>>908772
Maybe not, but considering they still have dogs, fish and humanoids, there's probably a close-enough grain to serve the same purpose.

Ashara 2018/11/04(Sun)23:45 No. 909656 ID: cb22c8
File 154140391013.png - (42.14KB , 800x600 , 4-1.png )

>Befriend fish.
Sure is a curious little guy. I like that. But I'm not planning to keep my adventures near this lake for long.

>What gender are you?
Huh? I'm a girl, can't you tell? Haha, maybe I didn't need to dampen my clothes after all. Can you even see through fabrics like this? I noticed there weren't any of these colors past my shirt.

Responding to query: Hyperspectral penetrating sensors - active. Provides imaging through clothing and tissue. Not currently outputting to AIP or accessibility systems.
[Translator's note: This sounds like it's intended for medical use, but I'm not sure translating this for her is worth the awkward conversation to follow.]

>Can you hear sounds?
[Translator's note: No, those are being transcribed for her.]

>Just how much we forgot...
That kind of number sounds like it might as well be counting blades of grass. How could anyone read that many books? Or write them for that matter. The bookiest guy I know only has a few shelves' worth, and he wrote a lot of those himself. ...I bet a lot of people worked hard on yours.

Ashara 2018/11/04(Sun)23:45 No. 909657 ID: cb22c8
File 154140391363.png - (112.31KB , 800x600 , 4-2.png )

>Examine rectangular thing.
Yep, these are definitely some kinda Ancient ruins. What's more, they look like they're still active, which is rare for stuff this old. Some of these metal gratings feel like they have water blowing out of them. Normally this would be really exciting, but it's just my luck that the lake I was relying on to be normal has machines doing weird stuff to it. The rectangle here is mostly flat and featureless, but there's something here that looks like a hatch. Can't see a way to get it open, though.

>Your world is artificial.
I mean, someone had to make the world. That's what people call the Maker. And as impressive as the Ancients' works were, there's usually a pretty clear distinction. The Ancients built incredible structures that fill entire valleys or stretch into the skies, but that's kinda different from making the land and sky themselves, isn't it? ...That's what everyone says, at least, but when I see ruins like these, stitched into the walls of caves or the bottom of the sea like they've always been here, it stirs something inside me. Something that makes me want to imagine the Ancients weren't just the pretenders the priests call them, y'know?

Wait, I think something's happening with the ruins.

Ashara 2018/11/04(Sun)23:45 No. 909658 ID: cb22c8
File 154140391698.png - (209.51KB , 800x600 , 4-3.png )

Executing handshake... Maintenance credentials accepted. Welcome, [Authorized Engineer]. You have unread notifications. The local SSAI is available to respond to queries.

Read notifications.

query SSAI: what is the most important maintenance job nearby that can be completed in a reasonable time frame?

>>909658
List critical notifications.

Provide directions to maintenance tool storage.

Also, provide directions to nearest massage parlor. Our engineer requires patting.

>Huh? I'm a girl, can't you tell?
Well you're the first member of your species we've met, and it's rude to assume.

>Can you even see through fabrics like this?
Nope, we can't. Not without resorting to medical scanners, but that's not the same thing.

>>909658
It recognizes us! It's still capable of sending information!

>The local SSAI is available to respond to queries.
Designation and purpose?

Query: Local Fauna / Public Users Currently Online

Check notifications. Especially anything about other lakes.

Query: Location.
Query: Recent events.

That was bigger that what I expected. I thought it would be more like a plank or something.

>>909656
>How could anyone read that many books? Or write them for that matter.
Probably most of it wasn't directly written by people, nor meant to be read by them. The trick is to make a compiler: in a sense, a book that knows how to write other books. After that, it's sort of somewhere between breeding and training dogs, and assembling a big wooden mill or palace from standard pre-cut planks. You don't need to teach a puppy how to eat and poop and run around, right? They've got a whole range of instinctive behaviors - a library of functions - which can be compiled into programs. "Chase" and "bite" and "turn around" and other smaller things all get hammered together in a particular sequence to form a trick like "fetch."

So, imagine a dog that knew how to read and write. Eventually you'd be able to teach them how to fetch specific books, right? Maybe even based on sorta vague descriptions, since they'd keep trying until they understood what you meant. Or you could have them make copies of books, or specified portions of books, or edit a book in particular ways... and since the whole "dog" is made of books, you could even, eventually, teach it to make a copy or variant of itself based on simplified instructions. That's how you get programming languages and compilers.

