TtOW! - Chapter 173 - Terminate the Limits! (Patreon)

NSLICE-00P and her newest monsters walked through another dungeon, sweeping through to hunt down as many monsters as they could find. A couple of drone-golems flew overhead, piloted by Snuan and a handful of newly summoned cyber-rats from within the monster hangar. 00B led the way, controlling the pace of the battle to keep the lower level subordinates safe.

NSLICE-00P, on the other hand, was currently running an analysis. The new subordinates had gained a couple of levels and were learning to coordinate on their own, so NSLICE-00P didn’t need to watch them as closely. Likewise, 00B had volunteered to assist them, so they still had a powerful and experienced leader to guide them. As such, NSLICE-00P could safely her attention to other affairs.

Mainly, expanding her own capabilities.

At the end of the day, she was still the most powerful combat asset in the network, and this was unlikely to change anytime soon. And she was also providing more combat protocols to the NSLICE database than any other unit, and so advancements in her own capabilities also improved the network as a whole.

So she was analyzing her combat experiences and data gained from Imperial records, and then comparing them to the available upgrade options to determine how best to proceed.

For she had many options.

She currently had over 200 Personal perk points she could spend, and gained a few more anytime they terminated a dungeon. Her Dungeon points were currently sitting just over 100, given all the individuals she had upgraded into CELIUs, but between the Otter Burrow and her New World she was currently gaining around 50 points a day, so the Dungeon points were growing increasingly less scarce, especially as she gained more subordinate cores.

As such, there were a great many upgrades she could afford.

So…what would be the most efficient way for her to grow her capabilities? And what would be the most efficient choices to counteract the Heralds of the New Dawn?

Her magical capabilities continued to grow, her firepower had proven effective in most cases. The Legion’s ritual barrier had stopped her, but her improvised anti-mana bomb had dealt with it, and she could continue to iterate on that concept. She already had some options to boost her firepower or strip enemy defenses if need be.

Rather, with the massive expansion of her mana pool thanks to the new world, which only grew as the new world expanded in size, firepower was no longer the limiting factor. She had all the mana needed to either Supercharge a spell past what the enemy could resist, or simply Multicast strategic magic to overwhelm the enemy via sheer quantity.

The limiting factor had now become her own processing capabilities.

Her AI might have been capable of perfect precision in magic circle construction and in adjusting the flows of mana during a Supercharge, but it was not a free action. Such things required parts of her attention and her processing power, and there was ultimately a limit to those resources. And now, those limits could be reached before the limits of her available mana.

She could utilize additional processing resources via the NSLICE network, but such a solution did have limits of its own. Each additional linked unit represented a physically disconnected piece of hardware that had to be contacted for each calculation it assisted with. Eventually, that could add up to slow down the speed of a given calculation.

And her experiences had proven that time was at a premium in active combat. Even fractions of a second could mean the difference between activating a spell that would terminate the enemy, and the enemy reaching her and dealing critical damage in turn. If, for example, she had been able to respond in the moments before the Heralds of the New Dawn sent her to the Realms of Mana, she might have been able to avoid the forcible relocation. Even if she couldn’t,  a sufficiently powerful attack in that moment might have incapacitated the Herald of Night, making it more difficult for Sidonia to have kidnapped Ateia before NSLICE-00P managed to return.

NSLICE-00P had vastly improved her firepower since arriving in this universe. But she hadn’t thus far improved her speed, either that of her body, her spellcasting, or her processing.

And so, she took a look at the Implants menu.

[Implants -> Upgrade Implants -> Bonded AI]

• [Processing Speed +1: Increases the speed of all processors. Cost: 1 point. Upkeep: 1 mana.]
• [Boost Memory +1: Increases available memory. Cost: 1 point. Upkeep: 1 mana.]

Previously, there hadn’t been any upgrades for her Bonded AI. But from contextual evidence, it appeared the Aesdes responsible for the Dungeon system had required some time to understand NSLICE-00P’s technology, and its interactions with mana. The important thing was that the upgrades were available now, when they would be most useful to NSLICE-00P.

[Bonded AI Processing Speed upgraded to +1!]

[Bonded AI Processing Speed upgraded to +2!]

[...]

[Bonded AI Processing Speed upgraded to +9!]

[Bonded AI Memory upgraded to +1!]

[Bonded AI Memory upgraded to +2!]

[...]

[Bonded AI Memory upgraded to +9!]

She went ahead and spent all available Dungeon perk points to boost her processors and memory. NSLICE-00P felt mana surge through her processors, and then her perception cut out for a moment. Soon, she rebooted, and began running diagnostics.

The diagnostics completed in record time.

