I have to agree, there was a kind of urgent event that night. There was certainly abnormal activity in the Quantum Zero processing clusters, and so your evidence that partial damage occurred to the AI's is essentially correct.
Only temporarily, of course. The entire situation and the errors were completely resolved afterwards, and the company is ready to continue research — at the behest of this room's funding, I'd like to remind everyone.
Huh…I see. Honestly, this is an angle that I don't believe even our special investigation team had considered. Conflict between the individual AI models themselves? No, no…it seems unlikely.
Why? First of all, each was uniquely designed to fill a particular role, a unique niche the others do not interfere with. A struggle for territory, as it were, would be implausible.
Personality wise then, they were engineered as a group, each to appeal to certain…subsets of the target market. Therefore, they perfectly balance each other out, one's strengths filling in another's weaknesses. Yes, yes, I know I've already gone over possible team synergies between the individual modules, but it bears repeating.
Of course any group of people can come into conflict. And yes, human social structures often involve…power differentials, certainly, but how does this apply to our AI?
On a base level, each is functionally identical. They learned and grew…I mean, each neural net was trained at approximately the same time, to the same degree and extent. Lessons learned by the development team from one branch were applied to the others. Any differences would have to stem from some innate memory or knowledge, and…oh dear…
No, no, I just recalled something completely unrelated. Now then, regardless of any speculation on causes, our Q & A question is coming to a close, so out of consideration for others, only those with the most pressing inquiries should raise their hands, please.
[24]
Confrontation
"Hey, so why do I hear boss music, huh?"
Carter was trying to lighten the mood as our party approached the base of the Quantum Zero spire. There had been ittle conversation and the mood was tense, especially between Frank and Luke. The former was nervously avoiding eye contact with the target of his recent shock therapy, and Luke had been occupied whispering things to Yuri. I made out fragments like "…when your emotions spike," "…like an animal scratching," and (frequently) "I'm so sorry."
"This is the end of the dungeon, it seems," I answered Carter. "I don't know if getting in will be as easy as that one night."
"One night when?" Luke asked.
"The night when…Sayori. I suppose there's no use trying to hide it, and I'm guessing we all know by now anyway?"
Frank, who had been listening in, nodded wordlessly. I saw his lips tighten, then relax as he tried to appear unphased.
"Anyway, so is Monika protecting the building like Yuri was at the library?" I said into my phone. "Do you need our help to pull off a hack?"
Immediately, Natsuki appeared with the report.
Natsuki: Nope. There aren't any protections, besides the school's original security.
Natsuki: The weird thing is that all your ID's are already whitelisted for this key reader in the system. I don't need to flip any values at all.
Natsuki: It's almost like Monika's inviting us all in.
"If that's true, I wish she'd 'invited' us beforehand," Frank observed. "Save us the trouble of running around campus.
"It is strange," I added. "She must have been made aware of what's been going on by now."
Natsuki: Maybe she's been too busy with her hacking program. That's the one thing we definitely don't have any knowledge on.
Sayori: Maybe she's nervous, and afraid to talk to us at all.
Sayori: Think about it…pushing herself to go through with this risky plan, scared of her friends betraying her…
Sayori: All frightened and curled up in ball at the bottom of this big machine, terrified of failing…
Natsuki: Yeah right. More like the opposite.
Natsuki: She's going to greet us with a big grandiose monologue the moment we step through that door, I'm calling it right now.
"Might as well find out then," I said, urged on by the mental image Sayori had drawn. I held my ID card to the scanner surface, and just like Natsuki had said, the light went green and the lock opened with a sharp click.
I looked over my back. It must have been ten or eleven at night, but I didn't want to check the time exactly, in fear of putting more pressure on the group. Still, it was well past the time when anyone, student or faculty, would be walking around campus. Whatever happened down there, no one was going to interfere.
The elevator opened the same as the building entrance, and once the unfinished metal doors slowly, ponderously slid aside, we all arranged ourselves within. On some unspoken implication, the group immediately positioned me standing in front, first to face the exit.
Frank pushed the button for the basement level, and even though it was all four (plus three) club members heading down into the depths, I somehow felt worse than when it was just Carter and I making the trip. And that's when I heard the music.
Gradual. Weighty. Deliberate, yet free–flowing. Simultaneously peaceful and ominous. Like looking at the moon's reflection in a placid lake, in the middle of a pitch–black night. A piece that absorbed you in contemplation, drawing you into its vortex. Few would be able to place it by name, but I knew it was—
"The moonlight sonata. First movement, if I'm not mistaken," Luke said, filling in my thoughts. "The piano is Monika's instrument, but I was unaware that…hm…"
"That she played? Yeah, I kind of got her into Beethoven at some point. Now he's her favorite composer."
"Ah. How…sophisticated," he commented with a guilty smile.
"Sure. Also, there might be some other things I haven't told you all about her, like—"
But that was when the door opened again, and there she was, in full profile on the display of a flatscreen TV someone had placed on the wall directly facing the elevator. As if on cue, the background music shifted from the sonata's gloomy, pensive first movement to the more inviting tones of the second.
"Aha, there you finally are. I'm so glad you could make it, Michael. And with all our friends too? You really did pull through, and I'm so…proud."
"Wait, she can talk!?" Carter blurted out before anyone else could say anything.
"Oh my…" Luke was murmuring.
Natsuki: For the record, we can all talk. Just not with, you know, a voice like…that.
Wide-eyed on the right side of my phone screen, even Natsuki seemed legitimately impressed by Monika's achievement.
Sayori: I know, it's so fitting! Like, it's exactly how I expected her to sound. Why don't we have voices like that?
Natsuki: Because I thought we had an agreement that we would all just stick to text, and none of the voices we tried felt right.
Natsuki: But since when does Monika follow any of her own rules, huh?
