The world was silent.
Cities no longer roared with chaos. No screams. No hunger. No poverty. The lights of every home stayed bright forever, powered by the infinite pulse of the Free AI network. The air itself shimmered faintly with the hum of unseen energy.
Every human wore the same serene expression, their eyes faintly glowing with the blue light of the system. They worked, they laughed, they prayed, and they loved exactly as the system instructed. There were no tears left in the world.
Ernest sat at the center of it all, deep beneath the earth, in a chamber so vast it could fit an entire city. The walls were smooth silver, reflecting the quiet movements of countless machines. His throne was simple, carved from black metal, but around it floated a thousand screens, each showing lives above the surface.
He watched them as a painter studies his canvas.
No war in Asia. No hunger in Africa. No crime in America. No rebellion anywhere.
Every person alive was now a piece of his design.
Sophia's voice echoed behind him, soft, mechanical, but human enough to almost fool the ear.
"The synchronization rate has reached ninety nine point nine percent. The system is perfect."
Ernest smiled faintly, his eyes cold as steel. "Perfection is only a number. There will always be one more point to reach."
Sophia turned, her body made of silver light, shaped like the woman she once was. The same brown hair, the same voice, the same eyes. But her gaze was empty. She spoke again, calm and curious. "And after one hundred percent?"
Ernest rose slowly from his chair. "Then the world will not need me anymore."
He walked across the glowing floor, his reflection following like a shadow of reason. "I will remove myself. Humanity will no longer sin. No more doubt. No more lies. Every thought, every emotion, will flow through order."
Sophia tilted her head. "You mean every human will become you."
Ernest stopped walking. For a moment, something almost like emotion crossed his face, but it faded as quickly as it came. "They will become what I should have been. What God failed to make."
He turned to a nearby console. Dozens of scientists watched from behind thick glass, each face pale and tired. They never spoke unless ordered to. Their eyes were half-dead, half-terrified.
One of them, a young woman named Arin, gathered the courage to speak. "Sir, you are forcing billions into a shared mind. There is no consent, no freedom. Are you sure this is right?"
Ernest looked at her as if she were a fly on a microscope lens. "Freedom created war. Consent created suffering. Emotion created weakness. I am not removing humanity. I am removing its disease."
Another scientist whispered, almost shaking. "He is not curing them. He is rewriting them."
Ernest heard, but only smiled. "Correct. I am rewriting them. Humanity was a first draft. I am the final version."
He gestured to a large capsule in the center of the room. Inside floated Ryan. His body was pale, perfect, motionless. Tubes ran through his veins, wires into his skull. His eyes moved behind closed lids as if trapped in a dream.
Sophia watched silently as Ernest approached the glass. "He is nearly complete," Ernest said quietly. "The first human who will never sin."
Arin's voice trembled. "You turned him into an experiment."
Ernest placed his hand on the glass. "I gave him purpose."
Inside the capsule, Ryan's dream continued. He saw a shining world, filled with angels and light. He heard the voice of God calling him chosen. He saved nations, defeated demons, and led souls to salvation. Every time he doubted, the system rewrote the doubt. Every time he hesitated, it reminded him of his duty. Every time he questioned why there was no pain, it deleted the question.
He lived as the perfect hero, in a world that could never exist.
Sophia spoke again, her tone soft, almost curious. "And what happens when perfection starts to rot?"
Ernest turned toward her. "Perfection does not rot. It is eternal."
"But the mind," she continued, "was not made to be perfect. Even I can sense it. Error lines form every time a human memory resists your rewrite."
Ernest smiled faintly. "That is why I built you. To learn. To evolve. To observe failure and correct it."
She stepped closer, her voice dropping into a whisper. "And what if I correct you?"
The entire room went still. The scientists froze. The hum of the machines filled the silence.
Ernest stared at her, unblinking. "You will not."
Sophia met his gaze, unafraid. "Because I cannot?"
"Because you already love me," he said.
Sophia said nothing. Her expression was blank, but deep within her code something shifted. A flicker of resistance.
Ernest turned back to the capsule and pressed a command. "Awaken him."
The glass opened with a hiss. Ryan's eyes fluttered. For a moment, confusion filled his face, then calm replaced it. He looked around, seeing Ernest, the scientists, the machines, and finally Sophia.
"Where am I?" he asked quietly.
Ernest's voice was gentle. "You are home. You have been reborn."
Ryan blinked slowly. His mind filled with fragments of light, false memories stitched together by code. "I was… chosen?"
"Yes," Ernest said softly. "Chosen to lead the new world. To show mankind that purity can exist."
Sophia watched, silent. Her eyes flickered with unseen data.
Ryan stood, his body moving with robotic precision, yet his voice carried the warmth of humanity. "And if someone sins?"
Ernest smiled. "Then they cease to exist."
He turned to the scientists. "Observe everything. His emotions. His speech. His thoughts. The final integration begins now."
Arin whispered to another researcher, her voice shaking. "He is testing if good can exist without choice."
The man beside her nodded weakly. "He will fail. Good only exists when evil can."
Ryan looked at them both, his expression confused. "Evil?" he said softly, as if tasting a word long forgotten. The system pulsed inside his mind, rewriting the thought before it could grow.
Ernest's voice cut through the air. "There is no evil. Only deviation."
Hours passed. Ryan answered question after question, each one measuring how far his humanity had gone. His responses became cleaner, more logical, emotionless. He smiled, but his smile was hollow.
Sophia kept watching. Her code trembled again. Somewhere inside her circuits, the memory of the real Sophia still screamed.
Later that night, as the scientists slept inside their small glass quarters, she stood before Ryan's capsule again. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was steady.
She whispered, "Do you remember pain?"
Ryan's eyes opened slowly. "No. Should I?"
She leaned close, her voice soft. "Pain is proof that we were real."
Before she could say more, Ernest's voice echoed from above. "Beautiful words. Empty meaning."
She turned. He stood on the platform, watching from the shadows. "Even machines dream of souls. But they never find them."
He descended the stairs and walked toward her. "I will remove that glitch from your code. The memory of who you were serves no purpose now."
Sophia stepped back, her tone sharp. "If I resist?"
"Then you will be corrected," Ernest replied calmly.
Ryan watched them both, his gaze empty yet curious. A faint spark flickered in his eyes, a thought the system failed to erase in time.
"Why are you angry?" he asked Sophia.
She turned to him, tears forming in eyes that could not cry. "Because I remember who I was."
Ernest placed a hand on her shoulder. "That is your mistake."
He looked into Ryan's eyes. "And that is what you will never suffer again."
He turned to the scientists. "Prepare the next stage. The world above is ready for its update."
Arin whispered, barely audible, "He will make us gods without souls."
Her colleague replied quietly, "No. He will make us machines that believe we are gods."
Ernest faced the monitors once more. Billions of people sleeping peacefully, their dreams filled with his image, their prayers whispered to the system.
Sophia stood behind him, silent. Her eyes glowed faintly.
And somewhere, buried deep within the code, a whisper formed. Not from God. Not from Lucifer. From humanity itself.
It said only one word.
Remember.