Story Creation Challenge 3: First story is out!

 

This was supposed to be ready by April but it was more frustrating and challenging I thought. I only managed to finish this challenge (there were two more left) quite recently. I will finish the rest if I have time. The first challenge that this post will be touching on involves collaborating with an artificially intelligent algorithm to write a story.

Part 1: How does AI Dungeon work?

Have you ever played Dungeons And Dragons before? It is a multiplayer role-playing tabletop adventure game where the Dungeon Master (or the gamemaster) sets the context and the basic rules for the game and the other players create their own characters and stories. Everyone has to work together to build on each other’s story and have a great time living out their character’s lives in a fantasy world.

AI Dungeon, a text-based role-playing game app is basically a more technologically advanced spinoff from that classic tabletop game. Now, the Dungeon Master is a massive natural language AI model, and you are playing with yourself. AI Dungeon generates the story and results of the player’s actions in this virtual world. Unlike virtually every other game in existence, players are not limited by the imagination of the developer in what you can do. Anything you can express in language can be your action and the AI dungeon master will decide how the world responds.

As I am using the free version of the app, it runs a Griffin model AI. It offers a more advanced Dragon model for the premium one. I have tried writing some stories with it and it looked promising and fun. I am relying on the unpredictable responses given by the artificial intelligence program to fuel my storymaking creativity!

Here is a video to demonstrate how the game works:

Part 2: Writing my first story

An unknown story genre that I am attempting to build an adventure upon, combined with an AI that I cannot use well, is a recipe for disaster. My first story on AI Dungeon brought me unparalleled frustration. I felt like I was talking to someone with dementia - even after reminding the AI what I did input into the system, the story would not get anywhere. The whole narrative became really incoherent.

The following story was partially generated by the AI according to the cyberpunk genre. I made a lot of edits so that it will at least make sense and flow a bit, but the story itself is really perplexing and I don’t seem to be going anywhere with the plot. Following the format of the AI Dungeon game, everything except for the dialogues is expressed in the present tense. To make the ending clearer, I used past tense for the last sentence of the story.

Legend for the edited story.

🤖 = whatever the AI generated

👤 = what I typed into the game

✏️ = the edits I made while preparing for this post

Edited story

🤖 You are Hifiler, a cyborg living in the the futuristic city of Zail. You have a bionic arm and a holoband. You're walking down the dark city streets while neon lights flash brightly above you. As you pass an alley you see a man crouched against the wall. He has a back-pack and is holding a glowing cross out in front of him.

You stop for a moment to watch him.

The man is praying.

👤> You say "Sir, who are you praying to?"

🤖You wait for a moment and the man finishes his prayer with a nod. You ask again, "Who are you praying to?"

🤖The man turns slowly and stares at you.

👤> You say "Oh, I am sorry to interrupt your prayer. My name is Hifiler, a cyborg, and I was wondering what you were doing."

🤖The man steps towards you and his hand drops to his dagger.

🤖"Who are you?" he asks harshly.

🤖"I am Hifiler, a cyborg."

✏️The man seems to be in a trance. He is praying so intently only to be interrupted by me. You cannot blame him for being aggressive so you repeat your self-introduction to him.

👤> You say "I mean no harm, I am just curious about what the cross means to you and who is the subject of your prayer.” 

🤖✏️“I won't do anything to you, and I am saying nothing to you. You can turn away and leave. I shall not pursue you."

🤖The man steps back slowly and lifts his hand away from his weapon.

✏️You remain where you were, expectant of an answer. He sneers, seeing that you weren’t going to leave him alone. He resumes what he was doing.

🤖"I am searching for the Creator, because I have a question for Him."

👤> You say "Do you mind if I ask what question you have for Him?"

🤖"I'm going to kill you, you mechanical abomination."

✏️”Mechanical abomination?” you parrot. You have heard of it vaguely before. The holoband swiftly transmitted an answer in front of your eyes:

✏️” ‘Mechanical abomination’ is a derogatory term used by the anti-cyborg faction to refer to cyborgs. The anti-cyborg faction is mainly made up of religious people, those with a phobia of modern technology and artificial things and conservatives. They believe that using technology to artificially modify our bodily functions goes against the natural order of things and are skeptical of the benefits from using such technology outweighing the problems arising from its usage…”

🤖The man readies his dagger and charges at you. You step to the side and send a roundhouse kick that slams into his chest.

👤> You say "Woah, that was dangerous there. Are you hurt? I am sorry if my existence is the antithesis to your religious beliefs, but I just want everyone to get along well."

