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“You’re from Kadic academy, right?”
“Right.”
“Through the sewer, one can go from Kadic to the other side of this bridge. I suppose this is how you get here, right?”
“Yes...Right.”
“You walked through the sewer?”
“Yes...otherwise how to get through?”
“Ride a scooter. You just prepare a scooter at the entrance to the sewer at Kadic. That way you can get here faster. In case of emergency, every minute is precious.”
“Wh...What do you mean by emergency?”
“Oh. Don’t just prepare one scooter. Prepare more. Others may use them. I will use one, too. Also, don’t just prepare scooters. Others may prefer skateboards.”
“What do you mean by others?”
“You’re Jeremy, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Do you know me?”
“Of course! You’re the model student at Kadic!”
“I thought no one really cared about the model student.”
“Then I shall be an exception. You know Odd, right?”
“Odd? Is that a name or something?”
“Oh. You shouldn’t have met Odd. You should know Ulrich.”
“Indeed.”
“Are you close?”
“No.”
“You will be close. Speaking of Ulrich, do you know Yumi?”
“Let me recall...It sounds familiar. It’s someone from ninth grade. What’s the connection between Ulrich and Yumi?”
“Don’t you know?”
“No.”
“Okay. Right. You don’t know, but soon it will be known to all.”
“We’ve talked so much, but I don’t even know who you are. Are you also from Kadic? I don’t think I’ve seen you.” And I have never seen one with pink hair like you, thought Jeremy.
“I’m not from Kadic, but I will be.”
“You will be?”
“Yes. I will be a student at Kadic. We’ll see.”
“And, what’s your name?”
“Aelita. Oh no, call me Maya for the moment.”
“Okay. Maya...” A name so suitable for this pretty girl.
“And now, let me ask, who are you? Where am I?”
“I’m Jeremy. Didn’t you say you know me? This place, it’s... I don’t really know. It should be some abandoned factory. So, why did you come here?”
“That’s not the correct question. I’ve actually always been here. And, why did you come here?”
Usually, Jeremy doesn’t like to tell others what he is doing, especially if it is something he considers to be his private thing in his own world, but at that moment, somehow, he still decided to tell her.
“I’m building my miniature robots, so I’m here to see if I can find some workable parts.”
“Not really.”
“Errr?”
“You are here to discover what was manufactured years ago, yet shall still beat today’s highest technology for decades, what hosts a virtual world with four sectors or even a fifth sector, what runs artificial intelligences, what can magically change the reality, what can even reverse the time, what can unfortunately not revive the dead, what has been abandoned for about ten years but still has a functional nuclear battery, which still will die, and you shall be the one operating to replace it. Shortly speaking, a magnificent supercomputer.”
“Wh...What did you say?” Jeremy suddenly felt like realizing how others had listened to Jeremy’s speech on technology.
“Along with an AI with pink hair, and another AI, which doesn’t have any hair, but is extremely dangerous.”
“Errr...That’s...”
“Then our lives will be changed. By some chance, we shall live though a covert yet luminous adventure, together with Ulrich, together with Yumi, together with Odd, who you still don’t know, and together with William in some sense. Although this adventure will end eventually, its memory will never fade, leaving unbreakable friendships among us.” Whatever she said, it illuminated her face.
"I mean...I’m just here to hunt for some parts.”
“You can say that.”
As they spoke, they entered the abandoned factory. It was dark. Under the faint light, no passable way could be seen around. Looking more closely, they saw that they were on a platform a few meters above the floor of the factory. Broken stairs lay forwards. A rope was hung from above.
Jeremy was thinking that they had lost their way until he noticed that the girl had already descended the rope.
“Just come down!” she cried.
Jeremy tried to overcome his fear and descend the rope after her. He was still studying the surroundings when she seized his hand and pulled him forward.
“Let’s go.” she said.
Hand grabbed by her, he asked nervously, “Do you know where to go?”
“I’ve said, I’ve always been here. I know here. This is an elevator. Although it’s old and not maintained, it should still work.” She pressed the button on the elevator. The cabin ascended. The rolling door opened.
Jeremy was afraid to use the dusty, rusty, seemingly unreliable elevator. He asked, “Are you sure this is functional? Won’t we get stuck in it? Won’t the cabin just fall?”
