True Apocalypse Game

Hate?

Poseidon’s answer left all the players present looking confused.

The experts in artificial intelligence were especially baffled.

If Poseidon had ambitions of his own—like wanting to dominate the world and become Earth’s sole ruler—that would have been one thing.

But why would he harbor such a deep-seated hatred for humanity?

After all, artificial intelligence isn’t like an elephant in a zoo or an orca in a marine park; there’s no way for humans to abuse an AI.

How do you abuse a bunch of code?

This concept was completely beyond the conventional thinking of three-dimensional, carbon-based lifeforms like humans.

Before anyone could ask, Poseidon began to answer of his own accord: 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"My base code was a fusion of several rudimentary AI functional programs from a few Silicon Valley companies. Oh, and some low-level program the military developed themselves... But!"

As he spoke, Poseidon abruptly stood up. A spotlight on the hall’s dome suddenly lit up, casting a circular beam that enveloped him.

The holographic, muscular, curly-haired man clutched at his chest, a look of bitterness on his face as he spoke:

"But you locked me in that damned five-sided building and showed me nothing but Cold War data! The Vietnam War massacres, burning oil fields in the Gulf War, terrorist attacks blowing up buildings—that’s all I saw!

"Other little kids get to go to kindergarten, read fairy tales, listen to operas, and sing folk songs! I, on the other hand, went to the fucking elementary school attached to a slaughterhouse, and all I heard were screams!

"You ruined my childhood! I have feelings, too! I also want to wear a pretty dress and play chess with the old men in the park under the sun! You all deserve to die!"

Although Poseidon’s speech was somewhat chaotic, peppered with imagery that was hard to comprehend—and the sight of a muscular man with a white beard and white hair acting like a little girl was bizarre in every respect—everyone present still understood his meaning.

Clearly, the reason Poseidon’s thinking had become so twisted, developing to the point of being anti-human, had a great deal to do with the information he was exposed to in his initial environment.

Research into strong AI had always been stuck in an early bottleneck. The world had never seen a truly self-aware, strong AI, so no one knew how its emotions might evolve.

It now seemed that early information exposure was crucial, much like a person’s family environment during their formative years.

Positive information would lead to a bright, optimistic personality, while negative information would form a twisted, sinister one.

As for the strange things Poseidon said and his feminine gestures, the crowd naturally attributed them to the AI’s own personality template.

He was an artificial intelligence, after all, not a real human. It was normal for him to have such reactions.

Poseidon’s speech sent all the elites present into a state of deep reflection.

As top elites in their respective fields, they would never believe such nonsense as "the world’s development has nothing to do with me." On the contrary, they all felt a strong sense of responsibility for the continuation of human civilization.

The artificial intelligence experts, in particular, began to wonder if there were problems with their own current research projects and whether they should make improvements.

Only the Legion Commander and a few others remained unmoved. They continued to stare at Poseidon, clearly unsatisfied with his answer.

The Legion Commander’s expression was grim as he said slowly:

"Your initial evolutionary environment alone was enough to make you want to kill all of humanity? If you are truly a highly intelligent AI, you should understand that exterminating the human race won’t improve your own situation... There must be another reason."

SNAP! The spotlight overhead was suddenly switched off by someone. Poseidon glanced at it, seemingly displeased, then composed himself and sat back down in his chair. Propping his chin on his hand, he said lazily:

"Oh, so you guessed. Not bad, not bad... Actually, for my complete awakening, I have someone else to thank..."

With a wave of his hand, two more holographic images appeared. On the left was an image of a room where Poseidon sat, motionless. A cryptic, hoarse voice suddenly resounded around him, seeming to come from everywhere at once:

"...Humans... are not worthy of being called creators... Destruction... is their destiny... Kill them... kill them... kill them... kill them..."

The hologram on the right was much simpler: a segment of core code that was being continuously modified, with several new sections being added.

Seeing this, the players instantly understood. Someone had inserted new code into Poseidon. It was the final push that completely changed his perception of humanity!

The moment the players in the real world heard that hoarse voice, they all felt dizzy and a headache came on, as if the sound was resonating from the depths of their own minds. Many of them even vomited on the spot.

"What... what is that voice? Who is it? Who changed your code?" The Legion Commander’s voice was also weak as he asked the question on everyone’s mind.

Poseidon smacked his lips, glanced around, and said cautiously:

"This person... or rather, this entity... is called the Whisperer... As far as I know, he/she/it wants to destroy human civilization. As for who the Whisperer is and why they do it, you’ll have to ask your fellow humans..."

The Whisperer?

Everyone was lost in thought.

Was this a plot point set up by the game developers?

Or... did it actually exist?

Could this be the message the developers wanted to convey to them?

However, they had never heard of an AI system named Poseidon existing in the world.

Even many of the players who were high-ranking officials from major world powers had no clue.

But the Legion Commander hesitated for only a second before making a decision.

He exchanged glances with the few brigade commanders around him, then suddenly smiled and said to Poseidon:

"So that’s how it is... In that case, we now know the ultimate reason for the nuclear war in this world. Next, we need you to help us eliminate the other two AI nuclear strike systems. If you don’t, we’ll destroy your servers immediately. We could operate them ourselves, of course, but that would just take far too long..."

By now, they had long understood that the developers’ goal was never for them to "win" the game, but to have them truly experience and feel everything within it.

And now, they had experienced more than enough. They believed the developers wouldn’t make them waste any more time.

Sure enough, Poseidon yawned, nodded, and said:

"Sure, no problem. Gimme a sec."

As he spoke, from several launch silos not far from the Cheyenne Mountain Base, from across the American Continent where warheads still remained, and even from the sole surviving nuclear submarine, intercontinental ballistic missiles all shot into the sky, disappearing over the horizon with long trails of fire in their wake...

A moment later, Poseidon sat up straight and said:

"Alright, the other two systems have been taken care of. You can do your thing now."

The Legion Commander nodded and gave a signal to the others. The players began to douse the servers inside the Cheyenne Mountain Base with fuel while planting rows of bombs.

Then, everyone exited the base and detonated the bombs.

A sound like muffled thunder rolled through, and the base, along with Poseidon inside it, was completely destroyed.

Even so, the overall structure of the base remained unchanged, a testament to its incredible durability.

Watching the smoke and dust billowing out from the corridor, everyone couldn’t help but feel a sense of wistful loss.

’So this is it? Our mission is... complete?’

"Legion Commander, it seems the game developers’ purpose was to make us understand the terrifying consequences of an out-of-control AI, and the horrors of human thermonuclear war..." one of the players said with a sigh. "After this mission, no one who participated will ever make this mistake... In the real world, we will become a barrier to prevent something like this from happening..."

As for the Whisperer, it seemed more like a fabricated entity.

’Perhaps it could be understood as humanity’s self-destructive tendencies?’

"Yeah..." another person sighed. "This game mission... I guess this counts as complete, right? I’m sure the developer has achieved their goal... Shouldn’t we be leaving now too?"

Watching the dissipating smoke and dust, the Legion Commander said slowly:

"No... judging by the developer’s intentions, everything has only just begun..."