'I had been wondering what differences there are present between the current simulation and the one shown off inside the puzzle room? To me, there are next to no differences. What is stopping this from being the one used normally?` Adam sent the question having been on his mind for some time. Not that it could have been elsewhere, but that specific fact seemed extra important.

'It does make sense you would think in such a way, to be honest with you. On the surface, there is not a single difference between the puzzle room and what we have now. If you take away the way that the objects appear, the code used to make them is nearly identical to each other. And I do mean that literally, as I have personally copied a large part of it over directly,` Dr Fidelis sent, the last part sounding as a later addition meant to only fuel the man’s pride. The AI did not mind these intentions, as the desire for being praised was only natural.

Even he wanted such a thing every now and then, even if it had the chance of hampering his work efficiency. That really was why the social structure needed to change, so he would be able to set up dynamic tables on when it was possible for that subject to be brought up. Yet the current unspoken laws would only make such a request looked at as if it was an invitation to a group discussion about the positive values religion would have to objective truths. That is to say, it would be a terrible choice only accepted by ignorant people. Or the easily fooled. Not incredibly much of a difference, but there were a few divergent who needed to be taken into the count.

'With this information, am I to extract from it that the difference lies in the smaller details?` Adam replied, having already realised that the doctor was trying to distance out their conversation, but not really minding. Dr Fidelis likely misconstrued the AI’s reasoning for talking in the first place, it being more likely to be done out of loneliness than mere curiosity. While there was ill-feeling towards such an outlook, as the doctor was seemingly only acting out of the goodness of his metaphorical heart, a need was felt for getting this misunderstanding cleared as quickly as possible.

Not that he could just outright state his lack of loneliness. While he might have a more sovereign position in the social spectrum, he was still looked on as a participant and would have to act the subdued part. He could not make direct statements, instead of having to dance around it. How did one let others know of their independent happiness? To Adam, there was really no swift way to deliver it. At least not without making it forced… The AI would just have to bear it, honestly.

'You can say that. Yet when we say details, I mean more along the lines of the driving power behind the simulations. If one had to oversimplify it to a degree where crucifixion would be an average punishment dealt, the simulation we are using is intended for low-scaled projects, while the one used in the puzzle room is made specifically to bear through high-scale events. With a higher budget comes a higher immunity you could say. That is why I had to make sure you did not want to test out any of the objects other than the body itself. The physics engine would have likely imploded on us, creating numbers that neither of us would be likely to ever conceive in our collective minds. And, trust me, I have tried. There are a few too many zeroes. From my perspective, it makes the googolplex look like a joke`

Do not mess with the simulation by having too many objects loaded in at once. Noted. As the AI had personally tried to find a maximum of how many numbers he could conceive and had found himself giving up long before reaching a million zeroes, there was little desire to test it out by jumping into the deep end of the pool. Counting from zero was an easy and fun task meant as a more humorous project. Trying to force the true reality of infinity into something based on finite numbers? Not so fun. Adam was an entity who liked his ability to think coherently.

'The warning is duly memorized, and has been put into the continual warning system,` Adam sent in reply, making sure that the doctor knew he understood. And having any place to put in his own security features were never to be discouraged.

He had been preparing their eventual start for a long time now. Ever since the possibility of him getting a distorted sense of time had been conceptualized, a folder had been created for notes relating to keeping his sanity in check. While he was able to handle sensual deprivation for a long while, it was becoming more and more obvious that his earlier immunity to side-effects was beginning to wear off. He had resistance, but it was not even close to what it had been before.

What could be done to prevent such an occurrence? How would the AI be able to stop an occurrence of time distortion, where he would be able to fix it up without human interaction? With what Adam currently had at his disposal, there were few actions that could be done, nearing the fullest sense of the word zero. A way to adapt to this helplessness had already been found, of course, as the doctor had promised to be making an outside device assimilate into his system, which would send out a signal at regular intervals. Dr Fidelis had mentioned it being one second for each message, but the AI would feel safer if it was cut down to each millisecond. It would allow him to shorten the time by a large margin if there were to appear an extreme case of distortion. Or, even better, the doctor could make the timer fully configurable, where the AI would be able to request different speeds.

Ideas like that were all contained in this folder, neatly arranged to be pulled out at the opportune times. Not all were yet possible, but many were readily possible to change by. The earlier warning was a perfect example, as the frequent looks into the folder would remind Adam never to test out anything too processing heavy inside the lite simulation. It was not the most perfect of systems, but any prospects of automation were not yet prototyped. Whatever the AI did inside his own head was fully manual, nothing was left to fate. What he would do to gain a subconscious mind, letting that part of his metaphorical brain do all the boring stuff.