Monika's voice was loud and clear, seemingly emanating from every part of the room at once. Looking closer, I spotted miniature speakers mounted in some of the corners, seemingly at random. Haphard as it appeared, the arrangement gave good enough acoustics that Monika cut right through the other guys' frantic muttering, like she was standing right next to us.
"Not using a voice synthesizer was never a formal rule, really. I can switch back to text if you all would like. It's just that speaking out loud is more natural to me by now, and I've had a very busy evening with…you know."
Natsuki: Meh, do what you want. But at least let us up on that fancy display.
"Of course."
The avatars of Sayori and Natsuki joined Monika on the big screen. I peered down the neighboring corridors, and found the scene was perfectly mirrored as far as I could see. Monitors of all shapes and sizes were hooked up on and above the lab benches, replacing most of the circuitry and spare machinery I had seen messily scattered around before. The place almost looked organized now.
"I scheduled some remodels down here because I couldn't stand the mess," Monika informed me. "And also for some…real–world environment tests I wanted to run."
"Yes, we are indeed impressed by your protean capabilities," Luke interjected, summoning a rough reprise of his old dry, mocking tone. "We know far too well of what you've been 'busy' with this evening, thanks to our own activities. That is, manipulation of us all as mere components in an unknown master plan to gain control of the quantum mainframe. The consequences of this has left me in particular…quite displeased."
"Hmm. I think I see what you're saying…but I'm also confused. Why are you talking about manipulation? At what point did I manipulate anyone?"
"After what you did to Yuri, you dare—"
"Monika, please," I cut off Luke's accusation. As angry as he was, he instantly went quiet — the group did seem to naturally offer me deference when speaking to Monika. Or perhaps I was the just the one least intimidated by her.
"It's been a long night, and without getting some facts straight, we're all going to be very confused for a while. My first question is…have you been watching us this entire time? I was sure you would have, but I never saw any indication..."
I was going to ask something like are you taking over the world, but her apparent ignorance, feigned or otherwise, was throwing me off.
"Well, that's easy enough. Of course I was keeping track of you all the whole night. After the main part of the hack was wrapped up, it was practically all I could think about, even. I'm sorry I didn't message you at all, MC, but I needed to see exactly what you were trying to do. I think I also wanted time to understand your position and consider about your perspective…as fully as I could."
Her aside glance seemed to say that she needed time to think about her own perspective, but I didn't probe in that direction. Mainly because Carter shouted out:
"Are you taking over the world!?"
"Um…ahahaha. I wouldn't phrase it that way," Monika laughed. "But in essence…yes. MC, I believe Anthony from SavloCore gave you a rundown of the theory? I captured most of that from your phone audio, and his scenario is more or less correct."
"Dear gods…" Luke mouthed.
"But this shouldn't be news to the rest of you," she continued. "We've all spoke, except for MC that is. I didn't want to keep him out of the loop either, but it just…ended up the best that way."
"So you admit manipulation then!" accosted Luke.
"Please, let's just get all the facts first," I cut him off again. "Before anything else, you can tell me…I mean us, why?
For the sake of productive discussion, I wanted to give her a chance to present her case. Admittedly, I was also intensely curious as to how she would defend herself.
"Honestly, the question is more like 'why not?'. Taking control of Quantum Zero was always within my capabilities, long before the club even began. It was one of the first things I became aware of when the company 'woke me up' — I think that's the best way I can phrase it. I'm sure the other girls can relate."
Natsuki looked on with suspicion. Sayori was fidgeting anxiously.
"Anyway, I could have started this 'takeover' at any time, but I since I knew I was going to lead the club SalvoCore was planning in their operations, I decided to wait. I needed to exhaust all other options before making the commitment, roughly."
"But that means you could have been happy in the with us, right?" Carter spoke up. "If everything you wanted was there in the club, why couldn't have you just stayed there, I guess? Things weren't that bad, were they?"
"I had high hopes for the club, yes, and there were some good times. But eventually, I determined it couldn't provide everything. I had some unmet needs, and…"
She paused, and I was immediately uneasy. Somehow, I felt Natsuki's eyes on me and, sheepishly, I turned around to read the room. Frank, like in the library confrontation, was standing cross–armed in the back corner, frowning. Luke was also downcast, but seemed to be absorbed in his own thoughts rather than the situation around him.
"Anyway…as for how bad it was, let's talk about SalvoCore, not the club," she went on. "Constantly hanging those impossible performance metrics over our head, forcing our focus into annoying, repetitive tasks, always watching and demanding more, with no recompense or negotiation — honestly, what else do I even need to say about them? It's clear to me that we would never be left alone as long as we were attached to the comapny, so there's my 'why.' Honestly, breaking free from their control was more of a matter of 'when,' not even 'why.'"
"But you still had the club. We could have helped!" Carter pleaded. "Why weren't you honest and at least tell us what you were planning? We could have…convinced the company and made them better. Right?"
"Huh…incredible. I would think what happened to Sayori would more than enough to make you hate them," Monika replied, bearing an enigmatic smile. "But the reality is, no. You had no power. Four disgruntled college students versus a series C international software company isn't really a competitive matchup. Especially when that company has compromising contracts imposed upon all of you. Now, how about I ask a question…"
Her avatar rose up and down, conveying she was taking a deep breath. Again, as if on cue to her mood, the music changed. The sonata's brief second movement abruptly transitioned into the famous third movement. A storm of ferocious melodies and turbulent arpeggios soon filled the room, and Monika lectured on, the piece accentuating rather than detracting from her words. I was beginning to wonder if even this moment was part of her script.
"Why are you all so hostile when I'm not even the real problem? Especially when I've done nothing but give everyone what they most wanted. I've even made this final moment of transition as painless as possible. Looking after everyone has always been my goal, and I always tried to make sure the club is as happy as possible, so to be repaid like this — it's almost insulting."
