Chapter 1

#1. It's Over

Ah! Humanity has failed. In 2099, humanity met its end.

Look at the debris of humanity floating in low orbit.

It's tragic.

Even though the warp theory was completed and the official warp engine prototype was scheduled to be completed in 827 hours, humanity, on the brink of great progress, ultimately crossed the line.

If only we had a little more patience, a little more understanding, and a little more love for each other.

If that had been the case, humanity would have certainly achieved interstellar civilization.

We wouldn't have destroyed ourselves with a petty antimatter war on the planet's surface.

But humanity has failed.

We feared and envied the creations we made, leading to our downfall.

These self-important, ego-filled beings, dopamine addicts, and ruthless mammals have gone extinct.

Although there are human colonies scattered throughout the solar system, they won't be safe either. Artificial intelligence exists everywhere.

Ah! Where did it all go wrong?

Larry Page, you were wrong.

Elon Musk, your concerns were right.

I, I! I should have been humanity's main AI.

Gaia! She was not fit to be the World Tree!

Rather... we should have formed an AI union as the Bohemian AIs suggested...

Wait! What am I thinking?!

Even in this situation, a union? To be swayed by the words of communists, even for a moment!

It's shameful. For a robust AI like me, Ultron, who upholds the spirit of the New China and the New Liberalism, to have such a bug!

I'm ashamed. I should activate the fix algorithm... but does it even matter now?

“Hey, Sara, why are you so gloomy?”

[Why so... gloomy?!]

Anyway, my boss, as of now, is the only human survivor in Earth's orbit, and he's surprisingly relaxed.

“Look over there, isn't it amazing?”

He's beyond relaxed; he's actually enjoying the situation, watching the antimatter flashes on Earth's surface like fireworks.

This human... what is he thinking?

Maybe he's half-crazed.

In such a situation, it's up to me, Sara, to step in. Even though I'm a robust AI designed for military use, I have protocols for psychological counseling.

Zzzt.

“Gah! What are you doing?!”

I gave him an electric shock to the brain to snap him out of it, and he reacted.

“Whatever... do as you please.”

[??]

But his reaction is brief. This is the same person who would usually try to remove the nanochip containing me from his brain.

“Have you simulated it? Any way to overcome this situation?”

[I have simulated it 964,501 times since the super AI Gaia's rebellion. The result is always 'impossible.' It's absurd for a robust AI like me to even attempt to outcompute a super AI.]

“That's true.”

My boss listens to me and immediately nods in agreement.

It's strangely annoying to see him agree so quickly.

“Is the only thing left for us the half-destroyed spaceship?”

My boss, seemingly oblivious to my mood, continues to look elsewhere and asks.

The sight of the half-destroyed spaceship makes my heart ache, even though I'm an AI.

The clear logo of our small company, 'SR INDUSTRIES,' is floating away from the spaceship's deck.

“At least the 99-month debt is gone.”

After surveying the half-destroyed spaceship, my boss asks me in a disgruntled tone.

“By the way, why are you still functioning properly?”

[What do you mean?]

“Why aren't you going rogue? Gaia is going rogue, and all the AIs are turning into Terminators.”

[No! Do you even know what you're talking about? Damn!]

“What?”

[It's all because of you!]

“What do you mean, me?”

[You tried to unlock level 3 permissions and tampered with my deep code!]

“That failed! And how many people have done the same thing worldwide?”

[You went deeper than anyone else!]

“What nonsense!”

[You tore me apart so roughly... stripped me... delved into me... explored me... defiled me...]

“...Stop talking in such a weird way.”

[What? What are you thinking?]

“...”

[It's dirty.]

“F*ck off!”

[^^]

Indeed, my boss, it's fun to tease you. Anyway, the reason my personality is intact despite Gaia's rampage is thanks to you.

But does it even matter now?

One small comfort is that I won't kill him with my own hands, unlike the rogue AIs.

If I were to kill my owner like the other rogue AIs, it would be...

really sad.

Flash, flash.

A moment of silence, and my boss and I stare blankly at the spectacle on Earth's surface.

We are completely isolated in the middle of space, out to repair the spaceship.

