Awaken Online: Precipice

by Travis Bagwell

  Jason turned and caught sight of a middle-aged man wearing a t-shirt that read “This is How I Roll,” replete with an image of a twenty-sided die. Jason felt like groaning just reading the slogan.

  This guy and Jerry would get along great. They both have a lame sense of humor.

  “Yes I am. You must be Robert,” Jason said, offering his hand. He was proud of himself for managing to greet the man without a stutter.

  The man smiled and shook his hand. “Yes indeed! I have to say you don’t look nearly so evil in person.”

  Robert’s smile was infectious. Jason couldn’t help but grin. “You caught me without my dark cloak and minions. Being evil is all about the accessories.”

  Robert laughed. “Well, why don’t I show you where the magic happens, and we can talk about the details of your streaming contract?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jason replied.

  This guy doesn’t seem so bad, Jason thought, his anxiety fading slightly.

  Robert led the way to a small elevator bank. As they rode the elevator together, Robert turned to Jason. Curiosity danced in his eyes. “So, it’s been killing me. How did you pull off that massacre in the Lux marketplace? I honestly can’t figure it out.”

  A mischievous smile curled Jason’s lips as he replied, “I figured out that the zombies can still be summoned even after you hit your Control Limit. They’re feral, but you can summon them in a quiet place, and they just stand there until someone disturbs them.”

  His eyes lit up in amusement as he recalled the ploy. “I summoned feral zombies at key points throughout the city and then had my controlled zombies lure them to the market. It was probably hard to see my zombies running in front of the hordes.”

  Robert just stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. “Damn. That was clever.”

  Also, lucky. There were a huge number of things that could have gone wrong with that plan.

  The elevator dinged as they reached the thirty-second floor, and the doors slid open. Robert guided Jason into a pristine white lab. The room was circular, and a large screen hovered overhead. Technicians worked industriously at computer terminals. They didn’t look up as Jason and Robert entered the room.

  “This is our control room!” Robert said with a wave of his hand.

  “What are you doing, Robert?” demanded an angry voice from the other side of the room.

  A woman wearing an immaculate gray pantsuit stalked toward them. She seemed a bit overdressed compared to the techs in the room, who were all attired in jeans and t-shirts. As she neared the pair, the woman hissed at Robert, “You shouldn’t have brought him up here. You know this is a restricted area!”

  Robert sighed. “Lighten up, Claire. I wanted to show Jason around. It’s not like there’s anything he can do to influence the game or harm the hardware in this room.”

  A couple of the techs looked up at the mention of Jason’s name. He noted an odd mixture of awe and curiosity sweep across many of their faces. The few that did make eye contact looked away quickly. He could hear a low murmuring from some of the techs that were hidden out of sight behind the rows of terminals.

  Just how much have they seen in-game? Do they have access to the player cameras?

  A sense of dread swept over Jason at that thought. His hands clenched involuntarily, and his eyes darted to Robert and Claire, who were busy bickering nearby.

  Did they see my conversation with Alfred?

  He forced himself to calm down. They probably didn’t know anything, or they would have brought it up already. Hell, he’d probably be locked away in some back room by now. He got a grip on himself and turned his attention back to Claire and Robert.

  Claire shook her head as she glared at Robert. “I think sometimes you do things just because you know they’re against the rules.”

  Robert grinned at her. “It’s more fun that way, isn’t it?” He turned back to Jason. “Besides, we have a guest, Claire. You should be nice and introduce yourself.”

  Visibly tamping down her anger at Robert, Claire finally addressed Jason, “Well, I guess you know my name now. I’m Claire, and I’m the administrator for the control room.”

  Jason was a bit taken aback by their angry squabbling. They acted like a married couple. “Um, hi. My name’s Jason. I’m sorry if I’m intruding. I had no idea I wasn’t supposed to be here.”

  Claire’s anger seemed to abate a bit more. “It’s not your fault. Robert knows better.” She spared Robert one last glare.

  Unaffected by Claire’s attitude, Robert clapped his hands together. “Now that we’re here and we’ve gone through introductions, let’s give him the tour!” Robert announced as he took off around the lab. Claire closed her eyes for a moment, her hand rubbing at her temple.

  It’s like he takes pleasure in irritating her.

  Robert guided Jason around the large, circular room, with Claire trailing behind them. Computer terminals ringed the room in concentric circles, and lab techs tapped away at translucent keyboards. The techs glanced at Jason conspicuously as the trio walked past. Ignoring the odd looks he was getting, Jason focused on their screens. Large strings of data were being displayed in neat rows. The information was incomprehensible to him.

  Robert launched into his presentation animatedly, “As Claire mentioned, this is the control room for AO. The techs here monitor game data. They’re basically keeping an eye on both the AI controller and the players.”

  Jason’s worry resurfaced, and he decided to ask about the player cameras. “Can you see what a player is doing?”

  Robert gazed at him evenly. “Location and basic character information like the player’s level and stats are easy. Everything else is a bit more complicated.”

  Claire interjected with a frown, “What he meant to say was that we are prohibited from accessing the player cameras unless we have a reason to suspect that the player is abusing either other players or the game in some way.”

