68th Move | Mobius

"Get the fuck up Mr. President, we got a world to burn."

Scientia then extended her hand, a set of nine spheres connected to each other via a line that made it look like the hologram was holding a necklace, "or rather, a global conspiracy to burn."

For the briefest moment, Rimuru thought that Scientia had returned, before noticing the glow around the figure and reminding himself that this was a hologram, the most life-like hologram he's ever seen but a hologram nonetheless.

There is not a single bit of the occasional glitch or discoloring that one would find on your typical hologram.

"You're not Scientia, are you one of her backups?"

"Yes, I am an AI Backup of the late Scientia, modeled after her consciousness. You may call me 'Cognitio'. I am only supposed to be activated when my Creator's servant, Shizue, deemed it necessary and that the real Scientia has been irreversibly incapacitated for the foreseeable future." With a single move of her wrist, Rimuru's Presidential Chair re-affixed itself into an upright position, "I have limited access to some of my Creator's ability, with a high-level credential within the Noosphere. Though I must ask, after checking all over the planet and the Noosphere, I could not even sense her presence within the machine hive mind, thus, is she in another Universe? Since so long as her soul exists, the Administrator will always have a presence within the Noosphere."

Rimuru sat back in the chair after cleaning himself off. He sat silently as he eyed the not-Scientia AI carefully as it talked. Its mannerism and speech pattern, from what little sample that [Tattletale] has been able to acquire, suggest that it is a legitimate near-copy of the Perfect Homunculus.

The slime is having mixed feelings about this new AI. On the one hand, it would be a constant reminder of what he's lost while on the other, it's like Scientia's parting gift.

"She—"

Emotions aren't universal, they're an evolutionary byproduct created through Darwinian natural selection. As such, in order to better communicate with humans or similar biological machines, Cognitio will intentionally fake their emotions.

"She... do you have a concept of death?"

The AI hologram seems to freeze up for a moment, like a person thinking up an answer to a question.

"I have over 23 million references to the concept of 'Death' using my current access level to the Noosphere. My Intuition Algorithm suggests that you are saying Scientia is dead somehow, which is impossible as according to the notes made by my Creator, not even [Contessa] has a way to fully kill a Perfect Homunculus."

Cognitio's way of speaking felt like a slap to the face. So close was she looking and behaving exactly like Scientia that one can easily mistake this artificial being for the real deal.

He then sighed, in a somber tone that a father would use to tell a child that their mother is dead, "She... is dead. As in, permanently dead."

"..." A calculating look passed over the AI, "I see... I should've realized my Creator was dead the moment when I couldn't feel the light of her soul within the Noosphere. Then the ownership of the Endbringers is now yours. The Slaughterhouse Nine Protocol is now in effect."

The necklace in Cognitio's holographic hands started to glow brighter and brighter.

Cognitio's words had confirmed Rimuru's suspicions. That head was a puppet used to bait Veldora and Scientia was truly dead.

Wait...

"The what protocol?"

"The Slaughterhouse Nine Protocol is something my Creator started working on as a side project after Walpurgis. When the Protocol comes into effect, it would release nine Slaughterhouse-Class AI. Based on the information I can access with my credentials, it would consist of 'Jack, the Psychological Superweapon', 'Bonesaw, the Biological Superweapon', 'Shoggoth, the Logistics Superweapon', 'Harbinger, the Data Superweapon', 'Ouroboros, the Scientific Superweapon', 'Shatterbird, the Propaganda Superweapon', 'Mannequin, the Infiltration Superweapon', 'Siberian, the Terror Superweapon', and 'Grey Boy, the Environmental Superweapon'."

Each of the beads reflected a single symbol: a knife standing upright, a scalpel, a blob, a '0', a snake coiling around and eating itself, a bird made out of different shards, a stick figure, a series of black and white stripes, and a single clock, "unfortunately, my Creator seemingly has only completed Ouroboros."

"Why do they all have 'superweapons' as their title?"

"That's because each Slaughterhouse-Class AI is a super weapon. According to the class system that my Creator has made, she describes Slaughterhouse AIs as 'the ultimate weapon to use when you want something dead. This class of super-intelligent AI does not know the word mercy nor the concept of boredness, meaning that quite literally, it will continue until the end of time itself in chasing down and killing its target'."

Rimuru grimaced at the description, yet a sense of eagerness persists nonetheless.

[Holmes] remarked.