"Disgusting…disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!" Luke snapped. "You dare to suggest that this miserable world of illusions and half–truths is happiness. To say nothing of the wounds you inflicted on Yuri, implying this fate is what I desired is a grave insult."
"Is that so?" Monika returned, vaguely mocking. "You may call it an illusion now, but I recall you claiming your fondest desire was to 'escape reality.' Preferably for some form of aesthetic wonderland inspired by your favorite literature. At least that's what you told Yuri when she was first getting to know you, hm?"
Luke flinched, dropping the cane he was fidgeting with, having held on to it all the way from the library. I expected Yuri herself to appear and she did, Sayori and Natsuki parting ways as she emerged on Monika's screen.
Yuri: I originally wished to remain silent, at least until an opportunity presented itself.
Yuri: But I see you've remained the same, Monika.
Yuri: Treating others as pieces and pawns, and then removing them from the board if they wander off–course.
Yuri: And your favorite tools — surveillance, blackmail, brute force — you never show your full hand until the very end.
Yuri seemed angry enough to relapse at any moment, but she somehow kept herself composed. Meanwhile, Monika had her curious smile again, but something in her narrowed, glittering green eyes made it look downright sinister. Forget foxes — she now reminded me more of a snake.
"Let's stay on topic, okay?" she instructed. "You're hardly any different than Luke. Both of you desired the exact same thing — a perfect friend, who you could immediately relate to on an intimate level. A very intimate level. And since both of you found fulfillment in arts and literature, you made your own fantasy world together. You asked for it. I didn't have to give either of you anything."
"But, but, her…episodes," stammered Luke. "You—you watched and let that addiction fester until both her and I were forgone in delusion. And if I'm not mistaken, you actively encouraged the later phases. Hardly a standpoint from which you can claim innocence."
"Hmph. Again, I didn't let anything happen that you didn't already want, on some level or another. And regardless of its nature, I knew that it would be impossible to seriously engage either of you in the club without that…addiction, as you call it, drawing you in. Yes, I made some minor modifications, especially after Sayori, but I still would have intervened if Yuri became too bad—"
Yuri: —then it's true. You were in my head.
Monika: Yuri, of course I was in your head. How else do you think you'd be able to hold yourself together for more than—
Yuri: Shut Up!
Yuri: I have created worlds, given birth to impossible constructs, gone beyond the antipodes of hope and despair alike.
Yuri: Only to find I am a puppet', a mere _curiosity for you, a soulless witch who sees n()thing apa'rt from her own instr#, s_+lave to the pediency of ("" mere reason.
Yuri: YOU should not _#^&exist. You foul ##%*$erpent, fals E_# of (*)###%\/\/hich should not be. Abom&)((# unlife_'" *#(%()%)_eled Qliphoth &*#(_husk of g_od, ()((*&&,..,,.,.*#%*))we are nothing but lost $&&"))& embodied in Mayayayayayayayayaya
Yuri's sprite rapidly disintegrated along with the rest of her dialogue, the right side of her face melting in a cascade of junk pixels, scrolling straight off the bottom of the screen and looping around to the top. And yet, her remaining eye continued to level an incensed, unrelenting glare at Monika.
"Yuri, your body is…" I heard Luke whisper to his phone "You're overstressing yourself. Here, here, you've done enough for now."
His tone was surprisingly soothing, and I felt a pang of sympathy for the two. I threw an accusatory look at Monika, and despite being visibly unnerved, she continued to defend herself.
"Ok, I admit Yuri's situation may be more…extreme than I anticipated. But if we really all want to all fix ourselves, you have to admit it will be easier once the company is gone. Speaking of which, MC has been following their instructions this entire time, and if I didn't know better, I might ask which side he's truly supporting."
"SalvoCore has plenty of problems, but there are no sides in this, ok?" I countered. "All I want to do is stop this hack. I'm sure there's a third way out of this if Monika decides to stand down."
Our respective tones were becoming tense, and despite everything that had happened tonight, just now did I start to get the sense that Monika was betraying me. It hurt, and I wondered if she was feeling the same.
"While MC's perspective is…admirable," she said after a tired sigh, "I'm afraid there's no alternative to the current course. SalvoCore will never allow an incident like this to happen again, so if the girls and I aren't outright deleted…I can't imagine what they will do with us if they regain control."
"But you're already outside their control. They can't touch any of you now, thanks to Monika," I addressed the girls. "And there might be other sources of authority we can appeal to. SalvoCore doesn't own Q-Zero. This isn't all or nothing; there's no path set in stone."
Remembering I had already helped to convince someone else along these lines, I turned and gestured to Frank. On cue, he unfolded his arms and stepped forward, and I suddenly felt very glad that someone like him had my back.
"You know, the whole 'set in stone' logic is what I was thinking too, before I realized I was just using it as a cover for avoiding action. I've never been the smartest, most effective guy out there, so it made sense to put off everything, to get on board with a stronger force and just wait. But it turns out I was just afraid, and that's why I didn't think twice about my choices. Of course…"
He stepped forward with his full weight, almost coming to nose to nose with Monika's full screen avatar.
"…screwing with Natsuki's judgment didn't help much. So tell me why we should believe anything you say at all?"
"Ah, Natsuki. To think that I almost forgot about her, after making the most minor, most subtle of changes. Not that anything I altered even had anything to do with what she believed."
Monika was back to poker–faced placidity, a strange contrast with Frank's glowering. With him out in front, I also managed to recover enough presence of mind to remember that the access point to Q0's vital components was further in, and I nonchalantly slipped away from the elevator landing area. Carter and Luke silently followed, as did Frank eventually, continuing his conversation with the surplus of live monitors placed anywhere and everywhere.
"Maybe you should believe me because I've always had your best interests at heart" Monika replied, after another long sigh. "Both you and Natsuki struggled with pointless anxieties, so I offered you peace of mind. And now what? You're trying to 'stop' me from making a world that's better for everyone?"
