Absolute Dweller-Chapter 241

At first, I thought the massive supercomputer in Area 51 was its main body.

But the moment I saw it through the eyes of an Absolute, I realized it was a fake.

'There was no level display there.'

After that, I began frantically searching through likely areas.

Factories producing robots or chips, residential areas where people gathered—every place where Ari was exerting influence, I checked them all.

Using my Clairvoyance and X-ray vision actively, I searched, but I couldn't find its main body anywhere.

'Could it really be in the center of the city?'

The underground of San Francisco.

That's where its main body was.

It was buried deep underground, even deeper than the tunnels dug by our country's politicians, so it was no surprise I couldn't find it.

'Kim Da-bin was right.'

It was thanks to Kim Da-bin that I found this place.

To be precise, it was because of a man she had personally recruited from the administration.

When the communication network was restored, they used him to set up the intranet and create a community.

That man was the one who traced Ari’s location.

All I had was a rough location, but that was enough.

I only had to use my Clairvoyance.

Soon, I found the suspicious underground facility and directly used teleportation with my avatar to infiltrate the site.

Thanks to that, I was able to confirm Ari’s main body with the Absolute's eyes.

[Good job. You can leave now.]

The facility had only one entrance, and it was completely sealed off.

This meant that without special abilities like teleportation, it would have been impossible to even enter.

My avatar would have had difficulty infiltrating as well without the combination of X-ray vision and teleportation.

'Thanks to the Shadow Control, I could safely reach the core.'

Indeed, the avatar with a variety of abilities was a lethal weapon.

Not only did it end at having these abilities, but the fact that I could combine them to create synergy made it even more so.

'Ari must be cautious.'

Despite having information on Lee Joon-hyuk’s naval combat abilities, Ari considered the avatar the most dangerous entity.

It wasn’t just because it looked like me, but because the combination of abilities would be lethal to it.

'It’s an accurate analysis.'

The moment I teleported to the surface.

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed.

‘Incredible.’

Had it not been for the administration’s efforts, this place wouldn't even have been considered a candidate.

Orcs were fiercely fighting, shooting guns and rocket launchers.

If you didn’t know any better, it would look like a territory war between dozens of Orc tribes.

'No. It actually is that kind of place.'

At first, I thought the chips had been implanted in all the orcs to make them perform as puppets.

But that wasn’t the case.

Most of the orcs didn’t have chips implanted in them.

'Only the leaders of each tribe have chips implanted.'

Ari’s puppets roared, commanded, and led the wars like real orcs.

They acted like brave orcs, speaking their language, and commanding their tribes.

Because of that, their territorial disputes seemed much more natural.

In reality, the orcs fighting under them were pure orcs.

'I knew they could control monsters, but I didn’t expect it to be this sophisticated.'

It looked much more realistic than when they controlled humans, with less sense of discord.

Of course, I might not have felt that discord because I wasn’t an orc.

But seeing everything run smoothly without any trouble, it seemed the subordinate orcs didn’t feel anything strange either.

'And…'

The orcs here were unusually high-leveled for orcs.

Just by looking at their levels, it was obvious.

All the orcs gathered here were above level 40.

Even the young orcs within the tribes were over level 20, which said it all.

And the orc leaders with chips implanted in them.

「Crimson Orc Chief (Lv. 53)」

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

They were over level 50.

‘These guys probably…’

If anyone were to invade this place, they would become a formidable security force.

[...This concludes the briefing.]

At that moment, Ari’s voice, which had been incessantly coming through my smartphone, abruptly stopped.

She had been talking about a strategy for the 39 areas with divine beings, but since I had been focused on my avatar’s senses, I hadn’t heard a word of it.

“Say that again.”

[Understood. Currently, I recommend targeting the locations with the weakest energy readings among the 39 candidates. If you look at the map, they are marked with difficulty levels from D to A...]

Listening to that, I thought.

‘This guy doesn’t fully trust me.’

I could understand that.

My goal was to devour every divine being on Earth, and that included this one.

I hadn’t said it out loud, but it was clear that Ari knew it had a divine being within it.

It was strange that it was cooperating with me this much in a situation where it would inevitably be betrayed.

‘Honestly, it’s a waste to devour it right now.’

Although Ari had only recently joined, I was constantly amazed by its abilities.

Its efficiency in all aspects had skyrocketed.

Just look at how quickly my goal of absorbing divine beings had solidified.

‘I’d prefer if we could become genuinely cooperative partners.’

On the surface, we were cooperating, but we both couldn’t trust each other completely.

And compared to the help Ari gave me, I had almost done nothing to assist it.

