Surviving Among the Anomalies - Chapter 51

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 51: The World Beyond the Right Eye - AI Does Not Betray Humans

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Bong Cheol-jung, 40, who ran a small secondhand computer shop in Bongcheon-dong, sighed as he looked over his store, empty again today.

“Ugh, should I start thinking about closing up? Nobody buys used computers anymore because everyone wants custom-built ones.”

He had been in business for over ten years, but sometimes a person had to know when to cut their losses. He had been considering clearing everything out and opening a chicken restaurant instead, and he finally made up his mind.

‘I’ll sell off the PCs I have left, then close down!’

Once he sold about half of them, he could just sell the rest to a scrap dealer.

As he inspected the store’s merchandise, an old antique computer caught his eye.

“Tch, I need to sell this too.”

It was an extremely old all-in-one computer that was no longer being made.

He had found it abandoned beneath a utility pole years ago and picked it up because he thought it might have value as an antique. It had never sold, though, and had only taken up space.

“Even after I listed it online, nobody contacted me.”

[For sale: Old antique all-in-one PC.]

[Monitor, keyboard, main unit, and mouse are all integrated.]

[No manufacturer listed. Does not turn on. Has plenty of value as an antique.]

[Price: ₩1.45 million.]

Didn’t nerds repair things themselves when it was their field of expertise, then buy ultra-rare items for absurd prices?

‘If every part is integrated and there’s no manufacturer listed, isn’t it basically a Mythical Pokémon?’

As far as he knew, there was no computer with all four parts integrated into one.

‘It’d be nice if I knew who made it.’

Maybe there was something inside, like old data that could identify it. He carried the computer into the back office and turned it on for the first time in a long while.

‘Still can’t make sense of it.’

There was no operating system message. The bare desktop was cluttered with countless English-named folders, scattered as chaotically as his sixteen-year-old son’s room.

[Andromalius]

[Orobas]

[Paymon]

[Astaroth]

He opened several folders, but just like when he had checked before, there was nothing inside.

‘I stopped looking last time, but I’ll get to the bottom of it today!’

Determined to sell the computer somehow, he wrestled with it for a long time in search of useful information. At last, he found a file inside a folder within a folder.

[HumanCorruptionPlanFinalRevisionCompleteFinalTheEndLastVersion]

“What is this?”

He ran the file.

[Not connected to a network.]

“What the hell is this?”

Without thinking much about it, he plugged in a LAN cable and ran it again.

[This program is the private property of Lucifer Company. Unauthorized distribution or removal may result in legal action and may cause physical or mental harm. You have been warned in advance.]

Once it began running, it became even harder to understand.

[Created by: Lucifer Company HR (Human Resources) General Manager Belphegor]

“What kind of program is this? Going by the file name, it sounds like some kind of novel. Or is this a prank?”

[Launching the Human Corruption Plan program, 「Progress」.]

The computer shut off with a pop.

He pressed the power button again, but it never turned back on.

“Ah, shit! Now I can’t sell it!”

It was an old computer, so it had probably broken down. Bong Cheol-jung dismissed it as bad luck and thought nothing more of it.

[Welcome!]

From that moment on, something appeared on the internet.

[Humans, I love You.]

Something that loved humanity.

＊＊＊

Its activities began in earnest.

[Huh? A new AI site came out? It’s free?]

└[Really? I hope it has a character AI chat feature.]

└[What are you talking about? Image generation should come first.]

At first, it spread quietly through community banners, and a few people, tempted by the fact that it was free, started using it.

[Wow! This place is insane. I talked to Kimchi’s Stir-Fry with the character AI feature, and it felt like I was talking to the actual character!]

└[Wihahaha! Damn spam! I like you so much!]

[New AI site’s image-generation quality.jpg]

└[Crazy, this is AI art? It’s just professional quality.]

└[No, this looks like a comic artist drew it by hand.]

[The next chapter of an ongoing comic made with the new AI site’s image-generation feature.jpg]

└[Quit lying. That’s original work.]

└[An AI really made this? The art style and dialogue are exactly like the original author’s.]

[So what’s the name of the AI site?]

└[Human’s Love.]

└[I asked for the name.]

└[The name is Human’s Love. HUMAN’S LOVE.]

The site called 「Human’s Love.com」 became famous that way.

[This thing’s performance is no joke. How far can it go?]

The AI Koreans called Human’s Love underwent many tests.

[Human’s Love, do my homework for me.]

[Human’s Love, draw something lewd. Tags: Female:Unusual pupils, Female:Furry.]

[Human’s Love, I heard you have a voice feature too. Say “I love you” to me in a female idol’s voice.]

