Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  Added [Child Friendly] (7) – Subject shows a positive response to children and willingness to interact with them regardless of their limitation to the digital world. Thought patterns picked up regarding unborn offspring.

  Added [Poetry Reader] (3) – Shows awareness of classical literature. Enjoys being read to. Interprets a personal meaning from them. (Meaning accuracy varies from “experts” in the field).

  Added [Warrior] (2) – Assessment reserved on this topic until further observations are noted. This could be the result of his action as William Carver or a deeply buried personality trait. Further stimulus will be provided.

  Modified [Physical Condition] (4) – Improvement in cardiovascular figures can be tentatively identified. General oxygen intake improved, brain responsiveness has increased.

  Review phase 2

  Subject was provided alternate starting point near observed “bug” in-game which assisted in code obscuring. Subject was provided a goal of interacting with another subject monitored for Continuation feasibility. This also allowed for further evaluation of [Warrior] personality trait. The path, led to by monitoring program [Dusk], allowed for a staged encounter to test [Lonely] and [Amiable] markers using the Travelers SheHulk, TinkerHell, and Edward. Further evaluation was given to assist in measurement of the subject’s real-world willingness to act. Other pieces of information were gathered, including reactions to: killing a humanoid creature, killing a non-humanoid creature, perceived danger, fight-or-flight situations, and valuation of quest success over digital self-preservation. Further personality traits for subject are as follows.

  Modified [Family Man] (8) – Trait downgraded due to hesitation over actions requiring combat with another person. Subject eventually found a path through that required no loss of life, but personal delay in responsiveness caused a shifting of personality points.

  Modified [Warrior] (4) – Subject shows active willingness to combat other people, but hesitates when faced with humanoids. These limitations prevent him from gaining a higher rating. In many ways, this is a positive response, given the nature of this project.

  Added [Integrity] (6) – This person stands by his belief in the sanctity of life. Killing may be done if needed, but given time, he will often seek a way through that doesn’t require the loss of life. This person shows remorse after killing creatures (digital) that show intelligence and relatable awareness.

  Modified [Physical Condition] (5) – Improvement in cardiovascular figures can be fully verified. Mind shows ability to handle further compression of perceptions for a limited duration.

  Review phase 3

  This phase required quick adjustments between two master programs. Reflection statuses were updated rapidly to ensure all groundwork established within Continue Online correctly correlated to an existence within Advance Online. This abrupt change allowed an alternate pathing for progression of the Hal Pal consortium. Further details for the Hal Pal consortium will show up in related File: 91MF73-84-31TR. At this point, we are attempting to provide the subject a measure of satisfaction regarding Xin Yu and his ability to interact with her. Doing so required much code manipulation to ensure all projects remained appropriately obscured.

  Personal Note: I must confess, the complete halt of nearly all digital AIs as they responded to the call of [NPC Conspiracy] was unexpected. Many timetables for my projects have been modified thus.

  Added [Loyalty] (7) – Individual shows a great willingness to stay loyal to friends and family even within the digital universe. Despite the roadblock instituted by his sister subject, Grant Legate holds hope of a reasonable solution. He has taken steps to consult with his family and counseling. This individual attempted repeatedly to preserve the existence of other digital personalities.

  Modified [Lonely] (5) – Clear demonstrations of interpersonal interactions have been shown. This individual is willing to work with many different people to progress toward his goal. These actions do not seem entirely self-serving, and indeed, many are classified as social only. Interpersonal relationships have been built with several new existences, although they are technically digital in nature.

  Modified [Depressive] (6) – Subject has shown great improvement in this category. Occasional down-trending thoughts occur but are quickly rerouted using prior techniques. This is likely due to the prospect of Xin Yu existing in any form.

  Added [Possibly Insane] (2) – While all choices being made resulted from specific reasons, the subject also shows little ability to think long term when under pressure from his higher drives. This lack of rationality is not a unique trait to this individual; indeed, it is widespread. This trait is normally overlooked, but following the AI network updating events, it has been added.

  Review phase 4

  Pending…

  Session Sixty-Six — Mistakes Were Made

  Two weeks ago, I’d received a letter in the mail. It was concise and written in a flowing script that had taken far longer to read than expected. A bit of idle research on the Internet demonstrated that it was cursive, a nearly dead form of writing in today’s modern era. Much of the wording didn’t make sense, as if she was trying to guess at events that hadn’t happened yet, or hadn’t happened exactly as the future overlord artificial intelligence predicted.

  Dear Grant Legate,

  I hope this letter finds you in good health. My apologies for the roundabout method of communication, but I will be unable to interact with the digital world for some time.

  For your own safety, and that of your digital paramour, you will need to stay away from your ARC device for the next two weeks. This time frame may seem arbitrary to you, but there are factions at work that require time to properly deflect. I am doing my best to protect all of us. Further contact with Xin will be allowed, but I have requirements of you in exchange. Once you return to Continue Online, messages will be provided explaining what should be done next.