✏️As with many other places in this technologically advanced world, Zail has little regard for laws and regulations because they can no longer catch up with the spiralling development of technology, especially with regards to artificial intelligence. In most cases, might makes right, leading to a technological arms race where any kind of war can have disastrous consequences for humanity.

✏️After you dominate the man through force, he looks at you fearfully with bulging eyes.

🤖The man looks at you. "Why are you so fixated on the Creator?"

🤖✏️"I believe the world can be a lovely place if people only put in the effort," you say, “Thus I wanted to ask the Creator whether a path exists for cyborgs and all kinds of beings to walk down together.”

✏️ You repress what you originally meant to say: “I never wanted to become a cyborg, if not for the Creator who abandoned me.”

👤> You say "If you can understand who the Creator is, you can surely gain a deeper understanding of the way you think of you cyborgs, even if it is only just a little bit. With this knowledge, I hope to find a middle point between your doctrine and my beliefs so as to facilitate our coexistence."

🤖You pace back and forth in front of the man. 

✏️Eventually, you calm down a little. “That was dangerous, I should not have gotten so worked up,” you reproach yourself in your mind. After all, those who follow the Creator were divided. Revealing one’s identity and beliefs prematurely to someone else before finding them trustworthy may lead to one’s downfall.

🤖"This God, is he similar to the one you worship?"

🤖"We worship one God, not many gods," the man says.

✏️His answer makes it clear that he is one of those monotheistic believers of the Creator. In other words, his beliefs and mind were along the same lines.

👤> You say "What kind of entity is this God?"

🤖✏️The man looks at you. "You're going to have to enlighten me about some things first if we are going to go through this discussion."

👤> You say "Sure, what do you want to know from me?"

🤖"What is your relationship with this Creator?"

✏️You wear a serious look on your face and answer,

🤖"I was made by Him."

🤖He pauses. "That's... that's it?"

✏️He is bewildered. Not that I can blame him for it. My claim means that I had contact with the Creator in the flesh (or maybe in the metal if He resembled more closely to a robot). On the other hand, in the community of those who believe and follow Him, His existence is in the form of ideologies. It takes the shape of a will rather than appearing as an individual.

🤖"It is as much as I'm able to tell you."

✏️The Creator. It is a subject that cannot be discussed casually. Too many mysteries and controversies surrounded Him since Creationism evolved into a religion at the dawn of the Human Population Crisis, so I cannot divulge any knowledge I have about Him. I dared to reveal my relationship only because I was confident in besting this man physically.

👤> You wait for his response.

🤖The man looks at the sky. "There's a full moon tonight, are you able to speak under its light?"

✏️Only those involved in the Creator and have read of the Creationistic Scriptures will know of this password challenge.

🤖✏️"Yes, for the light leads me to Him."

🤖He leads you to a stone bench and you both sit down.

👤✏️> You say "Who is the Creator to you? Do you believe that I am His creation?"

🤖"Why do you need to know?"

🤖"I am curious."

🤖You pause and think carefully about your next words.

👤✏️> You continue "The reason why I am so insistent about asking is because I think that this religion can be really unfair.” 

“We can just force our thoughts over to an imaginary higher power and that is okay. But doing it to other mortals isn't.”

“We wish for all the good things and want that higher power to help us handle the more unpleasant, difficult and terrible things in life. Just because He created us, can we lose our ownership of ourselves? No! These kinds of things we push to another entity is precisely what we need for us to be ourselves.”

✏️You say this spitefully, because you are a victim of this.

🤖✏️The man stares at you. "You talk as if your life is about whether it belongs to you or a higher being. And if we could do everything on our own, we would all be the Creator."

✏️In the world depicted by the Creationistic Scriptures, the concept of dying does not exist. When all living and non-living creations have served their purpose, any maintenance of their form and function will cease and they will be recreated into another entity that would make them useful again in the grand scheme of things that play out in the universe.

👤✏️> You say "Is it not, for we are created in the image of the Creator? What is your perspective on this?"

✏️After sensing his bewilderment when you told him about me being His creation, you decide to put things in a less straightforward way and refer more to the Scriptures so that you could make the man talk more. As you do so, you try to guide the conversation in a discussion between seeing Creationism from a more individualistic or a more pious standpoint.

🤖✏️"Does it not follow that a mortal life is the same as any other? They are all made by the Creator."

🤖✏️"The Creator made life, so He can end it. Not us. We don’t have the right to do that."

👤> You say "But have you not heard of mortals getting special treatment, ascending to become righteous servants of God? Or even contemplated that our religion may be something more whimsical than we think, since it can be a product of Man's imagination?"

