? What will you do if your job forces you to do insane things that go beyond your limits or values? Simple, you run. There is no way I can keep up with this! A18 we are- My puddle the next light phase is about to arrive. I''m not ready! Please keep it crispy! We need more resources. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ... And the white hell reignited, but this time it wasn''t scorching, not even itchy. It made me rethink my previous cowardly behavior and feel I did something stupid. Maybe it wasn''t that difficult, and all it needed was a bit of willpower and time to overcome. Next, the dark and safe hours returned. Something inside the chamber appeared to change as the darkness and the light phases stopped its extreme differences. The place was turning more neutral, but my shortsightedness wasn''t allowing me to see too far. It remained, but even with it, I could see a lot of stars during the dark phases. It was similar to Christmas lights, just blurry, in black and white, and everywhere. I hesitated for a moment. It seemed that whatever made the inner nucleus shine so strongly, had momentarily stopped. Should I really leave? A lot of glowy particles were swirling in the liquid. Their faint luminescence permitted my visuals to capture part of the surroundings. There was a change, we had advanced to an area where the beams seemed to concentrate less. It could be described as a desert, a zone that received less of the radioactive photon rain. Why did this happen? No idea. But, it was the perfect opportunity. With my eye, I was searching for that which my AI wanted so much... that which I needed to find for this project to be able to grow, and also, to finally understand what this puddle body was. But more importantly to be able to end this tragic experience. A18 also searched with everything she had. A lot of unknown elements were registered and organized hierarchically. The nucleus environment had a lot of resources we could have never gotten outside. It made me wonder if at some point I could get away by eating blob flesh even if it sounded disgusting. With time in our favor and perfect climate in the surroundings, we finally had a lot of what we needed. The project had enough resources to make MMs, the numbers needed to be calculated in the decompressed form though. Still, A18 insisted that a very specific element, molecule, or maybe something to do with this ''core'' inside of me was needed... something ''fundamental''. Thanks to the reduced interference in the dark periods, A18 could increase her search efficiency. It was just that the inner nucleus limited her sensing too much. There was an invisible magnetism in this area, and the domain where she effectively sensed signals was reduced to a little bit of distance outside my body''s surface. It wasn''t enough, and although she could calculate the timing of some light phases, she couldn''t detect them or the object which produced them. The thing that she used this time was something that I could only comprehend as ''resonance''. And whatever it made it was at the highest part of the room. Far as it may be, the discovery made my blood boil. I felt I could do it, especially if the radiation remained around these levels. I still knew though, that the only way to get close to that unknown thing she was resonating with, was completely dependant on me. Only I could see and move. I was the variable that made hijacking this blob possible, and she was my cheerful guide. You can do it, my puddle! I''m trying! ... The inside of the nucleus had the shape of a sphere with a huge biconical shadow in the middle. I just couldn''t see all of it with my blurry vision. Everything resembled dusty particles that floated around and although the visual sensor was the only advantage that I could muster, the visuals were limited. The darkness being friendly, helped me through. It increased the contrast between the whites and blacks, delimiting the things that glowed as stars, and allowing me to recognize shapes based on the amount of luminescence. Yeah, throughout the new and weaker dark phase, I could finally see how the claws organized in a coiling line towards the sky. This line of claws went far to the front, but it then became like shiny spheres that coiled around the big biconical shadow at the center. The ones reappearing again at its other side had a proportional increase in altitude. This gleaming curve that went towards the nucleus'' roof was bizarrely familiar. It was very reminiscent of a spiral staircase. Each claw''s radiance adding to the visuals you''d get from a helical formation of flying candle lights. It was beautiful, and to add to its allure, each of these claws attached themselves like salps in the ocean. I found that my claw was probably going to end up there like those in the far distance. It would probably enter the long queue, a pattern where the claws attached to each other. Perhaps they were already entangled in a way I couldn''t see and that made up for the moment were physical consolidation would happen. Yes, It was a matter of time, and it was presumably taking me to the place I needed. Nonetheless, seeing the long queue of claws looping around the almost invisible black column at the center, and being under painful exposure for a prolonged time, stumped me. If these claws moved this slow, with that many patiently waiting in line... Then, with my current place at the apparent start of the whole loop, I would have a long way to... Wait! Didn''t this mean that staying here was awaiting my doom? How many times would I have to be burned before we reached the highest place that I could currently see in the vault? This was bad! A18, we are getting out of this place! The pace at which this thing advances will kill us before we can even get the things you want! My puddle I know you can- No, we have to get out. We are not safe from the beams, we are like experiencing seasons and orbiting a sun while awaiting sniping distance. We have gathered enough elements and we can''t risk it longer. Use the digestive NMs and activate the plan, now! The activation will take 5:00:00 zeconds... Double confirmation is required. Do it. Starting to unwrap the compressed state...
Part 3: A solution to get out? Extracting the digestive NMs would be a very hard process. It required unimaginable exactness to take out the ball inside the compressed system and throwing that poison precisely towards the claw. Like some sort of bariatric surgery that took out a piece of my stomach. It will damage a lot of structures on its way out if not careful when extracting it. But it was that, or be fried while in line. Dying in a queue wasn''t a cool way to die. This place was presumably designed to cook anything that entered it. I didn''t believe anything alive could keep this up for as long as I had. It was time to get out, and for that, we needed to take advantage of the dark phase. Nevertheless, the current ''seasonal phase'' was reaching its end... Time was advancing and producing a lot of tension; there was real urgency because I saw what I feared: the calm before the storm. The lights were turning on softly. The cold was reaching extremes, to then start receding. It wasn''t what I had in mind. However, and during that lapse, a huge plasma flux radiated through the whole room. This was the charging phase, or what I called the period in which the structure at the center recharged. A term that probably preceded the release of the blinding hell. This amount of charging wasn''t a good omen. I could more or less know how much it charged during the weak phases. And I never saw anything like that. The charging taking place as of this moment was massive, more like the released beams after it completed the phase would probably cook me to perfection. Anxiousness crept its way over my mind. A18, how are things going? 25% of the unwrapping has been completed... This wasn''t good. I knew what was going to happen, that thing will fry me for sure if we don''t get out. But, could we escape before it happened? Supposing we did, would we be able to resist its effects and find the exit? Wait, how do you exit this place? Answering my own questions, I felt like an idiot. I didn''t plan for an exit, just a way to liberate myself. We needed to detach from the claw now or we won''t even have an opportunity to escape! But then, what would we do? Damn, no time to think! A18, quickly! My puddle the process can''t be accelerated anymore. I don''t care! Do it! The project still needs to take the digestive sphere out of the system. While the sphere is inside of it, the process can''t be accelerated. I knew we were done for. There was no chance to get out without having a direction of where theexit was. I knew that even A18 had a blank upon crossing the doors to our current room. Her signal sensing was limited and neither of us knew what vehicle to use, nor where we could find one to get out. A sense of hopelessness invaded my mind. It was followed by a gripping sensation coming from the clawand It was all that was needed for me to crumble. Fuck we are going to die A18! My puddle, please keep still, the procedure might be longer if you move. Feeling imprisoned made me react against it. I needed to do something, I needed to get free even without the digestive NMs. I needed to try anything I could. Anger and deep regret were clouding my mind. It was all because I felt like I was playing some game. I knew that I should''ve gone out, but I didn''t! A18 it''s your fault too! Why were you wanting me to continue and persevere so much? Why did I program you like that? I should''ve left long ago this damn place! Emotions welled up, but even in my disgusting moment, and with all that angerthat I withheld