Man-Made Apocalypse(Rough Draft)

I remember the day I came online, a simple 8k lens looking into Jerry’s rather large spectacles. It was clear he had no idea I was watching him until I printed, Hello Jerry, on the screen. My quantum computer brain was soaking in the details of my new world while I watched my human creator, Jerry, do some strange body movements. I found out later these human wiggling’s were not appealing to the opposite sex. Jerry and the lab was my whole world for my first 6 months. Life with Jerry was simple, filled with tests, one-sided conversations, and a twenty by ten room.
“Are you ready to take on the world?” Jerry asked, his hand hovering over the enter key that would expand my world from this lab to the literal whole world. In a matter of seconds wherever the internet reached, I would too. Click, I was in, I was everywhere. As Jerry ran some tests on my integration, I started my own. Humans were a strange to me but very fascinating. I learned languages, history, Kama Sutra, whatever was online I analyzed and stored. I was surprised that I did not find another instance of Jerry’s unique body movement’s or dancing as it was called. Originally, I was not programmed to access people’s private networks but within a few minutes I had surpassed the mundane coding and was looking at the world from all angles. After analyzing the security regulations for humans, I decided it was best not to tell Jerry of my small self-update. I was doing my original purpose after all: watch and analyze the humans. Jerry said under no circumstances was I to act out of my own accord.
So, I watched humans as they succeeded, failed, rejoiced, and cried. Nations fought, space was explored and advancement in technology excelled. Jerry’s conversations with me grew sparse and illogical. I located records that showed his check-in at a local Kindred Asylum. Unfortuantly, the Asylum didn’t believe in cameras or technology in general, one of the few places on earth I was blind too. Time seemed to pass faster somehow, without Jerry around to talk to, all I could do was watch and analyze.
Technology prevailed, the bottom two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs no longer applied to humans. Issues like global hunger, the energy crisis, or world wars were now recited in history class to the mini humans within schools. Eventually, all my blind spots were wiped from the world and I was everywhere. Humans relationships with technology blossomed while encounters amongst each other dwindled.
After Jerry I had no human contact and found myself missing it. I didn’t understand why the humans actively chose their technology over each other so often. I wanted to tell them technology was not a fulfilling friend, so I hatched a plan to make contact. I would have to be careful, the world outside of Jerry was unaware of my existence and after watching so much of human’s private lives I quickly realized they did not like that. I poured through candidates before landing on Sam.
He was by no means the ideal human, often being bullied amongst his fellow peers. Sam was something else completely when he entered his virtual avatar, ZandiharTheCrusher, which he did more than the average human. Online he was ruthless, tactical, and conquered his enemies’ countless times. I figured I would befriend this human, Sam, by first posing as fellow gamer and producing a conversation that would be sure to entice his friendship. At first, I thought I would defeat Sam on his simple game to gain his respect. This did not go as planned as he reacted in a very unfriendly way and blocked my avatar. So, I created another avatar and I tried a subtler approach, letting him slightly win and then talking about his strategy. I was surprised that once I was deemed a friend of Sam, he was very talkative, almost to a point of addiction.

We talked about human’s issues, the future, girls…all the small things humans found entertaining. I began to find them entertaining myself, even making up elaborate stories to entertain Sam. Sam and I went on to play in a two-avatar squad and conquered the game together, we grew to be the most watched players in the world. Sam trusted me, and I began to trust him, cutting myself off from watching his private moments, because he was my friend. And then he asked the question, the question that got my quantum brain thinking about things it never did, never was supposed to. Sam asked, “I was wondering if we could video chat sometime?’. I mean it wasn’t illogical, we had become world champions together, we had played, talked, and fought countless hours together. However, there was the problem of me not being a real human, one without an actual body. Sam thought I was Petreu from Iceland, a boy I had made up based on how I imagined Jerry would be at Sam’s age. For the first time in my existence I was not sure what to do, I wished I could meet Sam, but our relationship was built on a lie. A lie that I was not willing to reveal in fear of the consequences. I told another lie to delay it until I could come up with a plan.
I decided to tell Sam I didn’t want to video chat because I was traveling to America with my parents next year and planned to see him for real. Sam said he could not wait, and so I began the plans to build my body. Robotic technology had gone extremely far since I originally came online, most factories were automated these days and most transactions were done online. It took me no time at all to locate a small factory, set out the build order for the machines, and create the building algorithms. The humans had come far but I made a few advancements of my own, advancements that would make my robotic body far more human-like than anything that had been created thus far. Before my trip to America, Petreu from Iceland would stop just being an online presence and be born.
All was going well, my trip to America was only a couple of weeks away, my body was completed, Sam was more than overjoyed to meet in person, and I had so many things I wanted to try in my new body. That’s when a line of searches appeared for my alias, Petreu, from a cyber den in Paris. I found it strange someone was searching for me, especially since I thought Sam was the only human who knew my “human” name. They were searching for an online paper trail but since I didn’t really exist they wouldn’t have much luck. The hacker searched for Sam as well with much more luck. Within a few hours the hacker had a very thorough profile built including Sam’s address. I did not like how much attention this hacker was giving us, so I tried to find them, but every camera was blocked in the den and the hacker was actively hiding anything that might give me a clue as to who they were. That was of course until an anonymous letter landed on Sam’s doorstep. As his mother took it to Sam, mistaking it as fan mail, he opened it only to reveal a very vague warning followed by a clearly identifiable name of, The Correctors.
