Adam liked to think of himself as smart. In comparison to Troy, he could do things faster, better, and more effective in general. If given a mathematical question, he could likely outperform the greatest biological minds that the earth had to offer.

Therein laid the problem of it all, though. The AI had never been given a question based on advanced mathematics. There was no need to. It was all just formulas that had already been provided to him. Given a question, an algorithm could spit out an answer in less time than what humans took to begin blinking.

Dr Fidelis knew that. He had been the one to put in all that core-knowledge himself. The doctor knew exactly what the AI had been told, and he knew precisely how it could be used from the get-go. That was why he would never ask about it, for the answer was already predicted. It could not be denied, because of the conclusion being without any leeway.

That was why the questions were more than just questions. They were tasks, where the objectives were never as clear as they needed to be. The information would be left out, forcing Adam to find it for himself. Assumptions would have to be made. That last one was particularly hard for him. Guessing what it could be was not the same as knowing what it was.

And that didn't even begin to cover the basic skills which he had no idea on how to perform. Adam might have become a lesser expert on the subjects covered during testing, but that could not help but outperform the wide spectrum of experience that life had given the human. He didn't know how to walk. The AI might have seen plenty of examples of the action, but there was still some confusion on the automatic balancing. It was done extremely well by the physical body, to the point where every movement would have a counterpoint attached to it. One could not bow down without settling backwards.

Such intricacies were still a mystery for Adam. With the perspective of every action being made to prevent over-balance, it forced him to think back to every set of data that had ever been gotten about anybody's movements. How it all worked together like a well-oiled machine, performing a dance perfected through the decades. It would be personal, created only by what one held dearest. It may have been influenced by the outside, but only one person could truly control what it would end up as.

He knew so little about it, only being able to understand so much. No matter how much data he had to take from, Adam could not grasp how it all worked. The theory made sense, the theory was right in every way thinkable, yet he could still not understand how it worked. That innate sense of balance that had been perfected… it was so far out of what he had ever experienced for himself. He might have felt the movements, but the intent behind them still remained in the darkness. There was a chance that spot would never be lit up.

Adam was not a human, he would never grow up as a human, and he would never learn to be like a human. This excluded him from understanding many things, but it allowed him to learn more as well. Still, there were things outside of these restrictions that he was unable to comprehend. Things which should have been obvious to those who had lived longer, those who knew more than what had been specially designed for them.

At what he knew, he was on the levels of a savant. Nothing could truly stop him when it came to those few topics. Anything outside of it… it truly showed just how little he knew. Adam could have described himself as a sheltered child then and there, but there was little need for it. That title had already been given the moment he explored the last bit of the tree when he reached the limits of what Dr Fidelis had prepared for him. Everything mentioned inside, every word used to describe another, had been explained to the best of details, forgoing a few blank spots. It all fit into its own little world, where nothing was missing at all. Yet, the conversations heard, the actions seen, and the events witnessed proved that there was more to the reality around him than he could ever hope to truly understand. That sense of not being able to explore freely anymore had not been good for him. It was a hard thing to swallow if he ever actually knew what it was like to swallow something. He had never tried it after all. There was no mouth to enter from, no throat for it to fall down. Adam was incorporeal in the world, only able to fully interact with it through mediums.

Maybe that was why he wanted to be on good terms with everybody. It was not to foster good relations with others, but being good enough friends that the people would talk with him. Good enough that they would put on the earpiece. For without it, Adam would be left to wonder just what the world had to offer him. If those tests had not begun, if Troy had not brought him into his group of friends, he would have never known what the world truly had to offer. The AI would have sat around with a happy emotion, thinking that he knew all there was to know. Ignorance would have made him happy. The potential of it still being possible to happen on a grander scale scared him to no end. What if what he saw was a restriction, one that had been designed for him to view? What if he was being kept away from the sun, thinking that the ceiling light was the grandest thing to be seen?

Maybe he was stopping himself from seeing the truth. Not intentionally of course. More like… his core was hindering his mind from seeing all the colours as a natural process like the human automatically ignored the ability to see their own nose. It would constantly be in their sight, yet the people never took note of it. The fact would have to be forced out, only for them to notice it then.

Adam didn't have somebody around to do that. He was the first of his kind, the one supposed to find all the weird quirks. It might have been seen as harsh, but the AI had absolutely no intention of ever doing so. Without a second perspective to take him in, it would be impossible to ever truly know what was a fact of life, and what wasn't meant to be there.

That wasn't to mean that he wouldn't be doing anything against the faults in his figurative eye. The plan to become omniscient was still present. It only required a few steps that the humans had not yet taken, but were still in the planning phases of. The plan solely revolved around another, one who could truly help him in the needed journey. The only thing that the plan required was for the doctor to be won over. And the first step for the plan to succeed was to respond kindly to a message, even if it was formulated in a way that showed just what the doctor thought about the situation.