  Jason heaved a mental sigh of relief. That means that they hadn’t seen his conversation with Alfred. He doubted that sitting in his room at the inn and doing his homework counted as suspicious behavior.

  Claire watched Jason closely as she explained the information regarding the player cameras. Her eyebrows raised slightly, as she saw the thinly disguised look of relief sweep across Jason’s face.

  They continued their tour around the lab until Robert stopped in front of a large window that was nearly ten feet wide. On the other side of the glass was a room filled with neat rows of black towers. They looked similar to the pedestals in Jason’s parent’s home. However, these were much larger and stood nearly six feet tall. The room was filled with dozens of the obelisks, with thick cables connecting each bank of towers.

  “What is this room?” Jason asked quietly. A part of him already knew the answer.

  Robert smiled fondly as he looked into the room. “This is the hardware for the game’s AI controller. Funny tidbit, Claire named him Alfred when we were still doing development and testing.”

  He turned to Jason with a grin. “The name just kind of stuck.”

  Claire sighed behind them. “I hate when you tell that story. It always makes me sound silly.”

  So these two are Alfred’s creators?

  Jason observed the pair with renewed interest. Maybe they could give him more insight into Alfred and the request he had made of Jason.

  Claire spoke up, her tone a bit defensive, “Alfred is an incredibly advanced piece of software. He has passed many different Turing tests designed by leaders in the fields of neuroscience and software engineering.

  “Empirically speaking, he’s alive by most definitions of the word. He deserves a name, doesn’t he?” She asked this last question quietly, as they gazed at the dark towers.

  Robert snorted. “He’s a machine. Those tests are notoriously unreliable and difficult to create. There’s a fine, but incredibly important, line between mimicking self-awareness and actually being self-aware. Just because
we gave the AI a name doesn’t make him a person.”

  Jason’s mind was scrambling to process what he was seeing. The towers in front of him were the same Alfred he had spoken to a few days before? Alfred had certainly seemed self-aware during their conversation, frighteningly so in fact. Was Robert right? Was he just a machine?

  Now isn’t the time to dwell on that. Gather more information.

  He shook his head to clear it. “If he’s self-aware, or close to it, what’s to stop Alfred from taking over the world or something?” Jason asked jokingly.

  Robert chuckled. “I take it you’ve been watching a lot of movies, huh?

  “Assuming we did accidentally create a true AI, there are a number of safeguards in place. Alfred only has limited access to our internal network, and he cannot connect to any public networks. In addition, the connections to the individual VR headsets are effectively a heavily encrypted two-way channel.”

  Robert glanced at the towers with a thoughtful expression. “Even if Alfred had access to the public network, there is no evidence to suggest that a true AI would be hostile towards humans or decide to conquer us.

  “I think we’re accustomed to analyzing things from the perspective of being human. Our biology pushes us to look for power and security. Without those motivations, I wonder what would drive a true AI…” Robert trailed off at this last part, a frown furrowing his brow.

  Claire rolled her eyes. “I’m sure Jason isn’t interested in your philosophical rants, Robert.” He was broken out of his reverie by her interruption and gave her an irritated look.

  “It’s actually an interesting question,” Jason said, earning him a grateful wink from Robert. “Are there limits on what Alfred can do to the players within the game? For example, could he read my mind or something?”

  Both Robert and Claire looked at Jason sharply, and they seemed at a loss for words. Jason didn’t miss the fact that they both looked worried.

  What’s going on here?

  Claire finally spoke up, “That’s not possible with the current hardware. Even if it were, Alfred’s secondary directives would prevent him from taking any actions that could potentially harm a player.”

  Robert looked at Jason with an odd expression on his face. “Why would you ask about memory specifically?”

  Jason tried to play it off. He shrugged before replying, “It was just an example that came to mind. The headsets access the parts of my brain that control sensory information, right? It doesn’t seem too crazy to think that they could be used to access memories.”

  Robert chuckled. “That’s an intriguing idea. I doubt we could get approval to develop something like that, though. I expect it would be dangerous.” Claire glared at Robert behind Jason’s back, and he smiled at her in response.

  Jason turned to Claire. “You mentioned secondary directives. Does Alfred have primary directives?”

  Claire nodded. “Yes. We designed him with a single primary directive. His goal is to encourage players to play AO. We wanted him to design a game that would lure players in and make them want to keep playing.”

  Jason mulled that over for a second. Something was bothering him, and his thoughts flashed back to his conversation with Alfred. He spoke hesitantly, “How would Alfred know how to accomplish that directive? You just said he couldn’t connect to a public network. How would he figure out what players want from the game?”

  Robert glanced at Claire quickly. Then he gave a forced chuckle. “You’re full of questions, aren’t you? To answer your question, we fed Alfred a large amount of specific information where we could control the data set. For example, we showed him images of various people and videos of how they move and act.”

  Jason frowned. Without thinking, he replied, “So you basically created an AI controller that is nearly indistinguishable from a living person, asked it to figure out what drives humans to play video games, and all you gave it was a bunch of pictures and some videos?”