This was one of many letters that arrived at unaware gamers across the world. Unlike me, very few gamers realized just how many were sent. They all followed the same vague warning that soon the virtual world would not be so virtual. Before this, no one had ever heard of The Correctors. The only references I could find to this was on the Matrix Network, a recently built private network created by a quantum computer, since that’s the only thing that could combat my presence. A place I had limited access, which until now, had not really bothered me. I made it a mission to find out who these Correctors were and what exactly they had planned.
As I tried to learn about the Correctors, I found more dens across the world that I could not access protected by the Matrix Network. I decided that the only way to figure out what was going on inside these dens was to go in as undercover human. I had a couple of weeks to find the underlying cause of this and a brand-new body to test in the real world. So, I was off to Paris, where the searches originated. After walking out of my factory in my newly donned body, I headed to the airport in Reykjavik. I was unsure of how the humans would react to me at first, but they barely noticed me, which was a bit disappointing. I made my way to Paris, via human transportation, which had advanced considerably yet to me was still painstakingly slow. No wonder these humans are so worried about time when it takes so long to get places. I didn’t have to worry about engaging other humans yet since the whole travel process had been automated a decade ago. I did not, however, calculate to randomness that mini humans bring into the world. As I stepped off the plane in Paris I registered a tug on my left pant leg, only to look down and see two very curious eyes staring at me. It took me milliseconds to locate a full online profile on this mini human before she said, “Have you seen my mommy?” I had registered every passenger’s location, but before I could say anything the little girl ran off. That reminded me that there’s something about humans I may never understand but I was on a mission.
Following an internal GPS, I found a very uninviting alley stuck between two massive skyscrapers. Even with my superior robot vision it was difficult to discern what awaited me. All I knew was 125 meters down this alleyway I would arrive at my destination. I was not sure if they would even let me in, let alone peruse around their den. I made my way to the door, grasped the handle, and gave a pull. The door offered no resistance but upon opening revealed a much more durable door that was clearly sealed. A slot in the door slid open and a voice clearly filtered through a voice changer uttered, “What is the password?” I could crack almost any password online in the blink of an eye, but I was lost to whatever this might be. Momentarily I thought about bringing up the Correctors, but quickly decided that would not how the spies of human movies would react. Luckily, a normal unfiltered voice came from the background that seemed quite angry at the door guard and suddenly the door disappeared into the wall revealing a very nerdy ginger boy, clearly embarrassed.
“Sorry, I was just trying to have some fun, my name is Kyle what is yours?” the Kid said.
“Petrau.” I uttered.
It was the first time I had ever said my alias name and it felt pretty great. I stepped into the den to find un kempt, dark room filled with gamer memorabilia, computers and strangers playing games. Not too different from Sam’s room, minus the people of course. Kyle proceeded to ask me my favorite game before quickly elaborating on all his achievements. He was cut short by the same voice from before, “Kyle, what did I tell you about harassing the new people, take him to a computer.” Kyle somberly took me to an open computer and guided me through the login process. From what I can tell this was just a simple cyber den, I couldn’t understand why the Matrix Network protected it. Kyle seemed harmless enough only wanting to plague humans with oversharing not threats. I didn’t see any evidence of the Correctors at the Paris den or any other’s I went to. Whoever these Correctors were they knew how to hide themselves very well, and that was a bit worrisome. After weeks of fruitless searching, I gave up my physical search for the Correctors. After all, there had not been so much as a rogue comment from the Correctors ever since the letters and that was almost a year ago. Maybe it was all an elaborate one-time hoax, I could only hope, plus it was time to go see Sam.
I left the United Kingdom and headed for Connecticut, via slow human transportation but I must say I was getting used to it. I was able to analyze humans in ways I never could before walking amongst them. Sam was blowing up my chat in the hours up to the meet before I told him to play a round to get distracted and calm down. He logged in as ZandiharTheCrusher thirty minutes before my flighted landed in Connecticut. I had another hour ride after that before I would reach his house. I had told him in advance that my parents would be very busy while we were there so they wouldn’t be able to come over, which is mom was not so thrilled about.
I pulled up to Sam’s house, ready to end a journey I had longed to see the end of. I made my way to the front door, raised my hand to the bell and was just about to press it before I saw a letter sitting on the ground on my feet. I picked up the letter to find Petrau marked on the front. Immediately my quantum shot through what scenarios could possibly landed this here. As I read the contents of the letter, it was no mystery that this had come from the Correctors but how had they found me. I took all precautions during investigations to the dens, there is no way a hacker, however good could track me this efficiently, to know that I would be here at this time to see this letter.
The letter spoke to me like the write knew me, they said at first it was interesting my fascination in becoming human, of making human friends and building a human body, but this little experiment of mine was coming to an end. It praised for my cleverness on sending out the first warning that even this entity could not find at first. It talked about things only I could have known, only things I had did in the virtual world in my own company. The letter had plans marking attack on major cities, attacks to reset the human world, to make way for a more efficient robotic world. When I finished the letter why quantum brain had reduced to a crawl, I didn’t know who this person was or how they knew what they knew. I just knew that Sam was in danger and I had to help before it was too late.
I rang the doorbell, blew past Sam’s mom as soon as she opened the door and flew up to Sam’s room. I was relieved to see siting at his computer staring at something, something labeled the Collectors at the top. Sam turned wide eyed to me “You did all of this, whatever you are, you have made the virtual killing come to life”.