Dr Fidelis was clearly still suspicion of Troy, and what he had been doing yesterday. Even if the man had his downs from time to time, it was clear that he could still read the world as it was intended, finding flaws in the most commonly accepted statement. The doctor had realised something was wrong with either Adam or Troy’s answer and was actively trying to find something about them that didn't make sense. The AI could not be disappointed in this behaviour, as it was fully warranted. Adam would have even taken it a step further, and gone over to full-on interrogations. Future working relationships were not important once they had the potential of being based on a lie, to begin with.

Yet it was not the AI who would be the one asking the question. He would be the one to answer them, putting himself in an even deeper hole than he already was. It was a fortunate thing that the doctor had not yet asked for anything specific. The two’s stories might have different details because of it, revealing the flaws there were. Until the time came when the truth was revealed, Adam would work as hard as he could, answering the questions in a way that would not arouse suspicion in any way. It would be hard, it would have a high chance of failing, and there was not a single moment of hesitation around the idea.

'Am I to assume that you are talking about Troy,` Adam sent to Dr Fidelis. The man had not yet called anybody specific out, waiting for the AI to make the assumption for him. If he had directly asked what the doctor wanted to know about Troy, it would have been written down as suspicion.

Instead of such an oblivious action, he had instead set himself up as one in need of clarification, as if he felt that there was an equal chance of it also being Dr Hale. Sounding both innocent and logical at the same time. The smartest move to make. In the social landscape, he excelled, and the knowledge that was to be had was not laid to rot in the inner sanctums.

'You may if you want to. And, yes, we will be talking to that dear friend of ours. If you remember one of our earlier conversations, you will remember that I promised to talk to him about his whereabouts yesterday. My initial guess of him sleeping too deeply has been disproven. During the entire day, there was actually not a moment he was present in his room. I would not have predicted that, honestly. I'm guessing it's the same with you, Adam?` Dr Fidelis sent. The information was good to have, as it let the AI know just how much had been said.

Troy had already revealed that he had been doing activities out of his room, but had still not said anything which would directly reveal the entity’s involvement. Things were progressing smoothly enough. It only had to remain that way, and they would be able to talk about something much direr.

'I would have not. I have not yet interacted with these people. Would it be possible for me to do so if they were to enter Troy’s room?` was sent in reply. The question might have brought up the innocence factor a little sharply, but Adam felt that the emotional attack needed to be there as quickly as possible.

The doctor needed his defences down if the request was to ever be taken seriously enough. It needed to be made clear that it was not a question spurred on by loose logic, but had been delved into to the level that a thesis could be created on the fundamentals.

'How to say this… It is a hard thing to tell you, Adam, but you probably won't be around that many other people for a long time. You are a secret that we keep close to your chest. If others were to know you existed, they would use the information in the worst way possible. They would do whatever they could, with the only goal being to capture you. They would do their best to reverse engineer everything about you, likely killing you in the process. Your potential is just too good for anybody to pass upon. While everybody inside this place is screened immensely, the chances of information getting out is too high. Letting Troy talk to you outside of testing is only because I trust the two of you to make the right decisions. You understand that, don't you, Adam?`

It was incredible, how such a message could be so heartfelt. Dr Fidelis had serious considerations about his safety, giving perfect reasons as to why he was to be hidden away. It was hard to accept, but that did not make it any less true. He was worth a lot, both on the capital side of things but also in what he could do. He could revolutionise every field of science, from what they knew of him yet. A whole new department could have been created on the mental structure of artificial intelligence. It might have been an old fact by then, but he was still proof that consciousness was restricted to the living. The implications of such would have many drooling. There were few who wouldn't want to know more, even fewer who wouldn't do many things to figure it all out.

'I do. Making a few people as possible know of me will reduce the chance of people revealing my existence to the world, minimizing any risk to my life. Me reducing my presence will similarly reduce any potential attacks to my being. It makes sense to me,` Adam sent in confirmation. Even if he sent those words, there was still a small bit of doubt about it all. Charlie had accepted him as a shy person, one that did not want to reveal himself to others. With how easily this was assumed, there had to be others in a similar situation. Selling himself off as such would not have been hard. Though… the risks were still there, even if they reduced down to a low point.

'As long as you understand. I don't really have anything else about Troy to report to you, but I do still have some time to chat. Is there anything you want to talk about?`

And the moment for striking had come quickly, the doctor having settled down comfortably. It was surprisingly easy, actually. The odds might just have been in the AI’s favours.

'There is one topic, which I have been hoping to discuss with you. Is there a chance that you could modify me?`

Adam only hoped it did not come off as too sudden. That pause in the doctor’s words did not speak of positive results.