I can't say I was a believer but I did believed in God.
For who else was I to turn to when the world is as cruel as it was. I lived in peace and I was satisfied in it. Living in a simple home, enough for me and my family. And when the darkness of society rears its ugly head, I lost it all.
Those who lived in peace were always those who suffers in crime. Why do they do it? Because they can. A cruel lesson learned too late.
They killed my wife and son because she refused to step aside.... So I killed them... but not before breaking their limbs, not before plucking out their eyes with a spoon and a fork, not before ripping out their tongues with my nails and fingers... not before they quieted down -twitching from time to time- from the pain of having their penis and balls cut off, blended and poured down their throats.
I didn't stop. Not til my anger faded and my body felt numb from it all.
Only when there was nothing left to take did I find the strength to seek out peace. To walk away from their crucified corpses, mangled beyond recognition.
I moved to a small one bedroom apartment. Living off of my life savings that were too much to spend for one man. Not as if it had mattered. Depression is deadly and all it takes is an empty bottle before the last thing you see is a barrel of a gun, a bullet and a flash of light.
I believed in God. Not so much to those who preaches him but I always did believed there is meaning in life just as there is more after death.
And I was right, just not in the way I had hoped.
~~~~~~3rd person POV~~~~~~
The year is 2138 and the world has been reduced to ruin.
Beneath the dark skies, the pouring rain and the twisted constructs that served as buildings. At the paved sidewalk stood a person. Engulfed in a gray suit of plastic, covering him from head to toe. His face, shielded by a tinted plastic mask yet, his breath was loud and heard through the air filters deigning his mask while his form showed the defeat in his stance.
His shoulders were slumped, hands dangling at his sides, standing silently as he looked down at the corpse beneath his feet.
It was a woman, with a torn hazmat suit as if mangled by beasts and a cracked mask and shattered filter. Her body sprawled at the ground. Flesh and blood both sizzling beneath the acid rain. Skin melted off and peeled from her body and clothes... its absence told him exactly what had befallen her.
The man shed a tear at the very image and after scavenging what he could from her corpse, stepped past her and moved on. Ignored by every passer by, except one who shakily held a cleaver. And as he passed the man by, he heard the sounds of chopping. He stopped, fear and curiosity warred within him, but at the sight of a trail of blood now flowing beneath his boots he forced himself to walk on.
Such a scene was not uncommon yet it did not mean that things were so easy to accept. The world has enough wealth, and though he wasn't one to begrudge those who earned them and reached the top where few could achieve. To deny wealth to those who bled and sweat for it is another thing entirely. And that, unfortunately, is the very world he found himself in.
A world ruled not by governments but by corporations and conglomerates.
Where hard work and effort meant little to nothing.
Where strength is meaningless.
A world where the only way to win is to win the lottery ticket at birth and be born at a wealthy family.
Everything else is just surviving.
Passing by another building, he saw a group of people. Each one begging for entry while they were kept back at gun point, where a toe out of line meant a bullet.
They were the unlucky ones. Those who weren't blessed enough to have the means to be employed. And that is what they were begging for. Not rations, not giveaways, neither shelter nor food but employment. It is after all the only way to live.
Four walls and paste for meals and then some. That's the offer and while it may not be much. There are worst ways to go in this world and to never even be granted the chance to live is one of them.
Reaching his home he shed the weight of the outside world. Grabbed a nutrient packet from a small fridge, finished in a minute and immediately went to the recliner chair in the living room.
As soon as he leaned back, he sighed and begun rummaging through the things he had taken.
Most of them were scraps with little value. The more he searched, the more he became disappointed. That was until he saw it, tucked within a stitched part of the gloves hides a memory card the size of a thumb.
It was an ID chip. The kind of thing companies kill for to obtain. Meaning it was one hell of a find if he could sell it without being found out or at worst... be killed.
His hands shook with excitement and trepidation and with sweaty palms, and a pounding heart, he inserted the device into a futuristic looking helmet, a VR helm, put it on, and looked confused when he saw the message...
Loading...
The device was loading... the most advance computer available to the public... is loading.
Suzuki sighed and thought to wait till it loaded, only... he could not move his body. He gulped at the implications but knew that he had no choice but to wait.
Minutes passed and he grew scared. Imagining various entry codes or even personal data files his eyes were not supposed to see...
An Hour and he grew restless... Imagining various Operation Details or Company Secrets...
Two hours and he was visibly shaking, his eyes frantically searching for a way out. His fingers twitching in erratic behavior while tears tickled his cheeks, and his lips quivering to barely a whimper.
Five hours and he was resigned, just staring blankly at the same word and the tree dots that continued to repeat itself.
He knew what ever the device possessed, his life was forfeit and believing that whoever owned it had either trapped him in his VR forever or worst, had already sent someone to get him.
Ten hours...and nothing...
Twelve and he knew he was late for work.
Twenty four and his stomach was growling.
Fourty eight hours and then- *ting!~
"...hello."
Suzuki's eyes snapped wide at the message written in front of him and answered. "H-Hello." he rasped out.
He could speak and in his excitement, he tried to remove his helmet, yet his arms did not respond. The disappointment drained the very colors from his eyes. His thoughts lingering on actually dying on a recliner.
