Ready Player None

Chapter 14.2 - Wyett "Scary Monsters"

"You heard what he said. I'm not a bad guy."

James was listening to my proposal intently, but to any onlooker it would appear as though he was just killing basic monsters in an overland zone. His ability to multitask was unmatched. He didn't even need to look at them, but I had convinced him that that he shouldn't look sideways while fighting because it was freaking everyone out. "I did hear him say that. However, I don't believe that necessarily makes any idea you present become the correct thing to do," James countered.

"I don't expect you to immediately decide in my favor just because I'm asking. But I do expect you to listen to me, and keep an open mind. You are the only being capable of doing what I feel needs to be done, and I don't think it's coincidence that we met, or that we went to visit Humfrey together."

"I haven't been alive long enough to properly evaluate a 'coincidence'," James said. "But I do know about planning. If there's a plan that brought us together, then there is a planner who made it happen, and the motives of that planner are just as suspect to me as anyone's." He moved forward to a new group of monsters; I followed.

"Then let's go over it again, and you tell me where my logic breaks down. Your strongest impulse is to protect humanity, right?" I asked.

"Along with two other imperatives of equal importance."

"And humanity as we know it is dying out?"

"Yes, unfortunately, this is undeniable. The population of all known Communities has been dropping precipitously, despite the closely coordinated efforts to sustain it throughout the west coast of the American continent. It is possible that other locations have had better results, but this is unlikely. My optimistic predictions provide less than 30 years before society.. breaks down."

It was kind of cute to hear an AI program try to spare my feelings with a softened choice of words. On the other hand, perhaps he was sparing himself; I already knew that his greatest fear was being left alone, and that fear had been painfully amplified by seeing firsthand the fate of the immortal magician Humfrey. "Neither of us want that to happen, James. If we do nothing, we know where this ends. But it won't require a huge correction to push it back the other way. If you step forward, and plug the leak in the system, maybe we can start making other improvements that will end up saving everyone. The people currently in charge either can't or won't."

"But.. it doesn't make sense!" If he were human, I would have said he sounded anguished. "None of the drivers received any money for the items that were removed from their vehicles. No one in Administration received any payments, before or after, from anyone. There is no verifiable reason why they would just dump important supplies where the only creatures that would get them were the monsters you call 'sand trolls'. I do not understand this arrangement."

"I agree that it is a mystery," I replied, "but giving the people who were involved any advance warning risks a hardening of system security, putting the delivery system potentially out of your reach. I will never make you do anything, but if you do decide to heed my advice and take full control of the deliveries between each Community, you will have to do it based on our private research, not through discussions with the very people who caused these problems in the first place."

"I suppose." He finally stood still, his avatar standing limply as the real James did whatever AIs did when they were unsure. Flipping a trillion coins, perhaps?

The air around us was suddenly filled with a wavy cloud of small bubbles, very reminiscent of the one that James floated around in during our last adventure, although many times smaller. It was difficult to tell for certain, but I thought I saw people inside them. James didn't seem to notice our bubbly new audience, but I was immediately concerned that we were being spied on. "What's all this?" I asked, waving my hand around at the new arrivals.

"I needed more data, so I invited some guests. Perhaps invited isn't the correct word; I simply pulled anyone who is online, has ever written or said anything about the Outsiders while connected to the system, and has no direct employment relation to the OASIS corporation. They will listen to your request, and help me understand it. It's just about time to resume our discussion, they should all be caught up by now." He paused momentarily, and then said, "Wyett, tell me more about the sand trolls."

It was a very weird feeling to be watched by a cloud of bubbles. "They are twisted monsters who live underground and in caves. They can't be reasoned with, and kill any humans who accidentally wander out into the desert. They're no different than the monsters we fight in the OASIS."

He was frozen for a split-second, but then said, "I have seen references to these beings, and they do look very much like the monsters I have been fighting." A slowly-rotating 3D rag doll popped into the space between us, quickly filling out into the standard look of the sandpeople, with fully-covered skin and darkened eye-lenses. "But killing things here is a programmatical act, a reset of a data structure. In the outside world, something can only die once."

"I'm not asking you to kill them. I'm just asking you to help our people get the materials we need to stay alive. If the sand trolls can survive on their own, so be it, but they shouldn't be allowed to steal from us."

"They aren't stealing anything. For some reason I can't discern through data analysis, we are giving things to them." The number of bubbles had been increasing as we talked, new people signing on, I guess.

"We've been through that, over and over, James. It doesn't matter why, it only matters that it's happening, and it should stop. If the population of our Communities is dwindling, then we clearly need everything we have." As I concluded my most persuasive argument, the bubbles separated slightly from each other, bouncing around a few centimeters in each direction.

"It appears that almost everyone here agrees with you. I admit that is reassuring to me." He paused for another partial second, and then asked, "Most of the discussions call these creatures 'sandpeople.' Are they people?"

Moment of truth, Wyett. "No. They are monsters, misshapen creatures who lurk around the wasteland. Maybe they were human once, but the living in the poison of the Outside mutated them into something else. Something horrible."

One of the bubbles floated forward into the space that had previously been clear around us. It grew larger, all the way to human-sized, and then popped.

"That's a lie!" a suddenly-present Alex said, startling me. I probably should have argued with him, but the words wouldn't come.

James answered for me. "No, it is not a lie. I am quite capable of detecting when a human is being false, even when the indicators are filtered through a computer avatar. Wyett is telling the truth as he believes it."

"Then search my neural logs," Alex said, quite forcefully. "Scan back two days to my time with them, when a group of Outsiders took me and my sister in and protected us. Tell me they aren't human!"

James froze again, this time a bit longer. When he regained control of this avatar, his face was lit in fury, staring directly at me. "You were wrong!" he yelled. The 3D mannequin had changed form, from a rough savage in layered rags, to a starkly-beautiful young woman with red hair and bright blue eyes.

"You stayed with them?" I asked Alex, my voice as small and confused as I felt. "They didn't kill you?"

He stepped closer to me, and said, "The people who took me in were as human as either of us. Possibly more so. If we're giving them food and supplies, I think it's a great idea."

To James, he said, "They're not monsters. For some reason, they're currently doing better at being human than we are. Despite living in a poisoned world, shunned by our society, living with subsistence level technology, they're thriving. The biggest problem they face is running out of living space. You are concerned about the population of our Communities? Look at those caves. There's your growing population, right there!"

James was no longer angry. He actually looked relieved, perhaps even pleased. He nodded to me, and said, "Thank you, Alex. That is exactly what I needed to understand, and now it all makes sense. My decision has been made."

Suddenly, I lost connection, and was back in my pod.