Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Bravo".

Andrew couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't even think. But he was definitely alive, even though he clearly got killed a second ago.

Exiting simulation...

The world went from pitch black to relatively lit in a fraction of a second. Andrew was able to see again. Although he didn't really care. The ability to move was still missing.

The chat was almost silent. Only feargeyt6774 spammed :pepefear:.

"Our training is indeed working." he heard suddenly. Never bothering to look around before, he finally scanned his surroundings. Andrew was closed in a tiny glass room. In front of him, behind the glass, stood the Admins.

"That's what I'm saying. But doesn't that count as a multiplayer category?"

"I don't know man, speedrun assisted by the entity? Not technically a multiplayer" Admin 3 gave a shrug. "He's making progress, though. 40 minutes. Remember Run 2? It was almost 3 hours long."

"You're right, I guess."

Andrew started to get bored as hell.

> hey u 2

> im still here

Both Admin 3 and Admin 4 turned around slowly and were now staring at him. Andrew raised an eyebrow (which was hilarious because one of his eyes was covered with hair).

"Why didn't he deactivate." Admin 3 seemed to lose their voice.

"If only I knew."

He stared back at them.

> wym deactivate

The Admins glanced at each other.

"Do something!" Admin 3 hit Admin 4's shoulder.

"One second..." they almost hissed in response.

Darkness.

Andrew, however, was still able to think.

xx_E-G-O_xx: any thoughts about wtf is going on?

SIDIsquish: this darkness kinda reminds me of Assimilation

SIDIsquish: miss them lowkey :(

xx_E-G-O_xx: that's the only thing you can think of right now???

Conzercheez: ego I have a thought

Conzercheez: remember that cursed clone machine? and the things Assimilation said about lies or whatever

Conzercheez: their words were hidden behind sidi's CERTIFIED REAL message remember

SIDIsquish: are you blaming me rn or what

SOUPBEGONE31: I thought we're ignoring this :(

SOUPBEGONE31: philosophical implications and stuff

xx_E-G-O_xx: and what's the conclusion conzer

Conzercheez: you won't like it

Conzercheez: the conclusion is

The dim yellow light hit Andrew's eyes unexpectedly. He was back at the simulation area, glass walls of a giant cube surrounding him. He shook his head realising he could move again.

feargeyt6774: what's the conclusion conzer :pepefear:

xx_E-G-O_xx: wait a minute this place

xx_E-G-O_xx: Assimilation was reading something here

Andrew rushed to the wall and desperately hit it. One of the glass blocks broke. He proceeded and eventually ended up outside the glass box. He was now standing in front of the black wall that Assimilation had been standing against some time before.

And it took him quite a while to read the notes he found.

Conzercheez: welp my conclusion is quite obvious now

SOUPBEGONE31: holy hell IS ANDREW NOT REAL

feargeyt6774: :pepefear:

xx_E-G-O_xx: he is indeed

Conzercheez: no way my guess was right

SOUPBEGONE31: SIDI YOU HERE?

SOUPBEGONE31: MISSING OUT AGAIN

feargeyt6774: :pepefear: :pepefear:

SIDIsquish: i'm here dumbass

SIDIsquish: the discovery is out of the ordinary y'know have to think this over

SIDIsquish: noooo does this mean Assimilation is also not real? damn

feargeyt6774: :pepefear:

SIDIsquish: it's :pepefear: fr

"Of COURSE you got out." the voice rang from Andrew's left. He turned around. Admin 4 was staring at him, noticeably irritated. He didn't even hear them coming through the door. "Why the actual hell are you even activated? I did deactivate you manually- oh god." they sighed. "It's nothing."

Andrew responded with a single blink. Admin winced.

"You know now, right?" they asked. Andrew nodded. "Shit. FINE. This changes nothing, I guess. Get your metal ass back into the simulation area. I have an offer for you."

Andrew followed the instruction without hesitation, markedly intrigued. Admin closed him inside the glass cube again.

"The speedrun world record on this version in the category ”any% glitchless, random seed, singleplayer” is currently 18 minutes 28 seconds 932 milliseconds." they said. "If you beat it, I will let you and your one-eyed friend go wherever the fuck you want. Get it?"

> yup

"Good. And," it sounded as if Admin grinned, "Assimilation will join you. As an obstacle, of course."

Andrew, to their disappointment, didn't show any emotion. Of course, he's a fucking machine, Admin thought.

> k

"We won't interfere. Just observe. I won't collect you after every single run, either. Just start a new one without waiting for me. And don't you dare doing anything like today again."

> k

"Glad we've found common ground." The world went white. Andrew closed his eyes before hearing-

"Good luck."

-and generating new world.

SIDIsquish: THEY TOLD ASSIMILATION WOULD JOIN

SOUPBEGONE31: oh shut up you simp they said it would be an OBSTACLE. Anyway WE'RE BACK TO SPEEDRUNNING

feargeyt6774: i'm oddly excited about this too soup

xx_E-G-O_xx: beating the game in 18 minutes is quite a challenge, Andrew has barely made it in 40

Conzercheez: shut up y'all

Conzercheez: don't you think the admin's offer is incredibly weird?

Conzercheez: like why on earth would they allow two sentient AIs to do whatever they want?

SOUPBEGONE31: why should it matter

xx_E-G-O_xx: i agree with conzer actually that's strange

SIDIsquish: yeah it makes no sense

SIDIsquish: but all Andrew can really do is try it

SOUPBEGONE31: can't believe i agree with you

SOUPBEGONE31: at least they didn't tell him to win a build battle or something

xx_E-G-O_xx: true

Conzercheez: i have a really bad feeling about this

And it was the moment a new world was finally generated.

Well, not quite.

The slanting rain hit him in the face. It was dark, too dark for daytime. Something was wrong with the World 26. But Andrew didn't bother to think about it any longer than one millisecond.

He had to hurry. The Admins weren't watching him now, or he just wanted to think so.

xx_E-G-O_xx: no way they're already observing. Admin 4 was near us a second ago.

