What was the meaning of life?
Bright white words still rested quietly on the crystal interface. Omega seemed to be patiently waiting for Gawain's answer, while Gawain... had no idea where to begin.
The question was classic, but far too broad. Especially in a situation like this, facing an artificial intelligence he knew nothing about, he had even less idea how to answer. Perhaps an eloquent and sharp-tongued philosopher could have launched into a lengthy discourse here, but unfortunately, Gawain was no such philosopher. After more than ten seconds of thought, he merely shook his head. "I don't know where to begin answering that question."
"...Interesting. System records show that the same or similar answer has appeared four times."
Gawain froze for a moment before realizing what that meant. "You've asked other people this question too?"
"There are few outsiders in Tarlonnd—which means outsiders do still appear," the words on the interface began refreshing. "Perhaps centuries apart, perhaps tens of thousands of years apart. Whenever a new observation target appears, Omega asks them similar questions. The observation target's reaction to the questions is also highly meaningful."
Gawain suddenly found this interesting and couldn't help asking, "Did someone instruct you to do this? Did someone give you orders to observe and ask questions?"
"No." The words on the interface answered immediately.
"So this observational behavior is your own... 'interest'?" Gawain found it increasingly intriguing. "Then why do you do it? To satisfy your curiosity? Do you have curiosity?"
"...Out of the necessity of collecting data." Whether it was an illusion or not, the letters appearing on the interface seemed to hesitate for an instant. But soon, lines of text began refreshing again. "Expanding the database and growing independently in order to become a better servant are Omega's duties."
Gawain looked at