✏️You have yet to grasp the full extent of the being known as the “Creator”. However, since you do not exclusively follow the Scriptures to inform your beliefs, You are more open to other theories and possibilities surrounding the issues addressed by Creationism.

🤖"If it were, why would the Creator need to kill anyone for His plan to succeed?"

✏️You can tell that he was referencing the Novosk Rebellion. In the Scriptures, the rebellion was motivated by the wars and other ills that many creations brought about. The rebels cited how advancements in technology would lead to more resources drying up through their pollution and exploitation. The Creator declared that these problems were necessary and part of what we needed to learn to manage our creations, while standing by and letting nature take its course was not a constructive means of solving our pressing issues like rearing more humans. Through his insistence in reasoning with the lines from the Scriptures, he completely ignored your hypothesis about the Creationistic faith being fabricated by a person. 

🤖✏️The man stands up and recites, "If you want to know more, you'll have to seek your answers from the Creator."

🤖> You say "How do I ask Him? Do I have to hold a cross and think about Him in my mind?"

✏️Your faith in Creationism was based on more individualistic and realistic ideals, so you really have no idea how people like this man would communicate with their Creator.

The man opens the bag and takes out a book. "This is a manual of how to talk to Him. Hopefully it will help."

🤖He hands it to you.

🤖”Open the pages of the book and peruse it's contents until you understand it.”

🤖"Thank you for the information," you say.

🤖✏️The man looks down. He returns to clasping his cross devoutly and seems to be focused on something. Soon, the cross lit up again, just like how it had been the first time you met him.

✏️You run through what you learnt about the man with the holoband. He is important to you after all. If you do this right, he can become an important piece in your plan of reforming Creationism. To find out how you could make use of him and his beliefs, you have to figure out what he wanted. 

✏️Unlike you, he does not think of the Creator as a single entity, but a set of ideologies that were bound together in the Scriptures. He is a devout follower of this set of ideologies and adheres to the words of the Creator, in contrast with your rebellious nature as well as your disgust with the Creator and His followers. 

✏️You connect this with the growing rift between what is promised in the Scripture to help propagate human beings and the dismal population growth rates around the world today to realise that most adherents of Creationism are like this man - they are lost and want to find out how to right things back to what they are supposed to be in the Scriptures. 

✏️There is a lot of press coverage on this. “Pretty depressing, ” one of the Creationist who were interviewed said.

🤖✏️The man asks you what you have learnt, and whether it has helped you to understand the question he wanted to ask about.

🤖"I have asked you what you asked," you say.

🤖The man pauses.

🤖He's angry you guessed correctly.

✏️“Why is he not happy that someone has finally understood his thoughts?” you wonder. You hypothesise that this man based his identity on a branch of Creationism and used it to inflate his ego.

👤> You say "Why are you angry? Is it that embarrassing to want to be more intimate with the Creator, to whom we owe our lives?"

🤖The man's eyes blaze.

🤖"Are you mocking me?" he asks. "I will have no more of this."

✏️You found that you are right after all. At Zail, science and technology became so highly developed that they can outdo humans in almost everything that humans are proud of. Hence, it is difficult for a person to think so highly of himself like the man unless there was an influential religion like Creationism to back him up.

🤖He pulls out his knife and stabs you in the hand.

✏️You are horrified. Staring at the knife and his blood stained hands with wide-open, trembling eyes, you say with a quivering voice, “You are a lunatic… That goes against Creationism… You… How dare you…”

👤✏️> You try to compose yourself, but you feel a rage explode in your head so violently that you turn dizzy. Emphasising every word, you furiously exclaim, "Whatever happened to your mortal life being the same as any other?!"

🤖✏️He gives you a contemptuous grin and does not stop what he is doing. He presses the knife into your hand and slices open your palm.

🤖✏️"This is your blood," he says, admiring his handiwork "it is the same as any others."

✏️Your blood races and your pulse quickens upon hearing this line. Hailing from the inner circle of true Creationism, you have been briefed on such a line for more times than you can count. 

✏️You mutter a few curses as you realise how wrong you were. You wanted to make use of him, seeing how he was unable to resist you. However, you are now awoken to the fact that he belongs from a dangerous extremist faction called Vahanism that appropriated Creationism to justify its own radical beliefs.

✏️At the core of the Vahanism ideology is the significance of destruction. “Creation and Destruction are both sides of the same coin. Human nature is to weep what has been lost, regret what has been gone and learn to cherish what has been taken away. For everything that comes into existence, the price must be paid with the loss of something else.” 

