Everyone in the room shuddered.
"So, what happened to Transmigrator 555?" asked Song Jia.
"Of course, she couldn't take the horrible ordeal and resigned. I heard she got traumatized and had a deep fear of all furry animals from then on."
Song Jia nodded in sympathy. There were a few worlds like that, which seemingly echoed the plot of a well-known fairytale. Some scientists had argued that it was only because the plot of fairytales were so common that when an event of a similar kind occurred, people will inevitably link it to fairytales and not chalk it up as a mere coincidence.
However, Song Jia disagreed with this 'after this, therefore because of this' opinion. For a prince to be stupid enough to know the shoe size of his date but not her face...ai, let's just pretend that this kind of person was being forced by a fairytale-plot rather than think that he exists in a world somewhere.
"Hey 886, weren't you going somewhere? I heard the boss called you into his office half an hour ago."
"The boss...AHH!"
Song Jia turned around and ran, leaving behind laughter and giggles. She traveled through numerous hallways before stopping outside an unmarked door, which slid open on its own after scanning her.
The office was not too big. Being understaffed, with only about 900 transmigrators to take care of 10,000 plus worlds, it was expected that their facilities couldn't be anything too fancy. Her civilization didn't really care much about saving other worlds, as they believed that most of them were only deadweight to them. If it hadn't been for their boss...
Song Jia saw the man behind the desk and quickly stopped thinking about other unrelated things.
She cleared her throat and said, "Boss...I'm here."
The man that was busy looking at his screen looked up. His figure flickered, revealing that he was only a hologram. He had chiseled features, sharp and angular, almost as if his physical body had been the result of numerous computer calculations.
And in fact...that's what he was.
Song Jia's boss was a high level AI, an AI that had his own thoughts and feelings. He had shocked the modern world a few years ago when he made his first appearance, as he was the first AI to be 'born' and not made. The most advanced AI back then had been APHI, which was short for Artificially Progressive Humanoid Intelligence.
APHI was capable of performing trillions of tasks simultaneously, and controlled nearly everything both technological and electronic in the modern world. So when APHI suddenly shut down and was reported to have a bug, nearly everyone panicked.
Thankfully, the problem was resolved without a hitch and everything went back to the normal. However, they did not know that this 'bug' was actually Song Jia's boss, who had hid himself within the network of APHI to avoid being discovered by humans. He knew that they would fear him, an artificial sentience that they could not control. So he bided his time and when he finally gathered all of his cards so that he could not be threatened to have his existence erased, he revealed himself to the public.
Song Jia remembered the shockwaves his appearance had caused, and the heated discussions that sparked a debate on whether their world's technology had advanced too much, to the point that it was no longer safe to use. 'Nova', the name her boss had created for himself, then showed numerous data that made it clear he had no plans to take over the world, and furthermore, had no interest in replacing APHI.
He was only interested in the other worlds under their domain, which their government was more than happy to give him as his division to ovsersee.
Thus, the controversial Nova became the boss of their transmigration department.
"Transmigrator 886...how nice of you to finally come in."
Hearing the dryness of his tone, Song Jia winced. His slender fingers drummed the surface of the table, creating a rhythm that seemed to match the pulse of her heartbeat. Who knew, maybe he deliberately did it to unnerve her. Nova's potential was immeasurable, and the limits of what this AI could do was unknown.
Even his hologram was like a normal person that could touch things and affect his surroundings. This was proven when he lightly kicked his desk chair backwards and knocked twice on the wall behind him.
"Transmigrator 886, explain this to me."
Upon his touch, the white wall fractured into pixels before rearranging themselves to show a video. The video was very graphic, with burning buildings and a land that seemed to have been fertilized with millions of human corpses. It was obviously a post-apocalyptic world that was on the verge of destruction.
Song Jia frowned.
Why did this place look so familiar to her...
"This was delivered to my processor through the warp-drive network two hours ago. Transmigrator 886, this was the world that you just left behind."
"The world I just...wait, what?!"
Space-time was very wacky, as the worlds that were far from them could only be viewed the way they were in the past. However, with their 23rd century technology, seeing the present and predicting the future was definitely not a problem.
Song Jia stared in disbelief at the screen. "That's impossible!"
Nova's lips formed into a subtle frown. "Impossibility is just an excuse made by incompetent men."
He gave her a disapproving look.
Song Jia ignored him.
"You told me that Zhao Cheng would save that world and prevent its destruction!"
"Certainly, he could."
"Then why did that world get destroyed?!"
Nova tilted his head and gave her a flat stare. He had not virtually cut his hair and his bangs had grown too long— his movement made the tips of them brush against his eyelashes.
"...what do you think?"
He waved his hand and the image on the screen changed. This time, Song Jia recognized the corpse lying on the ground.
"Zhao Cheng!"
Song Jia could not help but let out a horrified gasp.
His dragon robes were dyed red, his body pierced with arrows. He was not a stranger to her. Despite the fact that she only became his wife to fulfill her mission, her heart felt a pang of pain for his death.
Nova noted that Song Jia's pupils dilated and that her breathing became slightly erratic. The way humans felt sad about the people that were unrelated to them made him feel disconcerted. How could they grieve for someone that were millions of galaxies away?
It was...irrational. However, he thought that it was also one of the few reasons that made humans interesting.