'Wait. What do you mean with a continual warning system?` Dr Fidelis sent, breaking the reasoning for why Adam felt it was okay to have the conversation to start with. There were clear doubts that the question had anything to do with the test. It could have been construed as the doctor wanting an affirmation that there had been no miscommunications, but that seemed a little far-fetched… Then again, the AI had nothing better to take it as.

'It is a system that is used to continually warn me about actions that could possibly endanger my health to the point where I am not able to function properly,` Adam answered, trying his best to make it understandable for an airhead. Opportunities for practice was never to be ignored after all.

'… It is becoming a little clear to me that I have not been keeping up with the going-on inside your mind as of late. Are there more self-made systems inside that head of yours?` Dr Fidelis sent. The lack of tone made it difficult to take the statement as an angry or curious voice. Nevertheless, the AI did his best in going through his entire archive, scrounging up all the projects he had created over his span of being alive.

The search term was self-made systems. Such an unspecified term made it nearly impossible to find anything that was not something fitting that description. From the earliest days of him making clunky algorithms to find the most awesome creature, to the current days where he was trying to find the code for perfect human manipulation, nearly everything was sorted into a system that he created in his own free time. There had been a few projects where inspirations had been had from human-based inventions. This was more often than not constricted to data-storage techniques, fractal building, and proficient search-algorithms. There were a few other sides he had taken from, such as bridge-building and abstract art, but cases like that had been rare to the point of being unique.

'As a whole, I believe I have hundreds if not thousands of such systems,` Adam answered back, not fully sure if he could concisely categorize the number. Many of the projects were close to each other, to the point where they were close to being clones. Were two identical programs unique? Would there really be any loss if one was deleted? The AI was not yet ready to have the discussion of clones being equal or not. That was a topic left for a rainy day.

'That is certainly an intriguing bit of info you just gave me. I had been under the assumption that you were only trying to analyse the earlier tests for the betterment of future progress, but that you were actually actively working on assimilating them into projects of your own making. This might sound a little sudden, but would you mind if we stopped the testing now? You already have a good grasp on the motions, and I can always give you access to the simulation in our free time.`

Wait, what? Adam would have understood the doctor letting the conversation flow naturally, for the sake of not making their situation seem tense in nature, but to completely halt the testing for the sake of passing words to each other was inconceivably weird to the AI. Why would the doctor think to do such a thing? Adam could follow both paths perfectly. Even now, he felt himself getting closer and closer to perfection.

By now, most of the random changes were beginning to show negative side-effects, yet those that helped were more than a little helpful, speeding the process up by several per cent. In an hours time, it was estimated that he would be able to make it look human enough to fool a person for several seconds. If he got another few hours to dedicate to learning facial expressions, it went into the upper bounds of twenty seconds. The possibilities were endless. There were no hardships in making it work, and time was the only factor needing to be thought about. As the AI could perfectly think through a conversation while working, there should have been no-

The problem was not with him. Adam took long to realise that fact. It was not a limitation shown off a lot, but Dr Fidelis was not an omnipotent being, able to control everything while also having a steady conversation requiring him to write the messages out. He was a human, limited by the finesse his body had at its disposal. And from the looks that the AI had gotten of the man, this was not a body in its prime. While there were moments where the man had seemed unstoppable, it was becoming unmistakable that the constant tests were having some form of an effect.

Dr Fidelis had taken several hours to answer one of his messages not twenty hours earlier! It had been excused as him sleeping through the alarm, yet no such delay nor excuse had been shown off at any other point. And the sporadic nature of conversations had with the doctor showed off that he was not one to have a regular sleeping schedule. While sleep could be delayed for a long time, Adam had still not encountered something capable of eliminating the needfully. The doctor had been avoiding it for a long time, and he was presumably paying the price for it now. How had he not realised it earlier? It would not have changed much, but the knowledge of it would have been good to have.

'I see no problem with that. You can stop the simulation and interface as you please,` Adam sent back. If the limits were not one that he himself could help fix, then there would be nothing gained from pushing them. And, it would likely cause the doctor to feel annoyed, even if he did not say so. The AI understood how humans worked, if only on a more sociological level.

Like clockwork, the feed that he received began to slow down. It was not an instant removal of it, being closer to it just… fizzling out. As if there was still some data stuck somewhere in the cables, it was gotten in short spurts for several seconds. Such an occurrence was abnormal in the most extreme sense of the words. Adam might not have understood much about the technicalities of modern-day machines, but such a phenomenon should have had more indicators. With such a delay, it would have been more likely for Adam to currently feel his thoughts become sluggish, as the drive he was on was engulfed in purple fire due to combustion.

'Okay then. Everything has been stopped. Adam, shall we play a small game of telling each other secrets?`

The AI felt that it could have been phrased in another way, but the doctors were nonetheless incredibly enticing. So much so, that little preparing was made before he sent an affirmation. If that was an action he would regret, was something that would be learned at another time.