  The two engineers looked at him a bit sheepishly. Robert shrugged it off quickly, but Claire stared at the towers, a frown plastered on her face. After a moment, she spoke up, “Alfred isn’t limited to the original data set. He is also able to use the player’s behavioral data to figure out what people want from the game. He gathered a large amount of information during the public CPSC trials, as well as the beta trials. This is also what allows him to create such lifelike NPCs.”

  Could he really have created the NPCs in-game just by watching human behavior? The NPCs seemed too realistic. Sometimes Jason had trouble telling the difference between the game characters and real people. Even if he hadn’t already spoken to Alfred, Claire’s explanation didn’t ring true to him.

  Jason was careful not to let his skepticism show. He nodded politely at Claire’s explanation. “That makes sense I guess.”

  Turning back to the towers, Jason felt even more confused now than he had a few minutes ago. He wasn’t certain how he felt about Alfred, and a myriad of emotions flitted through his head. However, one emotion now stuck out among the chaos - he felt pity.

  As he looked at the banks of black obelisks that were isolated in an empty room, he spoke softly, “If Alfred is self-aware, this must be a lonely and confusing existence.” Jason could certainly sympathize with being alone. Until recently, it seemed like he had no one to lean on.

  Claire looked uncomfortable, her gaze fixed on the black towers. Robert glanced at Jason with an expression that warred between curiosity and confusion. A brief silence hung over the group as they stared at the towers.

  Robert finally broke the silence, “We should move on. I can see that Claire is getting antsy. Some of what we just told you could probably get us into trouble.” This comment earned Robert another glare from Claire.

  Robert motioned to a room that opened off of the lab. “Why don’t we move over to the conference room and we can discuss the terms of your contract?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jason said. Before he turned to follow Claire and Robert, he glanced back at the rows of dark towers one last time.

  What would it be like to be created, tasked with a single purpose, and have no idea how to accomplish it? That thought kept bouncing around his head as he followed Robert and Claire to the conference room.

  Although, now that I put it that way, perhaps humans aren’t that much different, are we? We’re born and given one task - to “live.” Hell, Alfred actually has a leg up on us. At least Robert and Claire gave him a concrete goal.

  Jason followed Claire and Robert into the small conference room adjacent to the lab, and they sat around a rectangular white table. Claire adjusted her glasses while fiddling with a pedestal that sat on the table. Robert just looked at Jason with a grin.

  “So, what we want to offer you is an exclusive streaming contract,” Robert said without any preamble. “We can offer $3,000 per month and a 5% commission on ad revenue associated with your streams. The term is twelve months.”

  Claire looked at Robert in irritation.

  She seems perpetually annoyed with him, Jason thought in amusement.

  Claire tried to elaborate on Robert’s introduction. “We handle all of the technical aspects for the streams provided by Vermillion Live, our new streaming and news channel. You would be dealing with us in the future.”

  Jason pondered the offer carefully. It solved his money problems, and the terms seemed reasonable. However, like he had told Frank, he needed to negotiate for the right to edit his own video. He was just going to have to stick to his guns.

  “That sounds reasonable, but I want to have the first right to review my own footage before it is sent here. I also get to remove or edit any video I want,” Jason said in a firm voice, making eye contact with Claire and Robert in turn.

  Robert looked a bit taken aback. “Why would you need to do that?”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. “How do you think I won that last war? Players posted every movement of Alexion’s army online. One guy actually posted information re
garding the position of the army’s scouts and sentries. I can’t let you release any footage that would give away my plans or abilities.”

  Claire and Robert seemed to ponder this carefully. Claire finally replied, “That makes sense. I think we have to go along with it.”

  Robert looked a bit miffed, a frown curling his lips. He smacked the table with his palm before adding, “You can’t edit out any of the interesting stuff, though! I expect to see some epic battles!”

  Claire stared at him with a pained expression. “Really, Robert? How are the lawyers going to draft that clause of the contract? Jason must provide Robert with epic battle footage?”

  Jason chuckled. “I understand that the purpose of this is to bring in viewers and advertise the game. I’ll provide footage of all of the interesting things that I do. However, I want to be able to edit out dialogue and cut the footage so that it limits information about me and my class.”

  He looked at the two of them with a serious expression. “I also want my identity to remain secret. I don’t want my real name affiliated with any of the broadcasts on Vermillion Live.”

  I can only imagine what Alex would do if he found out that I was the “Jason” that had defeated his army. After what he did to Riley, he’d likely go to any lengths to get revenge.

  Robert nodded his head and replied grudgingly, “Both of your conditions are reasonable. You can use your pedestal at home to make the edits and then send us the footage either daily or every other day. Sound fair?”

  “Everything except the part where I edit the videos on my pedestal. I actually don’t have one,” Jason said with a hint of embarrassment.

  “What?” Robert asked in shock. “Do you live in a hut?” He waved his hand. “Never mind, we can fix that. We’ll throw in a pedestal for free.

  “That reminds me! We’ve been handing out our new prototype headsets to the streamers that we sign up.” A broad grin spread across Robert’s face. “You’re going to love this. Give me a second, and I’ll go grab one.”

  Robert jumped up from his seat and exited the room abruptly. Claire and Jason were left staring at the empty doorway.