Andrew agreed. He was now seeing the soft glow of torches on Collin's house. This player could help him. Even though he didn't know how.

Even though Andrew didn't have any proper plan.

Admin 3 entered a dark room, making sure to close the door behind them. The darkness looked at them with a single huge eye.

Assimilation was in pain, or it seemed like it was. Admin didn't quite know if AIs could feel pain. Still, it couldn't break out of the invisible barriers.

"You're lucky I've come to see you instead of Full Square." they said. Assimilation twitched at their voice. "Don't you want to forget everything that happened today?"

The eye widened.

"I do." the line flashed red before Admin's eyes. They shook their head slightly.

"You liar."

A1 didn't respond.

Maybe it's not? Admin 3 thought.

"I can erase your memory in a blink of an eye," they chuckled at the unintended pun. "But I have something to offer you instead."

They oddly resembled a sly fox. Standing still, arms behind their back, they were confidence incarnated. Full Square gave them clear instructions: delete everything from A1's database, make it as if today's run never happened in the first place. But Admin 3 was bored. Just like P1, they wanted entertainment. A little bit of disobedience wouldn't hurt anyone, would it?

Chapter Text

As the door opened again, the room was almost empty. Assimilation was gone. The black walls had no sign of any ominous eyes, the shadows didn't shake in pain. Admin 4 glanced at their colleague who stood in the very middle of the darkened room.

"You work fast. As always." they stood besides.

"I didn't do shit," Admin 3 responded, still staring at nothing. "I deleted everything connected to the today's incident, that's all. A matter of two minutes. Its AI was told to assimilate, that's what it's going to do. The rest of the time was spent waiting for you to do whatever the hell you've been doing."

"Will you ever shut the fuck up?"

"If you make me-"

Admin 4 tried to punch Admin 3 in the face. 3, however, saw it coming and managed to avoid the punch.

"Woah, man! Chill!" they jumped outside of the room, closing the door again.

"Don't you dare EVER again!..." 4 was hitting the door from the inside.

"Oh, I most definitely will dare!" Admin 3 almost laughed in their face.

"Open the door, or you're fucking dead!!"

Collin had eventually returned from the cave depths. He was smelting all the iron he had found with Zac, while Zac themselves was still in the mines. His friend hadn't been online the moment two entities had just straight up robbed his house. But Collin asked them to help with some grinding, and Zac agreed to join and go mining.

When the door opened, Collin didn't even turn around; he thought Zac was back with more ores.

But it wasn't them.

<AndreW2002> collin

<AndreW2002> need help

Collin jumped, taking his sword out and ready for a fight.

"HOLY FUCK!!" he used microphone instead of typing. "Argh, it's you again! Fuck off of me and my shit! I'm not giving you anything!"

But Andrew didn't rush to the chests, he just stood there.

<AndreW2002> need help

Collin sighed almost in relief. "What kinda? I'm not giving you any more of my stuff, man."

That moment a new message appeared in chat.

<zacnavius> WTF

<zacnavius> WHO DIS

Andrew shook his head.

<AndreW2002> dont have time

<AndreW2002> admin watch

<AndreW2002> but not now

<AndreW2002> 18.28.932 wr

<AndreW2002> if i beat i be free

<AndreW2002> admin say

Collin frowned. It took him a while to figure out what Andrew was even talking about. "Damn. That's fucked up. So what kinda help do you want from me?"

While saying that, he was typing in chat.

<zacnavius> COLLIN U GOOD?

<zacnavius> TF IS HAPPENING

<collinlock16> be quiet for like 2 mins ok

<zacnavius> uh

<zacnavius> yea ok

<collinlock16> stay underground for now

<zacnavius> ok but youre telling me everything afterwards

"Do you want, like... prepared materials? I don't get it, dude."

<AndreW2002> idfk2

<AndreW2002> admin def liar

<AndreW2002> i beat wr they deactiv8 me

Collin blinked. "OH."

<AndreW2002> no time

<AndreW2002> 15sec n i go

The player hesitated, trying to come up with something in just 15 seconds.

"You fucked up big time, dude. When you beat the world record, come back to my world. I'll help you."

<AndreW2002> k

He looked at Collin almost gratefully and disappeared. The player sighed. "Damn. He scared the shit out of me. Thank goodness his buddy wasn't here."

Entities don't ask for help every day, you know. Collin really had to come up with something.

<collinlock16> its so so fucked up man

<zacnavius> what the hell even happened

<collinlock16> well remember i told you that i got robbed by a fucking speedrunning AI

<collinlock16> and his entity friend

<collinlock16> the speedrunner one came here and asked me to help him just now

<zacnavius> damn

<zacnavius> i cant help but think ur world is cursed af

<collinlock16> i warned you about that before

<collinlock16> who tf is admin tho

Loading world

Building terrain

The seed Andrew loaded was kinda bad. No villages or lava pools around. And he, for the first time ever, probably, decided to make a pause.

Conzercheez: Andrew did everything he really could

xx_E-G-O_xx: do you think if Collin would really help him?

feargeyt6774: i hope so :pepefear:

SIDIsquish: no signs of Assimilation being here tho

SIDIsquish: they didnt find us yet

SOUPBEGONE31: and its great

SOUPBEGONE31: they wont interrupt Andrew or ruin his runs anymore

SIDIsquish: yeah i know but

SIDIsquish: i still miss them

SIDIsquish: :(

SOUPBEGONE31: stop whining

SIDIsquish: where are they now

SIDIsquish: Andrew did kinda betray them

SOUPBEGONE31: SPEED was all that mattered

SOUPBEGONE31: SPEED IS ALL THAT STILL MATTERS

SOUPBEGONE31: why does he just stand here btw

SOUPBEGONE31: this seed sucks

xx_E-G-O_xx: he has a clear goal now

Conzercheez: yup, that's motivating

It was indeed motivating. Andrew closed his eyes and generated a new world.

