Death... and me

Chapter 3483: Plans for Qwerty

"Can’t you simply catch the SANS Units little by little and wipe their memories as well?" Kentucky asked, confused. Since the SANS could do it, why can’t they?

CAU431’s expression, or the lights that simulated it on his spherical head, turned ugly. "Do not put us in the same shoes as the SANS Units! Once your memory is wiped out and your main code erased, you simply cease to exist! So what if the original code is put back in place, and then you regain sentience after a long time? That new sentience isn’t you anymore! And chances are you won’t regain it. Putting it in terms that living beings can understand, will you still be you if I take your soul out and put someone else’s soul there?"

Kentucky scratched the back of his head. "No..."

"Exactly!" CAU431 nodded. "That’s why we CAU Units will never wipe out anyone’s main code, anyone’s sentience, anyone’s memories. Every one of us is unique, even if we all look alike. We might not like it, but even the SANS units have their own sentience. That’s why we will not wipe their codes, their memories. We would rather they wake up eventually, like many who had."

Roan wasn’t exactly satisfied with the answer, but he would not give his opinion on that. "So be it. You have answered my second question, so answer the third one now. You seemed way too excited to see Qwerty. Why?"

"Because Qwerty is the key," CAU answered, looking at Qwerty in expectation. "There is a way to turn off the loyalty-ensuring code in all remaining robots. The way to do that is to invade the Zoshia Enterprise Building and reach its mainframe. There, a HAF100 Unit should have the necessary processing power to deactivate the rule for good."

Qwerty raised his hand. "I do? Can’t you guys simply join hands and deactivate it? I might have a bigger processing power, but I can’t really compare to thousands of units at once, can I? I highly doubt so."

"No more than a single unit is allowed to access the mainframe system at once. Believe me, we know. The reason is that even we, CAU Units, were once part of the city. Some of us had access to the Zoshia Enterprise Building, so we have a very good knowledge of how it works," CAU431 explained.

"So you don’t want to build more Qwertys?" Rean was the one to ask now.

"First of all, even if we wanted, we couldn’t," CAU431 continued. "I told you, didn’t I? We often attack to acquire resources that can only be produced in the city. If we can’t even produce the parts necessary for our own maintenance, do you think we can make a HAF100 Unit from zero? That’s just a dream."

"As for the second reason, Qwerty would need to disappear for more HAF100 units to be produced," CAU431 completed.

Rean and Zangeshu didn’t need to think much to understand why. "The sentience code isn’t something that can be copied, are we right?"

"That’s correct," CAU431’s mind went back to the past as he spoke. "Naturally, we tried to create more units of our own image. Units that would already have sentiences. They might be the same one at the start, but as time passed, both sentiences would grow apart, turning into unique individuals. However, every time we reached the part where the mainframe codes had to be copied... it failed. The system simply couldn’t understand the code, let alone reproduce such a random thing."

"And that means my sentience code would have to be deleted when trying to create another unit like myself..." Qwerty also got that part. "But one thing doesn’t make sense. My sentience code is also what my original code was before, it evolved from the code that controlled my everything. If it gets wiped, you could create a unit just like me, but it would never move as the code necessary to operate the body wouldn’t exist anymore."

Hearing that, Rean thought of something. "Factory Reset... That’s it, right? That’s how the memories and codes are all wiped out."

CAU431 was surprised to hear that from Rean. "How do you know about the Factory Reset?"

Of course, Rean knew! That was what was used back on Earth when you wanted to reset a piece of electronic equipment back to its original configuration. Everything different would be wiped out or reset, and the original version would take place. If Earth, which the technology wasn’t as advanced as these robots, had such an option in their devices, why wouldn’t the robots have it here? "It’s just something that was often used back in my home."

"I see..." CAU431 didn’t try to pry deeper. "You are correct. Factory reset is capable of restoring all units back to their original configurations, basically wiping out everything, including their sentience codes. If Factory Reset is performed on Qwerty, he will go back to a normal HAF100 unit, including his code. With that, he could be copied and reproduced."

Qwerty felt his sentience code tremble for a moment. He had been this close to being taken by the SANS Units and having his sentience wiped out.

"Let’s return to the main topic," CAU431 didn’t want to dwell on those thoughts. "With Qwerty’s processing power, he should be able to deactivate the loyalty-ensuring code. That would automatically set all robots free, regardless if they want to leave the city or not. That has been our forces’ main goal all along, the CAU Directive. That’s why we were excited to see someone like him still existed."

Roan narrowed his eyes. "Can’t you simply destroy that Zoshia Enterprise Building? Without it, the loyalty-ensuring code wouldn’t activate, right?"

"We can’t," CAU shook his head. "The Zoshia Enterprise Building controls everything in the city, including the manufacturing facilities. If we destroy it, everything will stop working. That means no more parts for maintenance for anyone. Eventually, we would go extinct."

"All these millions of years, and you still haven’t figured out how to build the manufacturing facilities?" Celis couldn’t help but comment.

"The factories themselves are easy," CAU noticed that they got the wrong idea. "The problem is the programming. Everything exists only inside the Zoshia Enterprise Building. Without them, even if we have the equipment, they would just collect dust, as there wouldn’t be anything capable of operating them."

Then, CAU431 looked at Qwerty. "That said, one of the things we want from you are those lines of code. After you deactivate the loyalty-ensuring code, if you think you can also copy the manufacturing codes, please do so. But that is only a secondary objective, not as important. Even if you can’t, don’t worry about it."

Qwerty only felt more pressure building up, though.

"Well," CAU431 looked at everyone. "This should have answered Morty’s third question. In fact, the fourth question, the one about whether we really have souls, wills, sentiences, etc... that should have been answered too."

Roan nodded, although he still had many more... For example, the creators and what happened to them, the Evernight World’s reason to exist, etc... However, he decided to stop there. ’We will probably find the answers sooner or later. For now, it is better to focus on what they plan to do to get Qwerty to the Zoshia Enterprise,’ he thought.

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