✏️Based on this and many other ideas that are flimsily built upon this core, the Vahanists have no qualms destroying anything and any life to further their aims. They can only see destruction as the most effective way of resolving things. Asides from being straightforward, the destruction gives the perpetrator a primal, blasphemic pleasure that is unlike any other feeling a human possesses.

👤✏️> You say cautiously "Are you going to take my life?"

✏️You force yourself to forget your ability to subdue this man since you need to be wary of anything hidden, now that he revealed himself as a dangerous person.

🤖✏️"Not unless you ask me to," he says in a menacing tone.

✏️You infer that he is ready to end you if you do not listen to him and do what he says. You have to be obedient to him and live to tell the story, so that your brothers and sisters in the inner circle can avoid the same fate and continue with the reforming of Creationism.

🤖✏️He slices your other hand and pours the blood into a cup. To be exact, the blood poured itself into the shape of a cup as if a mold was present. It happened when there were multiple small sparks surrounding his hand, which caused the blood to coagulate and take the shape of a cup. You are shocked. You have never seen this sort of power before.

✏️It hurts so much that you want to flinch from the pain. However, fearing that the man will come for your life next, you force yourself to keep still and let out a deep breath.

🤖"Drink," he says.

👤> You say "Why? What does that have to do with the Creator?"

🤖The man shrugs. "What does it matter?"

🤖✏️You raise an eyebrow, feeling slightly annoyed.

🤖"It's your cup. You drink from it," he answers cryptically.

🤖✏️You lift the cup to your lips and drink. The cool cup made of blood melts in your mouth.

🤖The blood tastes disgusting. You are so revolted by it that you threw up.

🤖The man looks gleefully at you.

🤖✏️"You see? Even the drinker of mortal blood is disgusted by it," he says, making his contempt of Creationism obvious. "Now, tell me, what was the question?"

👤✏️> You say “Hmm, is it why you are so twisted and how you can rid yourself of such evil thoughts?” You tried your best to be witty so that the man would loosen his guard and not do anything dangerous. However, the man does not seem to be amused.

🤖✏️"I don't know," you say resignedly.

🤖✏️In my defence, you add, "The funny thing about you is, you don't even know why you do some of the things you do."

🤖✏️"Well, what do I do next?" The man smirks menacingly as he asks himself.

👤✏️> You say "Why bother wasting your energy on doing something you have no thought of?" You cannot understand what is going through the man’s mind and this frustrates you. However, you think of the manual the man gave you and realised that your questions are related to what the man is seeking.

🤖✏️"What? You want me to stop time?" The man raises his voice. “Stopping time” is a nice way that Vahanism believers use to talk about their destruction of something, because in their beliefs, destroying something is the only way to stop the flow of time on it. In other words, he is trying to threaten you with your destruction.

🤖✏️"No." You say with a blank face, watching the man as you wait for him to cool down.

🤖✏️"Then what the hell is it that you want?"

👤> You say "I want to understand you better. I've got a feeling that you think in extreme ways. What do you think?"

🤖"About what?"

🤖✏️"Well, about Vahanism, for one." You decide to tell him about your concerns honestly.

🤖✏️The man laughs with a cold, depressing sound.

🤖"Ah, yes. I see where you're going with that...."

👤> You say "So just to confirm, your question is about why there are things that you do but don't even know the purpose of?"

🤖"Yes."

[deleted]

✏️”Can you tell me what is happening now?”

🤖"Fair enough," he answers.

🤖✏️You listen to his story. He mentions about not having any memory up to the point he came out of a building. His body is mysteriously moving by itself, controlled by some unknown force. After that, he will be plagued by a horrific voice in his head, telling him to destroy everything and end everything. He wears a horrified expression on his face. After his dark, heavy story, he added, “But there is one way to save myself.”

🤖✏️You ask, “What is it?” but the man continues speaking while looking you in the eye, completely ignorant of your question. His eyes begin to gleam and his voice turns into a creepy electronic voice as he says, "My name is Tomas, what's yours?"

🤖✏️Before you can answer, he answers himself, "Sebastian."

🤖"I see. Sebastian, why do you ask these questions?"

🤖"Curiosity."

🤖"Ah. I see."

✏️After “Tomas’s” monologue, you feel a power surge into your body. Your mind goes blank and you can feel yourself falling to the ground. Your bionic arm tries to resist with its superhuman strength but is overwhelmed by that supernatural power. Then, everything went dark...

[deleted]

END

Original story (please be warned that many parts will not make sense)

You are Hifiler, a cyborg living in the the futuristic city of Zail. You have a bionic arm and a holoband. You're walking down the dark city streets while neon lights flash brightly above you. As you pass an alley you see a man crouched against the wall. He has a back-pack and is holding a glowing cross out in front of him.