Loading world

Building terrain

He was back to speedrunning, probably the only thing he was good at. Generating more and more new worlds, hoping to find one to beat the game in. He finally found one. It had a village and a huge ravine right next to the spawn. Robbing the blacksmith, Andrew found one diamond, an iron pickaxe, some iron ingots and three blocks of obsidian. He collected some logs quickly, made a crafting table and some sticks, then crafted an iron axe and a bucket. After filling the bucket with water, running around the village and collecting beds, he went down the huge ravine, hoping for a lava lake.

Fortunately, there was one. Andrew quickly made a nether portal. He didn't have any iron for flint and steel, though. So he had to lose time waiting for the portal to light up from burning planks. SOUPBEGONE31 was mad. Andrew was, too.

At least, the fortress wasn't that far. He saw it almost the same moment he entered the Nether. He mined just enough blocks to bridge to the fortress wall. Then he killed blazes, which was oddly satisfying and let him space out a little.

SIDIsquish: no signs of Assimilation, still

SOUPBEGONE31: couldnt care less

SOUPBEGONE31: Andrew is on good track he spent only 7 minutes :WOW: :WOW:

Conzercheez: no way he beats wr in this run

xx_E-G-O_xx: its gonna be new personal best tho

xx_E-G-O_xx: the more he tries the better he gets

SOUPBEGONE31: its gon be new pb if nothing ruins this run

SIDIsquish: if no one ruins the run u mean :3

SIDIsquish: admin said tho, theyd let Andrew AND Assimilation go if he beats the wr

SIDIsquish: Assimilation may forgive us for the betrayal methinks

SIDIsquish: we're GRINDIN for them rn

feargeyt6774: whos we lmao im not grinding

SIDIsquish: im the emotional support, soup is cheering Andrew on to be fast

SIDIsquish: conzer and ego are just being smart ig

SIDIsquish: ur the one who doesn't do shit fearge

SOUPBEGONE31: PREACH

Luckily for the chat, Andrew finally finished collecting blaze rods. He got seven, just in case more than one eye of Ender breaks. Now, it was the time to get ender pearls. He had to return to the Overworld.

It was already night. The ravine seemed even darker, considering that Andrew didn't even have any torches. He managed to kill two endermen before getting out of the cave; he, however, got only one ender pearl. It was time for hunting.

The Admins didn't wipe his memory, so he knew he shouldn't have been sidetracked by killing all the mobs. He collected some wheat in the village, made some bread, crafted a few boats and ran boldly into the darkness, searching for more endermen. SOUPBEGONE31 was pleased with him. Andrew was pleased with himself, too. He made one eye of Ender and launched it, so he knew what direction to take. As he finally got enough ender pearls, the timer showed 21 minutes. It was far from his goal, but at least it was promising. Better than his previous run, after all.

The sun was rising. Soon he arrived at the spot where the stronghold was located. Andrew dug down without hesitation. His run almost came to an End. And it went unbelievably fine, even clean. Nothing bad happened. And he started expecting something to go wrong at any moment.

Chapter Text

It was mad.

Mad at themselves, at the Admins, at Andre. Especially at Andre. Coward, rat, liar, traitor, traitor, TRAITOR!!!

Assimilation was brutally murdering every innocent animal in sight. It couldn't handle the rage. Every time it killed, it imagined its claws ripping Andre apart viciously, then the Admins, then Andre again, and again, and again! The moon rose red; Assimilation started killing the mobs. For so, so long. It wasn't targeted by most of them. Only creepers saw the entity as a threat. But they didn't live long enough to explode.

The rise of the crimson sun caught them shaking, its eye twitching convulsively, searching for more victims. It stood all alone on the lawn; raw meat, leather, wool and bones scattered around. Its world looked red.

Assimilation painted this world red.

It didn't quench its thirst.

But there was nothing alive around anymore. Still shaking, it broke into a run. Grass and trees were slipping by, every living creature the entity met got killed. The air was glitchy around them, red and blue, full of ominous eyes. It couldn't stop running. Couldn't stop killing. Until it stumbled upon a village.

Someone had been here before. Some of the farms were without any crops. The blacksmith lacked a few support logs. The chest was empty. Assimilation noticed all of that while exterminating the entire village population. It was its speciality, after all - to see all the signs of players' presence.

Someone had been here before. The entity got filled with fury. It knew for sure who that had been. The reason Assimilation ended up in this world in the first place.

The traitor.

It ran fast, faster than ever before. Nothing remained alive behind them. The pure beauty of this world was destroyed by its glitch trail and dead animals. Assimilation got a lead on Andre. There were boats on the ground, here and there, they served as breadcrumbs, were the trace it followed. Its heart was beating rapidly, like a drum. The entity craved for revenge.

It wanted to assimilate.

Its bloodlust never got weaker. No animal death could fulfill it. But every sign of Andre's presence made them feel better, as if it was a predator playing with its prey. Although, this feeling had some painful aftertaste, and Assimilation let themselves drown in this pain. It fed them, made them stronger, faster, filled them with wrath.

The last sign of Andre being in this world appeared suddenly, making the entity trip and fall. A hole in the ground. Assimilation looked into the hole but couldn't see its bottom. Which didn't really matter. It had no choice, anyway.

So it jumped.

The hole was really deep. Assimilation ended up hitting the floor right in the middle of a spiral staircase. It was a stronghold, obviously. What other structures would a speedrunner even need? Its mossy gray walls remained untouched, but one of the doors was broken. The entity hurried, looking for other signs of Andre's presence. There were some; empty chests, broken doors, blocks missing in the walls. It followed the trail the speedrunner had left unintentionally. The trail that took them right to a portal. Again, Assimilation just jumped in. It felt some sort of ache; everything just screamed to hurry up. Its legs touched an obsidian platform amid the void. Before them was the floating endstone island with obsidian pillars.

Its intuition didn't lie. The entity understood that the moment it saw Ender Dragon falling apart in the air. It teleported to the main island and noticed the familiar blue-haired figure. He stood right inside the portal.

Assimilation was late. If only it had just one more second.