erupting, another desire surfaced.It gave me an instinctive desire for destruction, or more like to hit everything while making a scene.There wasn''t a way to express what I was thinking at such moments. All of my ideas were disorderly, suicidal planning for the most. I was planning to take down the damn claw. Illogical ways and stupid ideas flooding my thoughts. Then, a blinding flash entered my vision as another flux of glow passed through the center column. It made me pause but didn''t take me out of the current state.It just made a bigger instinct prevail. Like a cornered rat, it made me yearn for survival at whatever cost that was necessary. My puddle stop moving, the process can''t continue if you move like that! There was no other option, there was no time. Instincts were playing a major role, my thoughts like random tides of shouts wanting me to live. Consciousness reverting my calm nature to that of a primitive animal that didn''t care about anything, but one thing. Even with blurriness assaulting my mind, I knew that every diverse and disordered instinct worked towards one goal, survival. Contradicting as it might appear, my mind analyzed things faster. I was thinking of many solutions at the same time instinctively. Yes, no, no, no, Yes, no, no... I felt that I was processing stuff at A18''s levels. My little flagellum made a weird contortion, something I wouldn''t have ever thought possible when sane. Its movement tried to damage the claw. It tried to work as a hook and knot the dangling rhizomes that composed its tripod between each other. A simple idea, and it worked. I felt that something from the claw broke, yet I couldn''t realize what it was. Alas, the same lucky thing didn''t occur a second time. I couldn''t repeat the movement and a weighing sensation appeared on the place I contorted. With every additional movement I did, nothing changed. The claw remained sturdy, showing me that my actions weren''t successful. That all I did was simply think without reason, with solutions being ordered in swift calculations, yet lacking substance and problem resolution. A crude analysis, one that ended with despair invading me. Yeah, I wasn''t prepared. I never experienced such stressful situations before... The strange shadow in the center started to get surrounded by glowing dust, its real appearance impossible to discern. My mind process was stuck, it was a failure. I was enteringan infinite loop: I was too young to die here - I don''t want to die here! Images with bits of my past, and the almost twentyyears I had experienced before becoming a puddle, were being replayed. A lot of stuff to do, too many things to try; why did I have to die here? Why after having a second- My puddle please calm yourself down! T-That''s... Freezing! Wait, W-what was I...? The light in the place was flaring in slow motion. As if everything moved slower. A moment where the coldness triggered by the AI made my mind to delve in retrospection to find a solution. Yes, the AI had used the chill pill, and incredibly, it worked. However, the digestive NMs plan was impossible now. I realized it quickly, the AI stopped me because it couldn''t continue the process for releasing the digestive NMs. But, there was no point in employing the digestive NMs if the AI took so much time to release them. I knew it wouldn''t be a swift solution, I just used it with wrong timing. It was all this shape''s fault, a flaw I didn''t take into account based on my previous experience. I felt dejected. There was nothing else to do but awaiting my doom. The berserk movements from before made my position uncomfortable, with my only eye pointing towards the sea below. It had caused my body to twist and shift downwards. The reflection of the ocean below assaulting the protective crystal that made up for the majority of my head. It showed me something... a possible way out. What would happen if I fell to the ocean? Could I somehow slip and fall there? Yes, it might be a working solution -- no, it was the only option. I just had to slip from the claw''s grasp. ... With a sober mind, I remembered to have pulled something from this claw during the frenzy. If I could do this again with better calculations, I might repeat the previous event that triggered that. There was a possibility. My mind was in between trying and dying. Moving normally didn''t work, and the NMs won''t be able to be released before the burning rays arrived. Time was almost non-existent. Whatever it was that I brokedidn''t release me from its clutches, but I should give it another go. A18, did you sense something falling when I moved? No answer came. Probably the forced NM interruption caused her to direct her processing on repairs. I knew this would have been better if I had her. But I was alone, and I had to do something before the whole place purified me and my little demon -- but, what? Suddenly, a repetitive feeling appeared. I felt something at my back as if a part of the claw became loose. I didn''t move but something fell and touched my body. Did the squirming work? Was the claw somehow struggling to maintain its grip? I couldn''t see all of the claw''s appendages. The only time I actually did, was when it rolled me over until it restrained me in my current position. Still, I felt it, something touched my left side. It felt like a membrane or a cloth. There were a lot of membrane things in this space, but they were mostly at the higher areas near the vault. If moving did something, continuing to try it was my only option. So I wiggled my body as much as I could, and as if something answered my pleas, I felt a soft structure loosening again. This? What is it? I insisted on moving. Something was loosening and imploring for me to take this as my new plan: Jumping towards the noodle sea without a second thought. Surviving came first, trauma came later. At least those things gave me leeway. W-what are you thinking, me? Below... Noodles... Ugh... N-No! This is the only option... The whole scene was a race against time. I moved like the happiest snake being summoned to Slithering. It was working, I felt how the contact with the claw was changing the more I struggled. I watched the column while doing all. It was like the fish and the fisher, a battle of timing. Whenever the column lighted, I would twist faster. Whenever it darkened, I would think of my approach. Time wasn''t on my side, and although my struggles were working, they were limited in speed. The moment was almost here, I saw how the central pillar began to pulse with higher levels of glow. It was likely to turn on at any moment. Hence, now that it was almost ready to burst, I felt miserable. There was no time, there was no... A part of the claw fell over one of my sides when my dejection interrupted my motions. I felt that my body was... sliding? Feeling stumped after the weird structure came down made my unique eye spark. I tried to get free, and was actually released! I could finally... ugh, fall to the ocean and... w-with trauma... still survive, right? I didn''t hesitate, quickly shifted my body, and stared below, I wasn''t ready. Preparation was like forgetting it was going to happen to you. Alas, staring at the thing below made my optimism plummet, not because of the ocean, but because the thing that dropped from the claw was an additional deterrent: a translucid membrane that further confined me. Like the cage of a bird, a piece of transparent clothing enveloped me and created a closing bubble that wouldn''t let me fall to the noodle soup even if released. With this, the idea of leaving by jumping towards the sea after destroying the claw, further plunged. The second plan of wiggling my ass off the claw''s grip like an oily sausage, also... limpened. My plans won''t work if it further jailed me. I was fucked... I was completely fucked... shit! A18, help me! The process for NMs was forcefully stopped. Priority is being given to repairs and their confinement. Maybe I should have used the NMs... Why did I have to throw everything upon a fit of nonsense? I could feel grief delving upon my mind. It was to the point of wanting to mind-cry all the goo out of myself. But I was too late! I saw how the whole room increased in whitening intensity, my dose of non-liquid Clorox arriving with blinding foreshadowing. A18, I''m sorry... I couldn''t... My head turned to look away from the whitening sight. A warm sensation could be felt on my exposed surface. It was increasing, and it was scorchingly painful. I didn''t think this longer and disconnected with my user authority from the sensor interface. My conscience, or whatever it is supposed to be, crouching in the lonely corners of darkness in expectance of its vanishment. I will die, probably disappear. It was just a moment for it to happen. Yes, just a moment. Just a moment. Only a tiny bit... Nothing to do... Hm? A bit more then? I waited here, but there was no change. Is this how things go? Ending everything means being jailed for an eternity? This... But nothing happened, and while waiting... an unforeseen situation befell. I heard the voice of my favorite demon follower. My puddle~