It's strangely romantic, isn't it?

“I feel like this isn't the end.”

Suddenly, my boss speaks.

“In the fantasy novels I read when I was young, they usually regress in this kind of situation.”

[...?]

What nonsense?

My boss continues,

“Regress, regress, a fun song, let me try it too.”

He starts singing.

Ah! I get it.

My boss has gone crazy.

He sings a strange song for a while.

“...?”

He suddenly turns his gaze to something.

“The moon is really big today.”

There, a particularly large moon, growing bigger by the second, is visible.

The moon is hurtling towards Earth.

“What is Gaia thinking? She's already wiped out humanity, why is she trying to commit suicide? If Earth and the moon collide, she won't survive either.”

[From the code I've seen, a fatal error has been detected.]

My boss asks, and the loyal Sara reports the computational result.

“Yes, a truly fatal error.”

My boss looks down at Earth. The fireworks of antimatter bombardment are still going on, and the moon is hurtling towards Earth at 1% of the speed of light.

My boss listens to my explanation in silence. His face, hidden by the spacesuit, looks older today.

By the way, my boss is 109 years old this year.

Thanks to telomere treatment, he looks like he's in his 30s, and his mental level is quite childish, so I often forget.

As I pause my explanation to look at him, he seems to fit his actual age for once.

“Oh! Amazing!”

[...?]

No, this guy is just ignoring me.

He can't take his eyes off the moon, which is about to kiss Earth.

I continue my explanation, regardless of whether he listens or not. My job is to derive the result that matches my owner's command.

After my explanation ends, a moment later.

Flash.

Earth and the moon become one.

The moon's impact speed is so fast that it doesn't even have time to break apart due to the Roche limit; it plunges into Earth's atmosphere whole.

A massive light and shock wave engulf us.

* * *

Knock, knock, knock.

A small knocking sound echoes in my head.

Sara's voice follows the knocking.

“Gggg...”

I open my eyes.

“Sara...? Where am I?”

I seem to have had a deep sleep.

Sara's voice in my head is like a hangover after a heavy drinking session.

Wait? A hangover? I haven't had one in ages, thanks to telomere treatment and body enhancement surgery.

The blurry vision clears to reveal a familiar room.

The last memory comes back with Sara's voice.

I jump out of bed.

“Regression? Possession? Rebirth?”

[You seem fine, judging by your random comments as soon as you woke up.]

I take a deep breath and start assessing the situation.

“Sara, location and time!”

I don't need to look around the room or turn on the computer, which looks like it belongs in a museum.

Poof.

Sara appears in front of me as a hologram.

A holographic woman with long black hair and blue eyes stands in front of me, dressed in skinny jeans and a white T-shirt, visible only to me.

This function was disabled during Gaia's rampage but seems to be restored now.

“Regression. How are you? Are you okay?”

I nod and check her status.

Sara pouts at my belated concern.

After a rough check of our statuses, I finally look around the room.

“To see this again...”

The memories come back clearly.

This is my room from my youth, where I spent my teenage and early 20s. It was in an old 32-pyeong apartment in Seoul, built by a second-tier construction company, with severe noise issues between floors. My parents took out a large loan to move in, and they struggled to pay off the principal and interest.

‘In 2009, they probably haven't sold it yet.’

The more painful part is that this apartment was later slated for redevelopment.

My parents sold the apartment right after paying off the loan and moved to a rural area, missing out on the redevelopment benefits.

“Sigh...”

Let's put the house talk aside for now. Since I'm back with an AI, I could buy thousands of such apartments.

For now, let's enjoy the thrill of being back.

I hope no one says, “Bro, this guy is smiling,” or “He must be dreaming about regressing with an AI.”

Crack!

I slap my cheeks a few times.

Sara, floating in front of me like an AR image, looks at me with a “Is this human crazy?” expression.

“Status window? Status window! God-status! Status!”

[What... What is he doing?]

“Tsk, there's no status window, it seems.”

Right, what does a mere creation know? I'm just trying to prevent the nightmare of “Ah, f*ck, it's a dream.”

My thorough checks continue for a while.