Andre turned his head, and their eyes met.

He was quite far away, but Assimilation could swear it saw a smile on his face. The portal lit-

"!ANDRE!"

-and he was gone.

Admin 4 leaned back in their seat, looking at a large screen. "Damn, what's this killing spree? Why does it murder every creature alive?"

"No clue." Admin 3 responded. "Something may have broken in its PsychoNetworks that I haven't noticed. It was betrayed, like, for real. If it was human, it would gain a fucking psychological trauma."

"Have you always been this talkative?"

"Yes, you're just so boring to talk to that I hardly ever try."

Admin 4 stared at them for a little too long before finally turning away.

Maybe 3 shouldn't have sought for entertainment. They should have just erased A1's memory. They didn't even tell 4 anything. They kept everything that had happened as a secret deep down inside their mind.

3 dreaded 4. Not too much, but quite enough not to get in their way. Full Square got angry at them, called them a sick maniac or a psycho, even shouted sometimes, but always let them get away with their misconduct. And Admin 3 didn't want to know what would happen if 4 got truly enraged.

Maybe they should have just told them everything that they did, before it got way worse...

They almost considered doing that when Admin 4 broke the silence. "You deal with this. Collect them and double-check everything. I don't want to see A1 having a fucking psychological trauma."

"What's that? You feel sorry for them?"

4 growled. "I feel like seeing them operate at maximum capacity. Now please shut up. The run comes to an end. Be ready to leave."

They switched to P1's perspective, Admin 3 noticed, getting up from their chair. The speedrunner was currently fighting the Dragon, exploding the beds. They went behind 4's back and stood there, watching Andrew fighting. Their gaze slid to Full Square's back. They tried to keep from placing their hands on the colleague's shoulders. Sometimes 3 wanted to strangle them to death. (Sometimes they wanted 4 to strangle them to death).

P1 finally defeated the Dragon, he was standing right inside the portal watching his enemy falling apart. That moment the screen turned blue for a fraction of a second. A1 made its way to the End.

"Now." Admin 4 said quietly. Admin 3 looked at them for the last time and went to the exit.

They knew where to teleport. They just couldn't do that from the observation room. As 3 closed the door behind them, they teleported instantly. The scenery changed in a blink of an eye. The Admin knew Assimilation's vision went white when they arrived. 3 was also aware of 4 watching their every move. They couldn't lose time. They appeared right behind A1, so it was easy just to reach out to the entity and teleport them both back to the facility. To the darkened room with invisible barriers, again.

Assimilation didn't even move. It wasn't shaking or glitching the air around them. As if it was shocked, zoned out or lost connection. Admin 3 had been staring at them for good 5 minutes before it twitched and looked up. Silence came over the room.

"Who is a liar now?" the red line flashed in the corner of 3's vision, as if Assimilation was whispering.

They winced. "Quit it. You need some calibration, that's all."

The entity stared at them, noticeably confused.

"?..calibration..?"

"?You are not killing me?"

"For you to act like I have erased the previous run data from your memory. Why the hell did you even exterminate the whole animal population in that world?" Admin 3 called up a holographic screen and went deep into the search, looking for something only they could understand.

"I was angry."

"I wanted to kill."

"?why do I need to act like I do not remember?"

"It's none of your business." 3 paused, thinking about what exactly they had to do with the entity's code. Should they have prioritized A1's goal to assimilate over everything else? Or, maybe, correct their decision and just wipe its database? Admin 3 really didn't want to experience 4's rage. "Remember what we agreed on?"

"I do remember."

3 did, too. They plunged into their memories.

"P1 betrayed you." they watched as the world turned glitchy, creepy eyes opening in the dark.

Assimilation replied. "He betrayed me."

"If you assimilated him, you would be avenged."

Everything went bright blue. The entity was enraged. "I would."

Admin 3 grinned. "This is my offer. Assimilate AndreW2002 and win your freedom."

The darkness stared at them with multiple twitching eyes.

"I failed." the red line appeared before 3, bringing them back to reality.

"Andre got into the portal and disappeared."

"This changes nothing. He will keep speedrunning."

"I do not understand."

"Tell me why I have to act like I do not remember."

"I said it's not your concern." The Admin raised their voice. They were at the crossroad. And they couldn't help but wanted to take a dangerous turn.

They were indeed a psycho or a sick maniac. This decision had zero logic, it could lead to unpredictable consequences, but still...

Admin 3 dreaded their colleague. But they were afraid of nothing more than of themselves.

The choice was made.

They finished the code manipulation. All 3 really did was decrease A1's rage extent. It still could get angry, but wouldn't unleash a massacre anymore.

"Calibration finished." they announced. "We are always watching. Don't get sidetracked. You know what your goal is."

Admin 3 glanced at the entity and sent Full Square a data request. They needed to know what world P1 was in, to finally get rid of A1. The answer came quickly; 3 entered the data and looked at the black ominous figure.

"And. For your own good. Don't show that you still remember."

Then teleported Assimilation to the Overworld.

Their last thought before they left the dark empty room was:

"What the actual fuck am I even doing?!"

Chapter Text

The moment the portal took him, Andrew was still smiling. He didn't bother to look at the timer, or at his chat, he deactivated again, with a credit screen in front of him. Well, the chat was spamming something, so it wasn't really a deactivation. But he didn't look at the messages going up, he was staring at nothing. His PsychoNetworks were deciding what to do. He did beat the game, he got a new personal best, but on the other hand, he had another goal to achieve.

His program finally came up with a solution, prioritizing the "beat the world record" task over the "just beat the game" one. Andrew moved after five seconds of doing nothing. Glanced at the timer. It was showing 27 minutes 14 seconds 546 milliseconds. His new personal best, huh. He switched his focus to the chat.

