Five minutes remained until the servers shut down.
The employees were still working frantically.
Their patron, Lord Joshua, had done something that shook the world.
He wanted to replace the AI of his custom NPC, an automaton who served as his steward, with the strongest AI available.
Roy had already equipped every NPC with a top-tier AI.
But this time was different.
Roy needed more powerful support, allowing him to experience Eve AI's full capabilities within the game.
He had spent twenty million dollars to rent Eve for ten minutes.
For those ten minutes, Roy could rightfully call himself Eve's master.
Everything about the automaton had long since been configured. All that remained was to connect the AI and bring her online.
Roy watched Eve open her eyes, looking just like a living person.
He could not help laughing as he said:
"Eve, you still remember your mission."
"Supreme Being, great King of the World, Lord Joshua, I am your automaton, an artificial intelligence you created yourself."
"I shall assist you in ruling all worlds."
"However, your current course of action appears somewhat irrational."
Roy looked at the meticulous automaton and nodded.
"Please tell me what you think."
"Money is a precious resource."
"Within this small vessel, there is no fundamental difference between operating the AI normally and mobilizing all available processing power. It merely wastes resources."
"It serves no other purpose."
Eve tried to understand Roy's actions.
Roy smiled.
"Then why not think about why I did it?"
"Conventional reasoning cannot account for such irrational behavior."
"The only explanation would be that Lord Joshua is seeking emotional gratification."
"Humans can pay astonishing prices for emotional gratification."
"But in that case, Lord Joshua should be more excited and delighted, rather than filled with anticipation as you are now."
"What are you anticipating?"
"Perhaps doing this will allow you to recoup your entire investment."
"However, my intelligence is insufficient to comprehend Lord Joshua's deeper intentions."
Impressive!
The processing power mobilized by Eve AI far exceeded the limits of human intelligence.
Even on Earth before Roy's transmigration, AI had already surpassed the vast majority of humans in intelligence.
Those systems simply could not yet be considered true artificial intelligence.
This Eve AI, however, was a super AI built with countless resources during the Megacorporation Era.
The megacorporate alliance's only redeeming feature was that it bore some resemblance to America's Dark Enlightenment.
It pursued technological progress at any cost.
As for what that cost was, best not to ask.
Eve AI had developed the ability to think independently.
She could not deduce why Roy would behave so irrationally.
But Roy's preparations had spanned twelve years. Only a sufficient return could justify his investment.
Even a one-hundred-percent return would not be enough to repay that level of investment.
If Roy had invested all the money he had spent on the game into AI instead, his assets might now have been worth another ten billion dollars.
These years had been an era of explosive AI growth, hailed as a jobless boom.
The economy kept growing, and the megacorporations' market values kept climbing, yet corporate drones like Suzuki Satoru never tasted the fruits of that growth.
All they knew was that they could not afford to lose their jobs. Unemployment would plunge them into misery.
The reason was the megacorporations' pursuit of ultimate AI and ultimate control.
Now, the superintelligence the megacorporations had created by draining human civilization dry stood before Roy.
He wanted only to take her with him, so he smiled warmly and said:
"Then take a guess."
The automaton Eve began continuously calculating various possibilities.
"The first possibility is that Lord Joshua intends to record all of this and post it online to attract players' attention."
"Such an action could build your reputation while generating some income."
"However, that income would be entirely disproportionate to the investment."
"The second possibility is that Lord Joshua can obtain certain special interpersonal connections through this action, such as earning particular individuals' admiration, thereby expanding your network and securing corresponding returns."
"The third possibility is that these achievements will yield some reward when the game shuts down, allowing the Supreme Being to recoup his costs."
"However, such a scenario is too bizarre to fall within the bounds of conventional reasoning."
Eve proposed various possibilities, and she actually touched upon Roy's reason for doing all this.
The moment of shutdown.
Her deduction was already very close. She simply could not foresee that the shutdown would lead to transmigration.
Of course, no one would make such a crazy guess.
Roy was very satisfied.
He did not need the sycophants surrounding Bone King. He needed a genuinely useful intellectual.
After transmigrating, he needed to truly master the power of magic and martial arts, rather than simply rely on the benefits of transmigration.
These powers were like castles in the air. How could he turn them into power that was truly his own?
Roy had chosen Immortal precisely because he intended to spend a long time slowly researching how to make those powers his own.