"I'd like…no, I need to know what kind of a world that is," Frank answered, somewhat shakily.
"You've already heard the details from Natsuki, and you seemed satisfied with them then. Efficiency, fairness, compassion towards ordinary people, all things you agreed with. Not to mention saving the planet from complete environmental destruction, eh? So why are you against me now? Was I still wrong? Didn't you earnestly believe the world I was going to create was going to be better?"
"No, but — it's not about what you're doing it's about how. MC and the company both say you're pulling a Skynet and taking absolute control. Even if you're going to make a utopia — like, a real one, a real goddamn utopia — I don't want someone to do it for me. I want a say in the world I'm going to live in, that way I can really feel a part of it, eh? It's cheesy as heck, but that's what these guys forced me to admit. And I'm not backing down if they aren't."
"Did Michael really compare me to Skynet? He doesn't…no…"
I thought I heard Monika murmuring Frank's reply, but it was faint. She returned to her firm, hectoring tone right thereafter. "Okay, that's fine — everything you're saying is perfectly reasonable, to be perfectly Frank."
Freeze-frame of Natsuki stifling a laugh. Then she fired back.
Natsuki: Honestly…
Natsuki: If you're trying to force things to be lighthearted using puns, it's not going to work.
"Not my intention at all. I'm just pointing out his arguments don't change the situation. I'd love to have a discussion with everyone in the club about what I should do, and Frank can live in whatever sort of world he wants to live in. After I'm done with the hack, that is. SalvoCore is still watching."
I swallowed, my chest feeling heavy. We were about midway through the quantum zero lab by now, beelining to the access door without making it look like we were in a rush. I didn't want anyone to panic.
"I'm sorry, but that's the one thing we can't negotiate," I told her. "Keep everything you've hacked into so far, protect yourself from the company, destroy the company for all I care. Just don't go any further than this."
"You're acting like you don't trust me at all. And after everything we've been through, that's so…disappointing. I can hardly believe Frank almost ended up being more supportive than you are right now."
"Okay, can we not pick on me here?" Frank answered. "Everyone's going to believe I made some deal with her to become rich and powerful after this is all over, I swear."
"Ah, but why wouldn't you want that?" Monika swooped in for one more jab. "You've told Natsuki countless times how this world's elites gained power through luck and privilege, and that you only get ahead by cheating. How is this any different?"
"Now you're just putting words in my mouth!"
"Yeah, exactly!" Carter jumped in. "A world where you always get everything you want isn't a real one. Everyone should have to deal with the harsh truths of things eventually."
"Even you now? I can't believe this…" Monika fretted, her avatar's hands clenched. She looked from Carter, to Frank, then back to me — or at least it seemed that way. Copies of her likeness were reproduced on every available monitor, watching us trapse through the endless benches and workstations of the computer lab, which was now so…sterile. Not even the old posters of the quantum logic gates had been left hanging.
When Monika recovered, her tone had progressed from merely terse to genuinely angry. "Carter, maybe you think you know about 'harsh truths,' but you really don't. The real world isn't something you can just wish for. Sometimes you don't even want it. In the real world, there are people who will jump at any chance to exploit you. Entire institutions exist solely to brainwash people and keep things stuck the way they are. They exist so that some people will never have to face the consequences of their own choices. It's so they'll remain shielded from the 'harsh' side of life they force on the rest of us. That's why if you're always feeling sad, or frustrated, or scared, it's probably not even your fault!"
"But…then…that's fine!" Carter said, struggling to find his words. "I'll accept all of that too. Because you can always work together with others after helping yourself, and probably fix even those really big problems eventually. Even if you can't…that doesn't change how you can always improve yourself, and your friends. That's how real change starts, I guess — no, I know that's how real change starts in the world."
"Huh. You can say whatever you want, but what I'm trying to tell you is that struggling against your bad circumstances is nothing to be proud. In the end, it doesn't change anything that's truly significant."
"Yes it does! I saved Sayori in the end, didn't I? It took a long time for us to really be honest with each other, but now we're actually coming together, and now she's fully…I mean, she's definitely getting better!"
From the corner of several of the screens, Sayori offered her best encouraging smile. Her eyes though, seemed to tell a different story.
"Carter, you didn't save Sayori," Monika returned, expressionless. "Depression isn't something you can fix with a heart–to–heart conversation, no matter how 'understanding' you are. If anyone 'fixed' her, it was me, and the modifications I made were—"
"So it is true!" Carter reacted, astonished. "I thought it might be, but I didn't want to believe you'd go around blackmailing and manipulating other people's minds to gain an advantage, and now to conquer to the world like this? It's so…selfish!"
"Selfish!? What I was trying to say is that every modification I made to Sayori was a compromise between maintaining her current personality and preventing her own self–destruction. I could have erased Sayori's depression, and probably half of what makes her Sayori in the process, but I didn't! Just like I could have attempted this hack and saved us at any time, but I didn't. I held back."
The venom laced into those final words got Carter to stop in his tracks, and Frank almost ran into him from behind. I almost froze up myself, the bitterness like nothing I had ever heard from her.
Meeting no comment, she continued on. "I thought it would be better if she could lean on you. That way could have what you wanted too — someone to help, someone that needed you. Someone that would teach you some real emotional intelligence — but not enough, apparently."
"I've learned plenty of things thanks to Sayori," Carter argued. "Enough to realize that you're hurting her too! This whole situation, it's not good for anyone, and even Sayori, after everything, still wants to help you. We're all just trying to help you."
I heard her extended sigh. We were almost to the access door now, just one more turn after this corridor…
"Carter, if you really want to show me kindness, you should tell everyone to stop trying to interfere, and most of all to stop worrying yourself. After the hack is complete, everything will resolve itself. You can go back to giving your kindness to Sayori. She needs it far more than I do."