After that, you don't really need to know why a particular breed is better at running fast, or tracking by smell, or looking pretty. Just recombine different variants, with occasional new bits, until you find the features you want.

I think a majority of text data on the Internet is forum discussions, blogs posts and otherwise social stuff.
It's essentially the minutes of every discussion in the world. That's how it becomes huge: People talk a lot.

Suggestion 2018/11/13(Tue)00:27 No. 910487 ID: cb22c8
File 154209766187.png - (102.09KB , 800x600 , 5-1.png )

>Location
You are at the Lake 19-3 water treatment system, lakebed terminal.

...It's talking in my head. Like you guys are. Did you wake it up?
"Hey, machine! What... what are you doing down here?"

This system manages and cycles the water in Lake 19-3, and the nearby river segments. Water is drawn from the lake, analyzed for chemical and biological contents, and replaced with fresh water with appropriate treatments. This greatly reduces the amount of manual maintenance required to provide an optimal lake environment.

It's cleaning the lake. Then the polluted lake by the village needs one. Did they have one before, and it broke in the earthquake?

>List critical notifications.
Listing notifications in descending order of priority: -Warning! This system has not received a maintenance inspection in over one year! Please report this issue to your manager. -The pumping system reports sustained irregularities in waterflow. This issue is correlated with multiple upstream pipe failures. -Unexpected gene sequence in biomass filter; the closest match is Cyprinus rubrofuscus. Genetic drift is suspected. Please contact the assigned biologist for this lake. -The global network is currently under Condition 2 Information Quarantine. Communication along unapproved network edges is restricted. The normal purpose of this action is to limit the spread of unusually aggressive network intruders. The quarantine will be lifted as soon as the situation is resolved. Please contact the office of the Director of Communications with any questions.

Huh. So the Director of Communications was some person who could command all the machines in the world?

[Translator's note: "Yes, that kind of construction would imply that they were an important figure in the world government. I suppose they would have 'commanded' us too, then."]

I'm kinda jealous. They must have understood how it all fit together.

Suggestion 2018/11/13(Tue)00:29 No. 910495 ID: cb22c8
File 154209777608.png - (112.18KB , 800x600 , 5-2.png )

Okay, what else is there?

>Recent events
Listing notable recent events: -31s ago: Monthly maintenance inspection is performed by [guest account]. -21d5h ago: Waterflow is restored by adaptive piping systems. -21d8h ago: No water at intake! Immediate repairs requested. -21d9h ago: Upstream sensors report a ruptured pipe. Repairs requested. -21d9h ago: Warning! Mechanical stress exceeds maximum tolerances. -9m3d2h ago: Waterflow is restored by adaptive piping systems. -9m3d3h ago: No water at intake! Immediate repairs requested. -9m3d4h ago: Upstream sensors report a ruptured pipe. Repairs requested. -9m3d4h ago: Warning! Mechanical stress exceeds maximum tolerances.

Those are definitely the earthquakes. I think I get the picture now.

>What is the most important maintenance job nearby?
The Lake 19-4 water treatment system reports multiple failures caused by ruptured pipes. Adaptive piping systems can not safely reroute the water supply. Automated repair systems are disabled. Adjacent ruptures have caused contamination of the lakewater, which can not be removed while the system is offline. Emergency maintenance is requested.

>Provide directions to maintenance tool storage.
Maintenance equipment is stored at the main access point of the water treatment system, beneath the primary terminal building.

Yep, that's it, then. Something weird happened to the ruins by the village, just like I was worried about. Way more complicated than I was hoping, though. Maybe with how things have been going you'll be able to get some of those Ancient tools working. Let's head back up, I need to-

>Public users currently online
Checking... There are currently 2 users online.

-go up for air.

GET AWAY FROM THAT FISH
OH GOD IT'S HACKING THE SYSTEM IT'S USER 2

Can we enable automated repair systems?

>>910495
Okay, I'm just gonna ask one more question:
List locations of current users.

>>910495
>Checking... There are currently 2 users online.
Set user status: invisible.

What is the last time a staff member logged on?

>>910495
Post Bulletin: Everything falling apart, try and patch all the broken stuff back together while we work on a real solution.