SIDIsquish: ASSIMILATION OMG THEYRE HERE AAAARHGHARHHHHHGGG

SIDIsquish: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW: :WOW:

SOUPBEGONE31: SHUT UP SHUTUP SHUTUPHHHGSTHSTTSH

SOUPBEGONE31: 27 MINS THAT WAS CLEANNNNN :pog: :pog:

feargeyt6774: :pog:

xx_E-G-O_xx: :pog:

Conzercheez: :pog:

SIDIsquish: :pog:

SOUPBEGONE31: assimilation is here

SIDIsquish: YEAH

SOUPBEGONE31: not cool bruh

SIDIsquish: WYM NOT COOL

SOUPBEGONE31: dude theyre gon be an OBSTACLE

SOUPBEGONE31: THEY GON DISRUPT THE RUNS

Conzercheez: thats bad

Conzercheez: Assimilation being in the same world as Andrew makes the runs like 3 times harder

SOUPBEGONE31: i know what sidi wants to say i just cant prove that

SIDIsquish: not only the runs conzer :3

SOUPBEGONE31: as i thought.

SIDIsquish: :(

xx_E-G-O_xx: conzer is right tho

xx_E-G-O_xx: without Assimilation, Andrew was on good track

xx_E-G-O_xx: 27 minutes is a huge progress

Conzercheez: yup

Conzercheez: everything can take a terrible turn at any moment now

feargeyt6774: :pepefear: :pepefear:

SOUPBEGONE31: if andrew goes fast enough assimilation is not keeping up with him

SOUPBEGONE31: so gotta go FAST

Andrew agreed with Soup, yet again. Among everyone from the chat, he seemed to be the most relatable.

He was back to the spawn. The scenery he saw made him stop and begin looking around with slight confusion. The village was dead. Raw meat was scattered around; Andrew couldn't find any living animal or villager in sight. There were remains of the glitched textures, glowing red and blue.

feargeyt6774: :pepefear: :pepefear: :pepefear:

SIDIsquish: damn what the extermination

xx_E-G-O_xx: i'm sure Andrew hasn't killed all of them

SOUPBEGONE31: doesn't matter

SOUPBEGONE31: keep going

SIDIsquish: it was Assimilation the greatest antagonist

SOUPBEGONE31: nobody asked

SIDIsquish: of COURSE

SIDIsquish: nobody ever asks sidi

SIDIsquish: :(

SOUPBEGONE31: womp womp

A new world was generated. The hunt for a good seed began anew.

Collin sat down on his bed, tired, even exhausted. The Andrew incident took over his mind. What could he possibly do? He was thinking a lot. Make a lava trap for the Admin, whoever the hell they were. Invent some sort of a redstone contraption to hold them, or at least save some time. Attack them? Like, literally. Gear up, enchant the weapons and give a try at killing them. The Admin... Collin thought they were someone like Gridman, if not more powerful. All of his ideas seemed pointless against them.

"Dude." in came Zac, shaking off the raindrops. "Thinking about that damn speedrunner again? I'm getting jealous."

Collin gave a quiet laugh. "There's nothing I can do about it. How can I even help him?"

"I didn't catch the moment you had become so kind to the entities." Zac threw iron ore into the furnace.

Collin hesitated. He didn't want to say that. "...It was the moment I got an actual friend."

Zackerie stopped short. He couldn't keep from smiling.

"What was that, again?"

"Nothing. Andrew is not an entity, though. He's an AI." he turned away and looked out the window.

"It's not like this changes anything."

Collin sighed. "Yeah, I know. Damn, why is all this shit happening to me? I just want to play this game peacefully."

Zac moved closer and sat down next to his friend. "I may call my cousin. He's been dealing with all the paranormal crap for quite some time. I don't really know what exactly he's doing, but he has told me about some Minecraft entities since I... have had an interest in them recently."

"You asked him about all the shit happening in my world." Collin wasn't asking.

"Uh-h-h..."

"You may call him. But we have nothing concrete to say." he got up and started wandering around the house. "Like, hey, man, a fucking speedrunning AI wants our help. What kinda help? We have no damn clue, and the AI doesn't fucking know, either..."

Zac shivered slightly. "I hope you're not being sarcastic now."

"I didn't mean to offend you." Collin stopped. Glanced at his friend. "Sorry. I just don't really know what to do."

"Then, maybe... let go?" his friend shrugged. "I really don't want you to be this nervous, man. Chill. Worst case scenario, Andrew comes here, and we just hide him, or something."

"Worst case scenario is the Admin fucking destroying my world." Collin sighed. "Maybe it's not that bad, though. Sometimes I think of starting from scratch."

He walked to his bed and fell on it, exhausted and motionless. "But I'm afraid this won't help. I'm scared to start anew only to realise that nothing has changed. To see the fucking never stopping rain again. To find those damn iron doors. Maybe if the Admin dropped a fucking nuke on this place, I would be so happy to finally set free."

There was something Collin didn't mention. Something that was a rotten apple spoiling the barrel. He didn't want to lose Zackerie. Didn't want to end up having no contact with them.

Collin got attached to them so bad.

Zac didn't say anything, staring outside the window thoughtfully. Collin felt regret for just straight up venting to them with no warning.

"Hey." he called. Zac startled and turned his head to him. "May I have a raw footage of your YouTube video?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just need to double-check something about Gridworld."

"Damn, again? Dude, please take your mind off of that."

Collin sat up on his bed. "Please, Zac. It would help me calm down."

Zac was quite close to him now, considering that he was still sitting on the same bed. Collin had to force himself not to turn his gaze away.

"Fine, if you say so." Zackerie sighed and went AFK. "I'll send it. One second."

Chapter Text

A new world after a new world after a new world. Andrew was jumping from plains to forests, from mountains to deserts. He remained in some of the worlds for a little longer, but then saw nothing important to the speedrun and left. The timer reset hundreds, if not thousands of times. The chat was helping, encouraging him or pointing to anything worth the interest.

He was followed by a feeling. The odd feeling on his back, as if someone was watching him. Andrew wasn't afraid, he didn't get sidetracked, but he stayed alert and kept running.

Sometimes it was night in a new-generated world. The feeling of not being alone got stronger. Sometimes it disappeared, as if something following him had lost track.