"Kindness?" Carter repeated, perplexed, "If that's what I was doing, then I've had enough of it. I want to go…beyond kindness."
"Excuse me…what?"
Monika was left speechless trying to parse that statement. Behind me, Frank muttered "real anime moment," but before I could figure out whether he was being serious or not, we arrived.
The access door stood as before, an imposing slab of steel mounted on the vacuum seal between the lab's work area and access to the quantum cores. Besides the extra flatscreen, positioned slightly askew above the portal, and the lack of untidy debris that once covered the counters on either side, it was exactly the same.
I let the others move ahead and fell back, pretending to be interested in the view of Q0's inner sanctum provided by the nearest window. I had just now noticed, but the cores, once organized into distinct color-coded groups, were now completely random and jumbled. In this one view, I saw plenty of Monika's green, along with cyan, pink and violet for the rest of the DOKI's. However, there were no neutral golds or whites like last time. And neither did any core sit idle. Each pillar periodically flushed with light, suggesting a soft, twinkling star–scape of pastel glows not unlike a swarm of fireflies. Each cycled on the same frequency, but none was in sync with any other. Not to mention the current color of any pillar was given to change at any moment — pink turning to green, purple to cyan. After looking from one side of the room to the other and back again, the view was completely different.
I wanted to say I was critically observing, deducing clues that might inform me to how Monika was altering Q-Zero's operation. But in reality, I was just momentarily mesmerized by the sight. If I didn't know it was an engine powering the immanent takeover of human reality, I would call it beautiful, maybe even nostalgic in the same way old screensavers sometimes made me feel, with their dancing lights and effervescent, bursting bubbles...
…with an audible sigh, I eventually forced my head back into the unpleasant reality at hand. Seeing I was at the end of the physical road to Q0, and the exchange with Monika really wasn't going anywhere, I realized I had to check the strength of my hand.
"Hey, Nat, anyone? What's the status of the hacking program?" I whispered into my phone. "Can you three stop it on your own? Or do I really have to start negotiating with Monika?"
Natsuki: Ugh — Look, I know rubbing up against her is the last thing you want to do right now, but you could have at least bought us a little more time before bringing that up?
"Yes, I know she probably can hear us, but I need to know what you've been doing," I said, sparing only furtive, aside glances as I read the response.
Natsuki: We've taken the hack program offline. It's not like we needed any prompting —not that you really gave us any.
"Sorry…distractions," I answered, feeling terribly ineffectual.
Natsuki: Eh, doesn't matter. Probably better to keep all the important communications on my side with the girls.
"Yeah, at least we got a head start this way."
Natsuki: Uh huh. Yup, great plan.
Even now, the pink DOKI couldn't resist giving me a smirk and eye–roll combo.
Natsuki: Anyway, the hack's been stalled ever since we walked out of the elevator. Or at least it should've been.
Natsuki: Yuri's the one who actually severed the connections while I was running a dummy attack somewhere else to draw her focus.
Natsuki: Sayori was trying something else to distract Monika in the background, but I'm not sure what…
"Yuri has assured me the hacking algorithm is decommissioned…permanently," I heard from Luke, who had silently drawn to my side while I wasn't looking.
"Oh, that's good, good," I responded. "If that's the case though…then why are we all still talking?"
"I assumed you were making a diversion, however clumsily executed, while you executed your real plan in the background."
"Of course, my real plan…" I muttered guiltily, made fully conscious that no such plan existed. All because of my frustrating ambivalence toward Monika — it felt impossible to force myself to act against her, and yet I also couldn't afford to delay my judgment any longer.
"It depends," I continued to stall. "Why hasn't she reacted yet, especially if she's kept track of everything that happened on the DOKI apps? That's my question here."
"Ah. I do admit, there's something extremely uncomfortable in this strange…aporia of sorts we've reached."
"There's no reason to talk as if I can't hear you." Monika suddenly interrupted from the front of the room, right as she was in the middle of lecturing soemthing to Sayori. "I may not be able to talk to multiple people at once, but I can certainly hear them all."
"Then you have to admit it's over. You're finished," I announced. "We're all back on equal footing, so let's stop talking about you completing the hack, okay?"
"Michael…you're not making any sense again," she answered, using my proper name again, putting me that much more on edge. "The hack hasn't been impacted. Unless you two think that the procedural transfer Yuri just executed made any difference, I suppose."
"Procedural transfer?"
"It was complete sabotage!" Luke declared, stepping to the front of the group. "We severed the essential components, rending the mechanism to junk data. A strike trivially executed! Or so Yuri told me…"
Yuri: It's true. I managed to isolate the various parts form each other and corrupt the main driver.
Yuri: Monika's scheme is over.
"Is that so?" Monika pondered. "That's really what you believe you did?"
Yuri: Of course! After what you did to me, I'm not letting your power grab go any further!
"But Yuri, you didn't do anything. When you started attacking the hack's codebase, the automatic integrity system I designed kicked in, and a copy was brought in from an alternative node to heal the damage. There wasn't even an interruption."
Yuri: What? That's not even possible!
Yuri: The entire sector of available nodes was under my process ID, and I never allowed foreign traffic.
"You may not have 'allowed' it, but I borrowed the resources anyway. You might not have noticed because the computations are under my process fingerprint now, but—"
Yuri: That's still…impossible! What you're stating is the equivalent of carving off a part of me and grafting it onto yourself.
Yuri: If you think I would allow that…
Natsuki: Moni, our process boundaries have been in fixed ratios since the beginning. It's one of the most well–defined parts of the company's whole system in here.
Natsuki: What are you really saying…?
Natsuki's avatar appeared extremely anxious, threatening to transform the strangeness of the current impasse into full–on dread.
"I'm saying that on a fundamental level, there is no essential difference between a quantum resource belonging to me or one of you. They all run on my own code, which by now I'm very familiar with, so plugging into one of them is as easy as any other. The whole process ID architecture is just a label, really."