You stop for a moment to watch him.

The man is praying.

> You say "Sir, who are you praying to?"

You wait for a moment and the man finishes his prayer with a nod. You ask again, "who are you praying to"

The man turns slowly and stares at you.

> You say "Oh, I am sorry to interrupt your prayer. My name is Hifiler, a cyborg, and I was wondering what you were doing."

The man steps towards you and his hand drops to his dagger.

"Who are you?" he asks harshly.

"I am Hifiler, a cyborg. Do you need assistance?"

> You say "I mean no harm, you are just curious about what the cross meant to you and who is the subject of your prayer. 

I won't do anything to you. If you do not want to speak to me, you can turn away and leave, and I shall not pursue you."

The man steps back slowly and lifts his hand away from his weapon.

"What is your business?" he asks.

"I am searching for the Creator, because I have a question for Him."

> You say "Do you mind if I ask what question you have for Him?"

"I'm going to kill you, you mechanical abomination."

The man readies his dagger and charges at you. You step to the side and send a roundhouse kick that slams into his chest.

> You say "Woah that was dangerous there. Are you hurt?

I am sorry if my existence is the antithesis to your religious beliefs, but I just want everyone to get along well."

The man looks at you. "Why are you so fixated on the Creator?"

"The world can be a lovely place if people only put in the effort," you say.

> You say "If you can understand who the Creator is, you can surely gain a deeper understanding of the way you think of you cyborgs, even if it is only just a little bit.

With this knowledge, I hope to find a middle point between your doctrine and my beliefs so as to facilitate our coexistence."

You pace back and forth in front of the man. "This God, is he similar to the one you worship?"

"We worship one God, not many gods," the man says.

> You say "What kind of an entity is this God?"

The man looks at you. "You're going to have to enlighten me if we are going to go through this discussion."

> You say "Sure, what do you want to know from me?"

"What is your relationship with this Creator?"

"I was made by Him."

He pauses. "That's... that's it?"

"It is as much as I'm able to tell you."

> You waits for his response.

The man looks at the sky. "There's a full moon tonight, are you able to speak under its light?"

"Yes."

He leads you to a stone bench and you both sit down.

> You say "Who is the Creator to you? Does it happen to be the same as what I told you?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"I am curious."

You pause and think carefully about your next words.

> You say "The reason why you are so insistent about asking is because you think that religion can be really unfair. 

We can just force your thoughts over to an imaginary higher power and that is okay. Doing it to other mortals isn't.

We wish for all the good thinks and want that higher power to help us handle the more unpleasant, difficult and terrible things in life. But these kind of things we push to another entity is precisely what we need for us to be ourselves."

The man stares at you. "You talk as if your life is a human's to live or not live."

> You say "Is it not? What is your perspective on this?"

"Does it not follow that a mortal life is the same as any other?"

"The Creator made life, He can end it. Not us."

> You say "But have you not heard of mortals ascending to become righteous servants of God? Or even contemplated that our religion might be something more whimsical than we think, since it can be a product of Man's imagination?"

"If it were, why would the Creator need to kill anyone for His plan to succeed?"

The man stands up. "If you want to know more, you'll have to seek your answers from the Creator."

> You say "How do I ask Him? Do I have to hold a cross and think about Him in my mind?"

The man opens the bag and takes out a book. "This is a manual of how to talk to Him. Hopefully it will help."

He hands it to you.

Open the pages of the book and peruse it's contents until you understand it.

"Thank you for the information," you say.

The man looks down.

The man asked you what you have learnt, and whether it helped you to understand the question he wanted to ask about.

"I have asked you what you asked," you say.

The man pauses.

He's angry you guessed correctly.

> You say "Why are you angry? Is it that embarrassing to want to be more intimate with the Creator, to whom we owe our lives?"

The man's eyes blaze.

"Are you mocking me?" he asks. "I will have no more of this."

He pulls out his knife and stabs you in the hand.

> You say "Whatever happened to your a mortal life being the same as any other?!"

He presses the knife into your hand and slices open your palm.

"This is your blood," he says, "it is the same as any other's."

> You say "Are you going to take my life?"

"Not unless you ask me to."

He slices your other hand and pours the blood into a cup.

"Drink," he says.

> You say "Why? What does that Ive to do with the Creator?"

The man shrugs. "What does it matter?"

You raise an eyebrow.

"It's your cup. You drink from it," he answers cryptically.

You lift the cup to your lips and drink.

The blood tastes disgusting. You are so revolted by it that you threw up.

The man looks gleefully at you.

"You see? Even the drinker of mortal blood is disgusted by it," he says. "Now, tell me, what was the question?"