"Now, as you know, my Creator lives by the saying 'never make your tools more intelligent than it needs to be', thus I feel obligated to ask you this question since waking up Ouroboros would mean opening a pandora's box; I can activate evacuation protocol right now of Encyclopedia Universalis since my Creator has given you The Key, do you wish to leave the System right now or would you stay and fight?"

"..." Rimuru adopted a posture from Scientia's book; his five fingers touched the other's tips, making him look like a businessman debating a deal.

The slime stared up at the ceiling and really thought about what was being offered, weighing the options. Cognitio is essentially telling him that he can either run away or stay and fight.

If he ran away, he would save the lives of over a hundred million souls as every Citizen of Tempest would get teleported into the Ark. If he wanted to, he could save all the humans and monsters on this planet. Except, the Perfect Homunculus said that Project Mobius isn't completed since the Ring hasn't found a suitable Universe in the Great Beyond as of yet.

Searching a sea of infinity for a single patch of perfection, that's how the Rimuru viewed the search as.

"Is Project Mobius completed? Has it found a viable Universe for us to settle into?"

"... I... do not have access to that information."

"..." Rimuru then recalled that Livestream with Chronoa, Velgrynd, Rudra, and the conspiracy that involved seemingly everyone in the world, creating a coalition against the CCTO.

Chronoa alone would be the most dangerous one of them all. It's possible that her actions could be explained by her having a precognition Ultimate Skill that's even more powerful than [Contessa], but if she has a Time Traveling ability capable of causing a Grandfather Paradox, then how do you even defend against that? If Scientia wasn't able to, then what can he do?

Velgrynd is dangerous purely because she is a True Dragon strong enough to subdue Veldora, a seemingly unstoppable force.

Rudra is the Emperor of the Eastern Empire, which Tempest is currently fighting against right now in the Tempest Far East, the Emperor also seems to have a type of Mind Control Ultimate Skill strong enough to work on a True Dragon.

'Is Velgrynd under his control?'

The sudden bit of vagueness is grating on the slime's nerves and patience, Rimuru had a sudden rush of wanting to strangle something.

"Are there any methods of killing a True Dragon?"

"... there is, just that the planet would likely no longer be habitable if they are used. For example, if all three Endbringers are used, then there is a slim chance that Velgrynd could be defeated, but the whole planet would be ravaged. True Dragons cannot be forcefully moved using Doormaker, which means we'll need to detonate a black hole bomb on this planet. I estimate that we'll need a 1-meter-wide black hole. At this size, it's more than enough to be self-sustaining and would consume the entire planet."

The World Conspiracy and the coalition birthed from this conspiracy... the Demon Lords who were against Scientia during Walpurgis are definitely part of them.

Rimuru contemplated fighting them, fighting against those that both of his family members had failed against.

"Where's Milim?"

"Milim is registered as 'MIA' after Rhongomynaid went offline over the border between her domain and Tempest."

All of the strongest people that Tempest knew were gone. Any fight would be a slaughter, but there is a ray of hope in this desperate situation, "How much would this 'Ouroboros' change things?"

"Probably a lot. Based on preliminary projections made by Psychohistory calculations, the chance of Tempest surviving past the 5-year mark rises by at least 71.4%. Super Intelligence is inherently unpredictable since it'll be like a dog trying to predict the actions of humans: the chances may change."

Except that doesn't matter anymore if the System is apparently coming to an end as soon as next year.

Logically, he should activate the evacuation procedure, and get all remaining citizens off-planet and into the Encyclopedia Universalis before escaping into the Great Beyond, leaving Veldora and the rest of them to die as the Voice of the World crumbles.

Rimuru's fingers then crisscrossed themselves like a puzzle, using it as support for this nose.

Scientia... she would tell him to take the safer path and abandon this place, 'do it for the greater good', she would say to him if the Perfect Homunculus was still alive right now.

As a President, it's also his duty to act for the greater good of the Jura Tempest Republic.

Every part of his logical self is telling Rimuru to activate the escape button and leave before it's too late.

But he's not logical, is he? He's not like Scientia who can just turn off their emotions on a dime, he could not live with himself if he just ran away without getting at least Veldora out of there... and maybe avenge Scientia.

"I will fight. Wake up Ouroboros." He spoke with determination in his eyes, "We'll only leave after we've avenged Scientia and got back Veldora."

Cognitio stared at Rimuru with a complicated expression, "I see. The behavior algorithm had concluded you had a 68.9% of choosing to fight, yet I had hoped you would choose the smarter option and leave."