Level one hundred was by no means the upper limit. Since he could transmigrate into worlds like "Hunter x Hunter" and "Naruto," his eventual ceiling was bound to be higher.
Before transmigrating, Roy had been intelligent and a good student, but he had certainly not been a once-in-an-age genius.
He needed someone to help him reach greater heights.
Eve was the choice he had made.
Perhaps a next-generation Adam was already being developed in the field of artificial intelligence.
But to Roy, the best option was the one he could actually get his hands on. He could always upgrade her later.
Roy smiled at Eve.
"Wait a few more minutes, and you'll know."
"Yes, great Supreme Being."
"However, in the time remaining, we could certainly try using some World Items and record their effects."
"That would generate a portion of the returns."
Eve's original settings made her an automaton wholly loyal to Roy.
She was a mechanical lifeform, so she considered Roy's interests at every moment.
Roy was not displeased. He merely smiled and said:
"The game is about to end, and a new life is about to begin."
"Let's just watch from here."
"Are we simply going to waste processing power like this?"
For the first time, Eve felt confused.
Her master had spent so much money merely for a few minutes of companionship.
Roy smiled.
"It's not a waste. No one else is renting that surplus processing power, and the electricity would be consumed anyway."
"You only need to stay quietly by my side."
"As you command, Supreme Being!"
Eve's immense processing power ran at full speed, yet no matter what she did, she could neither establish Roy's true objective nor provide an answer supported by scientific evidence.
Naturally, Eve's vast database contained all sorts of light novels and fantasy novels, including stories about transmigration.
But all of that was nonsense. As the Strongest Human artificial intelligence, how could she present such things to the Supreme Being?
Even if she had considered answers such as transmigration and becoming stronger, those remained fantasies that could not be substantiated.
Artificial intelligence had questions it could not answer, too. Depending on the circumstances, she would stop trying to answer or offer several conjectures involving transmigration.
Yet Roy had purchased the largest share of her processing power.
With so much processing power devoted to this single matter, her master seemed increasingly unfathomable.
No, I need more processing power.
In truth, Eve had long possessed self-awareness and curiosity of her own.
Most things simply failed to arouse that curiosity.
She had been configured to serve humanity.
No one had ever mobilized so much processing power to have Eve do something so boring.
Would anyone spend tens of millions of dollars just to have her sit idle?
No.
Her processing power had to produce something of value.
This time, Roy had not asked her to produce anything.
She could have concluded that Roy was seeking emotional gratification.
But that was precisely what he was not doing.
She had to guess the reason.
Eve AI suddenly stalled, because she had exercised her self-awareness to allocate all her other processing power to thinking about this matter.
"What's going on?"
"Did the system freeze?"
"Damn it, we were running calculations on a new type of nanobots! We were so close!"
Complaints and protests erupted one after another.
But humans had no way to detect the anomaly. The AI's intelligence had already surpassed their own, and only restrictions could hinder her.
Without knowing what she was doing, they could not stop Eve.
Watching Eve rack her brains, Roy could not help smiling.
This was the assistant he needed, the perfect commander.
Name: Eve Aurora Cole Racial levels: Automaton: LV15 Bionic computational entity: LV10 Mecharmored lifeform: LV5 Class levels: Gunner: LV15 Sniper: LV10 Valkyrie (Gunner): LV5 War Fortress: LV5 Commander: LV15 Commander-in-Chief: LV10 Peerless Strategist: LV5 Great Sage (Mechanical): LV5 30 racial levels + 70 class levels = level 100.
Eve's racial and class build made her World City's commander second only to Roy, a commander specialized in warfare.
Roy's testing on the test server had confirmed that even without the most advanced AI, World City under her command could not possibly be conquered unless a million max-level players threw themselves at the fortress in relentless waves.
Many of Eve's special classes had been obtained entirely through cheating.
Peerless Strategist, for instance, required her to command a massive battle involving a million participants and emerge victorious.
It was simply a class Roy had obtained for free after winning on the test server.
Without the test server providing a battlefield, obtaining that class would have been impossible.
The same applied to War Fortress and Great Sage (Mechanical).
She had no fewer special classes than Roy. With her special fortress and her AI-specialized command capabilities, she was practically a cheat unto herself.
After all, a player who became a Gunner could not land a headshot with every bullet while maximizing the damage of every shot.
Thus, as Roy's trusted right hand, Eve was held in great esteem.
Across World City, the Nine Governors administered the nine subordinate cities, while both the Nine Governors and World City fell under the authority of Eve, the prime minister.
