Rina got up from her chair and handed me what looked like an oversized floppy disk drive. I didn’t bother with any of the visualisation nonsense and simply touched it in order to access its contents.
“Master Raphael, Ryouta has sent me the findings of his expedition. As planned, Master Ryouta has been redeployed to Apis island.”
“Good.”
What I was reading was a report written by Ryouta on the real life investigation which Chamberlain had authorised him to do to find out any dirt on VHEPO whom he suspected was behind the breach involving John II.
“Master, rather than read the whole report there is a AI-generated summary read by Ryouta.”
I opened the link which Rina had been pointing to. And a hologram of Ryouta appeared which was obviously not him but rather an AI-generated guide to summarise the text, and from which we could ask any questions based on the report.
“Summarise the contents of this report.”
The hologram closed its eyes, only its torso was visible, and there were clearly no thoughts nor a simulation of thoughts behind those eyes when it opened them.
“This report consists of findings made by Ryouta, while working as a support AI for Detective Alicia Barnier from Scotland Yard.”
Basically, since Ryouta didn’t have a physical body to do the real life investigation himself, he needed some kind of volunteer to let him invade their brain through the neurological processing unit brain implant, and to see the world through their eyes.
“What do you know about Detective Alicia?”
“She is a new detective, and is ‘cute,’ somewhat resembling Ryouta’s childhood interest from the manga Meitantei Club, according to Ryouta’s reasoning model, and so she was chosen over more experienced candidates.”
I know that I made him but still… isn’t this kind of dumb? No, this time I am not the only one to blame since he’s based on a specific character. Probably reading my expression the hologram tried to justify the choices made by the highschool detective:
“Ryouta figured that since she is younger and ambitious she would be more susceptible to taking risks and to listen to suggestions from a voice inside her head which can see and hear everything that she can.”
“Doesn’t he have any direct control over her actions at all?”
“No Master, Chamberlain was worried about agents of the government being turned into hostile meat puppets controlled by AI and thus undermining the state’s authority from the inside.”
So Ryouta could see everything she does and speak directly into her mind? The hologram resumed its explanation:
“Detective Barnier also wears a ribbon through which Ryouta can speak, with her voice through a synthesiser, as she deemed it a step too far to let Ryouta control her motor functions and speech, so she still has to flap her lips in sync with what he is saying..”
Would anybody fall for that? I mean it’s somehow passable when the lips are not in sync in some kind of animation or game but would that really work in real life?
“In order to make it more convincing, Detective Barnier also wore an ordinary face mask, under the pretence of having the flu.”
A mask would make people more suspicious, not a good idea, but I guess I can’t think of anything better either.
Next to the hologram there was a picture of Alicia Barnier. Even though she was twenty three, she still looked like a teenager. I could see a slight resemblance with Ryouta’s love interest, this isn’t good, because she could have an effect on him too if he wasn’t careful.. Didn’t he know this? Oh well, I can’t micromanage every single thing. I am only hu— no, only a “personality unit.”
“To find more about the organisation, Ryouta and Alicia invited a lawyer affiliated with the group. The lawyer’s name was Ashley Tanaka.”
“And she just accepted it?”
“Alicia invited her under the pretence that it was about asking her to submit evidence for her claims of human experimentation by Chamberlain and his virtual reality Project Albion Online.”
