Reincarnated as a personality core?!

Chapter 5

Hello and again, welcome to Reincarnated as a personality core, you have been waiting for 99999999*ktttch* the story will continue in 3... 2... 1...

Alec rode along his management rail idly for a while before sighing and asking Caroline where he would need to go.

"Alright, Caroline, is there like, a place where AIs gather or something? Maybe like a hub or something?"
He spoke, definitely sounding insane to anything that could hear him, though there was thankfully nothing nearby.

"Yes, there is an area with the designation Area 12589, or more commonly referred to as the core hub"
Caroline replied.

"Core hub? Can you give me some directions? I have no idea where it is, like literally everywhere else in this labyrinth of a facility"
Alec said

"Acknowledged showing path"
Caroline's emotionless voice spoke before a path showed up on Alec's HUD.

"Cheers"
Alec thanked before following the path, all while looking around his surroundings to see if he could find anything worth scanning.

Roughly half an hour later Alec heard a strange sound, like something shooting but warbled almost, he didn't know how to describe it, he decided to follow the sound and found himself inside a test chamber, inside it was two robots, one looked like a core with arms and legs connected to it and the other looked like a turret was given arms and legs, most notably they had guns that shot portals.

Alec excitedly tried to scan the portal gun as well as the arms and legs of the former robot but he was met with an error message.

Warning! Unit does not have clearance to scan items: Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device and Core Manoeuvrability Rig! Requires Level 6 and Level 4 Clearance, Unit only has level 1 Clearance!

The error message immediately disheartened Alec but also gave him some hope that he'll be able to scan it one day, probably not soon though, considering he didn't even know how to raise his security clearance, though he guessed he'd figure it out in the hub.

He then left the test chamber and continued following the pathway laid out on his HUD and after another hour of moving across the management rail he found himself in front of a door that seemed to have a microphone next to it.

"Uh, hello? Anyone there?"
Alec asked, half not expecting a reply and half hoping for one.

After a few seconds of silence a feminine voice with a British accent was heard from the speaker near the microphone.
"State your serial code"
She spoke in a professional tone.

"Oh um 23637"
Alec replied.

"23637? Aren't you that bloke GlaDOS called over? I figured you'd be dead, give me a moment and I'll open the door up"
She spoke.

After a few moments the door opened up to reveal a core with a lilac optic that had an eye as a pupil.
"The name's Lily, what's your's 23637?"
Lily asked, her upper optic cover tilted to emulate a raised eyebrow.

"Alec, nice to meet you Lily"
Alec replied, waving his hand in greeting.

"Is that an arm? How much did that cost you?"
Lily asked with slight surprise.

"Cost? I made it, I have a modification module"
Alec said, dematerialising it.

"Shh! Look I'd suggest that you don't go saying that willy nilly, there's a lot of cores that'd kill to get what you have, keep it a secret until you really trust someone ok? There's a lot of unsavoury figures in the hub that you'd want to stay away from"
Lily explained before moving to a sub rail that branched off from the one both she and Alec were on.

"Anyway you can enter, remember what I said about that module of yours, have a good stay"
She spoke.

Alec nodded and entered, as he passed by Lily he spoke.
"Thanks for the advice, I didn't realise it was that sought after"
He said.

"No problem, as I said, just keep it under wraps and you'll be fine"
She said.

Alec nodded and once he made it past the security office he saw the hub and the sight of it blew him away, cores of all colours and designs moving every which way, many signs that pointed towards various different services from repairs to modifications.

"Core hub reached, pathway deactivating"
Caroline's voice spoke as the path that was on Alec's HUD dissipated.

Attention!

Hello sarcasm corps, apologies for the long wait, writer's block has been a twat to me, anyway here's the newest chapter.

As always constructive criticism is always welcomed.

At ease.

Word count: 737