"Hi System~ Long time no see. Did you miss Xiao Ai?"
[<3 <3 <3]
"..." On the side, Aida had no words for the difference in treatment. Aida stared evilly at her daughter.
Sensing the sinister look her Mama was giving her, she turned to the System and said, "System! You have to treat my Mama nicely okay? Treat her like your friend too!"
[...] This time it was the System's turn to be speechless.
With that, the two sides came to a very reluctant truce.
After seeing that both sides had conceded, Xiao Ai sat down on one of the two seats in the library and pulled a laptop out of nowhere. She began typing.
Aida also sat down on the comfortable seat and watched Xiao Ai work. Before, every time she was pulled into this room, she was forced to go into some kind of punishment simulation which made her view this room in a bad light. However, now that she was sitting calmly in this room as a spectator, she began to feel this library felt very familiar despite never having been to a place like this before. Carefully observing the room and all the details down to the very chair they sat in, she finally recalled what this place was designed after.
When they had been held captive and researched in the laboratory, Aida and Xiao Ai spent a lot of time talking about everything they would do when they left that horrific place. Their chats about the future were what kept them sane. One of the places they kept talking about very often was a library room where they could hide away. Xiao Ai had built the system on the premise of their hopes and dreams from when they had been held captive.
Aida's memories of the time when they were in the lab were slowly fading as new memories took their place. She had almost forgotten about this room that they made together.
She realized that the con system was meant to be a representation of their hopes and wishes. Her original thoughts of getting rid of the con system also disappeared.
Relaxing back into the chair, she spoke to the system. Xiao Ai had made it sentient so she knew it would be listening. "Con system, let's make a truce. We need to work together and get stronger to survive. I can test your new games, but you also have to help me in return. Okay?"
The system didn't respond for a while, processing the information, before finally showing in the terminal.
[System has assessed Host's proposition and agrees it is the optimal route to success. System will comply.]
With that, the system materialized two books onto the table for Aida to peruse.
Aida curiously picked up the first book. In the book, there was a breakdown of each person she had encountered. It described their level, abilities, strengths and weaknesses based on the System's assessment. This was essentially a book version of the new simulation. As she thumbed through the book, she was attracted to Little White's description.
[Name: Little White Lvl 2
Age: 9 (estimated)
Title: None
Class: Reaper
Affinities: Light (50%), Space (10%), Time (10%)
Skills --
Variant Skills:
Instant Travel: User can travel at the speed of light.
Shielding: User can bend light to camouflage with the background.
Light Beam: User can create a beam of light that can cut through objects.]
Little White was so strong! If he could just recover his memories and intelligence, he could be practically invincible with the skills in his arsenal. While she had been vaguely aware of what Little White was capable of, the System was able to break the information down to analyze and confirm his actual abilities while comparing it with the rest of the data in its servers.
Aida made a mental note to herself again to restart the education process for all the children. Little White had demonstrated the ability to learn and grow. Even though he had to start from scratch, she was confident that he would be able to recover his intelligence over time. This would greatly enhance his survival.
Additionally, after Xiao Ai successfully connects the System with the internet, the System should be able to further strengthen these descriptions. This would help Aida understand and improve her team's fighting power as well as assist Aida during fights against other Variants and Reapers. The system uses a series of machine learning classification models to train the data that is provided and determine the recommendations with the greatest likelihood of success. This would be tremendously useful in augmenting and reinforcing her decisions.
Next, she picked up the other book. To her surprise, it was a user's guide on the different capabilities of the system and how to enable them. There was even a list of examples on how each capability could be most efficiently utilized. Aida had already been actively using the wide area scans capability but hadn't realized that there was much more than just the scan and punishment simulations. She focused on reading the book and completely lost track of time.
Hours later, she finally finished reading all that the system could do and looked up to praise the system, "Not bad."
The system responded smugly. [ ;) ]
Aida smiled at this response. It seems they would be able to get along a lot better after this. Within the book, she learned a lot more about the potential of the system and just how much she was underutilizing it. While it was purely a support system, it could greatly enhance her abilities to fight and make informed decisions.
Among the abilities, her favorite one was the fighting assistance tool. It would analyze an opponent's actions in real time and provide her with an overlay screen that shows the percentage of success and the likelihood of an action, etc. This was practically an iron man suit but without the suit part!
On the side, Xiao Ai also slumped back onto her chair and rested as she waved the laptop away. "Wah~~ Xiao Ai is so tired. It's finally done!"
Aida got up and hugged Xiao Ai, resting a hand on the system's book as well. She wasn't very good at showing her love, so this was the best she could do. Xiao Ai also responded in kind and snuggled up against her. The system's book also glowed with a warm light in response. They all sat there in a comfortable silence, this was a sacred place for the three of them.