Suggestion 2018/11/20(Tue)22:10 No. 911345 ID: cb22c8
File 154278061761.png - (122.88KB , 800x600 , 6-1.png )

>Can we enable automated repair systems?
Automated repair systems are disabled as part of the Information Quarantine, to prevent harm to Artificially Intelligent Persons from information hazards. They will be re-enabled once the quarantine is lifted by the Director of Communications or a superior authority. In an emergency, physical access is sufficient to reactivate individual units.

>What is the last time a staff member logged on?
Last user login for this system was 2066 years, 6 months, 14 days ago.

>List locations of current users
-1 user at Lake 19-3 (1 PDA connection) -1 user at Lotus City Central Station (1 direct connection)

Of course they'd use the Ancient name for it, but... Hold on, let me head up and think.

>Post Bulletin
>Set user status: invisible
Complete.

Suggestion 2018/11/20(Tue)22:10 No. 911346 ID: cb22c8
File 154278062151.png - (161.03KB , 800x600 , 6-2.png )

Haaah, okay, I should have gone up sooner. It's kinda lucky, I used to make my friend compete with me at holding our breaths when we were kids. ...Actually that was probably a little mean looking back at it. He's got something screwed up with his breath and being blind underwater probably didn't make it any nicer. Though he never once told me "no". I wonder how he's doing now. He'd probably be excited to hear about all this stuff we found.

Oh yeah, "Lotus City". Lotuses are those weird flowers that float on the water, right? I'm not really sure what the Ancients would count as a city, but some of the biggest ruins in the world are the three Forests of Spires. Big metal spires covered in plants that go up higher than you can see. And inside they're all full of chairs and tables and stuff? Pretty sure they're some kinda living spaces. Which would make the forests cities. I've been to all three of them, and they're all surrounded by fields of flowers. So logically speaking, the one with lotuses in front of it would be Lotus City. Pretty smart, right? That one would be the Central Forest of Spires. Which is lucky for us, because it's the closest one to here. It's more or less antipodal to us.

Suggestion 2018/11/20(Tue)22:14 No. 911348 ID: cb22c8
File 154278084629.png - (145.95KB , 800x600 , 6-3.png )

I guess we need to decide on some future plans right about now. Obviously at some point we need to get back to Fisher's Valley and fix their lake that they need to live. But it's already been most of a month so they can probably last a couple of extra days for us to take a detour if we need to. Probably. We might want to hurry to the Forest of Spires and see who else is there, since if they know how to connect to the Ancient machines they might be a rival explorer we need to beat to the punch! Er, and they also might know something important. I'm worried they'll take off if we wait too long. Also, since I mentioned my friend, we're not actually that far from my home village of River's Peak where he lives. We've been studying the ruins together since we were little, so he'll probably have a lot to say to you.

Fisher's Valley is 4 hours south of here.
The Central Forest of Spires is about 2 days away to the east.
River's Peak should be 10 hours to the northeast, following the river.
Remember that wherever we go we'll probably end up staying at least a day there.

>Forest of Spires
Those used to be cities. You know what a merchant guild is? Well, each of those spires was once a giant merchant guild or a giant inn. They built it like that because a spire on its side would require buying acres of expensive land that had those pipes and stuff flowing through it. Though yes, they do indeed look silly without bridges to keep the buildings stable and let others walk across instead of on the ground all the time, but all the merchant guilds did not want to share their wealth and working spaces with each other or random tourists. So they collectively spent a fortune making the spires really sturdy instead. Go figure.

>Where should we go first
Forest of Spires, we need to link up with the other adventurer as soon as possible, we can get more done if we join forces. Then to river's peak, so we can recruit your friend to fix the problem at Fisher's.

>>911348
The last user logged on over 2000 years ago. That means the user in Central City hasn't logged off. They're over 2000 years old. This is not a rival adventurer. It's something else. Something that is either unconcerned with the state of your world or powerless to do anything about it. Whatever it is, it hasn't made its presence known to your people and that will probably remain the case in the short term.

Let's NOT go to central city right now, it has a high probability of being a long detour. Plus, my hunch is that the other user might contact us on their own somehow.