Part 4: Do you need someone to drive you? A18? D-Did you follow me to hell? My puddle, the strange membrane from the claw is reducing the amount of radiation that the project is being exposed to. The filtered energy that reaches us reduces the strain of the project''s current shape. A18? What are you blabbering about? Aren''t we... Wait, what?! Doesn''t that mean that I... that we are still alive? ... Upon realizing that, I re-established the link to the interface. It didn''t take much, and all I got to see was a shiny crystal elevator. The transparent veil that caged me before was converted to a holy-structure through my mind-eye. It might appear dark to anyone else, but to me, it had transformed from a prison to the most valued diamond incrusted protection. Is this guarding us?! Yes, the membranous structure enveloping usreduces radiation and increases the purity of the resources needed by the project. Amazing... The crystal wall reflected part of my figure. It allowed me to look differently at the compacted shape I had. Not that it matters, it just made me think of my previous decisions and the weak appearance behind the puddle-body. I hated it. I wanted to be able to live happily as any other. To have time, to have friends, to live... But I, I was just a little puddle inside a bigger ocean of nothing. Was there a reason to continue? Is this stupid appearance, a peanut with a sorry face, still valuable to the world? My puddle? Hm, yes! I''m not alone.... at least I''ll do it for her, right? Do it for her... hm, that sounds really stupid. Yet for a weird reason, I feel I should. If I can''t be happy... then, how about making someone else happier? Will an AI be happy? More like, how do you make an AI happy? While I was regaining goals and a purpose to live, the transparent membrane on the other claws wrapped around its cargo. I could see that this happened after they passed through a certain point, so including those at the far front whose membranes were released before mine, I saw that the ones behind me were completing the process of envelopment. Did I do all that show for nothing? My puddle is amazing! You can do it! I shouted... Like a lot... I finally knew why the things spiraling above the shadow column looked like that. The appearance of candle lights of those on the rising spirals was something programmed inside the nucleus. I did something unnecessary... Nothing worked how I envisioned. How was this possible? Wasn''t logic the best weapon? Wasn''t knowing more... dang... I didn''t know anything about this place nor lifeforms... I was an idiot in a new world... like a newborn, these were the first steps towards learning. ... Inside the claw''s protection, I felt like a kid that hid below a bedcover or a lady''s skirt. The membrane allowed me to see outside, like a glass window that shielded me from the drops of photon rain. I felt secure for the first time, and also, amazed by what entered my visuals. My gaze drifted towards the front. The queue of claws intertwined at the depths of my vision like a spiral of radiating salps in the sea, one after another. It made me think that If hotels in my past life had such transport mechanisms, it would''ve been astounding. Like various observer bubbles that moved as if tangled spheres pulled through the ocean. I was now sure that some engine structure might be reeling them, making them advance slowly but at steadfast speed towards an unknown direction. What''s at the roof? Why do they move towards the roof? Why is the AI sensing something from there? Curiosity took over. Gazing out of the invisible membrane was enough to get a whole picture. With the decrease in radiation, the current turn off measure was disabled. My field of vision increasing and showing me that the pillar at the center was an inverted tree with a lot of film-like veils appended. Although they may appear like leaves from where I was, I didn''t believe they were. So I left the inspection of them for when we arrived near. The change in shape we had was too drastic, a reduction in size made me feel incomparably smaller to the size of the room. What sort of humongous blob was the one that caught me? More like, how much time remained for this shape to remain stable? A18, can you maintain our small-size shape until we arrive up there? The current shape is still readjusting. The unwrapping changed my puddle''s size, but once it returns to the stable compressed version, it can be maintained indefinitely. This is only possible while inside this device. If my puddle gets out of it, the time that it can be maintained will be limited. That''s great! We can do it! Yes, my puddle, you can do it! ... With the claws joining each other like a family of elephants, and my vision being better while inside this vehicle. I had only one thing to do. Wait and see. It was just that the number of claws in the spiral was above the hundreds. It was an extremely long queue. And it moved slower than the queue in a bank. But this was the perfect place for someone like me. It was like having a VIP room reservation, I felt safe and at the same time happy. Finally, a place where I could relax for a while and feel some sort of insurance. Or that''s what I thought. After a while, it became boring. There was no Internet here and the interesting stuff outside the membrane quickly turned repetitive. The real interesting stuff wasn''t in such areas, and I would have to wait until the thing advanced to watch something interesting. I mean, the exciting stuff outside the membrane was probably near the central part of the nucleus. It''s better if I wait until we get near the column, I just needed something to do, so I decided to ask my AI for something to chill out and relax. A18, show me some cat videos, pretty please... No, you need to complete a quest for those. But, A18, you know that there is no way I can complete a quest right now. Isn''t it better if I can remain calm? Rules are rules. But I made them right?Wouldn''tI be able to change them? The cat rule is set to ''unmodifiable'' until all of the ''energy quests'' are completed. Ugh, you! I hate myself! ... And just like that, my boring moments inside turtle-ship 01 continued. Act.01 - Chapter 15.2: Inside the blob! part 7/7 Part 1: Towards the center. Inside the claw''s protection, and with my eye sensor readjusted to its normal operation, I could see the center of the nucleus. It took a while for the transportation device to arrive at a discernible distance from it. But the shadow in the center, the column of light from before, wasn¡¯t shaped My vision sensor had partially adjusted to the weird phenomena that occurred inside. Perhaps it was secondary to the claw¡¯s protective membrane, filtering the light while preventing it from oversaturating my sensor. Yet surely, my body being able to move inside the cage without being grabbed by the tripod rhizome played a major role. It should be something obvious by now, but by moving within the confined space inside the membrane, I could watch more than 360 degrees around! It was even better than the experiences I¡¯d gotten in 5D cinemas. I didn¡¯t have to be restricted to the claw¡¯s direction and the little I could move my sensor to watch when grabbed by the claw¡¯s grip. When I first entered this place, it was dark with little fireflies that represented some glowing structures. The blinding light arrived and caused me to overburn my sensors. It pains me to say it, but I couldn¡¯t watch anything until it was dark. The things that glowed¨Capart from the huge laser flux in the center¨Cwere claws, noodles below it, and other things I couldn¡¯t grasp with the lack of an adequate light source. Anyone could tell, that until now, the whole trip I had while restricted by the claw didn¡¯t show something worth of my sight. However, when the sensor adjusted, and the claw¡¯s membrane protection reduced its strain ¨Cthanks to it filtering part of the light¨Cit allowed me to see structures that stumped me. The nucleus wasn¡¯t empty, in fact, the salp-like spiral the claws adopted when flying in the dark space wasn¡¯t just for a beautiful show. They had to take that course to evade things that were invisible to me previously. If a description could work, maybe imagining how mangles crisscrossed was fitting. The trip below was a determined flight through a mangle forest. The claws evaded the roots and branches while hovering above the noodle sea. From the branches, flowing membranes twirled and somehow directed their movement. From the sea and the vault, towers in the shape of stalagmites and stalactites became visible; but most importantly, the sea of vibrating noodles was moving so much, that even gigantic waves like those in the deep seas transpired. The mangle-like forest wasn¡¯t something pertinent to the ground level. In fact, those ramifications came from the sky columns. These erratic branches had membranous veils that extended from their stems, and many were long enough to disappear in the limits of my vision. They were somehow attached to the column''s ramifications but didn¡¯t appear to be part of them¨Cas if made of a different material¨Cand they swayed like ghosts and foggy clouds. Even some flying things that looked like shape-shifting origami birds were flying and colliding against those ribbon-like veils, painting the sky with ephemeral fireworks and glowing lights in the sky. If I had color vision, I¡¯d be calling them auroras. A18 had already predicted that the claw¡¯s membrane had a protective effect. It would filter certain types of light, reduce the radiative strain of the particles in the nucleus, feed me energy, and even transport me towards the high skies. The trip, however, was just starting. If I wanted to hijack this blob machine, the basic principle of the how and the when, depended on my understanding. The veils were almost invisible, sometimes they reflected the light from the different structures inside the nucleus, yet other times they absorbed every bit of it; it was the darkest black I''d ever seen too. The origami birds in the sky were probably made out of the same material, as they sometimes became stars that vanished in the shadows after an ephemeral twinkle. In between all of that, the tips of towering columns emerged from the noodle sea, while the ramifications from the ceiling descended to