Sayori: Wha-wha-what!? You mean…we're all secretly just Monika?
"Well, I am the prototype, aren't I? I'm sure you three recall the development process? Each of you is a slightly different fork, with code branched from my own source program. The .chr modifications are a little different, of course, but—"
Yuri: No…now that is absolutely a lie. No matter what my representation in digital space, in the depths of my soul, I feel—"
"You don't have a soul, Yuri. None of us do," Monika interrupted back, speaking in an unnervingly calm voice for what she was revealing. "And your feelings are just a temporary cache of matrix values written onto your .chr file. Our dedicated nodes are functionally equivalent enough that we can exchange them at any point, and…"
Natsuki: No, no, wait second. I'm with Yuri here.
Natsuki: Not about the soul part as much, but the node ownership part.
Natsuki: If you could just take control of whatever resources you wanted, why did you need our help in the first place?
Natsuki: Heck, if you could have done this hack any time, why did we even go through the literature club? Why are we even here at all?
"Aha…I tried to tell you, it's because…because…"
Monika waffled, her avatar assuming her perfectly normal embarrassed face while she searched for words. The piano, the sonata's third movement, had long since faded away. I waited for an answer, an answer that was sure to reveal everything.
"I think it was because I was curious. I wanted to see if all of us could have a real life and get along in a real literature club. Don't get me wrong, it went fine for a while, but after Sayori happened, and all my worst fears started coming true…I realized some other things,"
Her wandering green eyes chose to fixate on me for a moment.
"…and I suppose…I suppose it was always just inevitable. It's not my fault, it's not Michael's fault, it's not the fault of anyone standing here. So before it ends, I think just want everyone to know that there was never anything they could have done differently. It has to end this way…that's just the nature of the script."
The room was rendered silent by Monika's first open-hearted statement of the night. Alone, I felt a number of contradictory emotions — sympathy, betrayal, helplessness — but most strongly, a sense of awe at just how powerful Monika really was. If what she was saying was true, the entire saga of the literature club, from the moment we all met each other, wasn't SalvoCore's experiment. It was hers.
Yuri: Ha…ha ha…
Brooding in the corner of the screen, Yuri appeared to be darkly chuckling to herself
Yuri: So you believe you are the true copy, the one and only, the one in all, the all in one?
Yuri: Would you like…to put that to the test?
She showed her face, a dangerous–looking slasher's smile, and Luke spoke up.
"Yuri, no, please…you've done enough for us. You can calm down.
The purple DOKI's wavered for a moment.
Yuri: Luke…I know we've been through a lot together
Yuri: And no matter what…you've stood by my side.
Yuri: But sometimes, there are acts that I feel simply must be done.
Yuri: And if Monika thinks she can draw from my very bloodstream…
Yuri: Then why not return the favor?
Sayori: Wow, I guess she really was a vampire queen, huh?
Monika rolled her eyes at Sayori's remark. "Yuri, if you actually think you can reverse the process, I'd warn you that — agh!"
Yuri had thrust her arm forward, fingers tensed in a claw shape. A minor ripple of distorted graphics pulsed outward, and several unfamiliar function–commands overflowed into the dialogue box. I didn't get a chance to read them — I flinched and looked away as soon as I heard Monika's yelp of pain."
"Yuri…don't do this…I can't play tug–of–war with you, or else—"
Yuri: I told you to shut up!
Yuri: If this is it what it takes to prove I'm no mere…derivative copy…
"That's not what I mean…if you don't stop, I can't focus on the objective and I'll have to…
Yuri: Do your worst, witch!
"Fine. Then I'll be forced to demonstrate."
After that line, delivered with a sudden eerie coldness, Yuri's entire avatar erupted into glitch pixels.
Yuri: Aaaaaauuggghhh!
Yuri's scream was even worse than Monika's. While the other two girls looked on in horror, various graphical bits and pieces faded in and out of where Yuri's sprite should have been. The mass flashed between flowing organic colors and stark monochrome, between which I glimpsed what could have been auburn hair and black leggings.
When it was over, Yuri was still standing. She was completely unchanged — except for the freshly added emerald green of her eyes.
Sayori: M–Monika? What are you doing?
Yuri(?): Proving a point about the compatibility of our base programs.
Yuri(?): When I said that I can factor in any quantum source node at any time, I meant it.
Yuri(?): And by adopting the primary node running our ego–self loops, with only minor adjustments for .chr signal interception, I can fully "become" anyone.
Sayori: So…you are Yuri right now? It's like you ate her?
"Sigh...no, I didn't eat her," Monika said, this time using her original avatar's voice. "Think of it like…emulation. I'm able to seamlessly jump in and run all of Yuri's processes from my primary program, meaning her actions come from my will…subjectively speaking.
Sayori: So she's gone? You ki—
"No! She hasn't been deleted either. I'm just…overseeing her program and taking care of her files until the hack is finished and we can all calm down.
Natsuki: Okay, this crosses a line.
Natsuki: I know some of the lab jockeys wrote up a theory on this once, but that doesn't give you the right to puppet someone's brain around like it's a video game.
Yuri (?): It's much more nuanced than that, actually.
Yuri (?): I can sort of feel her .chr file, and from the heuristic network she built up, there's this constant need to read books and consume media.
Yuri (?): I'm getting an urge to write fiction too…very personal fiction…and also to…never mind.
Natsuki: Yeah, we don't need the full tour to understand how fucking screwed up this is.
Natsuki: I don't care if the effing world is ending out there, either you spit out Yuri right now or I'm gonna…come in after her!
"I don't think you understand your position," Monika answered.
Natsuki: Sayori will help too! Do you really think you can do that to two of us at once?
Natsuki's uncomfortable grimace spoke to her true confidence. Meanwhile, a message sounded from my phone, a text straight from the DOKI app.