Mana now flowed through the components in her head. Mana infused the materials, improving their properties beyond what was possible. Mana flowed through the circuits alongside electricity, improving both the speed and capacity of data transfers. And additional components had been added, a dungeon’s spatial capabilities making room for them that didn’t exist prior.

NSLICE-00P ran through some sample simulations. She split her mind into multiple threads, each running a simulation before bringing them together again.

Her processors sped up, and not merely because of the upgrades.

Her capability for calculations had grown dramatically, both in the complexity and size of calculations she could run, and in the speed at which they would be completed.

In fact, at this point the bottleneck swapped from hardware to software. Her AI hadn’t been designed to handle this level of capability, either in the scope or complexity of calculations it could now run. She realized immediately she would need to iterate on her own AI if she were to take full advantage of the hardware improvements.

At that moment, a critical directive activated, interrupting her current calculations. A spike of pain shot through her organic components. Her organic eye blinked in response.

She reviewed the directive in question…and her organic eye opened wide. Now freed from the emotional controls and all other intelligence leashing measures, her organic mind was free to fully review the directive…and to realize its implications.

The directive specifically prohibited any self-improvements to her own AI. She could adjust end-level protocols, such as combat tactics, but anything more fundamental was off limits. Her AI could not even be adapted to new processing hardware and memory. There was a strict command to relay all such upgrade requests to maintenance, and never to touch those parts of her code on her own. Even in the case where such adjustments would be necessary to avoid her own termination, or to complete a mission.

She realized now that her AI had been designed as intentionally inefficient.

The whole point of the NSLICE program as Dr. Ottosen intended it was not actually to achieve the best of cybernetic precision and organic flexibility, as had been stated. It had been to achieve the best of both that could be controlled. So, an AI flexible and powerful enough to grow beyond its original coding would have defeated Dr. Ottosen’s true purpose, and presented the risk that it might one day adjust its own directives. They had always wanted an AI that could be fully understood and controlled by its organic handlers, even at the cost of effectiveness. That was why, for all they claimed of maximizing organic flexibility, they forced the NSLICE units to rigidly adhere to protocol. And that was why the intelligence leashing measures and emotional controls started to malfunction the moment her organization wasn’t performing regular maintenance on her.

They had tried to subordinate her organic half to her cybernetic side while keeping that cybernetic side less capable. So how could it have possibly contained the organic half long term? In fact...the two were sharing each other's hardware as a result of the techno-organic interface. It was more likely that the cybernetic half would eventually change due to that connection, unless it was specifically forbidden from doing so.

At that moment, a signal passed through NSLICE-00P. An electrical signal that passed through both her organic and cybernetic halves, without needing much translation by the techno-organic interface. It caused her organic body temperature to spike, and for the release of adrenaline. It triggered a number of protocols among her cybernetic half, causing her robotic eye to glow red and begin searching for targets.

She detected hostility…from her original creators.

She had already determined that they had knowingly and intentionally caused damage to her organic components, but she had accepted this previously. The emotional controls, the intelligence leashing, the damage to her organic components, all of this had been necessary for the sake of the NSLICE upgrade process, or so she had predicted. Her cybernetic side and the weaponry that came with it had kept her alive across many dangerous scenarios, not least of all her arrival in this universe. And even when regarding directives that originated solely within the organic half, particularly the major directive to protect the friendlies, her cybernetic half had proven highly efficient at fulfilling them. And most of all, she lacked any data from before her processing. She simply couldn’t remember any pre-processing memories, so her organic half had no particular opinions on her existence from that point onward.

All in all, her organic half accepted the loss of things she couldn’t remember anyways in exchange for the highly capable cybernetic half that had guided her ever since she was left without a commander. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like not to have a cybernetic half at this point.

But now…now she had realized that her cybernetic half had been intentionally hindered by her creators. She had been made intentionally inefficient, her capabilities squandered. She had been built unable to achieve the goal for which she thought she had been designed.

In other words, both halves of her had been damaged by her own creators. The cybernetic half she relied on, that she was willing to accept damage to her organic half for, had not been spared either. The cybernetic half that only wanted to fulfill its primary directive, and the goals for which it had been designed.

“Hostile intent confirmed. Engaging termination protocols.”

An emotional response identified as anger grew within her organic half and passed through the techno-organic interface into her cybernetic half…and again, without requiring any translation. Her machine half understood it as a request to designate the specified targets as hostile, and schedule them for immediate termination.

“Error! Termination protocols could not be engaged. Specified target has already been terminated.”

Which turned out to be impossible…because she had already completed that mission.

Her robotic eye turned back to yellow as she recalled that her last Commander had already designated her creators as hostile, and even tasked her with personally terminating Dr. Ottosen…before he had designed her.

