Xiao Ai pulled the three of them into a giant hug. Aida helplessly patted the two of them while the server pulled the two of them back into the familiar library. She immediately felt more at peace after seeing the library room and smelling the familiar mixed scent of books and wood.
Aida looked around to see that there were some changes to the room. The barrier separating their room from the rest of the library was still in place. The room that Xiao Ai and Aida had dreamed up remained largely unchanged. The two differences were that an extra chair was added at the table, and there was an additional bookshelf within the boundary of the room.
The most noticeable change was that the number of books in the library had increased exponentially. Before, there were only books filling the bookshelves peripheral to the room, but now there were endless hallways filled with books. Each of the wooden shelves had numbers etched into its frame. Some of the books were full of color while some of the other ones were still dull. Inside the room within the boundary, there were even a couple shelves that contained a mix of colored, uncolored and translucent books.
Xiao Ai noticed Aida's confusion and explained, "The books in color are the ones that the system currently has access to and has digested. The dull, colorless books are ones that it has yet to digest. The clear books are questions that Mama or Xiao Ai have come up with at some point in time which remain unanswered. As the system learns more about the topic, it will automatically fill those books with information."
Aida tried to walk past the barrier only to find that she still wasn't able to. As she touched the barrier, it shimmered with 0s and 1s which looked reminiscent of the Matrix.
Xiao Ai spoke up again as she saw Aida's attempt to walk out, explaining, "Mama, there's a barrier to protect you from any potential cyber attacks from the outside. Once Mama exits the screen, Xiao Ai won't be able to protect you anymore."
Aida nodded in understanding. This library was essentially a backdoor into her brain and the system existed to protect that backdoor. If the system were to disappear or the walls around this room were to come down, she would be left vulnerable to any attack from the internet. In a worst case scenario, it was possible for her entire mindscape to get completely wiped out or for her to become a robot that was remotely controlled by a stranger. Fortunately, she had Xiao Ai, who was the ultimate defense, and the system that could shield her which made her feel slightly more assured.
Xiao Ai had already sat down on the chair and was typing away on the computer while a little palm sized robot was sitting in the new chair. It was staring inquisitively at Aida.
Aida deduced that this little robot was the system's materialized self. Her eyes lit up. Xiao Ai had allowed the system to select its own form. It chose to design itself to look like Baymax from Big Hero 6, simultaneously adorable and lethal.
Driven by impulse, Aida immediately gave the system a big hug. "Kawaiiiii!! (So cuteeee)"
Aida hugged the system tightly with one arm while poking and prodding the system with her other arm. She had completely forgotten her cold stance towards the system and all the wrongs that had been committed against her. Aida had an absolute weakness towards cute animals, a secret which only Xiao Ai knew.
The system, who was caught off guard by this reaction, froze and began to heat up noticeably as it blushed. It could feel it's system feeling overloaded by the amount of love and attention it received the moment it woke up from the upgrade. It thought to itself, 'Calm down calm down, your processor is going to overload."
As a formerly inanimate application turned intelligent, it was truly one of a kind. Technology in this world hadn't advanced this far yet, so he always felt somewhat lonely. Xiao Ai had purposely isolated it in a sandbox while providing it with bountiful information for it to digest on occasion, but reading about something and experiencing it were two entirely different situations. This was the first time it had received affection from a true human. (Xiao Ai is only counted as half human.)
Aida only calmed down after a long while of cuddling and smiled at the system with crescent eyes. Seeing the smile, the system was stunned by her beauty. It froze in shock. Xiao Ai on the side, finally looked up from her laptop to see this scene. Shaking her head, she reminded her Mama, "Mama, smiling like that is cheating. Look at my poor little brother."
Aida rolled her eyes, disregarding Xiao Ai's comment as an exaggeration, until she looked down and saw that the system had completely stopped moving. Aida pretended not to see it's reaction and continued to hug it happily. She turned to Xiao Ai and inquired, "How was it?"
Xiao Ai put on a pair of no-lens glasses while acting like a professor. Aida and the system giggled on the side. Xiao Ai ignored their reactions and began, "Mama, Xiao Ai ran a diagnostic on the system and everything looks great!"
Xiao Ai's entire face screamed 'Praise me! Praise me!'
Aida laughed as Xiao Ai continued, "Next I just re-calibrate the system to match Mama's harmonic frequency so Mama can connect to it clearly."
Aida nodded in agreement and thought aloud, "Now that the system is finally awake, we should give him a new name."
She looked down at the system and asked, "Do you like the name Artie?" The name Artie was derived from Artificial Intelligence.
The system looked down as it thought for a minute before cutely raising it's white head nodded.
On the side, Xiao Ai bounced excitedly and said, "Yay! Hi Artie!!"
Aida nodded in satisfaction and said, "Let's begin the integration."