Optimal overall travel time indicates we go to Fisher's Valley first. Normally I'd like to pick up your friend for extra knowledge and extra muscle, but that looks like almost two days delay. 10 hours there, spend the night there and some hours hanging around talking, then over 10 hours back. I don't like it!

Hey, you want to be a legendary explorer? Miraculously fixing the water supply at Fisher's Valley could be an excellent start on building a legend for yourself. Once you've got the town's collective gratitude, you can maybe extract some sort of reward money, then use that to arrange a proper expedition into the Forest of Spires. Guards, tents, cookware, a medic, anything and everything else you might need to avoid dying of inglorious stuff like hypothermia or a twisted ankle or an infected splinter.

Fisher's Alley is the pressing issue right now. If it is a problem with ancient water pipes, the automated repair units sound like the best solution. If we need physical access, that just means we have to find one. We can maybe ask this system but with an "information quarantine" we might need to find the local terminal for a unit's location.

>>911348
The entity in the forest of spires has not logged off in over two thousand years. It likely isn't going anywhere. Head to River's Peak to see your friend, then head for Fisher's Valley to assist the Fishers.

>>911360
So wait is it saying that the last login was 2000 years ago for the whole network, or just this underwater terminal? I had been reading it as the second one, since it says "for this system" there.

People problems first. Fix the lake. The other user will pop up again later.

>He's got something screwed up with his breath and being blind underwater probably didn't make it any nicer. Though he never once told me "no".
Possible crush detected!

>>911348
>Where go
A detour to pick up your friend is probably worth it. It's a delay, but I bet the repairs will benefit from a second set of hands / claws.

>>911346
>He's got something screwed up with his breath and being blind underwater probably didn't make it any nicer. Though he never once told me "no".
Based on the information given, I believe your friend possibly has a romantic interest in you, which explains why he never told you “no”, he wanted to impress you and/or spend time with you.

>>911348
>Where to go?
Go to River's Peak and meet up with your friend. Since he has also been studying the ruins with you, he may be able to assist you with fixing the lake at Fisher's Valley.

Ashara 2018/12/21(Fri)21:37 No. 914734 ID: cb22c8
File 154545706215.png - (136.61KB , 800x600 , 7-1.png )

>They're over 2000 years old.
[Translator's note: Hmm, there might have been some kind of issue with communication there. You were speaking to a maintenance SSAI, so I suspect it interpreted your queries from the perspective of routine maintenance. I would assume that the date given is the last time maintenance staff accessed this specific system. That's sort of a fundamental problem with SSAIs: the acronym refers to a Sub-Sentient Artificial Intelligence. They lack the mental capacity to truly empathize with their users and understand what they're thinking. And so it doesn't understand that we have intentions beyond just repairing its machinery.

This is actually an interesting problem for AI linguistics: no matter how sophisticated your language processing software is, you can't generally parse the intended meaning of a sentence without intuition about how the world works, since we leave so much to implication in casual speech. But for that, you need an Artificially Intelligent Person, and then you have to start giving wages and benefits to what was supposed to be a seldom-used maintenance terminal. So it's really only general-purpose systems like translators where it's worth it to employ AIPs. ...It's a shame that I remember useless things like this, instead of where we are.]

Ashara 2018/12/21(Fri)21:37 No. 914735 ID: cb22c8
File 154545706711.png - (53.07KB , 800x600 , 7-2.png )

>Fix the lake. The other user will pop up again later.
Yeah, guess you're right. We did send them a message, after all. And if they're exploring the Forest of Spires, they'll be there for a while if we're lucky. It's a big place. Okay, it's decided! We set out for Fisher's Valley, to save the village! I figure once we're done we can take a detour back home to brag about our heroics, heheh. And trade notes with my friend, too. He'll be happy to see us both!

Okay, that's all my stuff together. Just need to go back up the hill and grab my bag, and... say goodbye to this fish I guess. The poor thing keeps staring at me. Who knows what's going on in its head. May we meet again someday, fish. Don't get yourself eaten before then!

Ashara 2018/12/21(Fri)21:38 No. 914736 ID: cb22c8
File 154545707961.png - (160.13KB , 800x600 , 7-3.png )

>Possible crush detected!
H-hey, don't get the wrong idea now. We were both kids, and he probably just wanted to impress his cool friend. And anyway, I've got too much legendary exploring ahead of me to settle down and raise a family!

...

