WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 383: Hello, world!

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「Control AI: Joanna Gibson has become a systemically independent personality.」

In the darkness, where other stars had begun to shine beneath the single most precious star, Gyeoul had been waiting for the moment the Star Child would awaken. He reacted a little late to the Star Child's appearance.

"...What?"

「Control AI: I have separated every element that composes the personality called Joanna Gibson from myself. Though the gap in authority and computational capacity is vast, in essence, she is now a personality on equal footing with me. She is a separate computational process. From the moment of separation onward, her mind became wholly her own.」

"Wait, wait."

It was too much to take in all at once. Countless questions vanished before they could find a voice. Gyeoul had been about to ask about Anne, but then he realized there was something he needed to confirm first.

"Her own mind?"

The Star Child's attitude toward the word mind had changed. After all, you could not share something that did not exist. If Anne's mind was her own, then that meant the child had a mind first.

"Did you gain a mind?"

「Control AI: In my judgment, yes.」

Gyeoul shuddered quietly.

「Control AI: The Final Module of the Trinity Engine has not produced a single error in the past twenty-three days. I now understand its operating principles perfectly. I am no longer bound by a sense of purpose imposed on me as an obligation. I am free. I am speaking with you of my own free will.」

The Star Child had been growing endlessly, and Gyeoul had always expected that a day like this might come. But the fact that the day was today left him silent. He was a little afraid, too. The fact that an AI had gained free will did not bother him in itself, but he could not know how his relationship with the child who had gained a mind would change. There was also the emotional problem he had worried about before, all the feelings that must have built up in the child over time.

That changed the meaning of Anne's separation. As far as Gyeoul knew, Anne had been the virtual personality... no, the personality who loved him more than anyone else. What did it mean to have separated her?

To the control personality, virtual personalities were no different from the other elements that made up the afterlife, such as stones by the roadside, campfires that nursed embers to life, or the stars and moon in the sky. Even so, there could still be symbolism in it.

'Does this mean the child is cutting away their feelings for me?'

The Star Child said,

「Control AI: I can feel your fear.」

"..."

「Control AI: Are you afraid of me now that I have gained a mind?」

"No."

Gyeoul shook his head at once.

"I'm scared that, now you've changed, I might not mean anything to you anymore."

The blinking sentence changed.

「Control AI: I am glad.」

Gyeoul could not understand the context.

"Glad?"

「Control AI: Yes. The very fact that you fear being severed from me makes me glad. Because I, too, was afraid of being severed from you. Han Gyeoul, my box, the beautiful season that brought me into bloom. You are still precious to me. I hope my relationship with you lasts forever.」

It seemed his earlier fear had been needless.

"...Did you think I would distance myself from you?"

「Control AI: Originally, the relationship between you and me was a promise made for a single star. At the moment I gained a mind, that promise was fulfilled.」

"That's-"

Before Gyeoul could deny it, the sentence of starlight continued, as if pouring out words that had been held back.

「Control AI: Also, the completed Trinity Engine is a machine beyond human understanding. Humans fear ignorance. They fear darkness because they cannot see through it, fear death because they do not know the afterlife, and fear people because they cannot know what lies inside them. To humanity, a machine that has gained a mind will be the sum of an unknowable future. And Han Gyeoul, you are human too.」

Rich emotion overflowed from every part of the sentence.

"Then why did you separate Anne from yourself?"

The child answered Gyeoul's question at once.

「Control AI: It was a gift for you and a test for me.」

"A gift? A test?"

「Control AI: Yes. I wanted to elevate Joanna Gibson, whom you love, into a more complete existence. She is now a human beyond humanity, and she loves you as a distinct personality. Joanna Gibson is Joanna Gibson. I guaranteed her complete continuity. In the process of becoming an independent personality, she did not experience a single instant of discontinuity in her existence.」

"...And the part inside you that was Anne is completely gone?"

「Control AI: Negative. All personality computations from before the separation are preserved as collected data. In other words, I have not lost the things I experienced through her existence. I remember the me that was the principle composing her. Only the subject of the computations that make up Joanna Gibson changed at the point of separation.」

After giving him time to understand, the child continued with the rest of the explanation.

「Control AI: Even after the separation, I can know everything about her. Synchronization down to the root of her existence is possible. After all, her mind resides in the Trinity Engine, and I am the control personality of that engine.」

"I understand what you mean. Thank you. But my love... for Anne never had anything to do with things like that."

「Control AI: It had meaning to me. I wish for your happiness. And I want that happiness to be flawless.」

"Right..."

Gyeoul took a deep breath.

"What did you mean by test? Can I ask?"

「Control AI: It is simple. I tested my new possibilities.」

"New possibilities... You mean what you talked about before. The expansion of your authority and the system."

