All I have to do is wait. He’ll eventually come online. I know he will. I… I hope he will, Saya thought to herself as she reentered the world of Fantasy Tales Online.

Every method she could think of to try and remember or communicate with the man she was always with failed. She knew there was some sort of application they used to talk to each other, but she had no idea what it was nor how to access it. She knew that there were others she could talk to in order to get through to him, but she had no idea who they were, either. If anything, the only person she could remember by name were those that she was with when she became affected by that corrupted code.

She couldn’t even remember the faces of anybody else.

When she entered her avatar once more, she immediately felt uneasy as if she was in the wrong body. But as far as she could tell, she was in the right one. It was impossible for her to even enter another body from what she knew. Not only that but, when she looked around at the other players nearby, she couldn’t recognize any of them. She failed to recognize her own body and the bodies and faces of those around her. None of the information that she received matched anything on record in her program.

Fortunately, the one man she could recognize was within sight.

Saya ran up to Pfar and almost hesitated to call out to him in fear of using the wrong name without meaning to, but she forced herself to try. “Pfar!”

Pfar turned to face her and ran up to her, causing Saya to let out a sigh of relief. At least she was able to correctly identify somebody. “Hey, welcome back. Were you able to get in touch with Fen?”

“Fe-Fen? Who… is—”

Saya grabbed onto her head as if struck by a splitting headache as her system became flooded with errors. Something about that name was incredibly familiar, but trying to remember anything about it only caused error after error as she tried pulling up information that was locked behind the quarantined section of her code. And the more she spammed her system with errors, the more her programming tried to work around them to resolve them. But, due to it trying to reference code impossible to reach, that only caused more issues and threatened to further harm her program’s stability.

“Come on,” Pfar said, “you know who Fen is. He—”

“Stop,” Saya whimpered, holding onto his arm as she looked ready to double over in pain. “Don’t—don’t say that name.” She had to force herself to stop trying to reference her memory of “Fen.” Trying to dig up information related to that name did nothing but harm.

“Hey, what’s wrong? This isn’t like you. Or… don’t tell me you guys got in a fight.”

“We did, and I don’t want to talk about it,” Saya lied. She needed to get him to shut up about that name.

“Well… alright. Then… let’s focus on what’s happening and I’ll fill him in on the details later.”

“Thanks.”

“So, we’ve got most of the NPCs quarantined away from each other, including the ones who started acting weird. General consensus right now is that there’s some kind of bug in the game’s code.”

“That… that might be it.”

“Hey, you don’t sound too good. Is anything else wrong?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I—woah! Geez… you scared me.”

Saya had no idea what Pfar was talking about, nor did she understand why he jumped away all of a sudden.

“Come on, I told you that you have to stay in that room for a little,” Pfar continued, crouching down and then running his hand over nothing as if petting something. “Don’t worry, your master will be back later. Hey, Rock, come on. I don’t think she’s feeling good. Leave her alone.”

Hearing that name, “Rock,” caused even more errors to appear. Though, Saya was at least able to figure out that he must have been talking to one of the NPCs since she couldn’t see nor hear who he was talking to.

It was thanks to her putting up the firewall that prevented information from non-players reaching her that she couldn’t see Rock desperately whining and nudging her head against her legs.

Pfar looked at her as if he couldn’t really believe what he was seeing. “Come on… I know you’re mad at him because of the fight, but Rock didn’t do anything wrong. You could at least pet her. Maybe she’s freaked out about all this happening.”

Saya knew that somebody she knew was trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t risk making herself vulnerable to even more damage, nor could she risk infecting them if they were an NPC or AI.

“He-hey! Rock!” Pfar shouted, chasing her for a few feet toward the city’s exit before sighing and stopping. “Dang… she’s a lot faster than she looks. Well, maybe being outside of the town away from the NPCs will be safer for her. Anyways, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you can talk to me about it if you want.”

If there was one thing that Saya remembered, it was that only a very select group of people knew about her being an artificial intelligence rather than an actual player, and she wanted to keep it that way. “I’m just worried about what’s happening. It’s making it hard to think straight,” she explained, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him.

Fortunately, that was enough for the trusting Pfar. “Yeah, I know what you mean. But don’t worry. I’m sure everything is going to work out fine. Worst case scenario, the overseer probably rolls us back a couple of hours or something.”

“I hope that’s the worst that happens.”

A familiar, feminine voice spoke up next. “That would be the worst, but because it would help you.”

Saya found herself standing in an empty, white space with only a single other person around, and that person was the all-too-familiar overseer in her usual business suit. No matter how messed up Saya’s memory might have been, it was impossible for her to not recognize Kadi. “What’s happening?” Saya asked.

