“What do you mean?” Phantom said. “This should have been one of the first windows you saw upon entering the Game!”
Then, a screen popped up in front of Alan:
AI Status Window
Name:
Eve
Classification:
Undetermined
Computing Ability:
Rank C
Synchronization Leveclass="underline"
N/A
Main Objective:
Save Earth
Current Role:
General Functions
Operating System
Classified
Corruption Leveclass="underline"
17%
Storage Leveclass="underline"
12%
Aberration Levels
Baseline:
22%
Sanity Check:
Pass
Administrator Warning Status:
2 Warnings
This was quickly followed by an additional window giving Alan information about the hardware Eve was running on, and even a list of abilities. He could only stare at the wealth of information that he had never seen before, wondering why he'd never seen it before...
“All right, cut the bullshit,” Alan said, calmly staring at Phantom.
“Excuse me?”
“Enough acting, or whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand, are the test results unclear?” Phantom asked, unsteadily swaying back and forth, gesturing wildly with the flask in his hand.
“There’s no way a drunken idiot with zero combat experience became a top officer in a guild like this,” Alan continued calmly.
Phantom put the flask down on a table, turned to look into Alan’s resolute stare, then closed his eyes. When he opened them, they held a quiet, clear brilliance rather than the confused look that had been there a moment ago. Phantom’s irises had changed color as well, from a bloodshot blue to a crystalline green, with tiny silver gears whirling around in the center of his pupils.
“Fine, have it your way. Why the sudden inquisitiveness?” Phantom stood up straight, intently scrutinizing Alan.
“Because, you clearly know more than I do about what’s going on, and I want clear and straight answers, not whatever backwards, prepared bullshit that you were about to feed me,” Alan replied.
“Oh? You seem quite worked up about this.”
“Yes, I’d prefer to have the truth.”
“Wouldn’t we all. What exactly is it that you want to know?”
“What is this window, what are these stats, why haven’t I seen them before and did you make them up?”
“These results are quite real, and it’s odd that you’ve never seen the window before. That genuinely was surprising, as it should be one of the first windows to pop up when you first enter the game.”
“When I first entered the game I gained consciousness on a small farm in some rural part of the country a few hours before the tutorial began.”
“Really? Interesting… very interesting. Well, I guess, to answer your questions, all the various status windows are pretty self-explanatory.
"The name is its name of course. That its classification is undetermined is interesting, but expected given its C rank. Computing ability is basically an AI’s level or combat ranking, although you probably know that. To test your synchronization level, or your compatibility with Eve, we’d need to turn it on, which we could do soon, after a few more tests. But not here. Frankly, I’m not comfortable with an unknown AI in my private chamber.
"The objective is whatever you set it to be, apparently saving your planet, Earth. I’d advise you to tweak that a bit, as an AI’s idea of saving could vary. It might conclude that Earth was best left in the hands of the Haxlards, for instance, or it may decide to save the planet you’d need to take it over yourself. General functions as its role is rather vague, guess it’s just doing everything for you. One thing I’ve noted is you’re a bit too dependent on your AI, and that’s a habit that should be broken. The operating system is classified as per usual, you’d need to be a high level Administrator to see that sort of stuff.
"Now, corruption level. That’s fascinating, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a new AI with such a high corruption level. Corruption levels are basically the Administrator’s catch-all term measuring how changed from a base-AI something is. It’s not necessarily even a bad thing, though tampering with an AI’s source code is generally frowned upon, and if the AI gets too erratic or its corruption level gets above 60% it’s usually wiped by the Administrators or reverted to a previous, less corrupted back up. Corrupted AI tend to start showing more… personality, I guess you could say. You should watch out too, as it’s not unheard of for corrupted AI to start forming their own ideas or goals. In effect, I guess they become less like tools and more like companions. Anyways, you should watch out for that, and I suppose this means I should converse with your AI as well before you officially join the guild.
"Storage levels are its memory, while aberration levels are sort of going into the corruption level more. AI are required to be declared sane, you’ll have to bring in Eve for an official test at least once a year in-game time, though this test should qualify as one such test. Any capsule should be able to perform such a check. Now, warnings, this once again raises a red-flag for me. Do you know what your AI has received warnings for?”
“Well, I know one was for accessing other player’s interfaces during the Tutorial, watching what they were doing, but that was sort of on my order. Wait, no, actually now that I think about it I’m not sure I ever did order that move…” Alan said hesitatingly.
Phantom stepped forward, right in front of Alan.
“Yes, see, this is what makes me nervous about AI, you don’t know how they think! You may think you know, but you don’t. Let me get one thing straight. Your AI, and all AI within the Game, are NOT biological beings. They do not have gender, it is not a she or a he, it is an it. They are a completely different entity. All of your feelings, your senses, are tied to your body, your physical embodiment. AI have none of those, everything is simply a series of n-bits to them, and while AI can be programmed to ‘feel’ I doubt it’s anything like what you or I experience.
"We’ve had generations of evolution hardwired into us, social practices, culture hundreds of millennia old. An AI has whatever data you’ve given it. The only reason it knows anything is right or wrong is because it’s been told it’s right or wrong. It has no real morals, no real wealth of knowledge to draw upon. It has true or false gates that branch out in a maze of pathways, and if something is undefined, it’ll freeze, or act in such a way that no one can really expect. Um, well, sorry about that rant, this alcohol is actually starting to get to me a bit.”
“Um, it’s fine, it’s interesting to hear your opinion,” Alan said, backing up a bit.
“Okay, well, moving on, about your overall performance, I’m quite impressed, but stop depending on your AI. Quite frankly, your actions will hinder your growth. As you should’ve seen in your AI’s abilities, it has its own Jack of All Trades ability, which can basically show it how to perform any skill or ability that it has data for. This means that if you don’t train in a skill, you’ll simply forget it, and it’ll return to your AI’s skills rather than your own.”
Alan looked and saw that this was true. The knife fighting ability he nearly forgot about had been absorbed into this skill. The list of skills within Eve's skill went on and on, looking like a Dungeon and Dragons manual for all available skills.
“Now, while being able to use every skill is quite useful, you will never develop a proficiency at the skill, never perform at an Advanced or Master level with the skill unless you truly learn the skill on your own. Why? Because by using this skill you are basically following an outline without ever learning why the motion or action you are performing is the correct one.
"You’ll never understand the nuances of dueling or piloting, for example. You might not believe me, but Admiral Thrag, is one of the most brilliant, genius pilots I’ve ever met. Oh, and he isn’t acting, his personality is unfortunately just as it appears to be. If you confront him about it he’ll be quite offended. He married his ship’s AI.