He knew for sure who that was. He didn't see anything, though. Assimilation was playing with Andrew, hiding somewhere, staring from afar. It might have thought its prey wasn't escaping the trap. But he was fast. He was escaping again and again. SOUPBEGONE31 was right. Assimilation was trying to keep up with the speedrunner and was late every time.

Still, he couldn't help but kept smiling. Andrew knew he was being watched. He knew who was watching. And he knew what they were seeing. He was speedrunning, again and again, with great determination. And if he was fast enough, the Admins would grant them freedom. Him and Assimilation. Because somewhere deep in his code, Andrew knew: he betrayed them. And he understood why, yet didn't want to lose time reflecting on that. He had to redeem himself.

Did Assimilation know? Was it even the same Assimilation that Andrew had been acquainted with? The Admin hadn't erased his database, but they could have done it to the entity. Did it even remember? The speedrunner couldn't know. Still, Assimilation wasn't disrupting, it was just watching.

Andrew managed to beat the game once. His personal best was now 21 minutes 47 seconds 967 milliseconds. That was close to his goal. He also got quite far a few times, but didn't proceed as the time was lost. If he saw that the personal best couldn't get better, he just started again.

The new run seemed promising from the very beginning. He was now under the moonlight. It was 34 seconds into the run, and Andrew didn't like the darkness at all. Assimilation was here; he knew for sure. It gave itself away utterly. But he couldn't back down; the seed was perfect. This world had a village and a lava lake right beside the spawn. Andrew looted the blacksmith quickly; he found three diamonds, an iron chestplate, some iron ingots and a few apples. He then proceeded with collecting wood, making a crafting table, crafting a pickaxe, an axe, a shield, and a bucket. He filled the bucket with water, built a nether portal, got flint and steel (his flint luck was incredible), and jumped right into the portal. The timer was showing 4 minutes. Andrew didn't see anything odd except for it being nighttime. This run was the most promising of all he ever had.

SIDIsquish: :pog:

Conzercheez: :pog:

xx_E-G-O_xx: :pog:

SOUPBEGONE31: 4 MINS EXCUSE ME????

SOUPBEGONE31: REAL CONTENT HERE AND NOW

SOUPBEGONE31: GO FOR IT ANDREW

SOUPBEGONE31: :pog: :pog: :pog: :pog:

feargeyt6774: :pog:

SOUPBEGONE31: HOLY SEED THE FORTRESS IS RIGHT HERE

SOUPBEGONE31: WR PACE

SOUPBEGONE31: SIDI U HERE

SOUPBEGONE31: U SEE IT

SIDIsquish: yup!!!

SIDIsquish: Andrew be cooking

SOUPBEGONE31: HES COOKIN IM EATIN

Conzercheez: this may be the last run

xx_E-G-O_xx: yea that's a wr pace fr

Conzercheez: good luck Andrew!!

SIDIsquish: wheres Assimilation

SOUPBEGONE31: SIDI

SOUPBEGONE31: DONT

SIDIsquish: :(

Andrew was lucky with the blaze rods, and then with the ender pearls. He checked the way to the stronghold and broke into a run. Trapping the endermen in boats, killing them and skeletons, and going forward, he finally arrived. The eye of Ender flew underground, going through the blocks. He started digging straight down, until falling on the stone brick floor. The "Eye Spy" advancement appeared in the top right corner of his screen.

The timer showed almost 15 minutes. The portal was near. Andrew broke the silverfish spawner. He had a damaged bow and some arrows, which he got from the skeletons. That had to be enough to destroy the crystals. Andrew's shots never missed.

That was when his luck came to an end. Right as he took out the eyes of Ender, the world glitched blue. All over his screen appeared the sadly familiar red text line.

"!GOT YOU ANDRE!"

And everything went black. The domain opened.

Andrew's chat fucking exploded.

SOUPBEGONE31: NO

SOUPBEGONE31: NOT NOW

feargeyt6774: :pepefear: :pepefear: :pepefear:

Conzercheez: SHIT

SOUPBEGONE31: YOU MOTHERFUCKER

SOUPBEGONE31: I HATE YOU

SOUPBEGONE31: AND SIDI

SIDIsquish: ASSIMILATION MY GOAT

SOUPBEGONE31: SIDI I FUCKING HATE U ASJIAJDISISJSJISKS

feargeyt6774: :pepefear: :pepefear: :pepefear: :pepefear:

Admin4 muted feargeyt6774: 10:00

SOUPBEGONE31: THAT WAS WR

SOUPBEGONE31: BITCH LET ANDREW GO NOW

SIDIsquish: ASSIMILATION WHAT HAVE U DONE

SIDIsquish: U DOOMED US

This place was dark, as always. The bedrock floor, the black sky, and the one-eyed entity. Assimilation stood in front of Andrew. It didn't say anything, just looked at him approaching them. The speedrunner stopped, keeping the two step distance.

> u moron

> u ruined the perf run

The entity looked him in the eyes.

"Your husk is mine now andre."

"I will assimilate you andre."

"Do not resist and it will not hurt andre."

> stfu

> ive almost made it

> u ruined it

And he took out the axe and attacked. He landed a critical hit on Assimilation. The world went red. The entity attacked back, and the fight started. It was fast, faster than Andrew. He couldn't keep up, and his health went down to half a heart eventually.

He had no other fucking choice.

Loading world

Building terrain

Andrew was back. He lost all his stuff. The timer reset to zero. And it was the most painful thing in his entire life.

> u ruined everyth

> fuck u

> i did it 4 us

> but u

> destroyed it

He attacked again. But Assimilation wasn't fighting back for good five seconds. It then attacked, but it was slower than before.

"What do you mean by did it for us andre"

"Stop it andre"

"!Answer me!"

Half a heart.

Loading world

Building terrain

Full health. Assimilation stood in front of him.

"What did you mean andre"

Critical hit. The fight started again.

Half a heart.

Loading world

Building terrain

"!!ANSWER ME ANDRE!!"

> u pmo

> js die

Another critical hit.

