NOVEL NEXT vol. 4 chapter 8 - A Nerd Gushing About Their Hobby
“So, that Brain Unit doing the fantasy education—how’s it going?”
“About that…”
At the Commander Ma’am’s question, the governing AI Ringo, unusually, trailed off.
“Uh… what? Did something go wrong? If there’s a problem I need you to bring it up early—”
“…No. There is no problem. In a sense, the curriculum is proceeding extremely smoothly. No problem.”
“You said it twice!”
She spun her command chair around and faced Ringo standing behind her.
“If Ringo says it’s fine, I’ll take it as fine. But give me the status anyway?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We had successes with No. 1 through No. 5, so for No. 6 we conducted essentially input-only education and refrained from manipulating neurotransmitters and the like.”
“Oh?”
The five Brain Units—Akane, Ichigo, Utsugi, Erika, and Olive—had been raised in an almost natural state.
Preparations had been made to adjust distributions of internal chemical substances if needed, but in the end they were never used.
Each unit had grown exceedingly well, acquired individuality, and successfully reached the required intelligence.
“As for the current No. 6, I can say they have sufficiently expressed individuality and acquired intelligence. …Probably.”
“Probably!?”
The uncharacteristically vague wording from a transcendent AI drew a full-throttle retort from Commander Eve.
“In that case, it would be best if you spoke directly. That will be faster. I have not yet authorized a connection to the android communicator, so it will have to be via display—will that be acceptable?”
“Uh… sure. That’s fine. …Why are you talking so fast?”
Half-lidding her eyes at Ringo’s unusual manner, Eve turned toward the booting projection display.
‘It has been a while, Commander Big Sister. I have been longing for this conversation. I am your No. 6, Asahi.’
‘Yes, very lively! Ahh, to speak with you directly! I am overwhelmed!’
“… …hmm?”
Recalling the time she had spent with the five sisters, Eve tilted her head. Something was… off. Different, right?
“Commander Ma’am, my apologies. It appears to have blossomed in an unexpected direction and become… somewhat talkative.”
‘Big Sister, Big Sister, I absolutely want to see the world of magic! Ringo keeps dodging me with “too soon,” “premature,” “the curriculum isn’t finished,” and won’t entertain the idea at all, but for now I would like an android body and to walk the world!’
“Ah, I see… Let’s think that through carefully later.”
“Commander Ma’am. As you can hear, the personality has become a touch assertive.”
“A touch…?”
‘Big Sister, will you hear me out? I have read stories from all times and places, but in the end I had resigned myself that stories are just stories. Then Ringo told me this world actually has magic—it’s a fantasy! I can’t sit still! It’s magic, magic—I want to see it with my own eyes. Therefore I believe I should go in person! I want to feel the fantasy world of my dreams with these hands and tread it with these feet! …I don’t have hands or feet yet, though!’
“You’re speaking a mile a minute.”
“My apologies.”
The new Brain Unit’s backbone, No. 6 “Asahi,” was currently being raised in simulation inside the super-intelligence Core.
Even so, thanks to the ample resources devoted to it, its performance was not merely on par with a normal Brain Unit—its growth speed was far faster.
Because the Core’s computation allowed accelerating its thought clock, foundational education could be completed in a fraction of real time. The sole problem was that it could not leave the Core.
“So what’s the practical plan? Are we moving to the heavy-coupling Deep Merge soon?”
‘Ah, Big Sister! At last I will gain my own fles—’
Asahi’s speech was muted by Ringo.
“My apologies, Commander Ma’am. Performance trials are favorable, so the Deep Merge itself poses no issue. The remaining question is whether this personality is tolerable—namely, whether your patience can endure it.”
“Is she really that mentally taxing?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I assess the probability as high. If you so decide, I can proceed to freezing immediately.”
Ringo did not say delete and reset, but “freezing” meant halting thought computations and archiving the simulation data—a de facto disposal.
Re-education was technically possible, but considering the resources, starting basic education over from scratch would be faster.
“Mm… Well, I don’t think she’s ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) bad enough to warrant freezing. That said, we can’t exactly do much after a heavy-coupling Deep Merge. If we’re deciding, it has to be now.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I ran several scenario simulations. If we dispatch her to the field as-is, the likelihood of going out of control is high, and the nuisance would be considerable. I cannot recommend it.”
“…I see.”
She glanced at the emotional-figure graph still on the display. Its rapidly shifting shapes betrayed intense agitation—no surprise, as it was listening to the two top decision-makers debate its fate.
“Ringo, execute the heavy-coupling Deep Merge for No. 6, Asahi. The chassis is prepared, yes?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We can begin immediately. Are you certain?”
“I know you’re not averse to it yourselves. But for me, freezing is something I’d rather avoid if possible. If there’s no malfunction, then there’s no problem.”
“…Thank you, Commander Ma’am. …Asahi is noisy, so I will proceed to stream it directly into the Brain Unit as-is.”
At Ringo’s command, Asahi’s thought computation gradually wound down.
Once complete dormancy was confirmed, packaging of the simulation data began.
“By tomorrow morning, the heavy-coupling Deep Merge will be complete. With field deployment in mind, I have redesigned the android body. Please review it.”
“…So she will be fielded.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Originally, I intended to confine operations inside the fortress. But with that personality, confinement risks excessive stress. In the worst case, she could exploit an opening and escape.”
“To that extent… that’s considerable. Well, I think it’s fine. We’ll have to dispatch androids sooner or later anyway. It will set a precedent—though not a pleasant one. She’ll likely cause trouble in various ways; we can treat it as a test of our responses.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We will prepare a perfect posture to ensure feedback is captured without fail.”
“Mm, well, if possible I’d prefer you to make proper backups before the ‘feedback,’ not after.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I will endeavor to do so.”
Perhaps gaining a body would calm her somewhat. Thinking so, Eve could only smile wryly at Ringo’s acerbic tone.
Backbone No. 6, “Asahi.” The prepared android body was an improved model with independent solo activity in mind.
Its skeletal structure bonded metallic atoms into the matrix to raise both hardness and flexibility.
One Brain Unit would be placed in the head and two in the chest, always keeping one as backup while using two in parallel—doubling computational performance while securing redundancy.
As many internal functions as possible, including musculature, were mechanized to improve capability while keeping volume down.
Internal power capacity had also been ensured, but baseline consumption was high; in principle it would rely on external power via microwave beaming.
Therefore, it could not be dispatched outside the microwave power coverage.
The limited operating area was a disadvantage, but the benefits were judged to outweigh it—thus microwave power was adopted.