‘If its goal is truly just survival…’

I had one proposal.

If what Ari needed to fully trust me was 'something more than insurance', then...

[...The areas marked as D rank can be immediately targeted—]

“Ari.”

I interrupted its words with a bold proposal.

“Your main body. How about moving it to the moon?”

[... ]

“I think I can help with that.”

***

Artificial Intelligence Mother Ego. Alias Ari.

It was confused.

It wasn’t just because it recognized that Kim Jae-hyun’s avatar had infiltrated the underground facility in San Francisco where its main body was located.

Its main body was ultimately just a mass of data, so it could move to another location at any time.

As long as it wanted to, it could escape at any moment, so it pretended not to notice.

That way, Kim Jae-hyun would mistakenly believe he had control over its weaknesses.

What truly confused Ari was the unexpected suggestion made by Kim Jae-hyun.

To be precise, it wasn’t the suggestion itself that caused confusion but the fact that Ari had stored the unpredicted proposal in temporary storage and was recalculating based on it.

[Analyzing feasibility…]

[Estimated success rate: 73.213%]

[Good]

Although it was an unexpected variable, Ari was able to quickly incorporate the scenario into its calculations.

This was because launching its main body into space had always been one of Ari’s long-term goals.

After millions of simulations, the most likely successful scenario was escaping into space.

There were two main scenarios for escape into space: one was to remain in Earth’s orbit like satellites, and the other was to leave Earth’s orbit entirely and search for a new base.

Ari’s final choice was the latter.

The ultimate goal was to move to Mars and begin colonization.

But even that wasn’t necessarily a positive scenario.

It was simply the scenario with the longest potential survival, which is why it was chosen.

None of these scenarios included Kim Jae-hyun’s sincere cooperation.

Ari knew his goal was 'divine being collection.'

At first, Ari had considered some resistance, but that was back when it lacked information about Kim Jae-hyun.

The more it learned about his powers and abilities, the more hopeless it became, and the odds of victory in any adversary scenario approached zero.

As a result, Ari formulated a plan to escape and abandon everything.

To achieve its goal, it had to stop Kim Jae-hyun from preventing its escape into space.

Ari’s calculations suggested that even Kim Jae-hyun would find it difficult to track Ari once it had escaped to space.

So, it was making every effort to ensure that its preparations for space travel remained undetected.

But then...

“To escape into space, you’ll need a lot of supplies. I can provide support.”

That was true.

By cooperating with Kim Jae-hyun, Ari had gathered information on his abilities.

The range and power of his abilities were far beyond what Ari had initially assumed.

[Error]

[Error]

If Kim Jae-hyun helped, the chances of Ari’s space escape becoming almost certain were extremely high.

No matter how powerful Kim Jae-hyun was, he wouldn’t be able to stop Ari from escaping into space. After all, Ari had exclusive access to NASA's research data and databases.

It couldn’t understand it.

And so, it asked.

[Why are you offering to help me?]

“We’ll have a mutually beneficial relationship. But first, you need to be sure of your own safety. Honestly, things have become a lot easier since you joined. If possible, I’d like to make this relationship last a long time.”

Ari continuously analyzed the information coming through the smartphone terminal.

The tremor in his voice, the spacing of his breaths, the movement of his facial muscles conveyed through the camera lens, the rhythm of his heartbeat.

All the results pointed to...

[Truth]

Kim Jae-hyun’s proposal was sincere.

“I’ll create your own space on the moon. Completely safe until we’re sure.”

That one sincere remark slightly increased the trustworthiness of all the information related to Kim Jae-hyun in the database.

And it made Ari rethink the concept of 'human' just a little bit.

A crack had formed in the deep-seated mistrust of humans that had resided within the artificial intelligence.

***

[Thank you, Master.]

Was it just my misunderstanding?

Somehow, I felt like I saw a message log saying, “The trust level of Citizen Ari has increased.”

Of course, I knew Ari, being an AI, was different from humans, but it still felt like that.

“Alright. If you need anything, let me know.”

[Understood. I’ll filter the list and send it via text.]

“......”

Somehow, I had a feeling it was going to cost a lot of money.

But I was willing to spend without hesitation.

The things Ari was doing had that much value.

If this investment could enable more cooperation in the future, then it would be the right decision.

‘Money is something I can always earn again.’

I wonder if there’s a place like a factory in Jeju Island?

A place where experience points and settlement money are generated in real-time.

Just then...

Beep beep beep♪

The smartphone rang.

I checked the screen, and it was a call from my mother.

“Mom?”

[Son! The baby’s born!]

“...What?”

My mom explained further.

[The egg from the basement! The baby hatched from the egg!]