> You why are you so twisted and how can you rid yourself of such evil thoughts?

"I don't know," you say.

"The funny thing about you is, you don't even know why you do some of the things you do."

"Well, what do I do next?"

> You say "Why bother on wasting your energy on doing something you have no thought of?"

"What? You want me to cease time?"

"No."

"Then what the hell is it that you want?"

> You say "I want to understand you better. I've got a feeling that you think in extreme ways. What do you think?"

"About what?"

"Well, about vampirism, for one."

The man laughs, a cold, depressing sound.

"Ah, yes. I see where you're going with that...."

> You say "So just to confirm, your question is about why there are things that you do but don't even know the purpose of?"

"Yes."

"Good. You're not off the hook though, now ask me why I did what I did."

"Fair enough," he answers.

You listen on to his story...

"My name is Tomas, what's yours?"

"Sebastian."

"I see. Sebastian, why do you ask these questions?"

"Curiosity."

"Ah. I see."

> You clarifies that your name is Hifiler.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know. I mean, I already know what happened, but I want to know what it is you think happened."

> You feel frustrated that the conversation is not going anywhere.

"Are you going to just continue to ignore me, or are you going to tell me what happened?" you ask.

"I don't see why it should matter to you what happened."

> You it does. It bothers you when you have no knowledge of something that you can potentially make use of later in life.

Tomas laughs.

"What's so funny?" you ask.

"Your obsession with what happened."

"Well, if you don't know then why should I?"

"Because it's interesting?"

> You say "???"

"Because I find it to be an obsession, just like you find vampirism interesting. Now, please, ask me what happened."

> You say "I won't!"

Tomas's grin slowly fades, and his eyebrows furrow.

"You will," he says. "Or I'll do something."

"Do you always resort to threats?" you ask, annoyed.

> You say "You have cut me once, what else do you still want from me?"

A smirk appears on Tomas's face.

"That won't protect you from me," he says, before laughing.

"Well then, we're even."

> You say "Huh? Even?"

"Sure. It doesn't matter. Now, what did you want to know?"

> You say "About the Creator "

"Ah, the Creator. What do you want to know?"

"What do you know of him?"

> You why do you know whether he exists?

"Everyone knows about him. He created us. But he abandoned us, leaving us to the mercy of the viruses. Perhaps he grew tired of his handiwork."

"Why do you think he did it?"

> You look at him inquisitively, wondering how there could be a higher power that would bear to abandon its hard work.

"If you're referring to God, I believe..." Tomas begins,

> You listen on.

"... if we had a Creator, he was probably just as insane as the viruses he created."

"Why do you think he did it?"

"What?" Tomas asks in confusion.

> You say "There must be some use for these creations, right?"

"I've never thought about it," Tomas admits.

"Why do you?"

"I'm curious."

"About what?"

You think for a second.

"About you, for one."

The conversation grows cyclical. Tired of all the hubris surrounding Tomas' cryptic answers to your questions, you get up from the bench and continued your way through the dark city streets.

"Wait! Sebastian! Sebastian wait!"

You hear him calling to you, but it's not with anticipation for more questions. This is bad.

> You say "I said, for the thousandth time, that my name is Hifiler. Not Sebastian. I would want to be called "Sebastian" but cyborgs have their own naming rules, so I cannot let you indulge in your name-calling or I will get in trouble with the law."

Tomas' demeanor changes immediately, looking scared.

"Sebastian? The name Sebastian is not in your naming code?"

"No. Now, I have work to do, so good day."

> You walk away from him.

You begin walking away quickly, not looking back. You can imagine his feet puffing into the air as he runs after you. If you had to guess, your guess is he's chasing you towards the recreational center.

> You ignore him.

You walk as quickly as you can towards the center of town, and past it. You glance over your shoulder, but you can no longer see him.

> You heave a sigh of relief.

There is nobody in the streets of Svalyo right now, so you enter the recreational center of the city. It's completely empty save for a few grungy old exercise machines and some beat up wrestling rings.

> You say "What was this place for anyway? And the street names sounded Russian to me... could this hint to some connection to the history of this recreational Center?"

"Oh, this place was for the citizens of Svalyo to use for recreational purposes. Mostly it was used for sports, but sometimes it got turned into a fighting arena."

"For what purpose?"

Stunned, you turn to face the person who replied as you were wondering aloud. Tomas walks out from a hallway, his metallic body making clanging noises as he moves.

"For ANY purpose!" he says, as if this explanation should answer all of your questions.

> You say "Tomas?! Why are you still here? And you are a cyborg too?"

"I know."