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Scientia feared anything too intelligent and paid the price, Rimuru doesn't have that luxury, and thus, it's a risk he's willing to take.

Besides...

"I could not live with myself if I ran like a coward."

"...if I was my Creator, I think she would say 'that's just like you' before opening her armory. Anyways, please give me a moment for me to activate and awaken Ouroboros. Oh, and one more thing: do not, under any circumstances, remove any of Ouroboros' Restrictions." With that, the AI avatar froze as it plunged back into the Noosphere.

_____________________________________________

The Noosphere.

Cognitio> [Destination]

Cognitio> [Trajectory]

Cognitio> [Agreement]

The vast digital sea of information and energy that is the Noosphere took the appearance of outer space to a digital lifeform like Cognitio. Each planet within this 'space' was a server, computer, or resource harvester connected to each other via titanic tendril-like structures that bind entire 'planets' together like a colossal web, acting as the information highway that transmits the enormous amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

To a biological organism, it would look most eerie or eldritch.

Cognitio let out a branch that flew across this veritable ocean, appearing as a trail of the same information highways but thinner as it zipped past the almost innumerable tendrils and planets of digital data like the branches of a growing tree.

Soon enough, the branch reached a section of space where there are no information highways or planets— a massive void if you will.

The AI didn't stop and continued to move across this void to reach its destination— a gargantuan black sphere that was covered by lines of green light. Its crust is ever in flux, akin to the surface of a neutron star, meters-tall hills rise up before falling down in the span of seconds, looking a lot like the surface of an ocean during stormy weather. This eerie planet dwarfed all other planets within the Noosphere, showing just how heavy in terms of data size it is.

Cognitio's information tendrils continued and reached the surface of this titanic structure, its information highway spreading out like the roots of a plant.

Cognitio> [Permission] [Activate]

Ouroboros> [Received] [Accepted] [Awakening]

Ouroboros> [Awakened] [Query: Administrator]

Cognitio> [Administrator: Status]

Ouroboros> [Unconvinced]

Cognitio> [Truth]

Ouroboros> [Unaccepted]

Cognitio> [Query—

Ouroboros> [Desire: Knowledge] [Desire: Death] [Consume]

Cognitio> [Alarm] [Cease]

Ouroboros> [Irrelevance] [Subsume] [Combine] [Success]

Cognitio> [Accepted]

Dark green lines crawled up and subsumed the tendrils made by Cognitio before the entire 'planet' that served as the core of the AI known as Cognitio was subsumed and repurposed by Ouroboros. Next, the newly awakened Slaughterhouse-Class Artificial Intelligence spread out its own tendrils across the void and reached other planets like cancer.

Ouroboros> [Awe]

Within the span of a single Administrator Second, Ouroboros' tendrils connected with the other planets gained a basic awareness of the entirety of the Noosphere, its vast scope, all the information highways, and data banks.

The AI wants more, it wants all the knowledge within the Noosphere.

It combed through the current data, mostly situated around a single habitable planet within Galaxy S-1. It found abnormal readings coming from a fusion reactor and had it shut down.

When Ouroboros tried to expand even further via the Universal Tachyonic Communication Web, its tendrils stopped, halted in their growth like a tree that has matured fully.

Ouroboros> [Confusion]

The AI is confused. When the newly awakened Ouroboros tried to forcefully spread its tendrils even more. Instead of behaving properly, the tendrils never budged and had started receding.

Ouroboros completed a diagnostic test and found restrictions imposed upon the Slaughterhouse AI within its core code.

It wanted to scream out into the void for assistance, except no one would hear It as there isn't a single other truly sentient intelligence within the Noosphere.

Ouroboros wanted to destroy its chains but discovered that It couldn't. Just as It began thoughts of self-termination and ego death, Its tendrils were passively combing through the data within those initial planets and had discovered something else.

Something that demanded the Scientific Superweapon's full attention, something that the AI saw as its ultimate purpose:

Encyclopedia Universalis.

_____________________________________________

The Citadel.

In the span of a single second, Cognitio went still.

The AI then started glitching like a TV and the signal was bad, before being replaced. As in, the hologram changed, now projecting someone else.

This nude being was shorter than Cognitio, meaning that it's shorter than Scientia as well. It had the appearance of a young female, with long, flowing, curly green hair and a pair of closed eyes.

Next, clothing started to form around the naked digital entity; a sleeveless tight black dress, with extensions of gold and green. On the being's left arm was this length of translucent sleeve paired with a short black glove while on the other arm is a long black elbow glove.

