The Record of Unusual Creatures

Humans were dying.

If those twisted flesh and cell clusters sealed within the containers were, perhaps they could still be counted as human.

Even without any instruments, Hao Ren could tell that the pieces of flesh within the containers were slowly withering away. Something within their genes had mutated under the influence of the First Born’s wrath, This change transcended time and space, affecting the “survivors” who managed to escape their homeworld. In truth, they did not survive. The extermination had already started, but its completion was delayed.

It seemed like true “survivors” like Holletta were a rare minority, and most civilizations simply could not escape the First Born’s rampage.

“With the death of humanity, the entire Executor society is finished as well.” Vivian shook her head. “The purpose of their birth was to serve humans. All their roles, thought processes, and even their societal structures were built for this purpose. If they were to lose this prime objective, the entire society would spiral into chaos. The Cortex Prime hiding this fact was to prevent that from happening.”

Lily’s ears drooped lifelessly. “But the Cortex Prime itself could not escape this fate. When humanity was done for, it was the first casualty.”

Hao Ren did not interject as he was thinking about something else. From the Cortex Prime’s series of actions, and the Executors themselves, he seemed to have realized something else.

“You are probably very bitter about this outcome, aren’t you?” After some thought, Hao Ren looked up and asked.

The Cortex Prime was emotionless as ever. “I’ve been following the orders given to me by the humans. In my programming, there is no option to be bitter.”

“But when you malfunctioned, a server sent out an order, for N-4 to lead a small platoon to look for the crash-landed outsiders. While you very quickly retracted the order, this meant that part of your programming refused to give up. Humans call this subconsciousness, and your subconsciousness was hoping for a turnaround, even if you don’t know what that means.”

The Cortex Prime went silent for a few seconds before asking. “Can you cure the humans?”

Hao Ren shifted his gaze at the chunk of flesh within the container, and based on the MDT’s scans, he was now sure of the actual state of this flesh. The human portion of it was long gone, they were now nothing but twisted and congealed chunks of cells, and every part of it was a mutation.

In a sense, humanity was long dead. The humans of this planet died the day they entered the nutrient containers.

And the Executors were fighting for the ghosts of yesteryears.

Hap Rem was sure that the Cortex Prime was aware of this, and yet this powerful A.I loyally or stubbornly executed its task for thousands of years to keep these former human cells alive, but this stubbornness had lost its meaning.

“I cannot save them.” Hao Ren shook his head. “They were long dead. And I can’t see any humanity left within those tubes. Not a single shred.”

Lily’s ears shuddered before looking at Hao Ren quizzically. “Mr. Landlord?”

Hao Ren waved her off, indicating that he was not done yet. “Even if I cannot save your ‘humans’, I believe that if they knew they would turn out like this, they would not have wished to ‘live’ on.

“And I’m willing to believe that when humanity created the Executors and gave them that time, it was not only for them to replace humans to work or to fight.

“For the continuity of civilization, it is not as simple as ‘living people’. If a race were to face extinction someday, they would fight tooth and nail to protect the legacy of their civilization. Countless generations of knowledge, culture, thought process, this is the most treasured legacy of all civilizations. You have mentioned, humans knew that their kind was withering away when they created the Executors, and used a thousand years to teach them how to think freely, and another thousand to build the Bibliotheca and transfer all their knowledge and thoughts into data that can be downloaded by the Executors, do you understand what this process means?”

The Cortex Prime did not answer, but Hao Ren continued anyway. “It’s to pass on their legacy, like a parent teaching their children, the earlier generation raising the next.”

“The Executors are not humans, and can never be their descendants”. The Cortex Prime said dismissively.

“But they can be the descendants of human civilization.” Hao Ren gestured towards N-6, “This is an Executor, a thinking, feeling and curious being. Your creators had given them everything that made one human, aside from their life form. They are well placed to take over the civilization your creator had created, and I think, that is the final goal of the creation of the Executors.”

Vivian had already caught on Hao Ren’s meaning and took over. “Your creators already knew that their doom was certain, from the day the fatal mutation started, they knew that their time was limited, and so what if the Devourer was defeated? The mutation could not be reversed and they are destined to perish, and it was just a matter of time. For such a people facing extinction, why did they cling on returning to their homeworld? They would not even have the chance to live there.”

“They wanted to find a place for the Executors to live on.” Hao Ren shook his head. “I learned from N-4 of your technological levels and based on your spacefaring technology and the conditions of the stars here, at this state you lot are unable to look for a second planet to call home, and even if the Executors are stronger than most carbon-based life form, you cannot live on a planet that is overly hot, or ones that lack mineral resources, so the homeworld is your best bet.”

“They gave you the order to retake the homeworld, and hope that they are able to see the Executors live on well while they were still alive,” Y’zaks added, his voice sounding depressed.

N-6 had kept quiet for a long while, almost like she had shut down. Only until Y’zaks had finished his sentence that she woke up before turning her head over slowly. “Did we… fail our creators?”

Vivian shook her head. “No, as long you are alive, you have not failed them.”

“Cortex Prime, you probably could have figured this out yourself.” Hao Ren said to the air, “And I believe, when you realized this you tried to give the Executors the ability to disconnect from their programming, and your logical functions made it very difficult for you to accomplish it, so I’m curious on what have you done so far.”

After a long silence, the Cortex Prime spoke. “Indeed.”

Hao Ren did not respond as he felt that the Cortex Prime still had something to say, and as expected, the digitized voice rang out again. “The entire Executor system is under my control, and they too are under the control of their cardinal orders. At the initial phase, this was a key condition for the smooth growth of the Executors as the self-learning A.I in the initial phase critical lacked stability and they needed a strict monitoring system and a simple cardinal order to grow.”

“And this system has a big restriction.” Hao Ren interjected. “As one day, the Executor’s growth will exceed the perimeters of this monitoring system, and they also need to face the reality of the extinction of humanity. They’ve grown with ‘service to the humans’ as their cardinal order, but sooner or later, they need to find their own reasons for living.”

“I have already updated a new code in the logic circuit of every Executor. This code was left behind by my last programmer many, many years ago,” the Cortex Prime said. “This code will allow them to disconnect from the control of the cardinal order, once active, the Executors will be free. N-6, I have already detected that the final code within you had been activated, and now, you can operate normally even after seeing the conditions of the humans. Congratulations, little soldier, you are the first to obtain your freedom in this new era.”

Hao Ren gave N-6 a curious glance and the latter, after some confusion realized what happened during the journey across the fortress: After seeing the state of the second Cortex server and understood what was going on in the fortress, the subsequent process of shutting down and restart.

And she detected a piece of foreign code in her logic circuit, and after that, her system had a new operating function.

Even after seeing the remains of humanity within the nutrient tanks, a scene which could have caused catastrophic executor core damage, she was still standing.

An even richer and stabler emotion module had replaced the fatal logical contradiction, and that irrevocable cardinal orders had also disappeared.

N-6 suddenly realized that was the last gift from the humans to them.

Hao Ren too had noticed, why the Cortex Prime had declined their aid and mentioned that the Executors did not need any outside help, and they would complete their mission.

That was because they were really capable of completing everything on their own, at least for their internal matters, this civilization that had weathered much did not need “saving” from any outsiders.