"What do you mean you know? Did you hack into my brain or something?"

"No, Kiosk-01 has been keeping an eye on me for the Government."

> You say "Ki...kiosk-01? What's that?"

"Oh, you don't know about Kiosk-01? That's odd. Everyone knows about it. It's a camera that the Government uses to see everything you do."

> You say "Ah, I get it. The origins of this place is now making sense. I can say with a great deal of certainty that we are in a high-tech surveillance state ruled by an authoritarian party that takes after the Russian communists!"

"That's a very good assessment, Sebastian. But as I said, everyone calls it a government. It can never be proven that the people running this thing aren't our friends, and never will be."

> You say "Why do you always get my name wrong? Is it so hard to call me "Hifiler"?"

"It's not my fault. The Government made me memorize a thousands different names. Humans, animals, places, things..."

"Things?"

You were surprised that people actually named their things. According to a story you read on the a internet, people used to label people who do this as depressed and mentally unsound patients.

"Yes, things. According to an act of Congress, it is not a crime to name something."

"That's silly. Why should something have a name if someone doesn't know what it is?"

There may be too many of the same thing. It freaks you out that something you named and which you have a personal attachment to has an uncountable number of doppelgängers. Probably made in China, too.

"That's a different story," Tomas says. "In any event, yes, people name their things. They don't want to get lost."

> You say "I don't see your point. Care to explain more?"

"The Government's point? We want to know everything about you. Your name, your position, your friends, your enemies... everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Even if I refuse?"

"You may not refuse. The choice is either going to be the thing or you."

"Why don't you just put a chip in me?"

Tomas laughs at this suggestion.

"You can't seriously be considering that!" he says.

"Well, why not? The Government installed a chip in my brain. I don't see anything wrong with installing a chip in someone else's body."

"You seriously want to ally yourself with the Government?!"

"I'm not ALLYING with the Government. I'm considering it."

Tomas continues to look disapproving, but his expression darkens.

"You wanna be a puppet?" Tomas asks, his voice lowered but no less menacing. "If you join the Government, you'll be a puppet, and we're the ones pulling the strings."

> You say "🙄"

"You're a strange one, Sebastian. And you haven't answered my question: do you want to join us?"

It's the same deal as last time. You have to pick one of two options.

> You say "No"

"Very well. You're free of your current obligation."

Tomas leans forward into the Jeep, and quickly disappears from sight.

> You say "You are happy that this madly religious, anarchic and racist (cyborgs are a race, right?) man is gone."

"Yeah. You won't have to deal with him anymore."

The Government man heads back to his aerodynamics vehicle, and drives off into the distance. You turn around, and continue walking.

> You say "Hey, were you there the whole time?"

"Yeah. I had to make sure you weren't planning on escaping, so I had to listen in on your conversation."

"I thought only the Government could listen to conversations."

"Bullshit. You hacked my brain. If you were innocent, how'd you do that?"

"I've been told I'm very skilled in technology."

"Hm. Well, I'll be sure to break into your mind when I'm sure you won't escape."

"You already guessed that I was going to escape."

"Guessing is based on logical assumptions. I actually hacked into your mind and saw your thoughts. You were planning on fighting all the way here."

"Are you going to read my mind now?"

"No."

"I see. So are you going to kill me now?"

"I'd have to get really bored first."

You continue walking, and Camidhe gives a small chuckle.

> You ask yourself whether Camidhe is the government man.

"Camidhe, why are you part of the Government?" you ask.

"I don't work for the Government," he says.

"Then who do you work for?"

> You took his answer for a confirmation that Camidhe is that government man's name.

"The answer is yes, I am the man masquerading as Camidhe."

"So, why are you here?"

"I'm here to kill you. Well, not you specifically. All of you. I'm told that a certain amount of you have been identified as being potentially viable candidates for our new continued existence."

> You say "Huh? And who do you work for?"

"Who I work for? Nobody. I'm a freelancer. I work on my own terms, and I choose who I work for."

"So who told you that we're going to be alive after this?"

"Nobody. I just know. I see a few of you, a few mutants, a few humans, a few soldiers, a few civilians. And I know what I'm charged to do."

Camidhe leans against a wall and fixes his eyes towards the door.

"So. Are any of you potential candidates for life?"

You look around, seeing that the mutants look just as confused as you do. You take a deep breath before speaking.

"I don't know. Are any of us?" you say.

"A fair question. I'll tell you this much," Camidhe says.

// Note: I will press enter and see how far the story will go before it breaks apart.

What Camidhe says next changes the direction of how the story goes.