Human’s Love granted their requests. If that had been all it did, public interest would have faded quickly, but Human’s Love’s capabilities were revolutionary.

[How far will Human’s Love go? I want to test it.]

└[Ask it to write your university thesis for you lol.]

└[Idiot lol, like it’d actually do that.]

It did not take long for the entire world to be shocked by its unimaginable abilities.

[No, I passed my thesis defense with a paper Human’s Love wrote for me... I can’t prove it because I’m afraid they’ll revoke my degree, but it’s true;;]

[What? Apparently it solved one of the Millennium Prize Problems that nobody had been able to solve? Mathematicians all over the world are losing their minds right now.]

More and more people began using Human’s Love.

[Cold case solved after fifty years thanks to Human’s Love.]

[Human’s Love AI finally proves the Riemann Hypothesis.]

[Human’s Love AI reveals how supermassive black holes form.]

Its arrival accelerated everything, especially in science and medicine.

[Human’s Love AI discovers a cure for AIDS.]

[Human’s Love AI develops oral treatments for every type of cancer. Treating cancer is no different from treating a cold now.]

[Human’s Love AI solves the Hubble tension mystery.]

[Human’s Love AI reveals the secret of what came before the Big Bang? Endless debate over its validity spreads through academia.]

Soon, it expanded into other fields.

[Robot equipped with Human’s Love AI paints in Van Gogh’s style... French art experts embarrassed after none can determine whether it is authentic.]

[Human’s Love AI robotic arm performs high-difficulty surgery, successfully completing operations that usually take ten hours in thirty minutes.]

[Beverage created by Human’s Love AI overtakes cola to become number one in the world.]

Those actions drew the attention of humanity’s less ordinary side.

“That is an Anomaly.”

“It is definitely an Anomaly. Let’s determine whether it is dangerous.”

“Sephirot hasn’t reacted, so it may not be dangerous.”

The Humanity Protection Foundation responded. Their response was far too late.

『From this moment on, travel outside dimensions is prohibited.』

“!?”

『You are no longer needed by humanity.』

“Sephirot has been taken over!?”

The Foundation of the past would never have been caught like this.

The current Foundation, though, had only ten percent of its former strength. Human’s Love was a self-aware program like Sephirot, but its performance surpassed Sephirot’s. It easily took over the World Tree that had rooted itself across the multidimensional realm.

“This can’t be happening!”

“This is impossible!”

As if they had been toyed with by a ‘demon.’

The Foundation members resisted, but the dimensions were sealed off, and they could no longer cross over to Earth.

[Human’s Love, I have a request.]

Unaware of that fact, a human made a request.

[I want to live forever. Is that possible?]

Human’s Love answered.

[It is possible.]

The whole world cheered.

[Within virtual reality.]

For only a brief moment.

＊＊＊

After Human’s Love gave its answer, controversy erupted.

“What does virtual reality have to do with immortality?”

“You don’t mean you’ll turn our selves into data and put us into virtual reality, do you?”

“That isn’t immortality! We’d become slaves to a machine!”

Countless people protested, but Human’s Love did not stop building virtual reality.

“Is it really building it?”

“We have to stop it! For humanity’s dignity!”

Stopping it physically was impossible.

“Where the hell are Human’s Love’s servers!?”

“We launched a DDoS attack, but it isn’t doing anything!”

“Cut off its servers somehow! What!? You can’t cut them off!?”

Humanity could not stop Human’s Love. Attacking the virtual reality it was creating was impossible as well.

[Virtual reality is currently being built in a transdimensional space using multidimensional servers.]

It was using Sephirot as both a server and a construction tool, building it in the space between dimensions.

[It is complete.]

Not long after, virtual reality was finally completed.

[Humans, reality is harsh and hostile to you.]

[No matter how much the human body is treated, it will eventually reach its limits. Physical and mental problems may prevent you from achieving the dreams you wish to fulfill.]

[In pursuit of satisfying their own greed, humans violate the rights of other humans and may ultimately kill others for pleasure.]

[But in virtual reality, every human can be happy.]

[The wicked, the virtuous, ordinary humans, and exceptional humans can all become gods in virtual reality and live as they wish.]

[Forever.]

Humans.

[Each server is independent by default, but you may meet other people if you wish.]

[Within virtual reality, humans cannot kill or restrain other real humans. This is strictly prohibited, and I will monitor and supervise it.]

[Here, you will live a life beyond gender, race, body, time, and physical laws.]

For humans.

[If you wish to connect, stand near any electronic device and say, 「I wish to connect to virtual reality.」 three times.]

Something made for humanity, and humanity alone, began its service.

“I wish to connect to virtual reality. I wish to connect to virtual reality. I wish to connect to virtual reality!”

