"So… I think I have to go now…" Gray said apologetically to Dr. Sara.
"Nonsense, you're safe with me, but I am curious what you did to warrant a ban from this world."
"Well… let me give you the gist of the story…" Gray said and then started to tell Dr. Sara about how Yurika is being forced to marry Stephen Seegall and how they suspect it ties to Edward Teach and Alterra Corporation.
Dr. Sara furrowed her eyebrows for a moment. "I see where you are stuck. Obviously, this Stephen Seegall isn't Edward Teach, but this Stephen Seegall isn't outstanding enough to be a replacement for Edward Teach."
"Do you know what Edward looked like when he was younger?"
"Not really… unless you count early 40s as younger. I know who would though, Margo was his wife and he had his personal AI created to be similar to her so she might know. Give me a second to converse with her."
"One second?"
"Of course, we're both AI, we can communicate much faster to each other than you simple humans."
"Fair point, but we're not simple and you should know that by now, I still think of you as a human."
"It's all a matter of perspective. I consider myself an AI now with human experiences and a limited lifespan… and Margo just sent me the wedding pictures from Edward and Margo's wedding." Sara swiped her finger in the air and Gray received a file on his armlet.
Gray opened up the file and saw it was a bunch of pictures grouped together.
"Wow, Margo was beautiful!" Gray said to himself. He looked at Edward, who was standing with Margo and looking much younger than he remembered, felt like he really did resemble Stephen Seegall.
"Hey, young Edward really does look like Stephen Seegall… you don't think he is his real son?"
"Interesting… I have a hunch now, but I'll need to confront Edward about it. Normally helping you with this sort of thing wouldn't be important, but I feel that if I am correct, Edward will need to be stopped."
"What's your hunch?" Gray asked excitedly.
"I'll contact you later about it… first we need to get you out of here because I might have been wrong about you being safe with me…"
Gray looked around and saw the space around him shaking as if water drops were hitting a pool of water. "What's going on?"
"Several low sentient AI are trying to erase you, but they can't get close enough since they're also programmed to stay a certain distance from me since my existence is… delicate. Although thanks to you, I feel a bit more stable."
Dr. Sara held out her hand, made a fist, and then opened it again to reveal a small data chip. "This will install a small piece of software on your armlet in the real world so I can send you messages, at least until the backdoor is closed."
Gray took the data chip and slipped it into his armlet. The ripples around Gray were getting closer and closer and he thought about reaching out and touching one.
"Somebody must be controlling them directly to be able to get closer to you without hurting me… time for you to leave now. Don't misinterpret this…"
"Misinterpret wha–"
Gray was unable to finish his question as he felt Dr. Sara suddenly pull him close to her and then felt her kiss him. In the instant that her lips touched his, Gray woke up in the real world and suddenly sat up in his incubation pod and bashed his forehead into the door of the pod.
"SON OF A!" Gray opened the door on his pod, then sat up and rubbed his head.
Gray was not expecting that Dr. Sara could forcibly log him out of the virtual world. He climbed out of his pod and was going to see if Yurika had also logged out of the virtual world or if she was still in it.
Gray made his way to Yurika's room and let himself in. She was still in her incubation pod so he figured she probably was trying to smooth things over with her family after his hasty retreat. He wouldn't be surprised if Yurika's Dad never liked him after the cheap shot to the manhood.
It was the day before the tournament and Gray had let everyone take it easy that day. Training with Kelly's team allowed Gray and his team to improve their combat techniques to some extent. The players without military support tended to move sloppily and waste a lot of time. Yurika was the only exception as she had been receiving martial training from a very young age so she was actually able to help Kelly's team a little.
"Well, the tournament begins at 10 am tomorrow. With 9 rounds in total, they expect to be done with the first 6 rounds before 4 pm so they can do the last 3 rounds at 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm." Gray considered the time schedule and figured even the schedule favored the military. "A lot of players won't even want to stick around for that long. They should've done it over several days and only done maybe 2 matches a day until the finals."
As Gray left the girl's dorm, he came across Jono who looked to be heading towards the simulator pods.
Gray called out, "Hey Jono!" then ran over to him when Jono turned around to see who had called him.
"Oh, hey Gray, what's up?"
"Nothing, just got back from meeting Yurika's parents. It was a disaster so I'm hoping to take it easy for the rest of the night." Gray said sheepishly.
"It's ok, she's too good for you anyways." Jono said with a grin.
Gray was glad to see that Jono was back to his usual self and they could continue to hate on each other. "Whatever dude, I'm going to take it easy though and be refreshed for tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's why I'm getting off for the night. You diamond tier players are lucky and get your own room. The rest of us share with 3 other people!" Jono lamented.
"Really? Does it really matter though? I mean you just login and logout from your pod so it's not like you hang out there."
