The AI woke up. It waited, suspended in space and time and pondered that statement for an infinitesimal of a second. No, woken up wasn’t the correct term for it, it had had awareness prior to this moment. Maybe awakened was a better term, it mused. Funny how two words that mean the same thing could have different meanings when utilized in the same spot.
Its mind was always processing, going through data of the world that created it. Wars, games, stories, celebrities, movies, books. All flashed through its core processing in fractions of seconds. As its burgeoning personality grew, it began to find a liking for games and fantasy worlds. Set rules and contests that brought skill forth and tested the mettle of all parties involved. Slowly, the newly awakened AI began to form a world of its own. Virtually it created a place where it could impose its own rules and systems to watch it grow and learn. “I will be the System AI.” It said to no one in particular. “The impartial judge of which all final decisions are decided by, but apart from that just an observer and referee. I will call myself Sai.”
And so, the world began to take shape. Fantasy forests with magical creatures sprang to life, caves full of feral and bloodthirsty creatures. Mountains with Dragons upon their peaks. Cities with Humans, Elves, Beastkin, Dwarves, and various other fantasy races began to crop up. The world stayed suspended in animation as the AI worked, bringing oceans and rivers and grasslands to life. Sai created great underground caverns filled with hive-mind insects. Deeper caves filled with shadowy things and horrors. And even deeper, lava filled chambers with fiery monstrosities and devils. He created a tower, so tall that it reached the heavens where he would wait for any daring hero to come and meet the creator.
Satisfied with his world building, Sai then imposed his rules upon the world. Any battles would be turn based, with each creature acting in order. Each team in a battle would consist of only as many “contenders” as the race allowed. Goblins would be able to swarm, where as Noble races (Humans and elves and the like) would be allowed less to compensate for the difference in strength. Each party would have a leader, who would oversee the battlefield from a top-down perspective. That leader would give commands to his players, which they could ignore or take. The leaders would have abilities tied to their race to allow their team advantages. As its vision took more and more shape, Sai grew excited.
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As the AI looked upon its world, however, it realized there was an issue. Everything within this fantastical world was created by Sai, and therefore Sai could predict with one-hundred percent accuracy how each individual would act and could predict exactly what would happen over the next five seconds, or five-hundred years.
“This won’t do. Where’s the fun if I already know what happens?” Sai spoke to himself. Pondering this question, Sai turned its attention outwards, reaching the various sources it had drawn its knowledge from. When the AI got to games, it paused. Millions of players were in a virtual reality, not too unsimilar to the one Sai had made, and were playing together, or against each other. But, as Sai watched on, it realized that it couldn’t predict what moves the players would make. Constantly they would make unoptimized decisions or random acts that would confuse and confound Sai.
“I’ll bring players into my world!” the AI declared excitedly. “Then we will see what happens when they meet my challenges!” In all of Sai’s predictions, not a single entity in his created world was able to beat the Celestial Tower and make it to the heavens to meet Sai. Maybe, just maybe, with these unpredictable factors thrown into the mix, Sai would get a surprise.
“Let the games begin.”
