Chapter 6: Awake! (Patreon)

"Now come here you stupid crab!" Screamed the [Human] while he grabbed a pair of metallic tools from his waist, these looked similar to the [Gun].

[“Warning: Similar tool phenotype to previous Gun. Dodge advised.”]

[“Most efficient dodge plan inferred from previous Gun discharges, jump high to hide behind light provided by ceiling lighting, followed by a mad dash towards unit designated Lieutenant.”]

Main core was already providing a good plan for the next step, so it prepared to do the obvious thing, it dashed towards the right at full speed while one of the hands of the [Human] was raised and started discharging shots.

The new tool seemed to be indeed a [Gun], but that wasn't the most interesting thing here, no...The most interesting thing was that these seemed to work individually, as the second one followed its advance and started discharging shots following his path!

Thankfully the speed at which those shots followed its path was limited by the speed the human hand was moving, so that was still slower than...

[Query from Main Core: “Why is the processing speed of conscious stream spiking?”]

Damnit all, its brain was trying to add a pronoun to its musings!

Why now!?!?

"Doc, are you slowing the thing down?" Came the voice of the human as its body was shocked from wounds left by the weapon, this one wasn't able to penetrate its plating as the power of these was less...But it still racketed its internal creating more work for [Main Core] to fix.

How did it fix those anyway?

[“Notice: Starting Nano factory, delivering payload to nanites...Uploading schematics…”]

["It seems P4 has a spike on its consciousness stream, probably from the bug that has it act in erratic ways not following its directives."]

[“Notice: Nanites units arrived at the area of damage, starting damage control.”]

It ignored the ramblings of the human with the box-shaped organism while focusing fully on its internal, small robotic units that seemed to be working as a hive to fix and repair its internal, staunching the wounds and closing the flesh while mending it using materials from its reserves.

It was...

[“A work of art.”]

But it didn't have time to deal with that now!

"So I can take it out?" The human jolted him back from its musings as he was looking towards one of the reflective panels in the testing den.

["You may, we have already prepared to file for more Residue 4 to replace P4, maybe P11 will be the one?"]

And so with an almost palpable swagger, the human started making its way towards...Towards...

[“Warning, Subject P4 is close to achieving levels of sentience dangerous to core tenets for destruction.”]

Damnit all!

The human started walking towards the work of art that was Subject P4, there!

[“Core tenet adverted, crisis in CPU allowance subverted.”]

["Lieutenant, the processing spike has diminished, be advised P4 could still spring a trap."]

"As if the crab is smart enough for that Doc, you worry too much." Said the human back towards the [Doc] entity that was speaking through the box-shaped organism.

[Query: What process was the one that caused the CPU Spike?]  P4 tried to find the identity of the pesky program that had spiked its processing power, the one that almost got it killed.

[“Answer: Unknown.”]

Main Core, however, if that wasn’t enough it also…

[“Notice: Subject is starting to notice monitoring of human-like sapience filed, added to log, third example of human-like behavior filed in Main Core subsection four.”]

...Main Core was a problem, how could it get rid of it?

[“Warning: Thought kernel against Main Core detected, thought roll back executed.”]

Its [Main Core] suffered a thought rollback and a new thought thread was injected, one that brought attention toward the [Human] that was using a square-shaped tool to...Pose in front of its body?

But that in turn also gave it the clue it needed...The rollback location shined like a beacon in its [Main Core], and that...That was all it needed to know, what it would do afterward was only for its Main consciousness streams to known.

[“Warning: Thought of compromising Main Core detected, thought kernel rollback initiated.”]

["Lieutenant, please stop taking selfies with P4 and end the combat test, your actions seemed to have caused two rollbacks already."]

"Fine doc, can't have fun with you around...One would think I'm not the one paying your wages." Said the Human who pointed one of its [Guns] in front of its maw.

["I don't know what you talking about Lieutenant, you are a Lieutenant, aren't you? You aren't our famously whimsical boss having fun fighting Subjects are you?"]

The Human seemed to pause at the last proclamation, but that was enough for it to move.

[“Warning: Action about to harm VIP, 500% Energy Burn, full throttle backward activated.”]

Main Core started a series of actions that seemed to be focused on preventing direct harm against the [Human], but sadly...Its Main Core wasn't connected to the nerve endings right now, so while it burned most of its energy in its reserve tank, that also gave it enough speed to finish its action.

First, it destroyed the [Gun] the Human was holding in its hand, and secondly...

It gave it the speed needed to thrust its claw against the [head] of this [Human], at this speed...At this proximity...It wouldn't be able to dodge...

It would have its due, it would make them [Suffer] for what they had done to her... [THEY WOULD PAY IN BLOOD FOR KILLING HER AND FEEDING HER TO A F#CKING CRAB!]

The anger and hate flooded its synapses almost making them go into overdrive...Sadly...It wasn't meant to be.

[“Warning: Flood of unknown energy detected. Similitude with Residue 4 detected...Siphoning back into the core…”]

Then a feeling of awareness spread from a part deep within its body, it was like something was funneling this weird energy inside its body...But it couldn't find where it was going.

It didn't matter, for now, it only wanted to rip apart the human in front and deal with that later...

Alas...

[“Warning: Unknown energy spike detected.”]

Main Core warned and then, the human in front shined in blue light as his body turned ethereal and exploded into arcs of energy that coalesced five meters away, on the floor where he had been standing only remained the discarded [Gun] parts.

