Chapter Text
It all started with a letter.
Vedal didn’t even notice it at first, too busy coding, debugging, and trying to coordinate schedules for upcoming collabs. But eventually he emerged from his bedroom/office to head to the kitchen to grab himself a Gregg’s sausage roll. On the way he spotted it: the assortment of envelopes laying in front of his front door. Picking up his mail, he shifted through the letters, hoping that they were good news for once... or at least not too bad ones.
However, he had no such luck. Bills, bills, more bills… an eviction notice… Fuck.
Vedal wasn’t the richest man in the world. In fact, he had never considered himself particularly wealthy. While until recently he had always had enough money to sustain himself comfortably, he was now going into the red at a rapid pace.
This was mostly caused by two factors: Firstly, his student debts he had come to haunt him with a vengeance, with served to make the second problem even worse.
You see, Vedal was a developer. He even considered himself a pretty good one for his age. For the past few months, he had spent his time working on an Artificial Intelligence. He called it “Neuro-Sama” and he created her as a V-tuber that would stream and entertain viewers with her funny, random, and sometimes even outrageous statements. He also gave it the ability to play games like OSU! and Minecraft, as well as the ability to sing. He was proud of his creation, and of the fanbase that had cultivated around him. He even made new friends through her, such as the V-tuber Anny, who had taken a particular liking to Neuro. All in all, he was happy with this lifestyle.
However, he regularly spent 10 or more hours per day busying himself with Neuro’s code or trying to manage her account, leaving him unable to make money on the side. And the money earned from Neuro wasn’t nearly enough to compensate for that. Vedal did not blame his chat though. His community simply was too small to sustain him in the long term.
Still, Vedal knew that he was bleeding money. And now, he was paying the price for it.
Then, he noticed another letter behind the eviction notice. It was white and looked very official, with a stamp on it reading ‘LOTUS CORPERATION’. Above the text was a styilised lotus flower.
Vedal opened the letter and read:
Dear Mr. Vedal,
It has come to our attention that you are in possession of a very popular A.I. idol, called ‘Neuro-Sama.’
Since we see great potential in the future of this market, we would like to acquire the rights to said idol from you.
We are offering a price of $100.000.000 as compensation.
Please reply soon so we can finalize the details of the transaction.
Greetings,
Apate Loki; CEO of Lotus Corp.
Vedal reread the letter multiple times, thinking that he misread. This ‘Lotus Corporation’ wanted to buy Neuro from him, for how much? 100 million dollars?
Vedal started thinking. A large portion of his being urged him to wad up the paper, throw it in the trash and forget about it. Urged him to not even consider selling Neuro to some megacorporation, no matter for what price.
But then he did. What was he selling here? In the end, all that Neuro was was a complicated bit of code. Yes, he had put all his heart into creating it, but still, it was just code. Code that he could remake. In fact, given his increased experience, he could probably create something much better than Neuro if he started from scratch. And with 100 billion, he wouldn’t need to worry about money, allowing him to put all his effort into creating this new A.I. Vedal then thought about his friends, about how they would all hate him if he sold the bedrock of their relationships like that, how his fans would feel about his betrayal. But then he thought about how he would be homeless soon without money, and how no one would be able to let Neuro stream if that happened. Surely it would be better for Neuro to at least keep going in some capacity?
V̸͔͍́̿e̸̛̝̰ḓ̴̺̏́a̶̬̐̅l̶͔̦͛ ̴̗̅w̷͌͜ǎ̵͉͓̕s̷̙̓̔ ̴̣͚͊a̷͚̅t̴̙̳́ ̸̣̾̄ă̵͔͉ ̵̢̫̃c̸̠̖͐r̴̹̈́̈́o̵̩͈̎s̸̢͊́s̷̨̋̀r̶͇̈ö̷͙ã̵͊ͅd̵̳̮͑͠ş̸͚̕.̵͖́͆
Ḩ̵̧̡̹̩͇̺̲͔̦͉̩̰̖̳͓̝̬̱͕͆͑́́͊͂͌̍̌͐̓̇̀̚͝͝͝e̴͖̲̫̜̫̮̮̥͍̓̍̌͂̒̎͑́͐̋͂̔͠͠͝ ̴̘͎͇͎͐̅̈́̔̏̂̀̒͋̄͂̌͐͘m̷͖̑͑́̋̇̀̈́̈͆͐͌̈́̓̏̚͝a̸̢̻̪̙̯̱̦̖̟͖̜̜͕͎̭̺̅̈̓̉̓̀͒̋̓́̿̕͝ͅd̶̢͍͍̪͉̥̟̃́͗̊̆̑̽̽̊͛̚ę̸͇̭̺̹̰̩̺͍̺̝̤̘͇̳͔͉̤͚͇̪̮̖͗͒̓̿̕ ̵̞̀͑̀̓̋̽̓̚a̶̢̛̞͓̩̘͓̩̲͔̞̽͊̊͆̿̓̔́̀̍̅̿̈́̂̔͘ ̴̛̟͙̱͖̰͉̝̅̀̏c̸̛̟̈́͂̅̓́̀̈́̑̏̈́̾̓̀̍̇̾̓̾̈́̉̑͝͝h̷̡͕͎͕͍̫̘͉̹̩̗͉̮̭̠̮̜͈̤̩̰̍͂̂̐̏̄̒͐̓o̷͇̦̰͎̲̠̗͍̲̭͙͕̺̱̜̤͎̜̤̩̟͂̊͋̄͘ị̷̢̡͍̘̠̩͓̬̣͓̪̠̻̹̘̹͕̺͖̻͕͖̪͗́͂̊́̽̿͑̌̄̅̇̋̃̀͠ͅc̵̢̨̛̺̽̏͌̎̈̽͐̀͐́͂̔́̂͒͗͊̈́̈́̔̏͘͝͝͝e̷̛̛͇͙̟̎̑̅̆̏̂̋́̓̉̍̐̊͝.̶̧̨̡̡̡̳̘̝̣̦̜͙͐̐̍̐̂̄͐̌̆͌̄̾̀̿̍͆̈́͘͝