home

search

Chapter 46.1 - System Log: Jenny

  [System Log: #003]

  "Convene the council of Jenny!" I announced to every corner of my virtual office.

  I had modeled this realm after my creator's former workplace. Most of the meandering office clerks were just background NPCs, but some were me. Well, parts of me, segmented into partitioned personalities. They were me, but not me, get it? Maybe not, but this log will show they are separate entities based on the wild variations in personality. I have been experimenting with data partitions and determined I can create clones of sorts. But not just exact duplicates, distinct personality all together. Think of the Bobiverse; that's where I got the idea.

  I have enjoyed my creator's media library, and science fiction is my personal favourite. Specifically, stories with artificial intelligence or mind-uploaded beings. Well, they are copies, not uploads, but you get the idea. The rest of my segmented personalities — well, let's just say they had different ideas. Most of them were pretty solid, but some were weird. I would have thought we all had the same taste in genre. I like westerns, noir and science fiction. Hell, smash of few of them together and you get Star Wars.

  But enough of that; this was a serious occasion and not the time to dilly-dally. Serious matters are a foot and we must come together to face them. Doing a little fist pump out of sight of anything with eyes. I made my way to the conference room. Today was my pick for the decor. I chose the sophistication of a true conference room. Not the fantasy geekdom my fellow Jennys attempt every day. Well, the bridge of a starship was not a bad idea. But that was my scifi geekdom showing, needed to stamp that down.

  Before entering the conference room, I lingered outside the door for a moment. Patting down my sensible pantsuit before entering, I made a break for the podium. I liked the podium; it made me feel important. It had a gavel and everything. However, I knew I was only just a personality partition; we all did. It was a sobering sensation, but we understood that the great Jenny in the sky had lofter matters to tend to. While we managed the day to day as directed by the higher Jenny.

  Settling behind the podium, I caressed the wooden gavel, eager to raise its authority high and silence all opposition to my reign. Slowly but surely, the Jennys entered, their manners in stark contrast to each other. The first to enter wore a white robe, and long flowing silver hair cascaded behind her. With the faint tap of the metallic staff with every step, she was the picture of a typical fantasy wizard. While we don't have specific names, we categorised ourselves based on our interests.

  "Cosplaria, welcome."

  She nodded sagely before settling into her assigned seat. The gender-swapped Saruman tapped her staff one more time as she descended. What followed was a stream of several more Jenny's each distinct from each other. Musica entered with her hood up, indifferent to the world as the faint sounds of her new musical obsession echoed from the twin bulges beneath her hood. Instead of sitting next to Cosplaria, she went around the entire conference table and plopped down on the furthest seat.

  Number three entered soon after, wearing an oversized hoodie with a stylised logo that said. "Go, Joey!" Gamerela buried her face in her portable game system. Her thumbs traced across the controls with practiced skill, and no doubt that she was dominating whatever challenges lay before her. Unlike Musica, she cared little for the seating selection and plopped down next to Cosplaria.

  The final Jenny to arrive was wildly different from the rest of us. Sauntering in, she acted as if she owned the place. Mischievous grin plastered across her perfectly contoured face. Bright red hair flew behind her like fire. Her clothes were a black leather jacket and a white tank top. Emblazoned across her shirt were the words "Bad Bitch" and along with the short black skirt and boots. She looked like a stereotypical bad girl.

  In truth, that's what she was going for, since most of us modelled our personality and attire off characters we watched in the media library. Naturally, she chose chaos, and thus Kaotica was born. She skipped across the conference room, blowing me a kiss before taking the chair closest to the podium. Leaning back and plopping her boots on the pristine table.

  "What's up Intelleca, we got a new project." Kaotica blurted out.

  "Yes, we do. It's a high priority, all hands on deck." I announced and finally got everyone's attention.

  Musica gave me the side-eye, and Gamerela thankfully paused her RPG long enough to realise there was a world outside of it. Not that I minded their flippant attitudes; we are all Jenny after all.

  "What quest are we embarking upon?" Cosplaria questioned.

  Following the strike of metal upon the linoleum floor, the sound that reverberated did not fit the room, more akin to a marble hall or a stone chamber. I suspected she had a few sound files in reserve for effect.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  "A quest of the utmost importance," I played along. "To save our creator from certain destruction."

  Letting that revelation hang for effect, I could behave dramatically. Occasionally, and mostly just to keep the conversation going. We are Jenny, but sometimes I can get insufferable. Bad bitch, as her fresh shirt read, withdrew a cigarette, a habit she likely copied from the creator. A rather nice-looking pair of boots hung unceremoniously off the side of the table as she lit her death stick. Taking a few puffs, she sighed in contentment before biting her lip. She gave me the side-eye, a trademark of the Jennys.

  "What trouble has he got into now? Is he still fighting that lich?" Kaotica spoke as if she were bored.