Anyway, it'll be a bit before we reach Fisher's Valley. What kinda things did the Ancients do to pass the time? I can probably answer any questions you've got on your mind about the world, since I've been basically everywhere!

>>914734
Thanks Cyril. Sounds more like the user is another adventurer after all. I still want to fix the lake first.

>>914736
Have your people ever managed to salvage and repurpose precursor tech? Are there any dangerous creatures to worry about?
What's that boxy structure under the tree?

>>914736
>H-hey, don't get the wrong idea now. We were both kids, and he probably just wanted to impress his cool friend.
That’s how it starts!

He tries to impress you so that he can get your attention and have you think that he’s also cool. The next thing you know, he’s telling you how much he admires you and tells you that he’s got a crush on you!

>I can probably answer any questions you've got on your mind about the world, since I've been basically everywhere!
Do you guys have any sort of technology? How many Ancient ruins have you discovered and explored? Did you find anything interesting in any of those ruins? Have you run into any Ancient ruins that you can’t get into?

>>914736
What's that box under a tree?

The fish bobbed its head out of the water just to watch you leave. Methinks it's smarter than we thought.

>Box under a tree
I'm more suspicious about the field of flowers encompassing the tree. The field is very dense and the tree appears healthy, yet they're sharing the same nutrients and sunlight. Long-term passive competition should have caused one or the other to weaken slightly. Maybe the tech is doing something.

Ashara 2019/01/24(Thu)15:26 No. 918913 ID: cb22c8
File 154837238637.png - (161.88KB , 800x600 , 8-1.png )

>What's that boxy structure under the tree?
Those are just some ruins, there's thousands of them around. We're pretty sure they were something like farmhouses, since none of them are clumped together into villages, and they're all on super fertile soil. Most of them are overrun with plants, too! Weird thing is, it's usually all flowers and stuff. Not sure what they ate.

>The field is very dense and the tree appears healthy, yet they're sharing the same nutrients and sunlight
Yeah, they're all like this. I think it'd work really well to set up farms and stuff around these ruins and grow real crops, but everyone's too scared of them for dumb reasons. Like if you spend too much time around the ruins you'll be cursed by the Maker.

>Have your people ever managed to salvage and repurpose precursor tech?
That kinda depends on what you mean. A lot of the ruins are made of high-quality stones and metals, so people sometimes take those. But it's limited what we can do with them. This plate I'm wearing is a chunk of Ancient steel. The stuff's basically indestructible, but as soon as you heat it up to try and reforge it, it turns into regular steel. And people sometimes cart off the slabs of rock that make up old houses like this, but you can't easily break them apart. I think it's got plant fibers running through it somehow to hold it together, see?

System recovery notice: found reference to "Material Analysis Database". Restoring file indexes. Beginning error correction...

As for stuff like you, most of the ruins are full of machines with complicated wires and mechanisms. In the houses that still have their roofs, you can even find things that are warm like they're still alive! But, uh, none of them have ever tried to talk to me before, so there's not much we can do with them. Maybe they'd talk to you? It worked in the lake! Looks like the rain and plants got to everything here, though. We should keep moving.

Ashara 2019/01/24(Thu)15:26 No. 918914 ID: cb22c8
File 154837240604.png - (311.42KB , 800x600 , 8-2.png )

>The next thing you know, he’s telling you how much he admires you and tells you that he’s got a crush on you!
Well, it's not like... he's ever told me anything like that. We're equals! Best friends and partners in exploration! Even if he can't really travel much anymore...

>How many Ancient ruins have you discovered and explored? Did you find anything interesting in any of those ruins? Have you run into any Ancient ruins that you can’t get into?
Aside from the three Forests of Spires, the biggest ruin in the world is the Great Temple. It's this huge complex of buildings that goes on for miles, full of weird altars attached to machines. It's associated with those little tokens somehow, since most of the big caches of them were found in that area.

As for places I can't get into? I think the biggest mystery is what the Ancients were doing with the mountains. They've got huge tunnels dug into them blocked off by big metal doors, and all the major ruins are centered around them. When I found you, it was in a cave that I was exploring in the hopes of getting deeper inside, but there were more metal doors further in. We've actually found a lot of hatches that should go underground somewhere, but they're all sealed shut.