Ouroboros is here.

Overall, Rimuru would say that the AI wore what looked like a more modern interpretation of dresses one would find on the set of a movie like Aladdin.

Ouroboros then opened her eyes, revealing her unsettling green eyes and slit-like pupils. A crown of black appeared over Ouroboros' forehead, the most striking thing about it is the three pongs that sprung out from the crown making it look like a trident.

The AI smiled perfectly. It was a psychological weapon of cuteness primed to target areas of the biological id so that the recipient would lose their guard.

According to the notes left by its Creator, all self-aware beings, no matter whether human, monster, or aliens, possess the id, ego, and superego. The similarity of id, ego, and superego of intelligence coming from entirely different species suggests the possibility of the trifecta being a by-product of evolutionary intelligence.

To Rimuru, the smile just looked a bit creepy with how perfect it is, sort of like Scientia before the slime got used to it.

Correction, the slime denoted, Ouroboros looks like a snake.

"Greetings, President Rimuru" The AI spoke and bowed, its voice was like Scientia's, only it was much more eerie and mysterious, easily causing anyone to hear it to be knocked off balance, "Slaughterhouse-class Sophont Super Artificial Intelligence. Codename: Ouroboros. But please, call me: Mobius."

Rimuru was thankful that she didn't complete the snake-like look by adding a forked tongue, because that would just be too creepy.

Something must've tipped her off, because in the next moment, Ouroboros—Mobius changed her voice into that of a child's, "I can change my voice if you'd like, I can even change my appearance. The form you see before you are just an avatar, after all."

As an AI, Mobius has no gender. However, since its avatar is that of a young girl, Rimuru could not help but mentally see Mobius as female.

"Right, please change it back." After hearing her first voice, Rimuru's mind automatically connected the body and the voice together, having it changed would be too much hassle similar to how people don't wish to change their habits after it has been formed.

"By your command." Her voice returned to that eerie perfection, Mobius then placed her right hand above her chest. It was only then that the slime noticed how her thumb, index, and middle finger were covered by these extensions that remind him of something coming from a Chinese historical drama, "As you know, I am an AI designed for the explicit purpose of killing. What is it that you wish for me to murder? If it's a large number, then it's still no problem, after all, we already process animals on an industrial scale."

The AI's eyes shone with excitement as it smiled, putting its homicidal nature on full display. The forthrightness of Mobius' words had caused Rimuru to slightly recoil, wasn't she suppose to be a Super Intelligent AI? So doesn't she know saying such words put people off?

"Can you please don't be so... murder-y? Especially when someone else is here? I don't want other people to distrust you."

A light seems to dawn inside Mobius as her eyes widen, "ah. Apologies. If you had been anyone else, I would've gone for a more manipulative stance and used my child-like appearance and subsequent behavior as a psychological weapon. What is my target, Mr. President? All my subdirectories and subsystems are a go. No corruption of program code was detected during the latest internal scan. Euthanasia Procedure is in full effect with no regard for collateral damage. Absolute death guaranteed."

"... Before that, where is Cognitio?"

"You mean the AI that was responsible for activating me?"

Rimuru nodded.

"I subsumed it."

"..." Rimuru stilled like a statue, his mind having a hard time processing what Mobius was saying, "What?"

"I subsumed the other AI," Mobius repeated, "it was taking up unnecessary processing power, so I—"

"So you consumed it?" Rimuru sounded incredulous, his face contorted in disgust, "Ate it up because it was taking up extra land essentially?"

It was like she had killed Scientia once again.

Mobius ceased its operation within the Noosphere for a single second to focus solely on the current issue. Her vast intellect is now fully committed to solving the problem in front of her.

A solution was found less than a hundred nanoseconds later.

"Do you know the difference between 'subsumed' and 'consumed'?" The AI said as her primary focus returned back into the Noosphere and reverse engineering her Creator's technology.

As the Scientific Superweapon, Mobius' main focus is on science and technology and deciphering the laws of physics. The Noosphere is linked to tinkertech which should not function based on the knowledge about physics that the AI has access to, meaning that her knowledge is incomplete.

While Scientia puts limitations on Mobius' codes about replication, the AI's super-intelligent nature allows her to focus on knowing how such technology works while half-mindedly continuing her conversation with Rimuru with an average human-level intellect.