“Emmm...actually I’ve not used this elevator for years, but hopefully it’s going to work. Just enter.” She once again pulled him inside. “Now, we should go to the bottom floor.” She said while she operated the elevator.
Jeremy thought probably he should not have let a girl with pink hair who he had just met for the first time lead him to somewhere he did not know actually where, but...
“Here we are.” The rolling door opened. The multiple complex locks on the metallic door behind were unlocked. It was nowhere commonly seen. Jeremy was once again surprised, after being surprised by the strange girl who was not known by him but somehow knew him.
Even more surprising was a magnificent supercomputer rising from the floor.
“Well, it’s been turned off for years, so it’s a little bit cold here, otherwise it would be noticeably warm.”
Jeremy had lost his words at the sight.
“Now, turn it on.”
“Turn it on?” asked a shivering Jeremy.
“Yes. Turn it on.”
“Me?”
“Yes. It has to be turned on by you.”
“Wouldn’t there be any bad outcome?”
“Certainly there will be.”
“Then should I still turn it on?” Despite the doubt, he already put his hands on the power lever of the supercomputer.
“Yes, of course.” She pushed his hands down. The supercomputer was rumbling, from which light rays were escaping. Jeremy took a few steps backwards cautiously, while she had been calm, smiling as if everything had been planned.
“Very good. It’s time to get to the console of this supercomputer, just two floors above.”
For Jeremy, probably there was no choice other than to continue, to follow her into the elevator, to go upstairs.
“It’s my honor to offer you this position to operate.” she said, pointing to the chair before the console.
Never had Jeremy seen an interface like this, like the chair, the keyboard, and the multiple screens above them, which seemed much more professional than what he had used before.
Seeing that Jeremy appeared to be stiff, she said, “Well, I may also operate.” She sat before the console. After a few moments, she asked, “How to spell Jeremy? J-e-r-e-m-y or -i-e?”
“-y.”
“OK.” she said while she typed on the keyboard, “Do you know what’s the major capacity of this supercomputer? It’s that it hosts a virtual world called Lyoko. Look!” The hologram at the center of the lab went on.
“Emmm...sure, it looks cool.” though he only thought it to be visuals at the moment.
“In addition, a human can be virtualized and go to Lyoko through the scanners downstairs. Do you want to try?” She was still typing.
“Are you saying putting material and living human beings into a virtual world inside a supercomputer? How could that be?”
“You’ll figure it out after trying it by yourself.”
“No. It sounds suspicious and dangerous.”
“I knew it. If you don’t go, I’ll go. Watch the console.” She stood up from the chair and walked towards the elevator.
“Are you sure you’re going to try it? If that function is real, shouldn’t we first experiment with some guinea pig?”
“Later you may experiment with Kiwi, but now I must go.”
Although she suddenly turned back before entering the elevator, and said to Jeremy, “Emmm...Do you have any more words to tell me?”
“What’s Kiwi?”
“Odd’s dog. Well...that’s it. Watch the console carefully.” She gave another glance to Jeremy, and left.
Jeremy stared at the strange screen, not daring to do anything on the console, not even daring to sit on the chair. Soon, some noise came from below, some texts flashed over the screen. Later, a window suddenly popped up.
“Wow...! What’s all this? A video game?”
“This is not a game.” The pink figure in the window was talking.
“Ah? Err...Where’s Maya? Maya! What’s happening?” cried Jeremy.
“Don’t panic. I am Maya.” The window talked again.
“Ah? How...how do you become like this?” Jeremy came close and sat before the screen.
“I didn’t become like this. I’ve always been in this form. If you want to say, I am an artificial intelligence inside this supercomputer. I’d been sleeping when the supercomputer was shut down.”
“Then who’s the one that led me here?”
“That was also me, just in the body of a human. Now virtualized, this is the original me.”
“I don’t really understand...Would you return in the human form? Talking to you this way feels weird...”
“That’d be impossible.”
“Ah?” Jeremy suddenly felt like losing something.
“I am an AI who had been sleeping here. I was just waked up when you turned on the supercomputer. There’s no materialization program to let me go to Earth at present.”
“Weren’t you just here on Earth? And it was you who prompted me to turn on the supercomputer. If what you are saying were true, you’d have been sleeping before the supercomputer was turned on. How could you be so lively all the way here then?”
“The lever of the supercomputer was pushed down by your very own hands. Don’t blame me for that. About how I could be on Earth earlier...I suppose that was only an accident? Now this is how it should be.”