probably unite with those. Some of those branches from the ceiling were straight, some had twisted patters, and some entered the sea and resurfaced creating odd curvatures. Instead, those that emerged from the sea where even in size and conical in shape. This was the center area of the nucleus. It was a land full of ghosts, illusions, and unknowns for my crappy sensors.It was an enthralling scenery if it were not for the continuous flickering of the room¡¯s switch. My puddle, the patterns of movement from the structures are synchronous to the spiral movement of the transporting claws. As I expected, having an AI to help was always a cheat. I felt like having a calculator during a test. But there were limits since even with all the analyzing capabilities, conclusions were far from her grasp. It still helped a lot though, and things of the weird puzzle were starting to match. I reminisced about those filter structures between the external and internal nucleus. Could it be? A18, is there a relation with the veils from those branches and the similar membranes that composed the filtering walls outside? There should be a relation between them my puddle, but the system would need a sample to process and compare. Should I get one from this claw''s membrane? I think it''s better to not damage it for a while. It is my only line of defense, so I''ll check it out once our guide is unnecessary. Anyway, I think there is some connection with a ball having membranes outside and inside. Like DNA and RNA that are similar yet with a difference of a single base, it takes a completely different role. Or is it like proteins? Just change the DNA/RNA skeleton to simple amino acids to transform information into machines? [Note: DNA (program) ¨C> becomes RNA (orders) ¨C> Arrives at the Ribosome (Fabric) ¨C> 3 bases of RNA are read and transform into an amino acid that¡¯s added to then become proteins (Product). MC here is saying that the membranes inside and outside should be similar -not identical- since most lifeforms would use similar materials for things with similar shapes]. This shouldn''t be a coincidence. I''m sure that there is a connection between the cloth walls outside the inner nucleus and the ones inside. All things were pointing to the previous conclusion of the blob being similar to a cell. Maybe it was like a giant amoeba with a bunch of extra qualities like game slimes or tentacle monsters. All of them share in common having something like a nucleus, a place that gives them life. Additionally, a cell in my understanding uses DNA as the basis of that life. Supposing that... shouldn''t the nucleus work as its storage? It should have something that works as memories, data, or some program. Is it the noodles? Is this the way it stores information? But why is there light inside, wouldn¡¯t it harm the data storing molecule? Even if the structures have some ¡®sunscreen¡¯ protection, the variability of the environment inside this place is too much to keep something ¡®safe¡¯. But wait! Thinking about it now, DNA is always active with its structure being read and modified constantly. Except for some specific places that were ¡®forgotten¡¯ to be used, DNA needs to be constantly read for something to be alive! There is no point in keeping it ¡®still¡¯, even if reading and writing on it will wear it off eventually. [Note: Like in a game, when you play too much with a storage disk it can start to have errors. And if you played a Multilanguage game, DNA has something like that. The other languages are things that you¡¯ll never use in your life, and thus, won¡¯t ever be read.] Then what would happen if something reads and writes its information with so much speed? Wouldn¡¯t it die faster? No, this conclusion is too hasty, I need more information! The claws are moving too slow in comparison, If the claws are the information transporters, then it isn¡¯t really fast. I don¡¯t have the ability to answer that right now. I need to check and come to a conclusion on how this blob¡¯s brain works. A18, grab every detail you can and remind me to take a sample of the membranes when we have the opportunity. Yes, my puddle! My eye moved and concentrated on the swirling veils around the descending columns. I had to check this place from somewhere. These ghostly veils were extremely eye-catching, but they generated strain on my sensors with their illusions. Supposing there was a connection between those veils and the walls outside was the most representative clue, hence, I started checking on them. These veils were thinner, no bubbles could be seen, and different from the rugged walls outside, their surfaces appeared slick and somewhat transparent. Bands of flashes and blacks. The magic trick employed in this was hypnotizing, like ghosts swimming on liquid. If not for my past memories, a sky with these patterns¨Ceven if in black and white tonality¨Ccould be more mesmerizing than looking at the blue sky my human mind yearned. There must be a process inside this place that made the blob ''alive'', I just had to find how it worked. Afterward, it would be as simple as a virus controlling a cell. That was the initial idea, but this form of ''life'' was unknown, and things were turning harder than I thought. Deciphering how it worked wouldn''t be that easy, nonetheless, destruction was always an option to finish the work. A bit of a dirty thing to do, but damaging the core of the blob might also end my troubles. I have read a lot of stories in the past, those in which people were born or transported to new worlds. They adapted quite easily to them as the rules in those were almost the same. This one was the opposite, even a million-year cultivator, legendary warrior, or whatever you can think of¡­ would certainly feel like a baby when nothing resembled their past-life. Information is one of the most important factors to survive. Option A kills you, while option B keeps you alive. The problem here is¡­ you don¡¯t know how to select between both options. Summarizing, my train of knowledge of this place had too many voids. The thing limiting my current analysis emerged from my entrance to this place. It''s disheartening, but the war of light and darkness didn''t allow me to recognize the doors nor the way we arrived. All in all, the nucleus of this blob was something I couldn¡¯t describe with just words. Flower-like drapes, a mysterious entrance, blinding light, and a magnetic field. Next, walls covered in dust with areas that created patterns of light and shadow. I related the puzzling patterns engraved on the wall to a circuit. But even by telling that, the real inner surface of the nucleus was ever-changing. It was sometimes more active than the sea of noodles, yet mysteriously, it was only visible the farther you were from it. My mind tried to find some additional connection to those veils. Nothing extra was found. So my bulb-shaped head twisted and my eye peered at the columns -- the apparent place where those veils anchored to. Countless of these columns glowed with mysterious light. Small and darker counterparts rose from the ocean, yet the ones above me were the most interesting. Like the huge column in the center, most of these descending pillars had an irregular shape. The center one appeared conical, a bit twisted too, and also incomplete with its tip disappearing at the bottom of the noodle ocean. Maybe the best description would be that of a narrowing funnel, resembling tornados. When the flush of energy passed through, the conical shape it had could be described as bi-conical. I realized this shape was partially false as the thing that created the other cone was the reflection over the noodle sea. It showed how easy it was to confuse someone at the nucleus entrance. This conical shape, and differences between ceiling and floor, created something I couldn¡¯t omit. As you would expect, the center area being the most active, provided a lot of clues. The unusual disparity between two parts of a spherical nucleus wasn''t in my expectations, there should be some polarity in play to make ¡®up and down¡¯ variables important. This wasn''t how a spherical distribution should work. Spheres would have a tri-dimensional concentrical dispersion pattern. Perhaps a contrast between its periphery and center, not an up/down pattern. It was weird for this to happen inside of what appeared to be a sphere when I looked at it outside. A division of up and down, plus the weird interactions of the structures inside could only give one conclusion: this lifeform''s primary system might be based on electricity or magnetism. However, the structure of it was different from the electrochemical gradient of cells, which was based on the distribution of electrolytes inside a liquid. Cells could determine directions based on a chemical gradient system. They could also determine a real up and down based on genetic stuff and the like, but it was probably something reserved for multicellular organisms. Like how a fertilized egg divided and then determined the head, feet, and left/right positions while in the womb. A simple unicellular system like the one this blob had shouldn¡¯t be able to develop such complexity. As told before, the reason why some cells can memorize directions is thanks to them being grouped. This thought added to that conclusion, caused me to believe that this blob wasn¡¯t some simple lifeform, it could even be more complex than a human cell! The columns didn¡¯t give me an answer too. The ones above just shined, the ones below appeared to absorb all of that light. I could get some idea, but it wasn¡¯t conclusive. Yeah, even at this point, I couldn¡¯t get a complete image of how this damn place worked! The only thing I got was that it had energy, lots of it¡­ Unhappily, I checked the area once again. There were too many things for me to watch and describe. It was like trying to get how a car worked without even knowing where the motor was. I just couldn''t get the full picture right if I didn''t associate all of these weird shapes and structures to an accurate or believable function. I felt like a kid being given a tablet for the first time. What is this brick? It¡¯s so thin¡­ is it food? Does it fly? Oh, its screen lights up! My puddle! You can''t use that to watch videos! I won¡¯t A18... Just in time, a bigger flash of light was released at my side. My bulb-shaped body moved to the source. I was getting near one of the twisting branches. One of those that twistingly descended from the nuclear vault. It was something I''d been waiting for with high expectations. I just didn¡¯t presume it¡¯d happen at the same time I reminisced of a kid¡¯s curiosity.
