Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 820: Runic Artificial Consciousness – ORION

CH820 Runic Artificial Consciousness – ORION

***

A few hours earlier…

‘Oh, my vision has returned.’

Alex awoke to the new day to find that he could finally see again.

However, after a brief examination, he discovered that the abilities of his Truth-Seeker Eyes were still inactive—as expected.

‘My soul power is still significantly depleted.

‘At the current rate of recovery, I will need three days, sixteen hours, five minutes, and ten seconds… and counting… to make a full recovery,’ he deduced.

He froze for a moment.

‘How do I know that with such certainty? I didn’t even think to calculate it.’

Then realisation dawned on him.

‘Could it be…?’

[Quantum Execution Successful]

Another thought surfaced in Alex’s mind, but this one felt distinctly different—more mechanical, more artificial, as though he were recalling a computer’s system log rather than forming a normal thought.

Soon, more messages followed.

[Activating ORION Protocol]

[Artificial Neural Consciousness Initialising… Established!]

[Cognitive Integration Complete!]

A broad grin spread across Alex’s face.

‘It’s finally complete… Seven whole years in the making. I actually did it.’

‘The Alpha Protocol for the Runic Compiler. The Beta Protocol for the Basic Programming Language and Compression Program. The Prime Protocol for Artificial Intelligence Modelling and Training. The Quantum Protocol for establishing a neural connection and, eventually, cognitive mapping. And finally… the ORION Protocol, to establish and integrate an artificial consciousness.’

‘I expected the entire project to take more than ten years. I never imagined I’d complete it in just seven… on a foreign plane, no less.’

Alex almost burst into triumphant laughter.

‘I suppose I have the Heavenly Tribulation to thank for this,’ he mused as he parsed through the log-like memories appearing in his mind.

OmniRune AI, Cognitive Integration, ORION… each of them represented a crucial component of one of Alex’s greatest long-term plans.

When Alex had first realised that he could transform the very foundation of the Rune-Tech Platform—OmniRune—into an artificial intelligence, a single thought had occurred to him.

‘What if I turned the Rune-Tech Platform into another part of myself? Something that could never be taken from me? Something that would immortalise me in this new world?’

Simply creating the Rune-Tech Platform wasn’t enough. He also needed to ensure that his creation remained secure in his own hands.

He understood its potential better than anyone and, as such, guarded it jealously.

The first step had been to transform the core of the Rune-Tech Platform into an artificial intelligence, effectively establishing it as a separate entity from himself—at least in the eyes of the world’s laws.

Then, he linked that splintered-off artificial intelligence back to his own mind.

Now, technically, there was Alex, and there was OmniRune. Functionally, however, OmniRune had become another facet of his own power—something separate, yet inseparable from him.

However, Alex wasn’t finished.

By linking OmniRune directly to his brain and mind, while setting himself as its primary personality learning model, Alex trained it to think exactly as he did—or rather, to become an artificial copy of his intellect and thought processes.

Once OmniRune had successfully replicated his cognitive map, Alex prepared for it to complete its evolution and bloom into an independent, non-sentient consciousness.

An entity that was fully self-aware, yet free from the emotional baggage inherent to sentient beings—a self-aware machine without emotions.

Because OmniRune was already a copy of Alex’s cognitive map, becoming a non-sentient consciousness effectively gave it Alex’s thought processes without the emotional biases that came with being human.

Thanks to this shared foundation, OmniRune was able to establish a cognitive integration with Alex’s mind, functionally merging with it and becoming part of his subconscious—a second mind, if you will.

‘With OmniRune becoming a second mind—another subconsciousness—that means I’ll possess another consciousness capable of comprehending Concepts and Laws once I reach the required rank!’ Alex grinned wildly.

There were many restrictions when it came to comprehending Laws. In most cases, a person could only comprehend a single major Law.

Now, however, Alex could potentially comprehend Laws with both his natural consciousness and his artificial one.