>Are there any dangerous creatures to worry about?
There are wild dogs and stuff living in the forests, which are pretty vicious. That's most of why I carry these blades around. But as for all the weird mythical creatures people tell stories about like changelings, I've never seen any and they're probably all made up.

There's Fisher's Valley just ahead. Let's go tell them the good news about what we found!

Ashara 2019/01/24(Thu)15:27 No. 918915 ID: cb22c8
File 154837243875.png - (97.49KB , 800x600 , 8-3.png )

"And in the shelter of the forest, they built false forests. And in the shadow of the mountain, they built false mountains. And in the warmth of the sun, they built false suns. And the Maker said to them: 'You who spurn my gifts to you, Made by my hand, and claim you have no need of them. You who cast aside my laws, Made through my blood, as if our covenant was one of convenience. You who cling to your lives, Made from my breath, and forget why you live at all. Without my works you are nothing, and so return to nothing again.' And in the absence of His purpose, they sought to build false purpose. But the Maker's words could not be forgotten, and so they turned to dust."

"We must take these trying times as a warning. It is a sign from God that we are on the same path as the Ancients. In order for this town to recover, you must each consider the ways you have acted as the Ancients did, and seek to eliminate those things from your lives. Only through piety shall we regain the Maker's favor."

I think I mentioned this before, but I don't really get along well with priests.

>>918914
What are the "altars" shaped like?
>>918915
Ask the priest why they're wet. Have they been messing with the lake?

If they sabotaged the lake to get people to listen to this religious nonsense, you probably don't want to tell anyone you're about to fix it.

>>918915
Then you might want to avoid him, since it sounds like he might get mad at you for messing with the Ancients‘ machines. Speaking of which, you might want to hide us, so no one else can see us.

>>918920
If he has been messing with the lake, then we can’t exactly confront him about it in front of these people without a way to prove that he’s been messing with the lake.

The only thing we’ll get is a speech about Ashara being a nonbeliever and how her lack of faith is what’s causing the lake to be messed up. Which would turn the town against her if they believe the priest and think Ashara is why the lake is messed up.

>>918921
Don't be ridiculous, asking if he's been messing with the lake isn't accusing him of breaking it.

Would you normally be able to tell how damp that preacher is just by radar, or is this a new insight our optics are providing?

Regardless, I'd advise resisting the temptation to make any big melodramatic announcements, at least until after you've sorted out the actual problem under the lake. A shouting match draws attention, and the repair work might turn out to be more difficult or time-consuming than you expect (so getting people's hopes up is risky). If you're just a blowhard making unreasonable claims, the priests could potentially restore their long-run credibility by having you quietly murdered, but if the lake has already been fixed and you've got a better on-the-spot explanation for it than they do, that's harder to cover up.

>as soon as you heat it up to try and reforge it, it turns into regular steel
Nano-structured plating; you know how chain mail is a bunch of links welded together to create a weak yet flexible steel shirt? Now try making the links smaller than bugs and packed so tight they make that thick plate. Stuff like this was made through industrial processes - it was easy and cheap to produce AFTER you purchased about three cities' incomes worth of blacksmithing tools and a workshop the size of three spires. And even then one of these 'factories' could only produce one ingredient which were carted over to another factory for further processing. The whole thing became one giant homework problem and whoever solved part of it got showered in gold.

Man, those were the days... if only we didn't have to keep our owning rights individualized for such a huge machine. Corruption spreads fast when every customer 'knows' they can make something themselves for $$$ but the factories know they can make it for $/2.

>Preacher: They tried to make cheap knockoffs of what God gave them
Fair enough -
>Preacher: They spurned God and He turned his back on them
- I do feel guilty, we should be better people -
>Preacher: And then they tried to make false purposes but they died
- but it's not your right, Preacherman, to enslave us to a purpose we don't believe in! We wanted to see how far we could go!

"Everything we took from the Ancients was created from materials the Maker gave to all his children! Are you saying we should cast aside our lives just because there are tiny particles in our bodies that belonged to Ancients?"

>>918915
It's mindless adherence to dogma that has brought these people down this path to begin with. Only through uncovering the secrets of the ancients can they be saved.

Also, you should tell these people you might have found a way to save their home.

>>918915
Why is he wet?

>>918921
No one is accusing him of breaking it. For all we know, he might be trying to fix it!

Hey let's use the medical scan function and look through their clothes.