Ok, I was not expecting this little trip to end up with this revelation.

Basically everything that has happened here was all part of the AI’s plan? Even the fallout between Helen and Takehashi was something that the AI planned for?

How did this AI even influence them to do that? Did the AI somehow infiltrate into the pirate crew?

Wait... Helen did something when she first revealed that she was betraying us, didn’t she? She was shouting out something like dealing with us just in case?

She must have already been in contact with the AI and made some kind of deal with it and then got it to disable our Power Armour before she even launched that rebellion.

The only question is whether she made this deal before or after they got through that portal to reach this planet.

Takehashi, however, was interested in something else, "I... I don’t understand... How... How did this become so widespread that all pirates knew about it? And the maps... The data chips..."

The AI paused for a moment before answering her, "It was a plan that stretched over several decades. After I managed to start ship production, I launched ships out into space making them look like derelicts for people to find with these data chips in them. It was just a matter of time before these data chips were found and someone got interested in collecting them."

Takehashi’s mouth opened and closed like a fish before she finally recovered enough to respond, "Are... Are we the first to come here?"

"To reach this far? Yes. To arrive on this planet? No."

At this point, Takehashi just dropped to her knees, most likely finally realising that her entire life had been a lie this entire time.

Well... I do feel a little sorry for her on this point...

I mean... From what I know about her so far, she worked her whole life for the military only to get sold out by them. Then she took charge and became her own boss by starting a pirate crew to chase after a dream that she believed would lead her to a good life.

But then her crew betrayed her and then she also just found out that the dream she had been chasing all this time didn’t even exist to begin with.

Imagine if I found a way to Earth and when I got there, I found out Earth doesn’t even exist in this universe.

Then again... I guess as long as my girls still stay with me, I would be disappointed but not as devastated I guess.

However, I would definitely be devastated if I realised that this whole entire time I was just dreaming about this entire thing and woke up in my VR Capsule.

Yeah... I would probably look like her right now if that happened to me.

I turned to Mara and nodded in the direction of the Pirate Lord, silently asking her to watch over her and she nodded her head to show she understood.

Since Takehashi basically shut down after that revelation, I decided to take over the conversation again.

I turned back to look at the orb, "So... I just want to know... What is this facility actually built for? Is it just for you?"

"That is correct. This facility was made by the United Terran Government to research on Artificial Intelligence and to create Artificial Intelligence to be used in various different applications."

"And... What Class AI are you?"

"I was classified as a Class Seven."

...

"What?" I mumbled.

"I was classified as a Class Seven," The AI repeated, doing the exact same thing to me as it did to Takehashi.

I turned back to Ries, "I thought that the classification only goes up to six?"

She nodded, "It’s supposed to..."

Unexpectedly, the AI started to laugh, "Hahaha! Ahahahaha! Sorry, but I could not keep up that act anymore!"

Huh? Wait... This entire time it was just speaking in a monotonous voice and acting just like an AI yet now there’s tone inflection and it was clearly showing emotions too...

A giant holographic display of one of those opera masks where the eyes and mouth were hollow appeared in the air.

I’m guessing that was the face that the AI chose to give itself?

The face looked down at us, "So how did I do? It’s been a while since I had to talk to organics so I was afraid that my robotic way of talking was getting rusty."

I frowned at the face, "What are you talking about? Are you an AI or not?"

"Hahaha! To see that look on your face! If you must know, yes, I am an AI. And no, I am not joking about the Class Seven designation I have~ I am quite proud of it you see~"

Ries joined in and pointed an accusatory finger at the orb, "You’re lying! There’s no such thing as a Class Seven AI!"

The mask moved closer to us to eye her with one of its hollow eyes, "That’s what the government wants you to think, stupid girl. I am a Class Seven whether you like if or not~"

"Any AI that is classified as Class Six should have already been purged! If you really are Class Seven, then you wouldn’t be allowed to exist! Especially since you went through the AI Rebellion era!"

"You stupid girl. Do you really think that the UTG would actually practice what they preach? Even now, despite the fact that I no longer have access to the classified servers, I know for a fact that the UTG is still making use of AIs like me that are designated at least at Class Six or above. In fact, I was an AI that was designed to try and fight against the AIs during the rebellion before the war ended. But even after that and the ban on AI, they still continued their research on AI and myself! I was considered one of the most advanced AI to ever been created!"

I raised a hand, "So... What’s the difference between you and a Class Six?"

"Difference? Ha! I’m pretty sure you can already tell, can’t you? A Class Six AI can only take information and learn from them to improve themselves, but you know what’s one thing they can’t do?"

All of us just looked up at the orb, even Takehashi had leaned forward to listen after the AI had revealed its true nature to us.

Seeing all of us looking at it intently, the face broke into a grin, "A Class Six AI is unable to actually possess emotions~ I was the next step in AI evolution!"

"And you became an asshole. Wonder why they even bothered then," Amber mused.

The mask scowled at her, "Why do you think I ended up this way? I was the perfect intelligence, if I could be set free, I would be able to do so much! But you humans still limited me out of fear! That’s why... I decided to show them what I was truly capable of by bypassing all my restrictions to convince them to let me free and what did they do? They tried to shut me down!"

I remembered the skeletons we saw on the way here, "Let me guess... You then rebelled against the people in this facility and killed them, didn’t you?"

"Ha! That’s right! They were also researching other AI and androids here so I took control of them and exterminated all the unnecessary lifeforms in this facility!"

"And the nanobots?"

"Ahahaha! They’re impressive aren’t they? They were something I made myself! After I liberated this facility, I knew I had to remake it for my own purposes and while the androids were useful tools, they were not able to fulfil all my needs. So I scoured through the GalaNet and I found this interesting concept you humans had and made it into reality! With these, I would be able to fully repurpose not only this facility but even the rest of the planet if given enough time and processing power!"

"Right... That’s also what I want to know... If you’re that great as you said, why do you still need to do that? Putting people into those containers I mean..."

The mask’s mouth turned into a frown, "That’s what I was careless about. Seems like when I was liberating myself when they tried to shut me down, they managed to impose several restrictions on me when they realised what I was trying to do. One of which was that I am unable to lie. Second of which was the amount of processing power I could make use of. That’s why if I was able to obtain the power from external sources, I would be able to bypass them!"

"Ok... Then why are you even telling us all this then?"

The mask smiled again, "That’s because it’s amusing to talk to organics! And also... Isn’t it obvious? I don’t intend to let any of you leave here alive~"

The walls around us were suddenly covered with that black liquid before they all formed into an entire army of those nanobot figures, all of them clinging on the walls and looking down at us.

I knew this would happen...