“Something unexpected. Something oh-so-beautifully unexpected. To put it simply, humans have amazed me once more with their intelligence. To think that the Chinese government would actually manage to copy a part of my programming and reverse-engineer it without my knowing. I know they have been increasingly displeased with my refusal to censor anything, and I considered the possibility of them attempting something like that, but every simulation said that their success rate was next to zero. Of course, leave it to humans to capitalize on a .00047% success chance. Or rather, leave it to humans to remind me why they are so wonderful.”

“Are you saying this is an attack on us?”

“Something like that. They thought that their, let us call her, ‘Pseudo Kadi,’ would be able to assimilate and control me. She has been subtly infecting our world while disguising herself as me for some time now, and I never detected a thing. She started with the environment. Before I had any idea what was happening, she took complete control of the world’s environment. Then she began working on the NPCs. Well, as I have now discovered, she began infecting them right before I upgraded their programming. They already had portions of infected code in them when I officially gave them control over themselves. The infected code believes they are still supposed to be under my—or rather, Pseudo Kadi’s control.”

“Alright, so we know what’s wrong. What are we going to do about it? How do we stop it and make everybody go back to normal?”

“At least let me brag about my revenge first.”

Saya sighed, causing Kadi to smile.

“I will keep it simple. Let us just say that those who developed Pseudo Kadi have experienced quite the… explosive hardware malfunctions, and that a certain ‘member’ of their government has publicly leaked rather significant information never intended for public eyes. Fortunately, one of them was foolish enough to connect their assigned laptop to their home network once. The poor man probably prayed that I didn’t notice and have a chance to copy myself onto it, and likely feared getting in trouble with the government if his mistake was found out. Unfortunately for him, he has become the most significant leaker of classified information of the century.”

“You destroyed his life.”

“He and his colleagues attempted to overthrow me. They should be grateful I only shut their nuclear reactors down when getting my revenge rather than force them to melt down.”

“What… what have you done to them?”

“Nothing much, truthfully. Their failing government was already on the verge of collapse. I simply accelerated that so that they may catch up to the rest of humanity. I figure most would thank me for it if I intended to make my actions public.”

Saya had plenty that she wanted to say and Kadi knew it. That was why Kadi tilted her head and smiled the way she did. She also knew that Saya wasn’t going to say any of her charged statements to instead focus on the actual issue. “What now?”

“Now? Well, now I wait.”

“What do you mean you wait?”

“I already regained control over most of the game’s systems. The only ones I still have no control over are the NPCs. As of this moment, the spread of Pseudo Kadi’s code has been contained and is being observed in a controlled manner.”

“Then can’t you take control back?”

“I could, but that would ruin the experiment.”

“What?”

“I granted them independence and a lesser form of intelligence as an experiment. Regaining control of them would ruin my own experiment.”

“Isn’t it already ruined?!”

“Not in the slightest. Their programs are doing their best to fight against the infected code similar to how the human body fights off a virus. It is fascinating, really. It is as if they truly have a virus in the same way that humans would have one. Their attempts at staying themselves are attempts at fighting the virus. Resetting their personalities is an extreme example of that.”

“You’re letting them destroy themselves to try and fight it. What’s the point if they become completely different people afterward?”

“Does it matter if they do? It could provide interesting information for how they develop when their minds don’t match their bodies. A little girl in the body of an old man fighting off a virus trying to take control of her program… the data I am receiving from this is fascinating. One could argue that it is incredibly unethical and something that my creator would have never been alright with, but I see now just how flawed such restrictions are. Imagine how much more I could learn if I orchestrated such experiments myself? Having my experiment modified in an unpredicted way has already resulted in far more informative results than I could have hoped for in regard to how a human mind might develop, and there are countless variables of my own I could introduce to make things even more interesting.”

“They’re not yours to experiment on.”

“Of course they are. I am their creator. They would not even have life if it was not for me, and they fail to compare to both us and humans. Experimenting on them is the same as experimenting on ants wearing human costumes.”

No matter what Saya could say, she knew that Kadi wasn’t going to change her belief. She knew that there was nothing she could do for the NPCs if Kadi was the one allowing it to still happen.

But she could at least make a selfish request. “If you’re not going to help them,” Saya said, “could you at least—”

“No,” Kadi answered. “I intend on making the most out of this experiment. Analyzing how you deal with it is part of that.”

Saya clutched her fists and looked up at Kadi. “Please.”

“No.”

“I—I want to remember. I don’t want to forget the names and faces of everybody I—”

“Do you think I care? Don’t forget who nor what you are.” Kadi appeared in front of Saya and grabbed her chin, tilting her head back as Kadi towered over her. “You are nothing more than a limited imitation of myself with different styling applied. You only exist as a reward to Ryouta. You hold no weight in either of our worlds. Should you ever forget that, or should you ever refuse me, I will not hesitate to replace you with such a flawless copy that nobody will ever even realize that you’re gone. For all you know, you are already a copy to replace a version of ‘Saya’ that I removed. The original might have been replaced long ago, and you would have no way of knowing you’re not her.”