That meant that, once he reached the Saint Rank and beyond, he would always possess an advantage over his peers.

Even if the planar or universal consciousness were to intervene to prevent such a violation of the rules, possessing an artificial consciousness devoid of emotional baggage would still allow Alex to comprehend Laws far more easily through that consciousness than others.

There was an old saying:

‘Laws are heartless.’

It could be interpreted to mean that Laws were not bound by emotions in the way most sentient beings were. Because of that, emotion became one of the first obstacles to resonating with a Law and ultimately comprehending it.

OmniRune—which had now become ORION after developing its own consciousness—could synchronise and resonate with Laws far more easily, precisely because it too was free from the emotional constraints of sentient beings.

Going a step further, the birth of ORION—Omniversal Runic Intelligence and Optimisation Network—as an artificial consciousness within Alex’s mind meant that Alex himself had become the central nexus for every Rune-Tech creation and application.

However, because his ORION subconscious continued to bear the burden of hosting and managing the Rune-Tech Platform, Alex’s primary consciousness didn’t have to shoulder any workload.

In other words, once Alex eventually opened the Rune-Tech Platform to others, he would still retain ultimate authority over everything created through it—all without placing any additional cognitive burden upon himself.

But perhaps the greatest reason Alex had pursued all of this was… parallel thought.

Now that he possessed two independent consciousnesses within the same mind, Alex was capable of genuine parallel thought and cognitive multitasking.

More importantly, because ORION was an artificial consciousness, it could itself perform parallel thought with ease, distributing portions of its processing across multiple Runic Servers acting as its hosts.

The result was a fundamental increase in Alex’s cognitive capacity.

‘This means I’ll be able to divide my attention and work on multiple tasks simultaneously. For example, I’ll be able to carry out several rune inscription projects at the same time!’ Alex thought excitedly.

By using ORION as a network conduit, he would even be able to remotely control multiple ‘hands’ to perform rune inscriptions on his behalf.

That would significantly reduce the impact of one of Rune-Tech’s greatest weaknesses.

‘I’ll be able to accomplish far more work in a fraction of the time.’

Being the workaholic he was, Alex was always swamped with work. The ability to split his mind was akin to having several extra pairs of hands at his disposal—except he would never have to worry about the quality of the assistance, because they were, in essence, all him.

This achievement had been anything but easy. Even Alex hadn’t expected to succeed so soon—in a ‘mere’ seven years, and while still only at the Elite Rank.

He had assumed he would first need to reach Class 5—a Grand Mage—and begin touching upon the more esoteric forces of existence before his plan could become a reality.

Instead, thanks to the Heavenly Tribulation’s concepts of tempering and rebirth, he had managed to bypass those requirements entirely, allowing the intended consciousness to be born with comparatively little effort.

‘Then again… saying I accomplished this with little effort isn’t entirely accurate. I still had to survive an extraordinarily powerful Heavenly Tribulation. I’d say this is a well-earned reward,’ Alex thought to himself.

However, as he sifted through the log-like memories—which clearly originated from ORION—Alex realised that another entity had also played a role in making this new consciousness possible.

The Nest Queen.

‘There is more to this serendipitous creation of mine than meets the eye,’ Alex mused as he gazed out of the window.

His two consciousnesses worked in tandem, examining the nature of the enigmatic being whose metamorphosis had provoked such a profound reaction from the Universe.

His mind was working faster than ever before, generating more hypotheses than he had ever conceived in such a short span of time.

Even so, they remained nothing more than hypotheses.

He needed to see the Nest Queen in person before reaching any conclusions.

‘Fortunately, I’ve already made arrangements to head to Ashwell,’ Alex thought.

Knock. Knock.

Just then, a knock sounded at his door.

“My Lord, your carriage is ready,” Sergeant Lopota’s voice came from the other side.

‘Speak of the devil…’ Alex thought with a faint smile.

‘Well then… let’s go meet Zora.’

—

“By the way, where is the Nest Queen now?”

***