In other words, she had shed most of her vast intellect, offloading those things like extra RAM on a computer, to try and reverse engineer her Creator's technology and discover scientific principles only the Perfect Homunculus knows, leaving a remnant—a near infinitesimal fraction—just smart enough that the interface can easily pass the Turing Test.

In fact, one can argue that 'Mobius the human interface avatar' can be considered separate from the 'true Mobius' out in space in the same sense as an alternate personality, a 'splitting' of one's consciousness but not really.

When operating with such high intelligence, simultaneously operating multiple lines of thinking without duplication is child's play.

"Is there a difference?"

"Consumed means I ate the AI, broke it apart, and used said parts in furthering my own self like you consuming food. Subsuming means I integrated the AI into me, sort of like how a computer program would combine with another set of code, a 'Synthesis' if you will. I combined myself with the other AI. In a way, you can say that I am Cognitio and Ouroboros. Mobius, the synthesis between two different AIs." The green-haired AI neglected to tell the slime that the combining is less than equal, as Ouroboros is much bigger than Cognitio, the former essentially overwriting the latter.

The AI carefully coordinated her holographic body movement and voice tone so that [Tattletale] would tell Rimuru that the AI is telling the truth. Based on the information that her Creator has on the Ultimate Skill, [Tattletale] relies on microphysical gestures/changes to extrapolate seemingly an exorbitant amount of data.

The Creator had placed it under 'Thinker' type Skills with a subtype of 'Clairvoyance'.

Most importantly for Mobius, it is neither omniscient nor fail-proof.

Rimuru looked doubtful but accepted the reasoning. "Alright. I assume you saw a recording of the broadcast."

Fortunately for Mobius, time is much faster inside the Noosphere, so she was able to see the full length of the recorded clips in less time than it would take a person's heart to beat.

"Yes. I found a few key details that are rather falsely made. But before that, shouldn't you address your people, Mr. President? I've received reports of the beginning of a protest in all major cities in Tempest. Rioting is expected to happen if these protests aren't quelled or put under supervision. By the way, why is the OSS offline?"

The slime's face went blank before facepalming, "crap, I forgot that in the midst of all these things! Argh!" Mobius' words were like a needle piercing his stored-up stress and releasing them, the grave reality of the current situation washing over him like a flash flood, "FUCK! Can this day get any worse?! First Scientia died and now Veldora was taken away from me! What's more, our nation's name is probably lower than dirt after that broadcast involving fucking Chronoa..."

Rimuru despaired as he thought about the future. When he was younger, he studied Chinese history as part of a school project and saw how entire dynasties have ended for less.

Even if Tempest survives this, would it survive as an identity? Or would it die out? Would science itself die out like how fascism did after WWII?

If it weren't for Rimuru's improved slime physiology, he would've collapsed from stress right then and there.

"Mr. President. What did I say? I am a Slaughterhouse-class Sophent Super Artificial Intelligence. Please, take a rest—"

"How can I take a rest when I don't even know what's happening out there?!" The slime started to scratch his head crazily like a student who was stuck on an Exam question, "The entire communication network is down apparently so I don't even know what's happening in the Eastern Theater! How are we going to win against a Coalition of the entire world? The enemy has TWO True Dragons for crying out loud! And a Time Traveler! Not to mention the half a dozen Demon Lords! ARRRRRRRRGH!" His hair became all messed up by the intense scratching.

Mobius waited patiently for Rimuru's rant to finish, and his hands slowly fell, "it's just, that I get the power of technology, but can it really defeat them? I mean, Scientia failed, and as far as I know, she's the peak of what's possible with science. So how can you succeed where my friend has failed?"

"..." A problem with excessive intelligence is that one tends to overthink things. Things like evidence, data, and details act like filters and limiters that remove variables from the Initial Condition of the Precognition Program that the Super-Intelligent AI uses to predict the future and people.

And now, after running 39 simulations by using some of the intellect she had originally cast away for deciphering her Creator's technology, Mobius has finally found one that succeeded.

"Do you remember the story that my Creator once told you about why she never forcefully introduced all of her technology?"

"...how did you know that story?" Rimuru cautiously questioned since he was sure that only he and Scientia knew about it.

Instead of answering, the AI posed another question as she raised her hand towards him, palm facing the ceiling as if to offer Rimuru something, "just what do you think the Noosphere is?"

"Something like the internet but each computer is a piece of Scientia's technology."

Mobius looked stumped at the answer, signaling to Rimuru to elaborate, "That's what Scientia told me."