“What?”
“Well, well. You could still touch me just earlier, but now you can only talk to me behind a screen. Isn’t life dramatic?”
“Ahh...No. You must be able to come back to Earth, right? You’ve been so familiar with all these...these unimaginable matters, so you must know how to do the...materialization, don’t you?”
“Yes. I will come back to Earth, but the materialization program will be your work mostly.”
“My work?”
“Yes, your work. Look at the top-left corner on the screen. Your name is printed as the username. You are the operator of this supercomputer from now on.”
“What? It was you who entered my name, not me!”
“Why do you say that? It was you who discovered the supercomputer. It was your hands that pushed down its power lever. Of course it must be your job to operate it!”
“Errr...OK, then...Is this...materialization difficult?”
“It is difficult, but you’ll manage.”
“Ahh...” although computer programing was indeed his interest, his talent.
“And you have to know, there’s another artificial intelligence besides me inside this supercomputer. Sadly, he is out of control. He attacks the Earth. He attacks the society. He is very dangerous. The only way to get rid of him immediately is to shut down the supercomputer.”
“But then...what about you?”
“I would fall asleep once again.”
“That’d be...not...”
“The safety of the Earth and the existence of the very AI in front of you are at your hand.”
“I don’t believe that another AI is such a serious threat. If he’s like you, he couldn’t be so dangerous.”
“His power is beyond your imagination. Fortunately, you’ll not be fighting alone. Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd who you will meet will fight together with you. As for me, one day the materialization program will be completed. I will become your classmate, enjoying a life like yours at Kadic. The real world is really much richer than Lyoko. Can you imagine it? I could just feel the cool breeze over my shoulder, the heartbeat in my chest, and the touch of your hand on mine. Now all of those are lost. I can only see your image in pixels.”
“You said you are an artificial intelligence, right?” suddenly Jeremy looked deep in thought.
“Right. I may be insignificant compared to the safety of human beings.”
“I didn’t mean this.” Jeremy was still hesitant. Something was disturbing to uncover.
“Maya, do you like toy gnome?”
“What’s that?”
“You don’t remember it at the moment, but when it’s back in your hands, you’ll cherish it.”
“So what’s that exactly?”
“Mister Pück. You really want to come back to the Earth, right?”
“Definitely. Don’t you want to see me once again as a human without having to stare into a screen?”
“Then...after you come to the Earth, are you settling here? Transforming from an artificial intelligence to a human?”
“Yes...probably. I know a human’s life is much more complicated than a program operating linearly. On the Earth, there’s not only joy. There’s also sorrow. It’s the price of becoming a human, but I will accept it.”
“Actually, you’re already a human.”
“You mean you already see me as a human? I believe that.”
“No. I mean, just like us, you’re a human born by a mother, not a program written by a scientist.”
“Really?”
“Maybe the pink hair feels unnatural and artificial, but no, your pink hair is inherited, from your mother.”
“I didn’t notice anything on the Internet about a woman with natural pink hair.” She was refusing to confront what had to be confronted.
“That’s because your parents’ identities are confidential and cannot be tracked down easily.”
“My parents?”
“Right. Your father had to evade pursuit and settled at Kadic eventually. The house of you and your father is still there near the school, although it’s been abandoned for long.”
“Is that for real?”
“If you were to materialize and settle somewhere else on the Earth, maybe you wouldn’t notice the mysterious house near Kadic which draws your attention but also somehow gives you pain, maybe you would never be entangled with the lost, miserable memories dated years ago, maybe you would live with us just as you are, a naïve elf from a virtual world, but unfortunately you will return to Kadic, return to the shadow from the past. The fate is not to be avoided.”
“How do you know so much about my life?”
“Like how you happened to be acquainted with me even though I have only met you for the first time, it’s an accident.”
“My parents...I don’t know what a family means.”
“I don’t really have any experience with a broken family. In my family, all is well. I only know with a broken family come broken hearts. What’s more, you’re all alone to face your past. Are you really sure to come to the Earth one day? We people in the reality can only see that the time goes forward, that what we had becomes the past and lost, but you, you may stay asleep in this supercomputer. You don’t have to bear the pain of being real.”
“But I must live in the reality anyway, to embrace the world.”
“OK, then, let’s begin.” The sound of typing echoed through the lab.