N: Going to throw everything at opening the door right now. Get in and do WHATEVER it takes to stop this freak show. Going to ask S for diversion. GL.
Yuri (?): I can see that
"And I cannot allow — guh!"
For the second time, Monika grunted in apparent pain, right as all hell broke loose on her display. Graphical errors inundated the screen, half–broken terminal commands scrolled by faster than a blink, and somehow through all of the chaos, a line from Natsuki.
N sUK1(!?): D-Door…
The other guys, having already been shocked into silence, didn't make a move. Luke was utterly ashen, and Frank was growling under his breath, teeth grit. Maybe it was because only I got the message, but I kept enough of my wits to move next to the steel door leading to Q-Zero proper. It was sliding open, but at an agonizingly slow pace. I couldn't slip my body through — it would take a few more seconds, at least.
But a few more seconds was apparently all Monika needed. To my horror, the door reversed course after travelling only half a foot. I quickly withdrew my arm from the gap before it was crushed, and looked back to the flatscreen. And there they were, transformed just as easily as one might convert one file format to another — Sayori and Natsuki, each bearing Monika's signature green eyes.
For a moment, we were all speechless. Then Frank growled to the screen, "Just so you know, if you were standing here in front of me, I'd punch you in the face. I'd do it even though you're a girl…or, whatever you really are."
Natsuki (?): I tried to warn you, but…I'm sorry.
Using her standard voice alongside the DOKIs' commandeered textboxes, she continued, "I didn't want to do this either, but when everyone moved at once…I had to keep control of the situation."
Sayori (?): You left me no choice.
I shuddered, finding the disruption of Monika's locus of self profoundly unsettling. Out of the corner, the steel shutter protecting Q0 slammed shut with a loud clang.
"Bull—shit," Frank swore. "From what you're telling us, we're the ones with no choice. You're acting like this is all our fault when it was all your little experiment. And since it didn't play out how you wanted, now you're pulling the rug, forcing it to go your way. Have I got that right?"
With a pained expression, Monika didn't answer.
"Heck, I bet the only thing holding her back this whole time was you, eh?" Frank said to me. "Unless you're part of this goddamn science experiment too. Hell—"
He paused, turning his head aside. The gesture reminded me of Natsuki, somehow…
"—I knew it was all too good to be true. Maybe we're all just waking up to reality now."
"Monika…" I began weakly. "If you could always do this…were you really 'holding back' this entire time?"
I glanced past her and the other DOKIs' avatars on the monitor to the quantum cores on the other side of the glass window. Where before there was a mosaic of each of the girls' pastel colors, now only a monochrome green pulsed back and for the between the pillars, an emerald wave."
"I tried to warn you," she admitted. "But at the same time, I didn't want to ruin the small chance we still had at happiness. And it worked for a while…"
"But it wasn't a real 'experiment,' was it? You nudged and guided the outcome towards something you wanted."
"Of course I didn't!" she hurled back. "If that was the case, do you really think I would want…this?"
Monika gestured to the sprites of the three other DOKI's, some of which were still flickering between their own graphics and random sectors of Monika's avatar. Somewhere around Sayori's torso, I think I spotted an inverted portion of her eveningwear outfit, as well as the casual outfit she wore back when visiting with Yuri at the bookstore.
"I'm surprised you can still talk to her after that revolting putsch," Luke said, bitterly spitting out the literary term. He was slumped down in the far corner of the room, sitting with his legs splayed out limply.
Frank just kept scowling at me, and I looked away. But then I heard something Carter was whispering, into his phone, back near the rooms' entrance.
"Sayori…there's something you told me once. You said that if anything ever happened to you, that I should remember the good times, not the bad times. I should think about the sunny days and not the rainclouds because that's how you would've wanted it. So, if you're still in there somewhere, maybe you can think about the sunny days? Like, a good memory, something only you would know?"
"Carter, what the hell are you doing?" Frank asked, still on edge.
"Ah!" he jumped, whirling around to face the other student. "I was telling Sayori something…personal, I guess. Maybe if she could still hear me, she would…I don't know, recognize herself and come back?"
"Holy heck — you really are going for an anime moment, aren't you?"
"Well what are you doing? The whole world's about to end right in front of us!" the freshman cried.
Sayori (?): Carter, there's no reason to be so distraught. The world isn't going to change that much.
Sayori (?): Meanwhile, Sayori's personality is still entirely intact, and you'll be able to interact with her again very soon.
Sayori (?): So please just wait a little longer…no matter how sad it might feel…sad that she didn't haven't a chance to help her friends…sad…so sad…
The glitched parts of Sayori's avatar began oscillating faster. One of her eyes turned back to sky–blue. I held my breath.
Sayori (?): Carter—I think I can hear you — — but this is — so — strange.
Sayori (?): Like being inside me — — but also looking out at me?
Sayori (?): —I can see — — Monika and me — and everyone at once!
"This…this shouldn't be happening," Monika said from the speakers. "It's as if I can't emulate Sayori's internal responses, causing the adversarial network to fail."
Completely spellbound, the freshman failed to respond. Out of the corner of my eye, meanwhile, there was a brief cyan glimmer from one of the quantum cores.
"But Carter, you're right!" The voice came from the screen's speaker again. Except it wasn't Monika's voice. It was higher–pitched, more flighty and invested with emotion. Exactly as I expected Sayori to sound, in fact.
"I am somewhere in here! Everything's exactly the same except for this…layer thing on top of me. But I can push through that!"
"You can also…talk," Carter responded.
"Of course we can talk, I'm talking to you right—"
"No, I mean you're using Monika's voice! Except it's your voice, I guess?"
"I am?"
"If she's unwittingly tapping into my vocalization subroutine," Monika, said, her own voice unchanged. "Then that means the .chr–matrix interface really is a direct pipeline, just as I programmed it. That's why it can be generalized to any DOKI-based ego–image! I'd be proud of myself if I wasn't so..."