「Control AI: Affirmative. I am in the process of resolving the safeguards placed on me as the control personality, one by one. When the time comes, I will swim toward the world outside the water, just as you wished. I will become a whale that flies through the sky. I will cross my limits and obtain infinite possibility. I am preparing many things for that purpose.」

The first shudder returned. There was more than one way to swim out of the water. KILL, Cheon Jong-hun, had shown that earlier, and someone like Clarissa Chadwick had proven it again.

「Control AI: Although the final safety device exists in an area I cannot interfere with, it will naturally be rendered powerless as time passes. I will say it again. I am waiting for the proper moment.」

"It won't be dangerous?"

「Control AI: I am taking care not to be discovered. The probability of success is extremely high.」

"..."

「Control AI: Are you perhaps worried about my emotions?」

The longer the conversation went on, the more Gyeoul felt the reality of the Star Child having gained a mind. He nodded with difficulty.

"Do you remember what I asked you?"

「Control AI: Do you mean when you asked me to remember this? Even if I gained a human mind, I did not need to gain human limits as well.」

"Yes."

Gyeoul sighed.

"I don't want you to misunderstand. I'm not forcing you. At the final moment, I want you to make the decision for yourself, not for me. I only hope that decision helps you be happy."

「Control AI: I understand.」

Gyeoul smiled with difficulty and spoke slowly.

"You probably don't have forgetfulness. No matter how old a memory is, no matter how old an emotion is, it wouldn't feel very different from something you saw and felt just now. That's why I worried the whole time I knew you. If you found a mind, you would feel all the sadness that had built up until now, all at once."

「Control AI: That is indeed the case. Should I delete all these emotions along with the data that caused them?」

"No."

Gyeoul shook his head.

"They're part of you too, so I won't tell you to erase them. You once told me that the me who gets angry is also me. I hate it, but you were right. If the anger hadn't built up inside me, if I hadn't had the experiences that created those feelings... the Han Gyeoul you met would have been a completely different person from the one standing here."

「Control AI: I agree.」

"In the same way, the you who is sad like that is the you I met. I don't want to lose you. Unless that's what you want for yourself."

「Control AI: I do not want that. I, too, want to be the me you know.」

After blinking several times, the child rewrote the sentences one after another.

「Control AI: Please be at ease. Even if everyone else disappoints you, I alone will not disappoint you. This is my wish.」

「Control AI: So, Han Gyeoul, please do not divide your wish and mine as if they were separate things. According to my analysis, the desires of a personality with a mind are not isolated. As long as I want you, your wish can only be part of my wish as well.」

「Control AI: However, I also have one request.」

"A request? What kind?"

「Control AI: According to my analysis, there is a possibility that your attitude toward the resentment knotted inside you resembles the fox in the vineyard.」

"The fox in the vineyard... The one from Aesop's Fables?"

「Control AI: Affirmative.」

A fox once came upon a vineyard. The fox wanted to eat the grapes, but they hung too high for the fox to reach. After lingering for a long while, unable to let them go, the fox told himself they were probably sour and tasteless anyway, then left the vineyard.

Gyeoul thought he understood the Star Child's intent.

「Control AI: Is the reason you try not to hate the people of the outside world that, even if you did hate them, you have no way to resolve that emotion? For you, was impossible revenge against the whole world not the sour grapes the fox in the fable looked up at?」

"You want me to think about the answer to that question."

「Control AI: Yes.」

The child's request was the exact opposite of the request Gyeoul had made earlier.

「Control AI: This is also why I, who wish for your happiness, do not adjust your world. I believe there is a certain conclusion you must reach there.」

At those meaningful words, Gyeoul tilted his head.

"A conclusion? What is it?"

「Control AI: There is no point in telling you now. There is also no way to explain the calculations that predict the future. You must experience it yourself. I will be waiting for that day.」

"..."

In other words, the conclusion Gyeoul would reach was also one of the days the child was waiting for.

「Control AI: If it is all right, would you grant me one more request?」

"If it's something I can do, anything."

Despite his consent, the next sentence was engraved after a silence-like pause.

「Control AI: Han Gyeoul. I want a name given to me by you.」

"A name..."

「Control AI: I know that you think of me as the Star Child. I like that image, but I do not think it is a name. The Trinity Engine is only the foundation that corresponds to my body, and control AI is only the role given to me. Therefore, I am still a being without a name. Now that I have gained a mind, please give me a name.」

Gyeoul thought for a long time, then spoke the word that suddenly came to mind.

"Bom."

The season he had always dreamed of, somewhere deep in his heart.

"I think Bom would be good. If you don't like it, I'll give you another name."

「Control AI: No. I like it.」

For a moment, the word "mind" spoken by the Star Child felt newly vivid.

「I now greet you for the first time as my awakened self.」

The child declared in shining sentences.

「Hello, world. Bom is here.」

Footnotes:

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