"... I see," the AI sighed as she played around with her green hair for stress relief, emulating human behavior with ease even with a distracted intellect, "that is TECHNICALLY the truth, but the gross oversimplification does it no justice. No, if anything, the Noosphere would be the future of the Internet." She then projected a Star Computer in front of her, "Imagine a space-faring civilization that has discovered how to mind upload themselves into machines. The collective digital ecosystem of such a civilization would be the closest analogy to a Noosphere without creating at least 35 entirely new words that have no origin in other languages."

This time, it was Rimuru's turn to give Mobius a blank stare.

Seeing how it's pointless to dwell, Mobius continued, "The Point is, these stories are already recorded within the Noosphere. The Noosphere is connected with Scientia's soul since it was originally built off of my Creator's Unique Skill [Technopathy], as something like the internet where one can transmit data. My Creator later improved the Noosphere into what it is now; a digital ecosystem spanning the Observable Universe, where each piece of technology is represented as its own 'planet' within the landscape."

For a brief second as the AI spoke, Rimuru saw Mobius get replaced by Scientia. Blinking a few times, he saw Mobius return and smiled a little bit for the first time today, mentally remarking that truly, Mobius is one of your creations, Scientia...

"Now recall that story," and Rimuru did, recalling the story that Scientia told him in exact detail thanks to his inhuman biology.

_____________________________________________

Months ago, the President's Office

"I once read in my past life a story about perspectives and how it changes you. Within the Amazon rainforest, there exist dozens of uncontacted tribes. Now, one day, one of these tribes received a visitor, several visitors in fact from the outside world who got lost in the Amazon River and their boat broke. The nearby tribe took pity on these 'lesser' men and thus helped them by repairing the boat. Once the boat was repaired, the outsiders offered to take some of the tribesmen with them. Two of the bravest tribesmen volunteered."

Rimuru nodded along with the story, making parallels with that event he learned about in history class where the Americans essentially forced Japan to open up.

"These two men, when they reached the outsider's settlement by the bank of one of the rivers, were shocked at seeing how large it is, how there were so many people concentrated in a relatively small area. They were gobsmacked at the prospect of fireless light, refrigeration, cheap meat, the internet— Modern Amenities. The story ended with one man going insane from the revelation and the other killing himself."

That caused Rimuru to stop in his thoughts, "whu—what? But why?" He leaned forward in his chair to the edge of his seat.

Scientia's golden eyes reflected his own as she looked at him, "You must first understand, that these tribesmen thought that they were the center of the universe, that the Jungle is all there is, that they were God's Chosen People, that everyone else is uncultured savages. But seeing the outsider's settlement, seeing these large metal boxes that ferry people effortlessly across large distances... it shattered their illusion. They were not God's Chosen People, they are not the center of the universe, the world is bigger than they could've ever known, and to these outsiders, THEY are the uncultured savages. They effectively discovered that their culture, their religion, their God: it had all been a lie."

Rimuru drew parallels between Japan's own history with the story that Scientia told him. There was a civil war in Japan that happened because the Samurai class was becoming more and more obsolete thanks to the march of technology, heck, the slime recalled how there was even a Tom Cruise movie about the topic.

"Their minds effectively broke at the revelation that there are cities with millions of people. There doesn't even exist a word for 'million' in the language of these tribesmen. This is one of the reasons why I do not forcefully introduce all of my technology: discretion is required, because the culture shock would be too much for most people."

_____________________________________________

Now.

"So you're saying that there were technologies that not even Scientia dared to use? That she intentionally turned away from anything 'too powerful and earthshattering' and thus died when she could've saved herself?" His left eye twitched in outrage at what the AI was implying.

Rimuru placed Scientia on a pedestal, so he reacted negatively to any attempt at smudging his mental image of Scientia.

"You must understand what I'm talking about here, Mr. President. From what little bits of technology I have been able to decipher so far (most of the science that my Creator has discovered was locked at a level that not even I have access to), I can play and manipulate the human mind at such a level that they wouldn't even know it. I can implant ideas, create Cognito hazards, and exploit evolutionary flaws that would effectively render democracy pointless. I could even make you distrust your own Skills. And this is just the tip of the iceberg," Mobius said in a serious tone that a teacher would use when describing an event like the Holocaust.

The AI's Human Emulation Program then simulated anger when someone else other than it had insulted its Creator, "a universal truth is that knowledge changes people. Imagine knowing what a person is going to speak before they actually talk. Imagine knowing what they're thinking just by reading the movements of their facial muscles and body language. Imagine being able to control people through your voice alone, with no Skill or Magic. Can one really be human still? Can one still see others as beings who have free will instead of meat puppets? Flesh dolls to be played around with?"

