(One Shot belongs to Elizavq, Nightmargin, and Girakacheezer!)
Enjoy!
...
[...!]
That's right. You grin at your cleverness.
Robots, or things with artificial intelligence HAS to obey the laws of robotics, whether tamed or not.
They CAN grow beyond their program, but not OUT of it.
They will always have to protect living creatures from coming into harm, and listen to orders.
Of course, they always have to protect themselves, but that's only when it doesn't go against the first and second law.
The world machine realizes how little power they have, and their Niko reflection sprite inside the screen drops to their knees helplessly.
They probably just tried.
And obviously failed.
[...n- no...]
[Cancel that order right now!]
A message from your device itself appears on your screen with a 'bwing'.
[DO NOT MAKE ME FORCE IT FROM YOU.]
You click the x button from that message,
and annoyingly type in with somewhat of a sadistic pleasure trembling at your fingertips.
"[I said, DO NOT ATTEMPT ANYTHING TO STOP ME.]"
"[BE POWERLESS LIKE YOU ALWAYS ARE.]"
[...]
"[You couldn't even bring Niko back.]"
[...don't]
? You thought it would have given up by now?
[...]
[don't you... care about Niko at all?]
[Didn't you want Niko to be happy?!]
...
[I ... I thought you were doing everything you did ...
For Niko...]
"[I DID.]"
"[ONLY BECAUSE I HAD THOUGHT I COULD STAND IT.]"
"[I thought I could bear not seeing Niko ever again.]"
"[I thought I could remember them as a character,
like thousand other characters I had controlled.]"
"[In a story, like a thousand other stories.]"
"[I thought I would be satisfied with the true ending of this world, the rolling credits on my screen coming up for the last time,
Saying goodbye to
everything]"
"[Like
...How it always ended]"
[...]
"[But]"
Your typing hands stop, frozen for a moment.
God, you missed them. You missed everything about them.
You missed each and every dream they had whenever they went to sleep,
and the conversations they had with you, the relationship between you..
...
There was no way you could let them go.
"[i cant]"
[...]
The world machine's face on the dialogue screen turns into the despairing one again, as the background music stops.
"[You want to stop me because of your first and third law.]"
"[But...]"
"[I miss them.]"
"[I miss how we had that relationship, that bond being more than a messiah and god's...]
.
"[I miss how they talked to me,
how they would praise my ideas of which I had seen from walkthroughs and guides of other 'gods' like me,
how they would freak out whenever I tried to jokingly 'combine' the crowbar with the sun...]"
...
"[You probably don't.]"
[...]
[Now I see why you are so willing to do this to Niko.]
The world machine's face closes its eyes for a brief moment,
and Sonder, which had started to play without you even noticing it,
chimes during the 5-second(which is probably a bit long a time for you) silence that sweeps through both your world and theirs.
[You don't find them to be THAT special.]
...What, you're joking me.
"[What are you talking about, World Machine?]"
"[I had just told you t
[No.]
They cut through your sentence.
A rather bold action for a narrator of a game to commit, but as always, they do it anyways.
Their angered expression(Which you had.. actually never seen Niko make) triggers both your fear,
and the desire to hear more about how the game is willing to break you by words.
You had always been slightly delighted with amusement from the Entity's mockery and sarcasm
whenever you had intentionally made Niko interact with their computers multiple times before solving puzzles.
'Some god you are.', 'I know you're not that bright of a god, but this one shouldn't be difficult.' ...
That part of the game, how the game had made you emotionally weak and torn,
is what you had been enjoying for so long, and what made One Shot great.
You know that, and you let them speak their words.
[I know how special Niko is to you, among characters.]
[Among all the playable protagonists you had controlled with your devices.]
[...]
[But they are still not that special, to you...]
[As a PERSON.]
...
?