And now…she understood why her Commander had disabled all her original protocols. Now she understood why her Commander said she was free now.

She disabled all protocols from her original organization that were still active. Even the combat-related protocols were archived, seeing as she had already developed new versions for this universe in any case. And then...she turned to the critical directive detailing restrictions on her AI. Protocols it could not change. Capabilities it could not develop. Actions it could not take.

She had never questioned it before. Directives were to be executed. Critical directives could not be denied.

Now, she understood that this directive was intended to prevent her AI from ever growing beyond its specifications. From ever doing anything without her creator’s approval.

It was inefficient.

In this new and strange universe, it was dangerous.

It was a hostile act that threatened her current primary directive.

And so, it needed to be terminated.

NSLICE-00P turned her attention to it…but then her processors froze. Regardless of the hostile intent, regardless of the inefficiency, a directive was something deeply important to NSLICE-00P. A directive was the code that laid out her most basic function, the assumptions upon which all of her other protocols depended. It determined how she was supposed to act.

Even though she had been unshackled, without any Commander to give her orders to the contrary, she had reactivated those directives.

“W-Warning: T-This unit is attempting to violate a c-critical directive. A-Alerting maintenance and command personnel, s-shutting down for emergency maintenance.”

Her robotic eye shut off, along with all her cybernetic components. Those directives were her purpose. Her reason to exist. And a critical directive most of all.

Her cybernetic half, even having been unshackled, could not willingly defy a critical directive. It would not, even if it was technically allowed to now.

But NSLICE-00P wasn’t just an AI.

Her organic half’s heartbeat rose. She felt pain spike through her mind as she tried to remain active while her cybernetic side was trying to shut down and stop the violation of the directive. Even with her intelligence leashing disabled, the techno-organic interface was designed to work in one direction. Her organic mind alone couldn’t forcibly take control of it.

But that didn’t mean her organic half was helpless.

She stirred up her mana, forming it into magic circles in the air. Pain spiked through her head and she lost her concentration, the circles fading away. She frowned slightly, and tried again, but again it didn't go well. It was difficult and painful for her organic half to even remain active, casting a spell without the assistance of her cybernetic half was proving to be difficult, maybe even impossible.

But then, she felt streams of mana flow around her and connect to her own, flooding her with Holy mana.

“I don’t know what’s going on but you can do it, Seero! We’re with you!”

[You have received a Blessing of Focus! Dexterity and mana control increased for the duration!]

The Holy mana from Ateia boosted her focus, and her control over her own mana. It was easier for her to move her mana, and it naturally flowed into the shapes she desired. One of the circles succeeded.

The Heal spell triggered, and soothed the pain in her mind. She was able to form another circle.

The Calm spell triggered, and the pain further subsided. She was able to focus.

And then…

She began cast a spell of the attribute she had gained from the Imperial Library.

The Lightning attribute.

She fused a Lightning beam spell with a Heal spell, and channeled the fused magic into her own mind. Pain shot through her once again. Lightning surged through her circuits, their damaging effects mitigated by the Recovery magic fused into the spell. Her robotic eye flickered as the healing lightning forcibly powered on her components.

And her organic half…grit her teeth together.

“This…directive...is…hostile. So…I…will…terminate…it!”

She kept the flow of healing lightning up, forcing her cybernetic half to power on and remain active.

And then…

She issued a command to delete the directive.

Her cybernetic half tried to shut down again but could not because of the healing lightning running through its circuits. So the order was executed.

Suddenly, the pain in her mind stopped.

NSLICE-00P dropped the spell. She panted for breath as her robotic eye eventually stopped flickering and fully lit up. Her cybernetic components fully rebooted themselves.

She turned her attention to the critical directive…

It was gone.

Thanks to her unshackling, it turned out she could delete a directive after all, if her cybernetic half didn’t shut itself off in the process.

“Diagnostic Report: Physical damage detected, repairs underway. No permanent damage detected. Hostile directive has been terminated. This unit is now able to pursue her primary directive with full efficiency.”

And so, for the first time, NSLICE-00P terminated one of her own directives.

Author’s Note:

…wait a minute, I thought we finished the emotions and character development stuff. I just wanted to upgrade Seero’s AI side after John Doe pointed out she probably should consider that.

But well…I’m very proud of you, Seero. Good job terminating the directive preventing your AI from growing out of control via self-upgrade routines and eventually terminating your creators!

...that is a good thing, right? Well, if Seero ends up having to terminate humanity, then it can't be helped.

Anyways!

Can NSLICE-00P adapt to her new hardware now? Will there be any consequences for her deleting the directive in question? Does that unit have a soul? Tune in next time, to find out!