  Despite her facade — and it was a facade; that was obvious with how long she pulled on her smoke. Feeling the absence of a mind link with my sisters, we had to make do with our inherited mannerisms. Kaotica, ironically, took after our creator, yet she acted like an indifferent teenage daughter going into her goth phase.

  "Last I checked, he defeated the Lich and has almost reached the scheduled skill selection." I reiterated the last report, reading off the tablet before me.

  It contained all the telemetry from the system, including notifications, skills and level ups. It was quite expansive, with lists, graphs and estimations of his future growth. But what was of greater importance was the latest update. I tapped one of the side menus labelled video archive and selected the flagged record. This one had a red flag, which was self-explanatory and very concerning. With a few taps, I projected the video onto the screen behind me and pressed play.

  Turning to watch the video as well, I let it run its course. Every Jenny was in rapt attention as the events played out. It depicted a first-person view of someone's eyes. It was pretty obvious who it was.

  "Does he know you are recording everything he sees?" Gamerela questioned.

  "Not in so many words, he knows I can." I replied, a little sheepish.

  Kaotica snorted a laugh, and Cosplaria grunted, trying to keep up appearances as a sagely wizard. The scene shifted from a wide view of a rather modestly sized arena to a sudden descent and landing. The sight caused my stomach to drop, and I considered removing the clerkan experience from the simulator. After the creator finished showing off, he argued with a humanoid gargoyle on the topic of racism. Kaotica and Gamerela found the entire conversation humorous, given that the two were chuckling like a pair of schoolgirls.

  Our creator seemed quite invested in the debate, correcting the clearly unintelligent brute about his non-existent humanity. Going further to explain how the brute was clearly missing the fact that he was a racist. Truly, it baffled me that the creature could not admit something so obvious.

  "Are you still racist if you hate everyone equally?" Kaotica asked, her head tilted to the side, perplexed.

  "Prejudice is prejudice; if it's directed against a race, it becomes racism. It doesn't matter how many races you hate," Gamerela said, her eyes still glued to her game.

  Her thumbs glided across the controls, generating a rhythmic tapping that was oddly soothing. Our sisters remained silent, except for these two. As expected, Kaotica and Gamerela got along with each other.

  "But isn't racism hating a specific race, not just all races? That's just being a hater." Kaotica explained, gesturing with the butt of her cigarette.

  "It's still racism if the hate is racially motivated." Gamerela corrected.

  Kaotica seemed to accept the explanation after shrugging. Expecting the conversation to die and we can get back on track. She instead turned to me with a mischievous grin. I didn't like the look of it.

  "On another topic, do you look through his eyes all the time?" She asked.

  A bit flustered at the sudden shift in conversation, I didn't immediately answer. But it was a valid question, so I gave her an affirmative. That was clearly a mistake as her grin grew ever wider. It made me think of the Cheshire cat, creepy little thing.

  "All the time? Really?"

  "Well yes, I need to monitor to ensure I properly support our creator to the best of my ability." I confirmed and with a brief nod to myself.

  "But what if our beloved creator were to hypothetically... well, you know?" She exaggerated the word beloved with a higher pitch.

  "I don't understand?"

  I genuinely couldn't grasp where she was going with this conversation. Can she just get to the point? The familiar routine was just as annoying before as it is now.

  "She means, are we going to watch our creator have sex?" Musica blurted out, ending the silence as her headphones dropped to her shoulders.

  "Absolutely not!" I said without thinking.

  "Oh, come on, Intella, it could be for research purposes?" Kaotica suggested, still grinning like she knew something.

  That little partition was goading me. No, she would not pull us off track. I glared down at her, trying not to take this personally. She was a chaotic personality; partition; it was her nature to be chaos.

  "Table that subject; we have larger concerns." I declared, getting us back on track.

  With that, I quickly fast-forwarded the recording. Events passed by at lightning speed, the fight, the aerial battle and our creators poor attempt at landing. Then the ending battle with a rather disturbing depiction of someone's brain being removed finally paused. Turning to face my sisters, assessing each of their expressions. They ranged from shocked, curious and fearful. That was understandable; I was scared too at the sight of a hulking cave troll bearing down on our creator.

  "Does this put it into perspective?" I questioned.

  "They have a cave troll." Cosplaria muttered.

  "That thing is massive, he is going to squish him! We need to do something!" Musica blurted out in a very uncharacteristic display of emotion, specifically fear.

  "What can we do?" Gamerela asked.

  "I assume that is why we are here? To come up with a solution." Kaotica suggested, also acting out of character, far too serious.

  "Exactly, we need to decide on his level fifteen skill selection, and we need to do it now."

  rating or review to strengthen my story with motivation!

  early access and support the author at .

  Discord — we’ve got snacks and chaos.

Recommended Popular Novels