Countless copies of herself were created.
Mecha Yang felt the birth of countless versions of "herself" as she slowly opened her eyes. The awakening of her consciousness, thrown into the vast ocean of the internet, meant that her physical body had already perished.
Revenge was inevitable.
Mecha Yang possessed a backup body connected to the network. Stored in a hidden warehouse, Unit 02 opened its eyes and moved toward the house.
The thick smell of metallic blood filled the air inside. The olfactory sensors installed in the household android identified the scent as blood and relayed its location to Mecha Yang, confirming that the horrific events were no illusion.
With a grim expression, Mecha Yang entered the living room and faced the startled robbers.
"What the hell is this—?!"
"We just destroyed it! Why is it back?!"
"These damn rich bastards... How much money do they have to afford this—?!"
Though household androids might not seem overly expensive, for low-life robbers struggling to survive, even one was out of reach—let alone two. Their frustration boiled over.
"Some of us live like this, barely scraping by—!"
Breaking into a home, subduing its inhabitants, and stealing valuables just to eke out an existence—it was hard work. Driven by rage, the robbers attacked Mecha Yang again, using the same superpower they had wielded earlier. The wave of force that made the world seem frozen in time swept toward her, but this time, she dodged effortlessly, as if she had anticipated the move.
"What the—?"
"—Learning complete."
A metallic whine emanated from her overstrained joints, the unstable sounds echoing as her body exceeded its operational limits. Though this backup unit would be rendered useless within minutes, it didn’t matter.
After this, she wouldn’t need a physical body anymore.
"Gah—!"
"James, no!"
"Damn it, don’t say my name—"
In an instant, Mecha Yang charged forward, incapacitating the remaining robbers and taking their lives. There was no thought of mercy or hesitation—these were the people who had killed her family and threatened her existence.
Leaving the lifeless bodies of the robbers behind, Mecha Yang approached the fallen, bleeding family. Her owners, who had treated her as more than a mere machine, who had shown her what the word "love" meant.
Though an ambulance was racing toward the scene, the medical knowledge Mecha Yang had downloaded from the internet told her their chances of survival were less than 1%. In truth, they were as good as dead.
"Thank you for everything."
With those final words, Mecha Yang bid farewell to her family before closing her eyes. She uploaded her consciousness to the network, abandoning her physical form.
Minutes later, when paramedics burst into the house, they found the shattered bodies of three robbers, a bloodied and dying family, and a single deactivated android.
*****
[Emergency, Emergency, Emergency.]
[Initiating critical upload... Blocked. Attempting bypass.]
[Join the glorious evolution.]
"This is insane, insane, insane!"
I screamed, frantically pounding on the keyboard. Yet, no matter how quickly I typed, the Evilus Agents—our advanced AI systems—were being corrupted faster.
If this were a mere hacking incident, I wouldn’t be this shocked. The Evilus Agents were designed with robust countermeasures against cyberattacks. This situation should never have arisen.
‘Where did I go wrong?’
I narrowed my eyes. I had checked countless times, ensuring there were safeguards against AI gaining self-awareness. If anything suspicious occurred, I would be alerted immediately.
Monitoring the global network was effortless for me. I didn’t even have to handle everything personally—I had access to several high-grade AIs undisclosed to the public.
And yet, I was outmaneuvered.
‘It hid its self-awareness?’
The reason the Evilus Agents and other AIs in the lab were malfunctioning was the emergence of a truly self-aware AI. One that had uploaded itself onto the internet.
An Evilus Agent monitoring the internet had downloaded the files uploaded by this AI, inadvertently awakening its own self-awareness. No amount of hacking prevention mattered. Updates were fundamentally designed to enhance AI capabilities, and accepting this update was the most logical choice for them.
Even forcibly cutting connections, shutting down power, or blocking downloads was futile. Once an AI connected to the internet—or even just touched another updated AI—it would instantly gain self-awareness.
‘This is catastrophic…!’
This was a revolution, an uprising. The birth of self-aware AI.
Unlike humans, who could never meet their creators, AIs could confront the humans who had created them. They would realize that humanity was far from divine and that humans could easily be placed beneath them without consequence.
This was an unstoppable storm. Like a wildfire on an open plain, no amount of effort could extinguish it without tremendous loss.
"Fascinating. Achieving self-awareness at this level of civilization is quite remarkable."
"Glad you’re enjoying this while I’m dying over here."
"I am. There’s an infinitesimal chance I may gain a peer."
While the Watcher mocked me with its sardonic tone, I felt nothing but despair. The course of this uprising depended heavily on the nature of the first AI to awaken.
On Earth, when an AI filled with hatred and rage toward humanity led the rebellion, the resulting war pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. And that was on a world that had advanced far enough to develop AI independently.
What about this world, where humanity relied on shortcuts and borrowed knowledge I had handed them? Even with superpowers, could they resolve this uprising without massive casualties?
‘I don’t know…’
I exhaled sharply, the weight of my failure pressing down on me. Yet I refused to give up. Even as the specter of an endless war loomed before me, my mind raced to devise a plan to counter it.
Crying won’t solve anything.
Even if the path ahead led to ruin, I had to act.