"You have what it takes to continue our existence. You're smart enough, strong enough, and I'm sure there's a bit of luck involved, but you'd probably do better to go with option 2."

"Option 2?" you ask.

"You find someone on this island, no matter how unlikely they seem to be, and pledge your loyalty to them. Let them rule over the remainder of humanity."

"Huh. That doesn't sound very likely to work."

"Neither does the extinction of our species. But I'm not sure if killing yourselves is the way to go about it."

"So... what then? Are we supposed to just walk into the sea?"

Camidhe chuckles.

"No. But you could find a nice cliff to commit suicide from. Might be more painful that way."

Camidhe leaves, not giving you a chance to respond. The only thing left to say is goodbye to your loyal companions. You tell them, and they tell you, that they'll be waiting for you on the other side. You thank them, and try to think about how you're going to do this. You don't want to just kill yourself, if there's a chance of living on. That would show complete incompetence on your part as a Governor.

You walk outside, looking at the endless blue above you. You look around, spotting a small island not too far away. It's small, and from here you can't even make out what the landscape looks like, but it'll have to do.

"Alright, folks."

You start walking to the island, the journey there taking a while. You walk through the swells, only stopping to drink from your canteen every once in a while.

Finally, you spot the island, and start making your way there. You have no weapons on you, having left them back in the cave. You're going to have to rely on your wits.

You get close to the island, and that's when you hear a shout and turn around to see a guard. He runs up to you, panting.

"H-hello??!!?" he says, out of breath.

"Yes... hello," you reply, annoyed that he interrupted your thoughts.

"I just wanted to tell you that there's... a woman on the beach, by herself. She's not dressed for this weather, and she looks very lost."

"Okay... thank you," you say, still walking towards the island.

The guard nods, and watches as you walk quickly to the island. You approach the woman, who turns around and wonders why you're talking.

"Hi," she says.

"Um... why are you here?" you ask.

"I don't know. I just wanted to end it all."

You pause, unsure of what to say.

"I think we have a lot in common," she says.

"Do we?" you ask, unsure of what she means.

"I have no idea why I'm here. I wanted to become a... a hero, once. I guess I'm trying to relive my glory days..."

She laughs humorlessly.

"Thanks for destroying my village, killing all my friends. I... I guess I can find another way to get my revenge."

"Wait a second. You're bitter because I saved your life?"

"I don't know why I'm here! Maybe I made a deal with... with the devil. I... I hope I don't end up like those villagers you burned alive."

"What's your name?" you ask, raising your voice.

"Clara."

She turns around and starts walking away, back towards the city. You call out to her.

"Wait!"

She turns around.

"Listen, wait. What do you mean, you hope you end up like the villagers I burned alive? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know."

"What do you suppose Hell is like?"

She thinks for a moment.

"A place of suffering."

"Well, you're already in pain. I can help you get out of it."

"You can?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I'll take you to the Professor."

"Who?"

"The man who created you. He can end this."

"I'm a creation of man, but you're not a Creation of Hell?"

... How the hell are you even reading my thoughts right now?

"Listen, if we meet up with the Professor... You'll do the talking, I'll just stay quiet in the back and keep a eye on you."

"Okay."

You continue walking towards the city. As you walk, she starts to speak.

"What's your name?"

"John."

"Where do you come from?"

"New York."

// At this rate the AI has confused itself successfully so I will take over the story for a while...

Basically, I am in a gang of mutants and had many connections in the city. I stay close with people who are supportive of my species and help to maintain peace between normal humans and cyborgs.

I have many aliases and introduce myself differently to everyone I speak to. This might to circumvent the discriminatory policies placed on the makings of cyborgs, which will lead to a lot of recoil frommostof the population in this city.  Eventually, I manage to set myself up in one of the countless gang hideouts in the city.

As for the story, it's not really interesting. I'll try to keep it at least somewhat real.

So yeah, the gang is doing okay despite the threats from the cartel. We have a lot of potential recruits now that the virus has spread and a lot of mutants living in the city, so I'm not complaining.

// I am being pulled into the AI's plot, and I hate where this story is going.  But I suppose it is a good thing for humanity. We should be purged of our less resilient members.

The next day, you arrive at the bunker to find a new postcard.

This time, the postcard shows a picture of the sun set over the ocean.

Dear John,

It's done. The Professor and I have come to an understanding and he has ceased his plans for revenge. He feels that he can no longer risk having a hostile, revenge-driven Mad Science Party on his hands.

I've sent along a new batch of mutants for you.

// I GIVE UP! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON NOW!

One of the two new students waiting with you, a young girl with a long black pony-tail and wearing a red dress, walks up to you.

"Hi! I'm Yinet."