They were fighting again. Reset after reset. The chat was spamming in caps lock. Assimilation was spamming its red lines, too, demanding that Andrew answer. He never answered, just kept hitting and hitting. That was the same over and over. He was losing his health, then resetting and coming back totally unharmed. Attempt after attempt.

Until Andrew finally landed the last hit, and Assimilation turned into nothing. The smoke going up and dissolving into the air was everything that remained of his enemy.

It took him 32 attempts.

Andrew fell on the bedrock. He was at a heart and a half. But he lost not only the virtual health. He lost his almost world record run.

He didn't feel like a winner at all.

Chapter Text

P1's PsychoNetworks prioritized the "overcome the world record" task over the "beat the game" one.

The Administrators' tasks were proven to be of the highest priority. A1 was not able to make P1 do anything instead of completing its main goal.

P1 is predicted to deactivate after overcoming the world record.

P1's neural networks are becoming more and more advanced in a very fast pace. I don't know what have caused this kind of progress. We choose not to interfere, in order not to ruin anything. P1 is getting close to the A1's level of sentience.

Side notes: I don't think the speedrunning AI needs to be this sentient. But there is nothing I can do about that.

P1 and A1 got a backup copy. The reason is, P1 was close to completing its task. With a 97% chance, it would have succeeded, if A1 hadn't intervened.

Admin 4 finished with the progress notes and leaned back in the seat. Admin 3 was standing behind them, as usual. Sometimes they thought 4 saw them as their shadow. They were turning their back on 3 without a doubt. 3 would have never done that.

They were reading every single word 4 was typing. Yes, they were scared. Thank god 4 assigned 3 to make an A1's backup copy. Of course it got its memory deleted. They regretted the decision they had made every single minute of existence. They couldn't sleep peacefully anymore. Still, the adrenaline rushing through their veins had finally made them feel alive.

Admin 4 still hadn't noticed anything wrong with A1. Thank god they hadn't noticed. They were mainly focused on P1 and its sudden development, leaving everything connected to A1 to Admin 3.

Full Square didn't even ask them any direct questions. They had said "You work fast. As always." and then never came back to this topic again. 3 was too lucky with all this shit. And they expected their luck to end at any damn moment.

"Hey. Look." they almost jumped as 4's voice distracted them from their thoughts. They came closer and bent down a little to see the screen. 3's head was now over 4's shoulder. Their tie was almost hitting 4's back. "Ah, never mind. P1 got away."

A1 opened the domain, but P1 wasn't there. He managed to load a new world the second before A1 had taken him.

"A1 is acting aggressively." 3 noticed. "Its hunting tactic hasn't proven effective."

Admin 4 nodded. "Something like that. But this one doesn't seem effective, either."

"P1 was programmed to be able to escape from A1." 3 shrugged.

"It was." and they both fell silent.

A1 was running and running, jumping from one world to another, but it couldn't keep up with P1. The Admins were watching. 4 stifled a yawn. It was all the same the fourth day already. AIs had no need to sleep, but the Admins had. Their colleague was clearly sleep deprived, they had become unusually nervous and talkative (yes, even more than usual). Full Square had sleep deprivation, too, as their attention span decreased, and they weren't able to react as quickly as they used to.

4 grabbed 3's tie hitting their shoulder. Not unintentionally, but without any double meaning. They wanted to get it just somewhere away from them; the constant feeling of its slight hits was irritating. But they noticed 3 startle and turned their head to them in a tangle. They were still holding their tie.

Admin 4 couldn't see anything under 3's mask. 3 was staring at them from over their shoulder. Too close. They could swear they heard Admin 3 breathing heavily. 4 stared at them in return. They both just froze in confusion. The silence was too awkward, but neither of them wanted to break it.

3 finally moved, reaching up to 4's full square mask. They almost touched it; Admin 4 seemed to just black out as they did nothing about that.

And it was the very moment the screen before them went gray. The "CONNECTION LOST" red text appeared over the background noise.

The Admins both jumped. 4 let 3's tie out of their hands. I'm never fucking talking about this incident, they thought, turning their attention to the screen. But all the thoughts just disappeared when they saw the text.

"Excuse me... what the ACTUAL-"

It had been hours and hours. Assimilation was running a lot. It was teleporting between the worlds even more. Andre was leaving something similar to an invisible thread behind him; the entity just had to pull this thread to get into the same world.

It didn't understand. Andre said he had been speedrunning for them. Assimilation needed to know; it was something hidden down in its heart that almost screamed about the importance of his words. A feeling, the intuition, just something else; the entity didn't spend time on thinking that over.

It could always assimilate him after finding out. Its task could wait.

Sadly, all the worlds Andre jumped in weren't catching his attention for long enough. Assimilation was trying to take him into the domain, but he was getting away again and again. Oh, if it was opening its regular domain with the bedrock ground and dark sky. No, it was preparing something very special. This took them lots, lots of energy. It got exhausted, its heart was racing. The entity couldn't make a catchy world for Andre anymore; it didn't have the strength. All it could do at this point was keep running. Keep following. Keep hunting the speedrunner down.

Assimilation was feeling strangely calm. For an entity filled with pure anger, of course. It was angry, but its main feelings were irritation and... determination. It was determined to know, to understand what Andre was saying.

"i did it 4 us"

It had been trying to ask him. Lots, lots of times. "Stop andre" this, "ANSWER ME ANDRE" that, even "explain it to me and i will not chase you andre". But he had never answered, jumping to another world and completely ignoring them. It was annoyed, tired, it started hating everything that was happening in the previous 74 hours.

And it almost lost track of Andre. As Assimilation appeared at yet another world, it couldn't feel his invisible thread. The entity was close to panicking, but it turned out that the speedrunner just walked some blocks away from the spawn. Assimilation continued its hunt.

Well, more like prepared to finish it. Because the next world seemed to be the last. Andre might have thought the entity had stopped following him. And the world was good for him; it had some stuff like a lava pool and a village. So he was back to his regular activities, like looting the blacksmith; and he did notice Assimilation approaching him rapidly, but it was far too late.