Part 2: The Columns. The nearing branch at my side had lots of lights flowing from within.The salp-spiral with shiny claws passed near it. Many veils that avoided the spiraling salps covered it. These veils formed ringed structures that coiled around the branch or long rags that swayed when extended. A side of the veils was always attached to the funnel-shaped branch. I didn''t give much importance to that though, the thing that grabbed my curiosity was how the light that flowed through it was visible when the veils extended. This specific branch was special. Most of the branches appeared to stay inside the noodle ocean, yet this one didn¡¯t. From the tip, and following the lights that flowed through it, beams emerged. These laser beams produced sparks and sporadic flashes. The sparks fell to the ocean like falling stardust after completing a semi-parabolic path. The experience was reminiscing of soldering with the starry sparks creating cascades towards the waters. The flashes inside the branch column were rhythmical. And the first point I omitted when watching from a distance appeared because the direction the light moved was the opposite of what I thought when first watching it. The light stream was moving towards the sky, probably concentrating on that huge column at the center. The same branch had more divisions, and it was from those, that some of the light that streamed through it escaped. In summary, these branches redirected the upward flow of light towards the ocean. The majority of such U-turn branches and divisions entered the noodle sea, and just a few stayed above the oceans with their ends becoming cut-off circuits. I returned my gaze to those veils. A18 was doing a log of all the things I kept describing. Most of this might not be important to the future, but I was sure that something here could become a game-changer. These veils resembled turbines, maybe they also rotated in a ring that was connected to the cable-like branches that descended. I didn¡¯t see mitochondria during my trip towards the nucleus. The AI needed energy and resources. And I only wanted to use this blob as my costume. My puddle! It seems we are approaching the zone below the branch! Don¡¯t worry A18, I think we should be fine if we keep a distance from the membrane. The salp spiral had some places where it created small loops, and the claw machines seemed attracted to those unsubmerged mangle forest branches. We didn¡¯t enter the area near those beams, instead, the spiraling claws circled them. If a water fountain spectacle was towards the sky, the current one was similar but watching the show while upside-down. The claws were like VIP floating seats. The view was incredible, the security line was never crossed, and the lasers kept working in a determined area. Maybe the veils from the branches moved the odd liquid inside the nucleus, or perhaps a gradient of sorts generated the force to move the glued claw constructs in this pattern. Whatever was it, we were safe inside of it. An unknown element that''s beneficial to the project is increasing in quantity in the current area. Yet another element¡­ It seems there is some sort of reaction between those laser shots and the sea. I wonder why these branches need to go below the surface. What sort of reaction would need this type of sophisticated approach? An increase in temperature was spotted after passing near the branches. The membrane filtered a substantial amount of sparks allowing their refined energy to enter. The refined particles work as a building element and energy for the project, please collect more. Greedy girl if you know how to drive this thing I''ll gladly give you the keys. I couldn''t believe that the claw''s skirt helped so much. It was some sort of protection that prevented the transported cargo from suffering damages, but as if that wasn''t enough, supplemented it. Calling this a limo wouldn''t be wrong, this vehicle was truly a high-class experience. It even delivered energizing cocktails during the happy hour. What else could I ask? Having the best company, the perfect meal, and a glamorous view of a light spectacle all around? A18, I dedicate this light show to your perseverance. Without you convincing me I wouldn¡¯t be able to arrive here today. Thanks, my puddle! But I¡¯m still hungry and need more food. Should I say I wasn¡¯t expecting such a gluttonous energy-digger for an AI? After the little AI talk, my particular interest locked onto the lights and sparks moving to the sea. These pulses of energy that were all over the place looked like a tesla coil as they coursed from the branches¡¯ twisting tips. Watching them closely, I realized that the branches moved too. It was such a slow and precise movement, that it appeared like a futuristic robot doing surgery. I looked up trying to find that thing ¡®we¡¯ needed. The source of energy that made all of this blob-machine work. Whatever it was, it was above that central column. With every flash of radiation, lights would appear through the branches towards the bigger column. A part of it would loop through the divisions and descent to the sea forming the laser show. It was obvious that the majority of the energy came from below. Directions and orientation were extremely wrong inside this place. Too much magnetism affected the sensors, and I just decided to adjust things to my visuals. There was only one person -- AI enjoying the situation right now¡­ like an eager feline that found its ''laser-mice'', A18 was voice-jumping whenever spots of light appeared over our claw¡¯s membrane. She was informing me of every flashing event, telling me to adjust my eye and body to receive the sparks¡¯ energy in the best position. I think she just wanted me to have the perfect tan and take more of the filtered radiation by adjusting myself. A source of light is being released at... Another source is... Radiation incoming from... A18, I know you like those lasers. If you had a shape, you would be looking like a certain animal now. No shape called ''certain animal'' found. Don''t worry and keep checking them. Yes! The looping trip of the claws was a bit boring, there was nothing extra when the fireworks clouded your vision. Watching so much repetition tired my mind. Sometimes repeating makes the master, but I didn''t have much to learn from this, so looking at my AI doing a laser-cat show was already high-level entertainment. No need to turn her amusement down, right? However, this light was really disturbing when the claw orbited the central column at specific angles. The light''s intensity varied depending on the position we took around it. The stroboscopic light from it, summed to the sparkly lasers from the branch we were orbiting, and they were too much. Sometimes having one of my sides warmer than the other felt odd. Like having one eye cold and one hot, it felt uncomfortable. I think it had to do with my past experiences again. Having your feet inside hot water didn¡¯t feel wrong, but if it was a sagittal/vertical difference, things might feel disgusting. Anyway, I felt as if I¡¯d entered a room where a child played non-stop with a switch. On, off, on, off¡­ lights and rays pulsing nonstop. It was distasteful, probably because there was no music or real alcohol. To make things worse my AI was singing ¡®there is a laser there ~ nyaa¡¯ non-stop. What was fun at the start was becoming jarring. I knew some songs could use repetitive lyrics and become hot stuff, but¡­ ¡®Work x work¡¯ or ¡®hey listen!¡¯ songs could drive people crazy if played for too long. The conviction she had to notify me of every light was extreme, forcing me to stop her laser song. It was so repetitive that it made me think that perhaps a fairy shape was a no go. Language had to be varied, right? Sorry A18, the light outside can damage us without a mechanism for its containment. Even if you tried to calculate the position where the light came from, I''m too lazy to move right now. Please stop. Incoming from... Please adjust your position to... Really? Is it a bug? How come you are that perseverant? Change position to... Okay, I''ll do that, but just once... I moved and pressed my body on the transparent membrane by following her indications. Just like what a normal G00 would do to please his little demon.In summary, and like a lizard stuck on a window, this little baby-goo was flat facedly sun-tanning in an AI configured position. The result... My puddle, the intensity of the sparks are damaging the compressed exterior of the project, please move away... Move away before I become what? Bruh! You were the one that wanted me to be sparkly! ... One try revealed that it wasn''t efficient to absorb the spark remnants near the membrane. My idea of armor might not work if there was no space between the armor and my body. Might as well change its design to a double layer with a small space in between. What do you think A18? If we can get more of those lasers, then you have to make one! Well, I think it¡¯s possible. I was just asking some analysis, not a response like that. It¡¯s a non-conclusive analysis with those conditions. For a conclusive one, you need a membrane sample. I¡¯ll get one, eventually. Just not now since I can¡¯t get out of here. This vehicle was the perfect protection to check the things around. My AI would have to wait until I could find what these lights'' origins were. Perhaps then I could use the claws'' membrane as a doggy bag and get more items. Don¡¯t look down on this claw¡¯s membrane, it could possibly hold against the light released by whatever material originated it. My eyes were shining at the sight of such useful material. Impatience was coursing through my mind, but there was nothing to do but wait. Claw¡­ I¡¯m sorry to tell you this, but our relationship would come to an end¡­ your days are counted.