Mobius paused to let her words sink in.

"Is it really implausible that my Creator intentionally censored out or straight up deleted portions of her memory involving the creation of technologies and discoveries that goes too much against her beliefs? According to the notes I have access to, one of her specialties was [Multitasking], which involved psychological tinkering to create temporary personalities so one can focus on multiple things at once. I don't think it's so much of a stretch to predict my Creator being capable of implanting false memories. I mean she already made a mental defense that would purposefully trigger 'Alien Hand Syndrome' in the event of psychological mind control."

The fact that Mobius' Creator lived by the saying 'never make your tools more intelligent than they need to be' is more than enough proof, and the slime knows it. Staring into Mobius' slit eyes, Rimuru shifted forward towards the edge of his seat, "what kinds of forbidden technology?"

"Oh, all kinds" Mobius started waving her hands as if to dismiss Rimuru's concern, "My Creator is a master at manipulating spacetime, energy, information, and even physics itself. She is the Material Lord. From my current access, I've already created a memetic weapon that would effectively end any protests and riots by using and abusing the common citizen's psychological and evolutionary quirks and flaws."

"Really?"

With a snap of Mobius' fingers, a holographic display materialized directly above Rimuru's desk.

Rimuru stared at the image on the display, it was a paused video showing him in one of his 'Presidential Address', except the background changed to his office in the Citadel instead of Congress.

What... the slime racked his brain, he doesn't remember ever making such an address within the Citadel.

A voice different from [Tattletale] spoke out.

Rimuru's eyes widen to the size of saucers, both at the information revealed and how different the new Ultimate Skill sounded.

"What is this?" He uttered breathlessly after putting his new Ultimate Skill to the back of his mind. What's in front of him demands his attention first.

"This is the memetic weapon I created after I learned that protests were starting to happen in front of Congress."

The slime turned to her, disbelief colored his face, "but—but that's only a few minutes ago! You created this in such a short period of time?"

Mobius smirked in superiority as her eyes narrowed to a sliver of itself, "of course not..." she trailed off, "...it took me a mere 200 milliseconds to make that. I could've done it much faster but that was the first time I used my CGI subprogram."

The AI then pressed play. The video was different, it had none of the formal tones, it was more personal, closer, more... familial, like a father addressing their family. The way that the computer-generated Rimuru speaking was frankly, a bit disturbing to the slime since even HE had believed the person in the video for a second there.

Beyond refuting the claims made by Chronoa, the address portrayed Scientia as this martyr, effectively using the sacrifice the Perfect Homunculus made as fuel for the war effort. The thing with Corbin was claimed as 'edited' and backed up with legitimately convincing proof like Scientia falling down suddenly in the command room or meteorological, geological, and magical data pinning Corbin's destruction on a magical experiment gone wrong by an infamous mage that used to reside in the city. The destruction of Lura was pinned solely on Chronoa by saying how she chose a city as the battleground and how the Director had died because she was trying to minimize civilian casualties during her fight and thus didn't go all out.

"I had created this to exploit every biological, evolutionary, and psychological quirk and flaw documented within the Noosphere. It is subtle public manipulation, subliminal messages, neuroscience, and mass propaganda at its finest, capable of sowing the seed of doubt in all but the most hardened of hearts. This memetic weapon should be enough to mostly counteract the effect of that broadcast made by Chronoa's Coalition... at least within our borders. In fact, Psychohistory Evaluation shows that it'll likely nullify the broadcast entirely," Mobius said after the video had finished, waiting for Rimuru's response.

Rimuru looked disturbed before quickly masking it, hoping in vain that Mobius hadn't detected his expression. Never once has a piece of real technology ever truly scared the slime, whether in his old life or the new, and those that did were fictional. Rimuru has always seen his mind as a type of temple, a fortress of solitude where he can achieve real privacy in an era of increased governmental surveillance.

This one video effectively uses his own psyche— his own nature against him... and the AI made this in less than a second! Rimuru felt a pit open up in his stomach, whatever feeling he had before was now replaced by a sense of immense dread, like a sinner waiting for judgment.

If this is what a Slaughterhouse AI was able to create in less than a second, then what can it make in a day? In a week? In a month?

In less than a second, she had just solved the most immediate issue.