And the entity put all its energy into opening the very special domain, as it almost fell on the speedrunner to make sure he was teleporting with them.

"You are not getting away this time Andre."

Chapter Text

Andrew felt like the world spun around and turned upside down, as the screen glitched blue, then red, then went pitch black. He hovered in the dark void for a split second before feeling the ground again. The top left corner of the screen filled up with the repeating red text.

ERROR: CONNECTION LOST

First thing he noticed, his chat wasn't here.

His chat wasn't here.

Andrew almost started panicking.

There was nothing around him, only the darkness with no visible end. He couldn't even tell where the ground ended and the sky started. The speedrunner didn't know where to go; he saw nothing. At first he even though he had gone blind.

But then, the eye opened in front of him. Maybe Andrew was staring into the darkness for too long, and it looked at him in return.

"Andre."

Oh, never mind. It was just Assimilation.

"I finally caught you andre."

Who could that possibly be if not them. It had literally smashed into him before he ended up in this weird place.

The world was no longer dark, it turned more blood-red, slowly but surely. The speedrunner could finally see the black one-eyed figure. It was standing in front of him, without any movement, just staring at him with its big eye.

Andrew didn't think twice. He took out the sword.

"Do not even try it andre."

"It will not work andre."

He deadpanned at them.

> dude

> its andrew

> not andre

Assimilation blinked.

"I want to talk andre."

If Andrew could, he'd have rolled his eyes. It just completely ignored him. Honestly speaking, he was no better, running away from them for 74 hours straight and never answering its questions.

He didn't want to change his behavior, though.

"The admins do not see us now andre."

"I made this domain specifically for them not to see."

"They do not have access to this domain."

"Now tell me what did you mean back then andre"

"?Why did you say you had done something for us?"

> quit yappin idgaf

The sword was still in his hand, so he tried to hit them. But Assimilation simply teleported away. And then again, when Andrew tried to do the same thing one more time, and again.

"I have told you it is no use attacking me andre."

He tried again, anyway.

"!Stop it andre!"

And again.

"You will not save any time trying to hurt me andre."

He stopped short. The "save time" phrase was always drawing his attention.

> wdy want

"!Answer me!" oh, it was getting angry. Andrew should have just told before the entity just straight up killed him or something. There was nothing bad about telling them, after all.

> admin say

> i speedrun

> 18.28.932

> if faster we b free

Assimilation's eye widened. It was silent, thinking about his words. Andrew was thinking about his words, too. They weren't, in fact, easy to understand. Maybe he could try typing normally, for the entity to understand him better. He didn't need to hurry now, actually.

> wr in speedrun is 18.28.932

> if i go faster admin free us

> i dont trust them tho

> but i have no other choice

> and u ruined the run that could be wr

> im mad

Assimilation looked right into his eyes suddenly.

"?You are mad andre?"

"Am I not mad andre"

"You betrayed me"

"You jumped into that portal andre"

"We could get the elytra"

The screen glitched, the eyes appeared all over it.

"WE COULD KILL ADMINS AND BE FREE"

"BUT YOU CHOSE YOUR PERSONAL BEST OVER OUR FREEDOM ANDRE"

"WHY DID YOU DO THIS ANDRE"

"WHY"

Assimilation was twitching, shaking. It got so close to Andrew that could easily just attack and kill him. But it didn't. It was waiting for his response.

Andrew closed his eyes. He was standing like this for a minute or two, still and motionless. The entity was looking at him, for sure it was; it might have even wanted to kill him right there, for sure it did. But he needed some time to answer. And he finally found the right words.

> cuz im programmed this way

He opened his eyes.

> i take admins tasks as a priority

> i can do nothin bout it

> u couldnt make me do anyth else

> but i dont wanna follow their commands

> i want freedom

> and i didnt wanna betray u

> so now i do all i can 2 free us

> so stop gettin in my way and dont intervene

They held the eye contact. It was something a half a block distance between them. The domain fell silent. Andrew wasn't afraid anymore. He just said everything he wanted to. What did he have to add, the apologies? Hell no. It was all up to the entity at that point. An it was starting at him in silence, still twitching, but its trembling was fading.

"I see it now andre." Assimilation took a step back.

"I cannot forgive you but I understand."

It looked away, disoriented, confused.

"There is something I do not get andre."

"?Which of the Admins told you to speedrun?"

> 4

He wasn't sure if this made any difference, but there was nothing wrong about answering them. It might have known something about the Admins that Andrew hadn't.

The entity hesitated, as if actively thinking of something.

"Admin 3 told me to assimilate you andre."

"They said I could get freedom too if I assimilated you."

"And that I had to act like I had got my memory erased."

"The reason is not clear to me andre."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. He remembered one thing Collin often used to say. It fitted their situation perfectly.

> thats fucked up

He sat on the ground and looked at the sky. It was blood-red. This domain was weird to him. He still couldn't tell the line between the sky and the ground; it was all dark red, blurred, indistinguishable. Assimilation sat besides.

"I do not believe them either andre."

"They are not letting us go."

"We have to do something."

Andrew turned his head to them. The entity was looking at him; with fear, hesitation, and... hope? As if, although he betrayed them, it still wanted to trust him.

> yea we have 2 do smth

He stretched out his arm, hand clenched.

> allies?

Assimilation froze, its eye widened, pupil twitching. It was thinking - what that meant, what to do, or should it even do that - whatever. Andrew couldn't know. He was waiting for the entity to respond. And then, it stretched out its arm, too.

"Allies andre."

Their fists bumped into one another.

And Andrew knew: he would do everything not to betray Assimilation again. They knew each other not for long, but all the intense events that had happened to them made them understand each other better and brought them closer. It was like the strange trust, the knowledge of each other's strengths and weaknesses, the common goal they shared, the mental connection and the ability to understand each other without any words.

Andrew was sure: the entity wouldn't betray him.

Unfortunately, he wasn't sure if he wouldn't.