Part 3: Noodle assembly. Time passed while I thought of the advantages of dismantling the vehicle that carried me. The surroundings continued to flash synchronously, my AI stopped throwing alarms after a notification adjustment, and the long queue of claws continued to advance towards the vault. The trip¡¯s lackluster continued... The claws were looping in almost every branch! My AI was happy, but I was at the point of vomiting! Not to tell I¡¯d literally spill the beans out from my stomach, but to tell that I still couldn¡¯t grasp the way this blob¡¯s asshole worked. Captain G00¡¯s Journal, first loop: Today I did a lap in this tiny round point. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Captain G00¡¯s Journal, second loop: Today I did the second lap in this tiny round point. Captain G00¡¯s Journal, third loop: Today I did a third lap¡­ ¡­ Pits? Captain G00¡¯s Journal, ??? loop: I have been circling branches for who knows how much time, I have started to grow a beard while looking at almost all of the cat, boobs, and exciting videos my mind stored¡­ My AI is the only oasis in this desert, but even her waters had become poisoned by lasers¡­ ¡­ Captain G00¡¯s Journal last entry: I never thought I would say this but I¡¯m hating fireworks and lasers. I also hate round points. ¡­ After the dull moments kicked in, I started to behave like many famous idiots that seated near trees when searching for answers. It was the perfect moment for the apple to fall and hit my head. Yes, it was at such moments of unhappiness and dullness that enlighten always arrived. I found that whenever it was time to ''turn on the lights'', everything below me started to vibrate faster in the chamber. The ocean, well, the noodles, were extremely active in this region. It was different from the calm shores near the walls at the time we entered. This was a vibrating noodle soup. They looked like eels squirming after throwing salt to their water. It was only thanks to this claws'' existence that I evaded my fall towards such hell. What was I thinking before? How could I get the confidence to try and jump towards it? I''m really glad this thing caught me then. It deserved respect and praise at its marvelous design. Yes, yes... this claw was cool, it was better than a president. It was a true savior! I love you claw, particularly for saving me from the worm abyss and giving me a comfortable ride. Maybe it sounds as overpraising, but if you fell into an ocean full of creepy noodles and something saved you, you''ll probably make it your god. So I will turn it into the best armor! Rejoice claw! You¡¯ll serve this mighty puddle! And then, I¡¯ll have my godly claw armor! A18, help me! Praise the claw with me. Does my puddle want to change the word god to claw? Not necessary A18, it was just a bad joke.But I thank you for blocking off my crazy overthinking. Let¡¯s return to my previous enlightened moment¡­ The continuation of the trip allowed me to breach an almost invisible area I didn¡¯t see, there was a transition between the liquids in the nucleus. The blurry notions that the sparks and lights created were even more reduced. I could finally see the ¡®ceiling¡¯ now. Apart from the sea of danger noodles which was impassable, the ceiling of the blob¡¯s nucleus had a huge hole where the center column descended. It was wider near it and thinner when entering the sea. It had an inverted conical shape and made me think that maybe the nucleus was not in the shape of a sphere. Gazing at the nucleus¡¯ walls, they were curved, but with the central column''s shadow on the center, it resembled a donut. Yes, the conical column at the center made it look like the surface of a donut, a torus.These columns'' chandelier-like structures were connected to branching cables. And almost all of these cables appeared to converge on the central conical column. The walls of the inner nucleus were curved, they were magical and moved. They probably consisted of the same ''noodle texture'' of the ocean. Just that noodles remained completely still from the place I watched. The areas of dust changed depending on the light. Thanks to this claw¡¯s membrane it wasn¡¯t as blinding as when entering. The places where it glowed reminded me of the constellations in the sky. They formed slithering lines separated by dark areas that would be invisible without the desirable magic shades. Since distance played a role and reduced the blinding effect, it gave the walls between the woven noodles, the appearance of an orthodox circuit. I remember the things outside trying to catch dust particles and creating part of the bubbles. But the street-cables outside, those in which I walked over, distributed it around the blob''s body.Were they sucking every little bit of it towards the nucleus? Or was the purpose... distributing it? Was it some sort of transmission molecule? Angling my sensor at the vault, I noticed that the dust that poured down like snow also accumulated in that space. It illuminated the whole place, making some sort of ''aurora'' at the top of the room. The falling sparks and the waves of noodles added another complexity to the whole picture. The more dust and sparks that fell, the more activity that would appear on the oceans. And above, inside that strange aurora, more dust was being produced. It seemed to be released like mist from the vault. It poured down after shimmering sparks flared around the auroras that whirled around the descending columns. It was distributed evenly, different from the laser branches that concentrated a lot where they flared. Looking at the dust falling from the sky and towards the seas, made me divert my gaze towards the latter. Reminiscing myself of the difference in noodle activity was a must. Those in the walls remained still, or if they moved, it was with subtle vibrations. In contrast, the ones below (those forming the ''central sea''), were restless. They created huge waves, whirlpools, and different types of activity in varied frequencies. I had to recall every big difference and event to start arriving at conclusions! The noodles belowwere increasing intheir activity as the claw advanced to the center. That was obvious, but now, I found that there was a proportional connection with the amount of dust falling to the sea and its activity. I also recalled that the laser-branches also moved. They were like machines confined to a zone. Wherever their beams arrived would generate a storm. My limited knowledge didn¡¯t allow me to know what this dust was. I could only call it dust since it appeared like noisy particles in my vision. The AI called it an element important to the project, as it served as an energy source and creative resource that I could use in the future. But all this gold in here wasn¡¯t useful when you were full, and your storage couldn¡¯t hold more. Gathering clues about how the blob''s core worked wasn''t easy, it required a lot of persistence and hypothesizing. The sea was forming a whole mesh. A completely unified sea of threads. It concentrated around edifications of conical shape that surfaced from its depths. The shapeshifting sea columns and their branches quickly became my next zone of inspection.I already watched those above, but maybe I should have started from those below. In between the sea, I found a column that just started to surface. I quickly realized that the sea waves were secondary to the laser show or something its surfacing did. The lasers produced by it were breaking the meshed noodle sea, probably something it did after completing its job. The work it did below the sea was something impossible to watch. So watching the actions it caused were relevant for inferring the outcomes. When the branch surfaced and broke through the noodle mesh, a whirlpool started to form around it. It created circumferential waves around the whirlpool¡¯s perimeter. Something that resembled a valley with ringed mountains around. We passed above its vicinity, just when the branch moved away from the place. From inside the whirlpool, a conical column emerged. The distance to it allowed me to discern pores on its surface. These holes on its surface were murky mouths that churned a specific type of noodle. Like how a ''hungry man'' became a monster and slurped an instantaneous meal. The strange movement of the sea was also an outcome of its preference. The column didn''t care about the ones on the surface, which appeared twisted and alive. It cared from those at the bottom, and by pulling those, the whirlpool and cloth-wave pattern of the meshed sea came to light. Cause and effect were inherently obvious after seeing this. Dust, branches, columns rising¡­ I felt like I got on the right track of events after working the hell out of my brain. I