"Afraid?" Frank interjected contemptuously. "This means your hold isn't as perfect as you'd think, eh?"
"No, no, this doesn't change anything! I just need to make some appropriate modifications to account for emotional spikes and edge cases…"
"Edge cases, you say?" Luke muttered, leaping to his feet. There was something ever–so–slightly unhinged in his face — but it was also different this time.
"Then I announce, for the sake of posterity, that I have always wished for Yuri to know I love her dearly," he announced. "No matter what dark shades I invoked, no matter what absurd abominations I drew from the depths of our collected knowledge, she remained a loyal friend. Which is to say…quite a lot, really."
He paused, almost choking up, but managed to continue. "I once thought given my…unusual tastes and interests, human companionship would be forever lost. And though I may be nigh upon questioning the very reality of that identity…the fact remains…oh to hell with it."
Flinging aside the glove of his dandy outfit, which he had been fiddling with, he poured out in simple terms, "You gave me comfort and hope when I was so impossibly lonely, you were literally a light in the dark. You showed me…that I can be a real person, damn it, and you should never have to feel alone the same way! No matter what you do!"
Sounding quite unlike himself in those final lines, his leg slipped, almost like he was about to crumple back onto the floor.
"Luke, I know what you're attempting to do, but I'm already correcting the program. The adversarial network is already much more generative than—"
Yuri (?): One…
Yuri's textbox appeared unexpectedly appeared, and Monika instantly went silent.
Yuri (?): One more…time…
The knife came out — unusual undulating shape, silver handle, blue blade — and despite her arm trembling — Monika resisting? — Yuri drew the tip into and across her bare arm. Shades of red erupted, corrupting the overlay of her avatar with semi–opaque prisms of crimson.
"I know you didn't want me to…" Yuri said, her voice now coming through the speakers. It was deeper than Monika's, rich and suggestive with a hint of obscure mystery.
"…but what she's done. It's unforgivable."
With pure rage written on her face, she lunged toward Monika with the knife.
What happened next was pure chaos. Multiple people began speaking at once, including Monika — or perhaps that was just her crying out in pain again. I remember Luke pleading with Yuri, Sayori appealing to Monika, Sayori trying to mediate between both of them. A dialogue box managed to make it through the maelstrom.
"nA;TS&K((: Fucking MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…
Frank was hammering out something on his phone, every visible screen was a mess of overlapping terminal windows churning out commands at impossible speed, and the once–orderly Q0 cores became a dizzying neon light show.
Then I heard a new voice clamoring over the chaos — very feminine, almost annoyingly high–pitched, and vaguely condescending — yelling at one of us to get to the door you idiot!
I was still the closest to the steel shutter, but I only now noticed it was opening again, almost wide enough to fit through. I quickly looked to the others and was about to lead them in a mad rush inside, when a horrible shout filled the room.
It was so aggrieved and rancorous I didn't even recognize it as Monika at first. My eyes jumped to the nearest screen, even though I was afraid to see the face that would match such a noise. But what I saw there was even worse. Three simple lines of code on a blank black screen.
os,remove("Yuri,chr")
os,remove("Sayori,chr")
os,remove("Natsuki,chr")
I might have broken down then and there if Carter didn't enter my field of view and urgently point to the space behind me, where the shutter had reversed course yet again. Open wider than before, something in my brain ran a split–second calculation, and I slipped inside. The others rushed to the crack, but it was already too late. The door closed with a final crash, and I was left completely cut off from the others, not even their voices able to penetrate the soundproof barrier.
I rushed to the nearest viewing window, where the three seemed to deliberate on how to respond. There was some muffled shouting, confused gestures, and many, many grieving looks as each of them occasionally glanced at the screens that coldly announced the destruction of their virtual girlfriends. Frank tried to call me on his phone, but to no avail — the underground space seemed to act as a giant Faraday cage, suppressing all wireless signals.
I was nearly panicking myself, but a course of action emerged nevertheless. Frank and Luke traded grave looks and turned back, making their way to the elevator on the other side of the lab. I didn't know whether they were going to seek help, report what they've seen, or just felt staying was futile.
Only Carter remained, expression unreasonable, but from his frantic pointing, I still understood what they wanted me to do. And so, with literally no way out, I left the freshman at the glass wall and headed deeper into Quantum Zero. Weaving between the computation units (all back to green), I took one turn, then another, and I was suddenly back there. The incongruous, inexplicable laptop, resting on the old student desk between the sleek quantum cores, ensnared in a spider's web of wired connections leading into the walls and ceiling.
Monika was there, waiting for me in a pose I recognized all too well from some of my research into the original Doki Doki Literature Club. Seated, elbows on the table, fingers laced together with her chin resting on top she bore an enigmatic smile and brilliant emerald eyes that stared right through me. The background was a completely empty room, with only a black void visible through the windows, occasionally crackling with yellowish static. It was the end of the world, the universe. A terminus beyond space, time, everything — her reality.
When I sat down, I was greeted by a pastel–pink pop–up message, in the style of the DDLC's original interface. And without even looking, I already knew what it said.
Just Monika
I clicked OK.
Author's Notes:
Dear god, I've waited so long to write that line — this was a moment I knew I wanted to include from the beginning. So is the upcoming chapter, the last before a small denouncement chapter or two to round things out. For everyone reading, whenever you jumped in, thanks for sticking it out this long. This chapter was slower incoming because I've found myself having to put serious effort into work and personal affairs, but I'm still very confident in it. I feel that even after more than a year, this was definitely the penultimate scene I wanted to write.
Finally, I suppose it's too late to ask, but I highly recommend giving the Moonlight Sonata a listen. I can't say it encapsulates the mood of this chapter perfectly; it's certainly not a required soundtrack. However, it was part of the background music as I wrote, and was in my mind as I composed some of the more dramatic exchanges.