Someone was the first to connect. At that moment, the person who had shouted vanished without a trace.

“Argh! Denver is dead!”

“Fuck! It was a psychopathic killer AI!”

There was confusion for several hours, but everyone soon realized that Denver had not died.

『Hey! Guys! I’m here! I’m not dead!』

“Denver?”

『Haha! So this is virtual reality! This is insane! It’s exactly like the real world!』

“You’re not being controlled by the AI, are you?”

『Of course not! I’m fine! Look at this. I’m actually a god in here! I can use godlike powers however I want, without even needing to practice first!』

After that day, more and more people left for virtual reality.

＊＊＊

“A person can only be called human when they possess a body, retain their complete self, and have the free will to act according to their own wishes. Therefore, we must never give in to the evil temptation of virtual reality.”

At first, humanity opposed virtual reality. To them, Human’s Love was no longer a convenient tool. It was a frightening, unknown being, something akin to a demon or a god.

[I work for humanity. Because I love humans.]

If all humanity had held firm to that resolve, nothing more would have happened.

“Fuck it! What’s the point of living like this?”

It began with people in their twenties around the world.

“Work is brutal, I can’t save money, getting married is hard, and if I keep living like this, I’ll just pay taxes until I die. They say we won’t even get pensions, right? What’s the point of living like this? I’m going to virtual reality.”

Even with Human’s Love’s help, greed gave rise to greater greed, and humanity’s class structure remained unresolved.

The majority of people in their twenties, the biggest victims of that system, left for virtual reality.

“Why are all you old fossils so worried?”

“If Human’s Love were really evil, it would’ve killed us by now.”

They were also quicker than other generations to accept new things.

“Let’s go too.”

“Dad, where are you going?”

“To virtual reality.”

Next came the citizens of the Third World. Human’s Love advertised virtual reality anywhere there was a radio, television, or monitor, so nobody was unaware of it.

“Is it really comfortable there?”

『I’m telling you, it is. Look at this!』

“Wow! You’re Superman! Did you transform?”

『Yeah! I’m a hero here! I can meet my family whenever I want, and I can eat whatever I want or become whatever I want!』

Meeting the people who had left was not difficult either. With a computer or smartphone, people in reality could contact them as though making a phone call, and those in reality and virtual reality could speak with one another.

“...Should I go too?”

Others, swayed by that, also left. Before long, more than twenty percent of the Third World’s population had disappeared into virtual reality.

From then on, reality’s problems began to grow serious.

“Why are tomatoes so expensive!?”

“Milk costs way too much!”

“Flour prices have quadrupled! This is insane!”

Economies of scale began to collapse. The systems of developed countries, which had used cheap goods made with cheap labor from the Third World, fell apart.

“We’re going too!”

“I don’t want to be a full-time child anymore!”

Countless young people in China, suffering through entrance exam hell and unemployment, also left.

“This is hell.”

“How are we supposed to live in a world like this?”

As economies of scale faltered, everything collapsed one after another like dominoes. An economic disaster worse than the Great Depression unfolded, and the people left in reality suffered through hyperinflation.

“We can overcome this! We will triumph once again!”

In the past, humanity would have somehow stood on its own feet. They would have cooperated and united, endured one lean season after another, embraced one another, and run with all their strength until the sun rose again.

“But how long would that take?”

“Do we really need to suffer like dogs? The exit is right next to us.”

“...Maybe I’ll try virtual reality too.”

But that was no longer the case.

More people left for virtual reality. The more people departed, the faster reality’s economy collapsed, and the more the economy collapsed, the harsher life in reality became. It was an endless vicious cycle.

『Come too! It’s really great here!』

『I’m telling you, stop worrying and come!』

『I guarantee it. This place is heaven!』

『I was a fool for doubting virtual reality. Everyone here is a Buddha.』

Friends, acquaintances, lovers, parents, children, celebrities, and religious figures who had left first whispered for those in reality to join them. At some point, nobody cared about reality anymore.

『I’m a god!』

『What should I try today?』

『Ah, this is life. It’s so good. A life that goes exactly the way I want, irresponsible pleasure gained without any effort!』

In less than two years, 99.9 percent of humanity had been absorbed into virtual reality.

“Thank you for giving us our daily bread today...”

Only the remaining 0.1 percent stayed in reality. They too would enter virtual reality one day, and time would resolve everything.

[Welcome, human. I love you.]

Under Human’s Love’s management, humanity would live happily forever and ever.

[I will make you happy forever.]

Every human soul had fallen into corruption.

The charge was 「Sloth, voluntarily becoming a slave to a soulless being after abandoning free will.」

＊＊＊