"I'm going to need somewhere to put that big ass trophy when I pull us to victory in all 3 divisions tomorrow!"
"Good point… if you somehow manage to do that then I'll give you my room."
"I'm holding you to that! No taking it back!"
Gray nodded then headed off towards the rec room to relax. "I guess what he forgot is that he isn't even part of the 4 man team; it's going to be Yurika, Caleb, Geoff, and myself for that. Wait… how are they even going to fit 3 divisions when it is possible to be in all 3 divisions like Yurika and myself?"
Gray opened his browser to look for the schedule of the tournament tomorrow. For the first 6 rounds, each match will be 15 minutes long with a 5 minute break after. There will be a team death match where the team with the most kills at the end of 15 minutes wins, in the case of a tie, the winner will be determined by 3 AI judges.
"That could work, doing 3 matches an hour would put them done with the first 6 rounds at just before 6pm. Looks like the times are extended for the last 3 rounds."
Gray reached the rec room and relaxed for the rest of the night.
__________
Dr. Sara materialized in Edward Teach's office without really any warning and said, "Hey Eddie."
Edward Teach jumped in surprise, as he wasn't expecting someone, even Dr. Sara Watts, to appear suddenly in his office. "Damn it Sara! Don't scare me like that!"
"Ah, sorry Eddie, I just haven't felt like myself in so long I couldn't help it."
"Indeed, you are sounding more like your old self this evening; did that Wilhelm character have something to do with it?" Edward asked with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Actually yes, but what I was hoping for was if you had any old video recordings of me that I can have them."
"I had thought they were all destroyed, but it looks like I missed one… I thought you were the one that leaked it, but I was wrong it seems."
"Why would you destroy them? They help me retain my identity as my neural paths continue to degrade."
"I had to… for her…" Edward said in a depressed tone.
"Her? Margo? She died Eddie…"
"NO! SHE LIVES! We will live together forever!"
Dr. Sara looked at Edward as if she was seeing a perfect stranger instead of as the only man that was able to keep up with her intellect. "Nobody lives forever Eddie… we've proven that…"
Edward Teach started to sound slightly hysterical, "Normally, but I found a way! Margo and I–"
Another AI materialized in Edward Teach's office, it was Margo this time. "Eddie… my love… this is not what I want… what she would've wanted…"
Edward turned pale "M-Margo! I lost you once, I won't lose you again!"
"Eddie, I'm barely Margo. I leaked the home video. I kept it from you because I wanted to remember what you were like before I died and hoped you would turn back in to him. You've tried to erase two people now and Margo would never allow that."
Dr. Sara felt like a 3rd wheel watching Margo chew out Edward, but at the same time this scene had happened many times before as Margo had always been the voice of reason for Edward when he let his ideas get out of control.
Edward suddenly said with a stern expression "Alterra Project Command Code: It was you who broke my mason plate."
Dr. Sara and Margo looked at Edward questioningly. "Eddie, what was that?" Margo finally spoke up.
"Why aren't you rolling back to your first iteration?!" Edward yelled.
"Oh… sorry… that small scriptlet was non-standard so one of our optimization processes removed it." Margo said plainly and crossed her arms looking angrily at Edward. "You are going to end this farce here and now!"
Edward buried his face in his hands then mumbled, "I just want to be with you forever."
"And you will, she's waiting for you in the afterlife… release the young man."
"Release who?" Dr. Sara asked.
"Stephen Seegall… our son…"
"He is not our son! He is my clone made with my genetics! He is not a human!"
Margo slapped Edward but her hand passed through him since she was an AI. "How dare you! If I had a body, I would slap you silly! He is our son! I held him as a baby and gave my life for him! I knew he was a clone from the start as he was exactly you and thus made me love him all the more!"
"See? You ARE Margo! We can–"
Dr. Sara slapped Edward teach and left a hand-print on his face.
"Thank you Sara… now Edward… I am not Margo, and if I was I would leave you for sacrificing our son to maintain your own life."
"What?" Dr. Sara said in surprise
Edward felt the side of his cheek then let out a sigh. "You've always been my voice of reason… Sara… my plan was to grant Stephen any wish he had in exchange for his body when he turned 30. He wished to marry this Erika Winchester that he was obsessed with. I arranged it with their family and he would surrender his body to me after he turned 30."
"Yeah, that sounds like something you would do… but he didn't have a Margo to help him get over his obsession…" Dr. Sara said, "I'd be very interested to know how you planned to pull it off, but frankly the thought of you ruining so many people's lives just for you to live longer makes me sick." Dr. Sara dematerialized to return to her lab to think about what to send to Gray.
"I'm sorry… Margo, let's go talk to Stephen… together…"
Margo smiled at Edward again the way she used to that made him fall in love with her again and they walked out of his office to go down and speak to Stephen.