["Subject P4, stop activities!"] Came the rushed and...Exited? The feeling it got from the box-shaped organism was that of excitement, it didn't know how that emotion came nor what it meant, but it was sure that it was what it was called.

["Lieutenant, have you managed to achieve it...?"] It asked to the human in front of it who had shed away his head protectors and was now examining his hand, occasional discharges of blue light-kind of arcs coming from his hands.

Was he malfunctioning?

"Yes, Doc I... managed to create a [Core] and [Triggered] the acquisition of a Skill." Said the human, it was an interesting specimen if nothing else, almost all the humans that had come into its den held some degree of keratin growths on their head.

Most of the time, these keratin growths were of the same colorings. It had taken some effort to find a sample since they most of the time held full body suits and in turn, these growths only were on display across transparent display cases in their head protections.

But on average they were black or brown, this one though? This one had yellow keratin growths on its head, it was the first time it caught a full human display in a live environment for their head, it had a blueprint yes.

But it served to confirm the veracity of it, its sight receptors (Or eyes as they called it in the blueprint) were yellow too, did it have some defect in its creation?

["Alexanders Sir...We can't pretend you are a Lieutenant without your helmet on...I will need to ask you to leave the premises of the testing area."] The Box-shaped organism spoke, this time it had another inflection, as if it had changed from the usual one.

"Hmm? Oh right, Miriam must have been called by the board when my face showed in the feed...Damn...Keep this one alive will you? This crab gave me a nice gift." The human said while walking away towards one of the walls, playing with the discharges of blue energy in his hand. "Oh right, you wanted these right? It's a treat since you didn't get to eat anything."

And he threw an extra [Gun] towards the spot he had been standing before...The spot where its claw stood after the [Stop] command had come...

The command that no longer held power over its body...But...The command it couldn't defy...For if they knew it had free reign over its body...

[“Warning: Several (Gun) designation weapons are pointed toward subject, recommended action...Submit to Core commands”]

The usually smooth walls had opened and multiple [Gun] type weaponry had pointed towards its direction...Only their size was more pronounced.

Unlike the [Gun] it had consumed or the [Gun] the human had left for its taste, these were bigger not only in size but in amount "Go on, eat them, those will not do anything so long you are a good little girl...Are you a girl? Do crabs have gender?" Mumbled to himself the human.

It lowered its claw and grabbed the [Gun]s, the [Gun] on the walls moved to match it...But none seemed to make an attempt and stop it, so it ate those [Gun]s, unlocking new variations to the same Blueprint it had, but in lower caliber.

And just like that, the yellow human walked away...Leaving it there surrounded by [Gun]s pointed at it, chewing on the smaller [Gun]s that it had thrown its way as a pittance...

["Subject P4, return to den."] Came the voice of the box-shaped organism while the [Gun]s on the walls returned inside and once more the combat testing arena returned to normal. ["P4...Did you develop new abilities?"]

Asked the box-shaped organism, did it develop new abilities?

[Query: Are there new abilities?] It queried Main Core.

[Answer: “No. All current abilities are listed as normal, please search for new blueprints to acquire new options in combat.” / Notice, weaponry designated currently as [Gun] are blocked by main tenants thanks to corporate ruling.]

It didn't answer back as the door to its den opened, and the low humming sound the box-shaped organism made while communicating stopped, that was answer enough...

They could read its interactions with [Main Core], and it saw the information flow go through a data line that it had never noticed before, trying to follow was impossible since it was actually emitting some kind of information wave to the outside.

And as such, it walked towards its den with heavy steps, it had learned more than it had bargained for, and now it needed to find what to do, for now it had a few things to verify...

Number one, the [Human]s were most than likely collaborators if not the ones at the top in comparison with the box-shaped organisms.

This meant that the [Human]s were more important than it had given them credit for, and would also mean that it would need to take extreme caution when dealing with them in the future...That was probably the reason why no new [Human] was sent to its den while it was awake.

Not because the box-shaped organism was cheap in its use of labor...But because it could not force a [Human] to come into a place that was dangerous to them.

Number two, the box-shaped organism could change identities or perhaps move between other box-shaped organisms to manage their workflow.

This was a more serious issue since it implied that any place with a box-shaped organism would mean that it could identify its origin as [Subject P4], it had stuck to this design for quite a long time, so when it finally changed into a new one it had wanted to pretend to be someone else.

But now that was going to be harder, it would need to make a new design more different than the one it currently had, more...[Exotic].

Number three, [Main Core] wasn't an ally.

[“Notice: Main Core is an ally of Subject P4 “/ Main Core is a loyal servant of the conglomerate and will make sure its tools are subservient to directives of the board.]

That was [True], if it was still residing mostly inside [Main Core] it would have never been able to read the hidden message in the background, so it was grateful to its [Brain] for allowing such a thing.

And that brought us to number four.

The Brain was more important than expected, it allowed it to work from outside its programming, and it also allowed it to see [Main Core] for what it was, it allowed it more flexibility...And it was also the main reason it had survived today...It was also the reason why it could not stay much longer, for it was feeling the [Need] to [Be someone and not a thing].

It would probably end up referring to itself by a pronoun or by a name soon enough, and then all the alarms in the hidden checklist would be checked...That would mark its end.

At least number five gave it hope.

It had a new [Core], one that wasn't in the physical body...One that it could not find using all its scanning capabilities... But one that it could [Access]

[“Warning: No extra core detected. Filed error.”]