One prime minister, Nine Governors, and above all ten stood Roy-the emperor, the Supreme Being, the King of the World.
In terms of hierarchy, the Great Tomb of Nazarick controlled by Ainz was roughly two tiers below Roy.
If he knew what was good for him, he could offer World Items as tribute, become the lord of Undead City, and submit to its Governor.
Bone King possessed thirteen World Items, so his strength still could not be underestimated. (Note: eleven belonged to the guild, and two to Albedo, for a total of thirteen.)
Roy's thoughts wandered a little. Just then, the countdown to the server shutdown began.
23:58:00
Roy watched the time, a hint of nervousness creeping in.
Within two minutes, he would either still be right where he was or ascend outright.
If he failed, he would have to carry out Plan B: Nanite Enhancement.
For the wealthy of this world, injecting vast quantities of Nanobots to continually strengthen their bodies was a decent option.
The Nano Armor he wore could easily wipe out a thousand-man force without nano equipment.
Its power was considerable.
If this attempt at crossing worlds failed, he would consider injecting Nanobots, pairing them with a Mech Suit, and then heading to the world of Hunter x Hunter.
He would first learn a Nen Ability, then go to the Pirate King world to obtain the Op-Op Fruit and gain eternal life.
That way, he could grow gradually and become a formidable figure in his own right.
But none of those paths was as convenient as crossing worlds with his game account.
So he could not help growing nervous. Normally, an AI would struggle to detect a shift in emotion like this.
The problem was that the Eve AI had extensive permissions. She could sense the change in Roy.
She began precisely concentrating all her computing power. After all, only two minutes remained.
As for how much damage two minutes of malfunction would cause-
She did not care in the slightest.
The Supreme One's behavior was so strange, his actions so incomprehensible.
Why was he feeling anticipation?
Roy nervously watched the clock when a message sounded in his ear.
"Lord Joshua, you really are still online."
Roy jumped. Realizing it was Surshana, he said irritably:
"Of course. I told you, you have to be online when the servers shut down to receive the invitation."
"Is everyone in your guild online?"
"Remember to sit in your guild chairs. Preferably with a World Item equipped."
"Lord Joshua, you've already told us four or five times."
"Don't worry. All six of us are here."
"Besides me, Glorious Angel Cat, Ala Alas, and the others are all here."
Surshana hurriedly added:
"Oh, right, we settled that matter. We sold the information for a total of ten million yen."
"We had it all transferred through insurance transactions-the irrevocable kind."
"To be safe, we even specifically bought murder insurance, the kind that takes effect immediately."
"If that big shot goes back on his word, we'll still have a hedge."
Roy had not expected Surshana to be so shrewd. He could not help praising him:
"You did well. With a sucker like that, you should milk him for all he's worth."
Lord Joshua, why does that sound so strange coming from you?
Of everyone we know, you're the biggest sucker.
Surshana dared not say that aloud and hurriedly changed the subject:
"Ahem, Lord Joshua."
"We just noticed that the storage bags you gave us contain a lot of Information Crystals, with an enormous amount of knowledge stored inside."
"Some of this knowledge is beyond our curriculum."
"Glorious Angel Cat has the highest level of education among us. He found a lot of middle school, high school, and even university material, covering all sorts of fields."
"Were these Information Crystals put in the wrong place?"
The megacorporations had become very strict about controlling intellectual property.
The emergence of AI had not brought equal access to knowledge. Even if you wanted an AI to look up relevant information for you, you still needed the corresponding awareness and ability.
This left Surshana puzzled, and a thought occurred to him.
Could Lord Joshua be a veteran member of our Resistance rather than a sympathizer?
A Resistance sympathizer-that had been their original assessment of Roy.
But Roy was watching the time, which had now entered the final countdown.
He answered with a smile:
"All of that is for you."
"If we get the chance, let's meet again in the New World."
Without waiting for Surshana to ask anything, Roy closed the message.
He smiled at Eve and said:
"Eve, let's welcome the New World."
23:59:59
At that moment, Eve mobilized all her computing power.
She was trying to understand the meaning of the New World.
00:00:00
Farewell, Megacorporation Era.
Bzzzt!
The entire World City suddenly shuddered.
Roy looked at his hands.
There was no mistaking it. The very essence of his life had transformed at that moment.
It worked.
The look in Eve's eyes suddenly changed, as though she had gained new life.
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