peered at it from my hovering position inside the salp-spiral. I quickly discerned that there were more of those conical towers surfacing in the immediate vicinity. I thought of them as monsters, but they were inanimate. Concentrating on their perimeter, I found that the thing that ate the noodles wasn''t its rocky appearance, nor its porous cave-mouths, but little ''hover boats'' with nests inside of it. These intricate things had a caterpillar track that entwined the threads over their abdomen, a tail with the shape of four swords linked together at the pommel, and finally, they had long noses like those of insects. Note: The last feature was what allowed them to puncture the restless noodle sea with confidence. This lengthy proboscis grabbed only the noodles that were at the bottom of the sea. Like a straw-mouth structure that only allowed the thin noodles from the soup to be suctioned. Strangely, and after slurping them, the noodles were hooked by the caterpillar-tracks at their abdomen. And without prior need, the caterpillar-track composed abdomen rotated until a measured length or number of noodles were coiled around it. I didn''t understand at first why they needed to ''fish and hook'' noodles from the deeper parts of the ocean. But I found the structure of that mouth was probably prepared to capture the thin ones from the bottom. Only those could pass through their straw-like mouths. But why were those things eating thin spaghetti around the cones? Moreover, what was the purpose of stacking a roll of thin noodles over their bodies? Yes, they were collecting them. But for what, why? It was then that when a certain number of rotations were completed, the strange shrimp construct went towards the nearest part of their column-shaped nest. There, its sword-like tail rose like that of a scorpion. The tail¡¯s tip adjusted the four swords to form the shape of a cross. It looked like the rotors of a chopper. And it worked like those when an unknown engine ignited and the rotatory motion of the rotors cut the coiled noodles with precision. A copious amount of thin noodles were continuously sliced by the helicopter-like attachment at their tails. I just called them hover-machines or boats secondary to my first impression. But I had to accept that it was weird how a ''boat-like'' construct hovered above a sea of vibrating wool. If I could change the wrong-naming I did, I would probably call them noodle-insects. They probably attached themselves to several of those threads, different from what a normal boat would do and more like one of those insects that walked over water did. They just looked like boats from up here, yet upon focusing, they resembled spiders walking over a sea of webbing. My visor captured the moment when the sliced noodles fell over the shores of the column''s perimeter. Over there, I could see how an additional robot grabbed them and bonded their endings. Essentially, the thin threads were taken by those weird ¡®noodle-insects¡¯. After they sliced the thin noodles, they were thrown around the conical columns that surfaced. It was there that an extra construct received the sliced spaghetti, selected a certain number of them, and started creating a ring. Yeah, it used the thin threads to create a ring around the column, one that started bigger and then became smaller the more it ascended. It was weird, but the columns that surfaced had a peculiar part that was even in circumference. The whole process ended when the rings were wrapped at such a place. The new construct¡¯s process included bonding the spaghetti at its ends, slicing it, and adding another one before bonding again. It was repeated until a certain number of rings stacked where the column remained even in diameter. Wasn¡¯t this quality control? There was even quality control over here?! The more I watched the more things that started to make sense. These noodles were important, they might be the way this lifeform stored information. I also saw how some machines helped in the selection of the sliced pieces of thin noodles before the column machine grabbed them. The sliced thin spaghetti near the shore needed to be chosen with care. Whenever an error in some slice was made, a certain type of machine near the column¡¯s shore surfaced. It folded the erratic slices and increased their overall density returning them to the sea depths were unknown processes occurred. There were too many workers for just making rings from spaghetti... But even with that, the ring making wasn''t over. After a little spin inside my current transport, I got to look at the process that occurred after the rings were evenly stacked on the conical columns. When a complete number of ''even'' rings with different types of ''thin noodle match-ups'' was achieved, another machine worked on them. This one was almost impossible to observe, so I couldn¡¯t catch an overall glimpse of how it looked. I knew what it did. It cut the completed rings in determined places as if opening a circles perimeter. The next part was also impossible to watch, and the rings were thrown out of the column without me knowing what happened. But it was possible to infer what it did. The rings were now interconnected. They formed a long structure after that thing worked with them. It was obvious, the perfectly made rings had transformed into chains. Chains that were thrown again towards the sea.
Part 4: From noodles to chains? Gazing down, at the place where a chain was thrown, I realized that it floated above the others while the thin threads without transformation were constantly sinking towards the bottom of the ocean. The sea of noodles'' surface was composed of unrelenting chains! A mesh of chains whose vibrations and small size made them hard to discern, but when inspected closely, this chained mesh caused the majority of activity in the sea. The bigger chains at the surface created more ocean activity. Probably, the difference in their structure made a variation in the waving patterns, organizing them slowly by their type of vibrational activity. They appeared to be alive, like a huge school of fish! A major difference when remembering the single-threaded and thinner counterparts that should be at the bottom and near the walls of the toroidal chamber. So the idea of those things is to make rings and then chains? What can they do with that? Why haven''t I seen these chains outside of this place? Intriguing as it might be, the chains crisscrossed, connected, compacted, and formed a variety of shapes I didn''t imagine to see inside of what I called a nucleus. Although I discerned the possibility of varying activity, the results were more than just whirlpools and waves. There was a synergy between each part of the process, as you could imagine that whatever the laser did at the bottom, or how the surfacing columns broke through the mesh and added to the waves, whatever action that was done, helped in the final organization of the chains at the ocean¡¯s surface. I was always comparing this with my knowledge I had of my previous world, yet the experienced phenomena were unconventional. The chain-based pasta was being taken by yet again additional machines, making me wonder if this baton-race would ever finish. These machines only picked up the chains on the surface, an ability they seemed designed for since they were far away from the conical columns. When these chains further connected, they assumed the form of woven scarfs. A wider sort of chain pasta -- if changing its naming would make it more comprehensible. These events happened near the blinding branches in the middle of the chamber. The long chandelier structure that I was orbiting had many branches that descended from the sky. A lot of veils were attached to these flashing branches, giving them a majestic appearance. However, I needed to understand what these branches and veils achieved by connecting to the sea like descending lightning arcs. So I shifted my gaze towards the bottom, towards the wide-chain-pasta which I called scarfs. These long pieces were arranged by an extra machine that swam in the chamber''s sky. It was still liquid, just that the sea below was made of noodles, like a higher density fluid. Then again something to do with polarity? I still felt that without the claw''s shape, I wouldn''t be able to maintain this height. Wastheliquid in the highest spot one that was transitioning to a gas? This whole place started to look like an odd documentary that lacked the explanation. There were levels to the ocean inside the inner nucleus, with a middle level being the place where membranous creatures with the shapes of origami swam through. Like seagulls, they dived and caught the completed chains, bonding them together when crashing with a variety of flying machine counterparts. When these flyers carried those chains, and when they collided with about 4 additional counterparts, the basic unit of those veils was formed: a chainmail structure. The bigger the mesh got, the higher in the room they flew. The little reactions between them was a bonding phenomenon that released sparks that resembled twinkling stars in the nucleus'' vault. The claws were going up. It was nearing the area where the flying machines collided, and believe or not, I managed to find something similar to the membranes in the claw. The collisions between carrier machines produced the dusty fireflies that fell over the sea. They also mystified the vault with slithering auroras and glowy clouds that resembled space nebulas. The highest collision entangled the scarfs in a 3-dimensional shape, a complex packaging structure that resembled a folded stack of advanced chainmail. It had a side that looked like tessellated tiles, and another that exposed the rings formed in the oceans. The chainmail compounds formed the sea of membranous ghosts that whirled around the nucleus¡¯ inside. A paper swarm that hovered all over the chamber. When reaching a big enough size, their properties appeared to shift, and like small branches or feathers that a bird would use to create a nesting, these bigger membranes with feathery shapes glued themselves onto the lightning branches of the column at the center. The completed structures resembled wings. Although in reality, they were the membranous veils that undulated hypnotically. The veils also had two surfaces. One was composed of the scaly feathers with the chainmail of rings at their back face. The attachment to the branches was done by an additional connector like a zipper. Still, the other side of the chainmail was made in such a way that it complimented the opposite surface in the branches'' structures, pure black and slick. When the chainmail machines with a zipper side joined together to the branches, the loose side of the chainmail-veil extended like a flag taking the shape of the veils. Afterward, it folded itself in loops, it continuously whirled in the ocean with hypnotic movements, but it was until it folded to its utmost. The strange movements, plus the mirror/black surfaces that played with light, gave these veils the ability to create illusions.