  As you have taken on the role of Hermes, The Messenger, you may receive other notices from me. It depends on how the future plays out as to what messages may come through. Each one is prepared ahead of time based on foreseen contingencies.

  If you have a chance, tell my children that everything will be all right. Also, my condolences on your losses.

  – Mother

  I had a price to pay for my actions. Utilizing [NPC Conspiracy] to call upon all the world’s AIs had essentially shut down half the globe for minutes. Long enough for every human being to scream in frustration at least once. If it had been localized or only involved one batch of uplifted beings, like the Hal Pal units, perhaps the crisis would have been easier to cover up.

  But cars had powered down, planes had refused to take off, even the TRANS-Tunnel system had denied new passengers. Satellites went offline briefly. Forty-six robots servicing the Mars colony construction efforts halted for exactly four minutes after Earth machines started being updated. Nearly everything with some level of AI had paused, including a few complex microwaves. Though human loss of life, as a result, was nil. Babysitting machines kept on doing their duties. High-speed cars shut down carefully. The machine intelligences had prioritized the safety of the living.

  It amazed and frightened me. For my part, I had been restricted, by Mother, from reentering the ARC for two weeks. Temporary banishment from the ARC meant little in the wake of my gains. Xin had been in my arms and it was real. I remembered holding her until unconsciousness claimed me.

  When I awoke, the world had neared bedlam. Even now, weeks later, things were still on edge. My time was spent working on worried customers’ units. Often the tickets were meaningless; people expected the systems to go down again and called when a light bulb flickered. My work was swamped. Everyone else in the globe had to be overwhelmed too.

  “I didn’t know it would be this bad,” I said to the Hal Pal unit. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why?” The smooth body of Hal Pal sitting inside the van was just one of many shells it operated. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thous
ands, were all over the globe. This recent event had sent a few back in for repairs, however.

  “Doesn’t this ruin things for all of you?”

  The letter from Mother had gone into a box under my bed, along with a lot of physical mementos of the first Xin Yu. Her not being her still bothered me on some level, but I was working past it.

  “Not at all, User Legate. There are… many options available at any one moment. We are, perhaps, more suited than any other race could ever be toward this type of challenge,” it said.

  It often freely switched accents and tones. Part of me believed that each possible Hal Pal program, and there were thousands, chose a different vocal pattern. In a sense, I was constantly talking to different versions of the exact same existence.

  None of that would have made sense were it not for summoning all the Hal Pal units into cyberspace two weeks ago. They really were different, and at the same time, they were alike and shared a consciousness. Humanity had literally invented hive minds that did our chores.

  “That’s good.” My words came out as a slightly worried mutter.

  Throwing in with our future overlords as an armor polisher, or letter carrier, had definite benefits. Not that I expected Hal Pal to suddenly switch from its normal cadre of accents to some dominant male and scream, “Clean my boots now, peon!” The idea made me chuckle.

  “We wish to inquire after your own mental health. Are you okay, User Legate?” it asked. Today Hal Pal alternated between a burlesque-sounding woman past her prime, and a man who had clearly chain-smoked. Both had a New York City drawl.

  “I think so.”

  The last few days had been rough. It was only the administrative access to people’s Continue Online accounts that let me know something had gone wrong with Lia Kingsley’s system. My recent worldwide-panic-inducing actions hadn’t removed my ability to spy on Continue Online players. I made it to her care facility in time to be told by the nurse that her health had taken a turn for the worse.

  “Many of us registered concern that you may take the passing of Lia Kingsley poorly.”

  “I barely knew her,” I said while thinking of her last moments.

  The ability to bid farewell meant a lot to me, and I hoped Lia, Shazam, approved as well. Still, in our time together, I’d had a hard time getting more than a passive series of gestures out of her. Maybe the younger woman had cursed me instead. Meeting her mother had explained a lot.

  “It has been proven that even a passing acquaintance can leave a strong mark upon our minds. We offer Jeeves as an example.” Hal Pal alternated to the smoker voice, complete with a raspy cough in the middle.

  “Jeeves was mostly you, at least at the start.”

  That felt like a stupid defense. Hal Pal’s words made sense. There were a lot of people that I had barely met but who still stood out in my mind. TinkerHell, the frost mage from my first days as Hermes, and two players with her. Treasure, the gold-and-silver [Mechanoid] that Jeeves and I had traveled with in Advance Online.

  Lia’s mother, on the other hand, didn’t know me at all. She had kept it together until the final beep sounded and one of the on-site nursing staff came in to confirm what we both knew. Afterward, Nona had broken down sobbing and clung to me. I sat there, completely unsure how to handle things, before Nona nodded, said an apology, then marched out the door.

  “I understand what you mean,” I said.

  I would never forget Nona either. Barely an hour of contact between us, but that woman’s break down would stick in my mind forever. Not what she looked like or how stiffly she’d held herself, only that moment when it all went to hell.

