Crossing the World

LIX - Shelters (Karen)

Delivery of goods seems to take a short time. During that time Tyraell decided to settle on an artificial island and dive into the virtual world just to check the feasibility of the content provided in the game.

The artificial island is controlled by Aura directly. Therefore, I guess it wouldn't be a problem if I left the island and checked the Shelter for a few days.

Yeah, this is why I'm in the Shelter now. Funny thing is, the first sentence AI said to me was ...

"I've found an oasis that humans live in."

"What?!"

The news he said was a shocking news as well as encouraging. I can't cover my happy face.

"I follow up on the information provided by Subject Number One and focus on expanding the network only in one direction of the currency. As a result, I found the oasis in question, about a thousand kilometers away from the Shelter."

No way! I never thought I'd find her this fast. It seemed like deciding to come to the Shelter was the right choice.

"Then, I'll be there soon!"

"Unfortunately there are some technical obstacles that concern your security. I can't do security remotely because the oasis is too far away."

Ah, I understand what AI means. He talked about latency which is not really a problem on earth.

As the name suggests, latency is a term that describes one of the three main factors in surfing the internet. The other two are upload and download. If upload can be interpreted as giving a command and download can be interpreted as a response back from the command, then latency can be interpreted as the time needed in both processes.

Let's simplify all three into the process of ordering food. Think of uploads as orders, latency as waiters, and downloads as food that must be delivered.

When we order - upload-food, then waitress-latency-will walk towards the kitchen which takes a while, tell the chef, and, then bring the food - download-from the chef to the buyer's table. Well, from the process, there is a delay that occurs because the waiter takes time to walk from the buyer's table to the kitchen and vice versa. This is called latency.

Common people on earth often refer to this latency as ping and consider it not very important. In fact, no matter how fast their internet speed, if the latency value is too large, then their internet will feel slow.

The Earth already uses photons as the main medium of signal transmission, therefore, no matter how far the server is to go, latency is never above 5 milliseconds.

Unfortunately, this cannot be applied on my planet due to the lack of power sources that we need to supply to each transmitter tower. As a result, we still use the old-fashioned transmitter system. There would be no problem if the AI controlled the cyborgs around the bunker, but when the distance was over three hundred kilometers, the case would be completely different.

In short, if the AI forced itself to control its cyborg and came to the oasis, all the moves he made would be delayed for about two seconds. Indeed the numbers look very trivial, but when we experience them directly, you will know how serious this delay is.

Ah, too many useless discussions. Let's put those issues aside and just assume that AI can't control cyborgs to that extent because of signal issues.

Creating a new AI like Aura is also not possible. The problem is similar to the construction of the latest generation tower, which requires a lot of power and space to build an artificial intelligence brain. Even for us, it is still impossible to make artificial intelligence hardware as big as the human brain in general.

Actually it is not impossible, AI can do it, but there will be many limitations that occur when we force ourselves to make it.

Uh ... wait a minute. Do I need a guard? When I first set foot on earth, I was able to survive even without a guard. Besides, I can also control several cyborgs at once and use them as a shield whenever I want.

When I asked this to AI, the answer given by him was not very satisfactory.

"The situation is very different."

"What's different?"

"It is better that you ask it directly to the subject that is outside. I'll send the coordinates of where they're staying to you."

Based on the AI's answer, I decided to go pay a visit to the second house of the subject.

The place is not so far from the location of the Bunker and is a fairly safe area. So, I came there without bringing a robot to look after me. Of course I came there by teleporting. I mean, it would take too much time if I were to travel manually.

As soon as I set foot on the dry ground filled with sand dust, a suffocating gust of air instantly hit me. The feeling of heat and uncomfortable sensations sting from all directions. It was like being in a stuffy room without adequate air circulation.

Ah, I want to get the hell out of here.

Not far from where I stood, a simple house was built using a mixture of sand and cement that I had brought from the earth. Around the house grew some large trees that were quite shady and fruitful.

I think it's kind of weird to see a lush tree in the arid ground. However, when I looked at the automatic irrigation system and the structure of the soil surrounding the tree, it was not strange to see the trees standing strong as if challenging the extreme weather in the region.

