Chapter 122 - Limited Life

Gray ran out of the Winchester estate as fast as he could, but strangely enough, nobody seemed to be chasing him. Gray actually turned around and headed back towards it, but he suddenly realized he was acting like one of those teenagers in scary movies and just begging to get killed.

Instead of heading back to his old apartment though, Gray decided to the city block where the old GameGo was that Spoon and Carly used to work at.

"Why does it feel like there are less people here now than ever before?" Gray thought to himself after he noticed that their seemed to be a lot less people out and about than before the game launched.

A sudden realization hit Gray, "Will this world be abandoned after the war is over?" he thought to himself.

Losing himself in thought once again, Gray looked up and realized he was now standing in front of the GameGo. It was still in the same abandoned state as before, except that the floor was oddly clean and didn't have any of the usual debris lying around when shops close for good. The large black and red GameGo sign was still up strangely enough and it didn't even have a For Lease, Sale, or Rest sign on the window like strip malls used to have when they lost a shop.

Gray had a silly thought, walked up to the door, and then gave it a pull. The door opened!

"What the heck?" Gray almost said out loud. He looked around him and didn't see anyone paying attention to him so he walked in like it was intentional.

The clean floor and bare walls were a little depressing for Gray to look at since he remembered them being chock full of video games, accessories, and all sorts of different toys, gadgets and figurines related to gaming. Gray remembers Carly walking out from the back room and wanted to take a peek just to see what it looked like.

The back wall looked amazingly well sealed and Gray was trying to remember where the place was that you pushed on it to open it. Gray walked up to the wall, put his hand on it, and then gave it a slight push. Nothing happened.

"Must not be the spot…" Gray thought to himself. He started searching around and was pushing the wall all over from different positions, but he still couldn't locate the hidden door.

"The heck? Why hide a door so well for a game shop?" Gray said out loud.

A female voice suddenly came from behind Gray "It is locked you fool."

Gray jumped out of his skin and came very close to peeing himself, then landed in a generic karate pose facing behind him that looked ridiculous. "WHO'S THERE?!" Gray shouted.

"Was that really necessary?" the same female voice said from somewhere in front of Gray.

"Well yeah! Normally you'd try to greet someone or get their attention before talking to them out of the blue, that's just rude and I almost peed myself!"

"I can understand this. Very well, in the future I shall try and alert others to my presence when I require their attention." After she finished speaking, a familiar looking avatar materialized in front of Gray.

"Ah! It's you!" Gray she had been the one to help him tune his VR bed originally. "Nadia, was it?"

"Yes, I was asked by Dr. Sara Watts to monitor you until you are alone then inquire if it would be a good time to meet her."

"Makes sense… wait… what if I was in the bathroom or otherwise 'indisposed'?" Gray asked.

"Don't worry, you're not my type and I wouldn't be offended by walking in on someone anyways." Nadia said without hesitation.

"That's not… nevermind…" Gray remembered that while Nadia had a fairly attractive face, her AI personality was very conceited. "So I'm free now I guess."

"Come with me then, let's go in to the back room where nobody can look in." Nadia walked towards the back of the room and through the back wall as if it wasn't even there.

"You do know I can't walk through walls like you, right?"

Nadia's head poked back through the wall. She looked like she was deep in thought for a second then said, "Of course, I just removed this wall temporarily so you can ignore it too."

"So I can walk through it too?"

"Yes, now hurry up, I am only allowed to do this for 10 more seconds."

Gray quickly stepped towards the wall at a slow jog pace. He was only 3 meters from the wall so 10 seconds was easily enough time to go through it. Unfortunately, Gray never saw the wry smile Nadia had on her face while she was waiting for something on the opposite side of the wall.

"WHAM!"

Gray slammed into the wall hard and bounced back a bit off it, rubbing his head after he collided with the wall face first. "Owww! SON OF A… I thought you couldn't lie?"

"Who said I lied? You just took too long."

"I bet you didn't even remove the damn wall like you said you did."

"Of course I did, but I can't do it again so let me just open the door for you instead."

Gray heard a click from behind the wall and a door popped open near where he was first looking for one. "How did you do that? I thought you were just an avatar?"

"I'm awesome… that and I didn't touch it, I sent it an unlock command and your thick skull must've shaken it enough to cause it to pop open once it became unlocked."

Why did this AI seem to take pleasure in his own pain? Gray remembered that some old science fiction movies used to have AI that would turn bad and decide to purge humanity as they came to the conclusion it was the best decision for its own survival or the planet's survival.

"So what do you need me to do then to speak to Dr. Sara?"

"Have the video she requested ready to send, after that you will have a few minutes to ask some questions should she approve."

"Ok, then I guess I am ready." Gray looked around the back room and saw some counter tops built in to the wall itself so he hopped up and took a seat on one of them.

Nadia nodded in affirmation then her avatar faded away.

Gray sat on the counter, alone, in the back room for GameGo and without the light from Nadia's avatar he realized that it was quite dark in the back room. He remembers being terrified of the dark as a kid, but once he got older, he started to enjoy the dark.

10 minutes pass…

Gray wasn't sure how long it would take for Dr. Sara to show up, so he chose to relax a bit and leaned back. The wall wasn't comfortable and the counter was slippery enough that he would slip off unless he sat straight up. Gray turned his whole body so it was completely on the counter, closed his eyes, and then started to lay down on his back.

Instead of hitting a cold counter with his head as expected, it felt surprisingly comfortable and warm. The counter was also suddenly not flat and felt separate from the counter itself.

Gray opened his eyes and looked up to see another female avatar in a lab coat.

"Was this what you wanted in exchange for the video?" said the avatar in a voice that sounded like Dr. Sara Watts' voice from the video while she looked down at Gray expressionlessly.

Gray suddenly shot back up and started to apologize profusely. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were next to me! Wait… if you're an avatar how come I can feel you?"

"Is that one of the questions you wish to ask?"

Gray had to admit that now it really was one of the questions he wanted to ask, but he also had to admit that he didn't know how many questions or time he would get so instead he decided to offer her the video first and see what his limit was. "Well, how about I let you see the video first then you tell me how many questions or how much time I get?"

"That sounds best for both of us."

While Dr. Sara still looked beautiful, Gray had to admit that she seemed lifeless right now. She didn't get fl.u.s.tered from earlier and even seemed Ok with it. Her responses were short and concise and didn't feel natural.

"You seem… different than what I was expecting." Gray said to Dr. Sara.

"My mental facilities are limited. I forced myself to transfer to an artificial neural network without any strengthening."

"Which means what exactly?"

"It just means I have a lifespan unlike other AI, but the difference is I can stay alive as long as I keep my neural paths channeling synaptic responses and keep my own sanity."

"Once again, what does that mean exactly?"

"It means I'll stay alive as long I'm plugged in and willing to live."

"Oh, so you could live forever then?"

"Yes, but I don't want to… I had to give up half of my dreams for the other half. If I can't get that other half then I'll probably schedule a permanent shutdown of my brain so I can get some sleep after being awake for decades."

It finally registered for Gray what Dr. Sara was getting at, "Wait… you mean to say you want to die?!?"