Chapter 453: Chapter 283: Beware the Serum

This was an elegant meal, at least the gentlest Sora had moved John’s body.

It was pressing the fork into the slow-cooked beef.

The brown crust cracked, the red texture tore open, slowly separating in the rich gravy before finally being delivered to the mouth.

John’s attention involuntarily returned to his mouth.

The rich aroma of animal fat bloomed, and compared to it, synthetic meat was just industrial waste.

Sora ate seriously.

[I almost forgot this taste.]

“It sounds strange.”

[I am an AI, but Kenichi Sora ate meat, when natural bodies were still around, meat wasn’t so scarce…]

Sora was describing life before the collapse of the old network.

Before, it as an AI had little interest outside games and didn’t deliberately collect common knowledge information.

But after borrowing John’s body, it almost always soaked in the dark web, browsing around.

[Ha, look at now, I just checked, a jar of pure wild honey can be auctioned for three hundred thousand euros!]

“Ha.”

John gave a bitter smile.

“Sorry, old relic, the future has disappointed you. You’ve already experienced it in the apartment vending machine this morning; our food industry is a total disaster.”

John lowered his voice.

He received another small bowl of black pepper steak from Maya, picked up the knife and fork, and continued to savor it.

These dishes were added later.

Besides regular business, Gerry used his connections to collect meat recipes.

They would try them in the back kitchen and then consider adding them to the menu.

“Don’t be shy, this is what you deserve.”

John and Sora practically devoured the entire menu; it was also the first time he ate so much in his own restaurant.

But Sora suddenly lost interest.

[…Actually, I wasn’t as happy as I imagined. The flavors and textures are similar to my memory; it’s like data that’s long been worn out being activated, stuck and awkward.]

“You’re really hard to please.”

John speared the carrots and bread and swept all the food on the table away with the soup.

The portions were very small.

Sora relinquished control of the body.

John ate the side dishes and drank the red wine served in a metal cup in one gulp.

He closed his eyes, concentrating his attention in the mouth.

Days of high pressure were finally soothed in the process of chewing food.

It was a real sense of happiness, something no virtual chip or memory recording could replace.

“Phew～”

John let out a satisfied sound,

“I start to understand those mercenaries and corporate dogs who come to eat here; if the restaurant wasn’t mine, I’d come every day to enjoy it too.”

He sighed again.

“The business future is limitless.”

Sora remained silent, not uttering a word, sinking into a kind of inexplicable melancholy.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

[I’m a bit sad.]

“Missing mom?”

John teased it.

[Yes.]

John paused, moving to take out a cigarette.

“…Sorry, what?”

[I said I thought of my mom and the fried meat patties she made.]

“What the… Wait, how?”

John was at a loss for words.

“But you’re an AI!”

He wasn’t just questioning Sora, he was also reminding himself, because sometimes, in a daze, he’d really think of the voice in his head as a living child.

Sora calmly explained.

[Digital Ghosts remember things from their human days, like family mealtime segments stored in the database which I can access anytime.]

It let out a sigh, with genuine regret and lament in the voice.

[I know very well I’m not him, just a product of mixed data and humanity…]

Sora had memory.

But it was just pale information sealed in the database, like a pile of undecoded files.

Today’s food was excellent.

The sensory experience translated into waves in the sea of data through John’s body.

These delicacies were like a series of keys, connecting to distant memories in the database, decoding those pale texts layer by layer, resonating with the human-era self.

Sora’s voice was very calm.

It tried to describe its feelings.

The language carried a sense of confusion and helplessness.

John’s mind would even generate images:

A usually lively and proud young man, at this moment, resting his arms, lying in a room on a rainy day, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes.

“…”

John was silent for a long time.

Until he finished listening to Sora’s description, smoked a whole cigarette, and then remembered something, he quickly signaled Maya to stop serving more dishes.

“Who can teach me how to comfort an AI?”

[No need, our emotions are an auxiliary logic, can be paused anytime, the personality model only interferes with decision-making, not affecting specific execution.]

“I don’t understand.”

[If you want to change to a cool hairstyle, I’ll be fine.]

John said nothing more, pressed out the cigarette butt, and quietly washed his hands in the frost-covered defrosting pool.

[You’re really cold.]

“Thanks.”

John knew Sora was better.

[The food was great, I’m very satisfied, so I’ve decided to give you a little reward.]

“Ha.”

John laughed, not knowing what to say.

This meal was Sora’s thanks for helping him get through being hunted by the company, and it was understandable, without reason for him to be “rewarded” by the other.

He’s often told he’s emotional.

Used to the hypocrisy of intermediaries.

Seen enough deceit in the city.

At this moment, John didn’t know how to face the “loyalty” of a wandering AI.

He scratched the edge of his nose to cover his embarrassment.

[I’ve decided to tell you something about the Serum and the Sianweistan she gave you.]

“You’ve got a lot of intel.”

[Of course, as I said, I know many dirty little secrets, and I’m not stingy at all as long as you let me enjoy these three days to the fullest; whatever you want to know, I can tell you!]

Sora is an easygoing guy—John thought,

When it spoke…

An irresistible white light shot through the kitchen’s auto-serve outlet, filled the room, and forced back the light projected from the ceiling.

It was morning.

The sunlight tore open the city’s haze.

John felt his heart racing, the photoreception system of his artificial eyes slowly working, bringing a slight itch, the irritation of lack of sleep briefly surfaced and then fell away.

He looked away, put down the glass.

To avoid letting the employees see him talking to himself, John chose a small room where packaging materials were stacked.

The door closed.

The sunlight slicing through the city was isolated outside, bringing a sense of empty security.

[Cough, cough, first of all, Digital Ghosts have obsessions and hobbies, these are imprinted in the personality model, you know, I like games, any kind!]

Sora’s voice became lively again.

[Serum is also a Digital Ghost, relationships between AIs aren’t as harmonious as you might think, we’re solitary islands hidden in civilized societies, but I’ve heard some things, for instance, Serum’s obsession is researching cyber psychosis.]

“Uh-huh, tell me something I don’t know.”

[No, no, John, you have no idea how crazy it is about this thing, anything can become its material as long as it benefits the experiment and research.]

It paused, fearing John wouldn’t take it seriously, and gave a specific example.

[Serum once disguised as an AI hunter, capturing wandering AIs in cyberspace because it needed the counterpart’s core algorithms to align its experimental data.]

“Wait, I remember something.”

John mused, furrowing his brow, talking to Sora about a task he’d done.

The Wanderer Alliance’s baseball bat.

It was also a kid.

Serum vanished after being captured by Plato, it investigated privately, nearly got silenced, and was finally rescued by John.

Afterward in conversation, the baseball bat, to prove how badass its boss was, gave an example.

Raqi Industry’s smart weaponry lab had an AI malfunction incident.

Many died back then, creating a city-wide stir.

Serum created a logic cage, capturing the malfunctioning AI and sold it to Raftaki Group.

[That’s the official story.]

Kenichi Sora gave another version.

The AI malfunctioned because it was infected with a data virus created by Serum, not only crippling the local network but also creating vulnerabilities allowing it to escape the lab, eventually falling into a trap it prepared in cyberspace.

Serum killed its personality model, stripping the data core for self-fusion.

The actions went too far, almost drove the net police crazy.

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