Ignoring the contrasting scene, I walked up to the wooden door of the modest house and began to knock on the door using the back of my middle finger. Someone did not immediately answer my knock, so I tapped it once more while speaking the language of this world.

"Is there someone inside?"

The door immediately opened quite roughly, allowing me to see a girl standing behind the door that had opened. He looked at me with a shocked look while frozen without saying a word.

Oh, looks like I came at the wrong time. What was he doing inside to the point of having to react that way when I came?

"Aah!" It seemed like he was already aware of the situation before him. "Please go inside, Miss Ancestor! My dad's on the farm! I'll call him here soon!"

Oh~ Her voice sounded a little higher than the voice of the average girl. Because there is no level of language, the words seem like using casual language. However, based on her tone and emphasis on her words, I knew she was actually using formal language on me. Other than that ...

"Please don't call me ancestor. Don't you think a call like that would make me look like an old man?"

I expressed a protest sentence to her while stepping into the room that seemed to be prepared to receive guests. Realizing that there is a special guest room in this house is actually a bit funny considering there is no one else living around here other than the two of them. However, I was not too keen on discussing it and chose to sit on one of the wooden chairs provided.

"I'm sorry. This is the first time I've spoken to one of the ancestors. So, I still don't know what to act like."

Nope, no. I mean, stop using the word 'ancestor' on me. I am not your ancestor!

"I'm Karen. Call me by that name ... "

... hm? I forgot the name of this boy. For his father, I'm sure his name is Sergei or what it is. However, the name of this girl really did not cross my mind in the slightest. Honestly, it's the first time I don't remember a person's name in full.

"Ah, sorry for being late to introduce yourself. My name is Aurikatarina."

Is that so? So, she had not introduced herself to me when we met before. Well, I guess at the time he didn't even say a word to me.

Wait, wait, wait! What kind of name is that?! How am I supposed to call such a long and troublesome name?

"Thus ... Auri?" I'm trying to shorten his name.

Some cultures on earth have no abbreviation of name. So, they tend to call a person's full name even with his middle name and surname. Therefore, I try to confirm whether the people of this world have a culture to abbreviate names or not.

"Yes?"

Based on his response, I thought there was no problem if I called him that.

"Actually I came here just to ask some questions that you might be able to answer without the need to call your father. So, I hope you can help me satisfy my curiosity."

Auri was silent for a while. However, he nodded his head not long after and chose to sit across the table separating me from him.

Question after question flowed from my mouth, trying to capture a picture of the state of their civilization as detailed as I could. Auri also answered the questions without difficulty, seeming very memorized with various aspects that are in her hometown.

Simply put, Auri's hometown is not a conventional civilization like the civilizations on earth. It was a unique region led by five of the most influential people simultaneously.

Every influential person has his own domain and some subordinates are assigned to govern it. Unfortunately, due to prolonged corruption that has mushroomed for a very long time, the dissatisfaction of its citizens sparked a massive rebellion. As a result, the city officials began to be hunted by the angry people so many of them fled.

Fortunately, Sergei and Auri entered our conservation area and managed to survive until now.

The next piece of information is the crucial things I need to be there safely.

The city has a religion that has been a belief for thousands of years. They worship the Creator and assume that the extreme weather that is happening now is a form of punishment due to the greed of the Patriarchs. They even believed that if they could sacrifice an ancestor on the sacred altar located at the center of the oasis, the world would be free from the wrath of the Creator.

The problem here is, I am considered an ancestor just because my blood is red! This means that if I set foot in their city, it would be like walking into a hungry lion.

Well...the good news, there are many people like Sergei and Auri who do not believe in such absurd things related to such mystique. There was even a sect that worshipped ancestors. After all as long as my blood is not visible to them, there will be no one to regard me as an ancestor.

After weighing the information I got and trying to assess how dangerous it would be if I came there, I decided that there would be no problem even if I visited the place without an escort. Besides, I can bring some cyborgs to be a shield in case something unexpected happens.

Now the only thing left is a directional guide.

AI could have taken the role of a guide, but relying on something like this on information networks that have delays is quite dangerous. If I can minimize the risk, I better reduce it to the limit I can work on. Therefore ...

"I'm coming to the oasis. Can you go with me and be a guide?"

The words I put out had no tone of plea. Instead, I used the usual tone to command someone.