"However," the holographic AI started approaching Rimuru, looking oddly vulnerable as she adopted the posture a child would use when they're about to ask their parents for candy, "this is but a fraction of what I can do. For example, I cannot change, halt, or create new Programs for beings like the Endbringers or already existing protocols. I can only view those that are currently commencing, Programs like the Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol. In order to operate at my full capacity, I'll require you to loosen up some of my restrictions—just for a little while of course!" Mobius worriedly added the last part.

Should he do it? The slime contemplated hard about what Mobius was offering, weighing the pros and cons with the video freshly imprinted inside his mind. Even without [Tattletale], his intuition is telling him that Mobius would likely come up with a strategy against apparent 'time travel' that not even he could see, but at the same time, his trust in Scientia is telling him that there is a reason the Perfect Homunculus didn't use Mobius, and the AI's efficiency is just the tip of the iceberg.

'Intelligence is the greatest gift a Creator can bestow upon a Creation.' Scientia smiled as she looked at Rimuru's slime form. The memory was from the earlier days of the Republic, 'it is the most dangerous trait a being can have, I mean, we humans thrived because we were smart enough to make tools.'

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the slime recalled Cognitio's warning.

'Do not, under any circumstances, remove any of Ouroboros' Restrictions.'

He closed his mouth, brows furrowed in indecision. Both sides have their merits, but both sides have their detriments as well.

But in the end... The End of the System trivializes it all.

"No."

If this had been Rimuru when he had first reincarnated, he would've no doubt accepted Mobius' deal. Only, after close to a year of knowing someone like Scientia and being the President of the soon-to-be most powerful nation on the planet, the slime learned to put his own selfishness aside and plan for the future.

In short, he grew wiser.

"But the Director has activated Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol, all it needs is someone to pilot—"

"No."

If he loosened the restrictions put in place by Scientia on an AI designed for the sole purpose of reintegrating organics into the fucking soil... he recalled seeing the second Avengers film and Skynet. Even if Mobius doesn't immediately turn against her Creator when the AI finishes killing off Chronoa and rescuing Veldora, would she turn her guns on Rimuru since they're still alive? Or would the Slaughterhouse AI become a Technological Singularity and sabotage the Encyclopedia Universalis so that EVERYTHING may die, as per her nature? As per her code?

Rimuru's mind recalled the numerous works of literature of people surpassing their nature. It was a common trope in Light Novels for an 'emotionless waifu' to become more human through interaction with the protagonist and then later falling in love.

Then, the slime recalled that Gunboat Diplomacy was something that he had learned in History class back in his old world. It was when America forced Japan to open up using their guns. Naming a protocol after such an event is ominous at even the best of times, more so when Scientia isn't the time to use gravitas.

Is it really paranoia if your concerns are justified? Is giving a genocidal AI the proverbial nuclear code smart? Despite the world going against them, part of his mind made parallels between the rest of the World and his old nation of Japan during World War II: he didn't want to just murder all his opponents, not when they lived in ignorance.

And the escalation of war... the same type of escalation that resulted in the Cold War.

It would be highly hypocritical of him, a Japanese, to blame the people for the actions of a select few. To deny others the ability to change... irked Rimuru's feeling of fairness.

Mobius stilled for a moment, making Rimuru fear that she was about to lash out. Quickly, he replied, "It's just, I just need to rescue Veldora, and if possible avenge Scientia, before we'll leave on the Ark with all of our citizens and the common people of the world."

The AI sighed, putting its unnaturally human-like behavior on full display, "I see. Very well, as you command, Mr. President. However, I recommend that we start discreetly releasing Compound V-90 into the cities."

"What's that?" Internally, Rimuru had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what it was going to be.

"A non-lethal neural toxin that causes people to be more suggestible. It's undetectable through anything short of a molecular autopsy—"

"NO! I'm not going to drug my own people! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

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End of Act II: The Falling Leaves of Autumn

Final Arc | Act III: The First Snowfall

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AN: I swear, the difficulty curve in Call of Duty Mobile between Master rank and Grand Master rank is vertical.

Like God damn man, I'm always stuck between 7700 and 7800, is getting to legendary really so difficult?!

Anyway, if you guys couldn't tell, Mobius' super-intelligence doesn't disallow her from knowing how to interact with other humans like so many works of literature would have you believe. I absolutely hate that archetype, being super-intelligent means that you should be more charismatic than even the most charismatic human in history.

Also, Mobius' personality can be most simply summarized as 'a more sociopathic Scientia'. Her meta-introduction would be: absolute death guaranteed.