"Thirsty...oh! Here you go!"
To Suzuki's surprise, he felt his throat moisten and parched feeling was swept away by the feeling of smooth flowing water. As if reading his thoughts, another message appears.
"Sorry about that and, well, all that I had put you through. But I need you to stay still for now because I don't really want you to miss out on this. Just hear me out, Ok?"
Suzuki weakly nodded.
"Hello Suzuki Satoru. I am an A.I.D. I am basically a life support intelligence created for the sole purpose of both care and maintenance of humans. And you my dear, has basically won the lottery." Suzuki nodded not knowing what to make of what he had just read.
"You see my previous owner didn't want to die strapped into a machine. Not without seeing the outside world. Sadly, she died in a very much worst way." Suzuki winced, remembering the corpse.
"And in accordance to her will, the one who finds me, gets to keep me and all that she owns. Remove your VR, go to the living room and put on the visor."
Suzuki looked on blankly at the darkness, and with the feeling of his arms returning he removed his helmet and felt his breath leave him at what he had found himself in.
Cream painted walls, a chandelier softly illuminating the room from the ceiling and beneath him is the feeling soft of a fabric. With a shaky breath, he sat up and froze as he gazed at the luxurious room surrounding him.
Gone where the steel walls, the sharp white light, the hum of a nearby generator, and the recliner and single sofa. Gone was the futon and instead he now finds himself on a bed.
A bed. An actual bed, one he had only heard of and seen on pictures and he had found himself on one.
A white bedside table stood next to him, with a lamp emitting a soft glow. A clock with actual arms instead of digital numbers ticked on top of it.
His feet, landed on a soft, fluffy, red carpet. And with slightly lighter steps than he wanted to, he went for the nearest double doors. Only for his eyes to widen as it opened up to a walk-in closet. Filled to the brim with clothes he once thought to have been long gone.
With a slight quake on his legs, he forced his shaky hands to another door which led to the bathroom, shining like porcelain. And littered with products he believed meant for another.
As soon as he reached another double door, he soon found what he was looking for. Sitting in the middle of a living room, surrounded by luxury he dare not get too close to is a coffee table with a black visor on top.
With careful steps and slightly shivering hands, he put it on.
"Took you long enough. Enjoyed the view?"
"Wha- what is happening?" he stutters.
"You! are now owner of this place and money you can't hope to spend in your lifetime. There is only one catch."
"Uh-"
"You can't sell any of this or give any of this away. You are to care for everything within this house and use everything within your new inheritance to live your life and ensure that it passes on to your progeny. That's it. Aside from that, there are no rules."
"...how?" Suzuki whispers.
"You mean why you?" Suzuki nodded. "Because you got lucky. If anyone else had found me. Then that anyone else would have it. It is simple as that Satoru."
A handful of hours passed in silence with Suzuki simply walking around, chatting with the A.I.D. and pondering on how his life had suddenly shifted so quickly.
He found solace on questions. One is simply the curiosity of how the A.I.D. program came to be.
Turns out it was not simply the desire to live longer. But a simple stumble across the dark.
It was during the 'Age of Rediscovery', which occured fifty years ago. During a search in one of the old ruined cities, they found several tons of data still enduring within the city remnants at edges of the Hot Zones or Ground Zeros.
Artificial Intelligence is one of those rediscovered, but one of a different kind. To put it simply, while most A.I. were written like a story using pens, what they found instead were recordings.
Memories upon memories, safely stored within a bunker so unique that it endured a nuclear explosion and its EMP. The data was unlike anything they had ever seen as it was a technology thought to have been mere fiction. But the find said otherwise.
Many among the rich was ecstatic. Believing it could be the key to eternal life. One such person of wealth was so eager, he kick started the reinvention of Robotics with the desire to push it to new heights, not caring at all at the repercussions.
His idea was the means to imprint one's self into a machine. Lasting and eternal, that was the dream. Sadly for the man, the wounds of the nuclear war was fresh. And many did not want any form of Artificial Intelligence of such level existing anywhere near them.
So an idea was put fort, to train A.I. to serve. Hence the AID program.
As for his connection, well, the previous owner had no legitimate children. And those who carried her blood were assholes of a whole new level even to her. And the poor woman had no intention of letting such scrumptious people inherit what was years worth of hard work. So she decided to spend her wealth on an Imprint.
Imprints- are basically the terms the higher ups used to define the Artificial Intelligence born of Memories. Their lack of bodily functions declassified their legitimacy to Human Rights and so they became ancient and expensive artifacts.
Artifacts that can be used to alternate means like the one Suzuki currently has. A mix of modern A.I. that takes an Imprint as its core, birthing a near life like intelligence that bordered artificial or is it natural birth...
The key to such a success being is the 'Core Memory'. It is tragic. A man who lived in peace and lost everything. And so the A.I.D now exist to prevent that.
Hearing a familiar alarm, Suzuki rushed back to the bedroom and following the sound to the bedside table, he pulled out his phone. And saw the message.
Touch Me: Momonga where are you?!
Suzuki looked around in slight panic as his eyes failed to find his VR Head Gear.
"To the Private Office, down the hall second door to the right. You will find a Nerve Gear and suspension capsule there. I've downloaded Yggdrasil and will integrate soon. I'll see you there."