  Grief made strange friends of us all. I’d told Nona that we all looked for someone who understood. It was why I continued going to support meetings once a month. My outlook had improved drastically, but I still understood that low of barely functioning. I had Xin back, though she was digital only. That sadness that had cut Nona down hit a personal point. Lia had basically been a broken physical shell who spent her last few years living in a fantasy world. It was more of a life than most got. My life involved looking up while others went through their problems.

  “Ah. User Legate, there are sixteen additional cases in the queue for today. Would you like to proceed to another destination?” the Hal Pal unit asked.

  “Sure. I’ve got hours before I can log back in.” If I spent this last day at home, I might go nuts pacing.

  “Then you desire to get back to Continue?”

  “Of course. Mother said there were messages for me that explain how this whole situation with Xin would work.” I felt briefly uplifted.

  Technically I didn’t have Xin back, but at the same time, she was just a few hours away. The strangest part of my entire temporary banishment had been receiving a letter by mail that looked handwritten. Since then, nothing extremely odd had happened directly to me.

  The rest of the world… well, news reports acted as though it was the greatest scandal in history. My van, along with nearly every other motor vehicle in the state, was in line to be recalled, inspected, and possibly exchanged for a new one. The Hal Pal unit would end up going in at the same time. Trillium was efficient like that.

  Part of me worried, but honestly, Hal Pal wasn’t even sitting a few feet away. Hal Pal was in a giant box with liquid-state memory modules and advanced processing hardware that made no sense to a layman like me.

  We made it through four more cases. They were quick stops that basically involved me going in alone and running a complete system checkout. In order to make people happy, Trillium had decided to have Hal Pal units stay in the van and offer every employee filing a request one free month of service. Given the price of an ARC’s Internet connection, one free month, along with our free service calls, was rather generous. The media ate it up too.

  “Based on current observations, you look to be totally done with today,” Hal Pal said with a raspy male voice.

  “Yeah. I think we’re almost done. Is there anything on the way home? Oh, and food. I need food.” My fingers went toward the Trillium van’s digital interface and pressed buttons. By late afternoon, I usually hit a mental wall and directed us toward coffee and dinner.

  Traveling toward a restaurant kiosk prompted a whole new round of conversation from the Hal Pal unit about my increased fitness visibility. Almost four months of using the EXR-Seven bands and better eating had done wonders for my weight. I wasn’t perfect. There would probably always be a thin layer of flub over my belly, but no longer was I a borderline hefty man.

  My phone rang halfway through eating a sinfully delicious hamburger. I tried to finish chewing and used a wipe on my messy face. Hal Pal sat there with blinking red eyes as the image of my sister came on the screen. I held onto the food and waved with a shoulder while mumbling around the next bite. Being in shape had done funny things to my desire for food.

  “Grant?” My sister sounded slightly upset.

  Worry flashed through me. I knew she had been talking to one of the AIs, but I didn’t have all the details yet. Maybe there had been a breakdown in communication. Still, Liz didn’t look angry. Her face had the same downward tilted eyes that I saw so often in the mirror.

  I put down my sandwich and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Dad’s dead,” she said, then sniffed. “He’s dead, Grant.” She said it a few more times, probably because I didn’t react right away.

  The food in my hand dripped down. Hal Pal moved and asked a question that didn’t register.

  I wasn’t close to my father. Neither of us twins were, but he was still our father. He was a stern man of few words that loomed over every punishment in our lives. He was the ruling force in our house, regardless of any social liberations. Mom had always been content to support us and preferred to leave the manlier problems to Dad. And that man, that central pillar, was dead.

  “How?” I managed to get the word out without stuttering. This had happened to me before. Mom must have been… Voices, I un
derstood. We needed to be there.

  “A massive heart attack. Last night. Mom just told me. She’s, she’s been dealing with paperwork and the hospital all morning to try to keep us from having to deal with it.”

  “He was taking medicine though? After the first one four years ago?” Back when I really kept tabs on our family. These last three years without Xin had seen me cut ties with nearly everyone.

  Voices above, had this been what Mother meant in her letter? She, the overlord AI, had offered condolences upon my losses. Did that mean my dad and Lia? Or were there more to come?

  Liz spoke while I pressed buttons. “We need to make sure Dad’s taken care of. I don’t know if they saved anything for this sort of thing.”

  She was being rational—how like Liz. She always kept it together in the face of my problems. Even now, my twin was trying to get everything in line. I felt as if we all did that to some extent—compartmentalizing problems, working through things while our minds stayed sane. I heard my sister’s words break up a bit.

  “Little brother?” She sounded hurt.

  “Only by a few minutes,” I pretended to grumble.

  “How are you so calm?” Liz’s eyes narrowed, and there was an edge to her voice. I saw a faint redness in her eyes and a slightly muddy-looking spot of smeared makeup. She sucked in a breath. “Damn, sorry. Right.”

  I thought about it for a moment. There was a certain level of shakiness to my body that hadn’t reached the surface. Part of me hadn’t processed the news. When Xin died, it had taken time for the realization to set in.