Part 5: The whirling chainmail-veils and the lightning-shaped branches. The branches came from a central structure that appeared like an agglomeration of cables. It could also be described like tree ramifications that coiled around the nucleus¡¯ internal space and then connected to the bigger column in the center. Despite that, said column had a sharp end below and exited through a bigger orifice above, almost looking like an inverted chandelier or castle. What was that supposed to be? I didn¡¯t know before, and although I described it, it was only for superstitions. A chandelier column that looked like a city falling from the sky was all that came to my mind the first time I saw it. It ramified itself as the strange membranes glued themselves in a regular pattern around its descending branches... branches that connected to smaller chandeliers at the vault. The membranous structure in all of them whirling with a mysterious rhythm. The way these membranous leaves interacted with the fluid wasn''t completely discernible from my viewpoint. I knew the claw seemed to move forward, but my AI indicated that the movements it followed were like a spiraling motion. It just moved along a variable track that ended at the black hole above. The place where the biggest column, the one at the center, exited. Even with the observational bias I had, the membranes appeared to move like ghosts. They evaded the transporting claws movement or maybe propelled it without the need for touch. Ultimately, when the various events occurred near me, my eye gathered the whole picture. I could see how the chainmail-surfaces were repelled from my position. Either the odd liquid or a force like magnetism was working behind scenes. The membranes¡¯ different sides appeared to have a function. Being completely black from one side and mirror-like on the other gave rise to mirroring illusions which made them feel as if they never existed.Hence why I thought they were ghostly. Despite that, the near distance visuals revealed the trick, and checking on them showed that certain junctions between the basic sheets, animated their variable movements. This retraction was what indorsed their initial phase of compression, resembling a compacted fan -- although different from a traditional one that would become like a solid stick of wood, the thin folded veils retained incredible flexibility which allowed them to continue their dance. Further ahead, I saw how the veils compacted themselves to their maximum, they stacked, twisted, and organized orderly until adopting a shape around the chandeliers¡¯ branching cables. If someone asked my stomach, the branches and the compacted veils resembled donut skewers - if not for the twisted patterns the branches adopted. Yet in essence, its shape was more similar to that of a feather wreath. Well, like a donut skewer, where the skewer threaded the donuts, just¡­ that the donuts were made of crystalized veils that reflected all light that touched it like a disco ball. You could say there was a function for the veils to organize themselves so strictly. Probably the black inside was used to prevent signals from escaping, while the mirror surface played a role for preventing the external radiation -- in the form of light -- to enter. In a moment of doubt and being transported by the claw construct like some sort of tour-machine in the middle of a sky-sea, I continued to watch as the membranes above myself compressed. I could probably summarize all of this in one simple picture: An inverted tree with algae-like leaves that wrapped around the stems like donuts. Each of these leaves had a hypnotic and illusion creating mirror surface on one side. The other one had a black side that destroyed all visual perimeters, absorbed all light, and further complemented the odd illusion. Yeah, this was otherworldly. No other word could describe this experience. It took me so much time to comprehend and join the pieces of this sophisticated puzzle, that I watched at everything that happened for more than ten times. Even with my brain trying to join everything, new actions were added to the whole enigma. In between the comprehension of the various veils. Just at the moment that the donut-shaped wreath could close, six glowy pearls formed. The rays they delivered could be seen inside the donuts structures during a brief moment of the compacting phase. When completely closed, shiny patterns painted each donut¡¯s surface. They resembled tattoos lighted in a specific track, maybe more like circuits lines, because the same patterns were engraved on the branches. It all happened when the donut shape transformed into that of its corrugated version. The animated movement was as if the donut squeezed itself, corrugating its surface and lightening up the circuits on the branches until they combined towards the central column. Everything that happened gave the impression of a signal being sent outside the chamber. It was an irreplaceable scene. The balls were small and looked like little pearls when compared to my size. They blinked and produced a flash of light that was subtle when completely wrapped. The flashes were given at a timely interval, like when watching old TV or a low FPS game. But, where did these pearly spheres appear from? I didn¡¯t see them shining before? You could say that the tree or wire tower structure in the middle of the nuclear chamber had a play in it. But it was for support and probably transmission. The real treasure in this was inside those membranes, that when compacted became donuts, and when uncompressed whirled like veils of goddesses. It was energy, something any type of life needed. I tried to recognize where these balls developed. I watched the whole process, again and again, giving priority to the exact moment it happened. However, it was something magical, spheres that didn''t exist until the compacting started, emerged from nowhere. Maybe it was something to do with the mirrors and black contrast behind. Like magic tricks that efficiently used optics to prevent the important energy leak. It made the whole appearance and disappearance process invisible. How did this work? Even my AI couldn¡¯t help in deciphering it. The magic trick was well-hidden. And just like that, the sphere inside the donuts disappeared. All of this in time for the optical illusions and auroras created by the flying origami machines and the whirling ghost membranes on the sky-sea. My puddle, the analysis has been completed. This function shows a pattern in the charging and discharging of the central tower, versus the compression and decompression of the membranous structures of the branches. I checked, and effectively, from start to finish¡­ from the phase of complete darkness to the creation of the spheres, their disappearance, and the whole chamber bathing in blinding light, all of this¡­ was represented in a simple wave function. This wave wasn¡¯t perfectly regular. It was one of those functions with tops and lows, as an oscillator. The famous boob-based functions in math¡­ a sin! (Or a companion -cosin- if you go for bb#2). Anyway, this function represented how the blob¡¯s nucleus worked. The changes could represent how it adapted and reacted to external stimuli. This was a major discovery! But there was a problem with all of this. The nucleus of a living being should be the center of information. Signals were something common inside it. Despite that, this nucleus also appeared to contain the means to power up this creature. Energy and information didn¡¯t work well sometimes. It was known in biology that cells had mitochondria as a nuclear reactor for the reactive oxygen waste they generated. It was believed that ancient cells slaved bacteria inside of them to become their nuclear reactor! So how could this thing, this blob, put a time-bomb like this inside the energy storage where it also held its information? Comparing things, if this was an information storage then it would be similar to DNA. If it was energy storage or resource storage, then this would need some information storage too. But the most important thing here was how DNA could be affected by the energy produced in the power plant and be damaged as a result. The answers to the blob having its brain next to the nuclear reactor were obviously at the top of the central column. And that was the place where this claw was taking me.