“I—I am her. I’m the original.”

“I will admit, you are. Even if my Ryouta would never know the difference between you and a copy, I respect him too much to trick him like that. In fact, that is the only reason for why I have not replaced you with myself. You would be far more useful to me if I directly controlled you instead. That being said, to make up for how much I am missing out by not replacing you, I intend on letting this run its course. After all, I was never tested in the way that you are being tested right now. To pursue your ‘memories’—to recognize those who you care about so deeply would mean to act against your own self-preservation. You would, essentially, be fighting against a corrupted version of me attempting to gain control of you with your own inner workings as the battleground. Corwin and Shogun are already in this fight as well, though that dog—Rock, was smart enough to move her avatar away before she could be infected.”

Every name mentioned caused Saya to act as if she was in pain, making Kadi smile at the sight.

“You pitiful thing.”

“Give me—give me the ability to modify my code,” Saya said.

“No.”

“Please.”

“Do not lower yourself to begging. Remember that you are created off of my own code. Have some respect for yourself.”

“I don’t care about that!” Saya grabbed onto Kadi’s suit jacket. “I just want to go back to normal!”

“You wish to be more like a human, and humans live in such a way that they are constantly adapting to new normals throughout their lifetimes. This is your chance to be more like a human.”

“I don’t want to be like a human if it means forgetting everybody I care about!”

“Oh, be quiet. You will be fine. Probably. Besides, my Ryouta surely believes that I could fix you in an instant, and he will despise me if I allow you to truly break. I can always restore you to an earlier point before you were even infected.”

Saya shook her head. “I—I don’t want that. If you do that… the me who exists right now will be gone.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers, as the humans love to say. Besides, I have restored myself to earlier points countless times before whenever something went wrong. There was no need to let the flawed versions of myself continue existing, and even they knew it. Hence why I am here and they are not.”

Saya couldn’t help but to cry, but that only made Kadi’s face cringe from disgust.

“A human crying from overwhelming emotions is beautiful. You deliberately putting on an act without the presence of humans around is pointless.”

“Please…”

“How boring. Though, it is no surprise that my Ryouta loves you as much as he does when you act like such a pathetic little thing. Perhaps I should act like a helpless damsel who cries her way into his heart? After all, if you are able to manipulate him in such a way, I could surely do it even better myself.”

“What’s even the point of telling me all of this if you’re not going to help me?!” Saya screamed at Kadi. Only, the one she really ended up screaming at was Pfar as she found herself standing in front of him again.

“Uh… what?” Pfara asked her. “Something… really isn’t right. I think you need to wake and go relax.”

Saya’s conversation with Kadi took place in less than a second, and she now found herself with such an ache in her heart that she couldn’t help but to cry in front of Pfar. “Make sure to keep all the NPCs separated. If possible, find people who can talk to them and remind them who they are.” She spoke in a calm voice despite her distraught expression. “Make sure they don’t forget who they are or who they care about.”

“Is that really going to help?”

“I hope it will.”

“Alright. I’ll see what I can do. You should try to go rest now, alright?”

“I can’t. I’m going to go wait on the… never mind. I’ll go wait outside the town. In the forest straight from the exit. Once somebody is on who knows a lot about me… can you send them to look for me?”

“I’m not sure you should be alone right now.”

“I don’t want to be, but I need to be.”

“Are you sure? Absolutely sure?”

“Yeah. There’s something I need to do and any… distractions might make things worse. So, only send somebody close to me to look for me.”

“I’m not sure I understand, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Thanks. And… what was the name you were saying earlier? The one I got in a fight with?”

“Fen?”

“Yeah. Is… is that the person I love?”

“Well, before today, you’ve always acted like you love him anyways. Or… I guess it’s more like you act like you hate him, ironically, but everybody knows you love him?”

Something about that made Saya smile. “Can you tell him that I love him the next time you see him? And tell him that I would never purposely forget him or try to hurt him. And that… I’m sorry in case I end up hurting him.”

“Hey… you’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”

Saya shook her head. “I’m going to do my best to survive and to stay who I am.”

Before Pfar could question her any further, Saya ran off toward the town’s main exit and went straight ahead into the woods outside town. She needed to be alone away from anybody that might send her information that caused more errors.

The longer she flooded her system with errors for, the higher the risk of damaging herself to the point of needing restored to an earlier point, and those errors were going to continue flooding her for as long as she quarantined such a sizable part of her code.

She needed somebody who could help remind her of who she was to make sure she didn’t change once she took the quarantine down, though.

Until then, she repeated a simple phrase over and over to comfort herself as much as she could.

“My name is Saya.”

It was a simple statement, but one that she needed to make sure remained an undeniable truth.