1 An End Becomes a Beginning

On his deathbed, reminiscing memories of his life, Dags Mora lays content knowing his end is near. He wasn't the most successful or talented individual, but he had a good enough life to say that it was worth it. He went through a full school life, had a decent job, and a few girlfriends in his time. Though he never did end up getting married to any, he just never found the right one to spend all his life with. In his off time he busied himself with video games, playing a wide variety of genres.

Even up to his old age, he still tried to keep up with the newer generation of games. The only problem was that his mind couldn't keep up with the younger generations, so he typically took more supporting roles in the later years. Regardless, he still enjoyed his time and had gained a decent reputation in the games he played.

With no family left, he only had a caretaker next to him at his bedside. Dags had already made a will in the past couple of years, knowing that he was old and likely didn't have much time left in this world. Whatever possessions and money left were to split among his close friends, and some went to charity for the less fortunate. He had even signed up to donate his body to science, hoping someone out there would find use for him even after his death.

As Dags closed his eyes, he drew his last breath and passed on into the afterlife with a smile. He wasn't afraid of death, though he did wish to see what advancements the future would bring to his favorite pastime. With that, in the year 2062, Dags' story was brought to an end…

—

Or so he thought. What felt like moments later, Dags awoke feeling intensely groggy.

"Ugh… My head is killing me," he thought. With vision swimming, he tried to look around, but only darkness enveloped him.

"Is this the afterlife? Why is it so dark?" He couldn't make heads or tails of where he was. He looked down at himself, only to see some indistinct blue arms, and from his waist down, was just a bunch of pixels. Shock exploded in his mind as he couldn't understand what happened to him.

"A-Am i a ghost now? No… I'm pixelated… what am I?" Suddenly, he perked up his nonexistent ears as he heard some indistinct noises. It sounded like an extremely muffled muttering of words. Still too shocked and disoriented, Dags couldn't figure out where it was coming from and decided to just check on himself. With no mirror to look into, he could only inspect his weird, transparent appearance.

"I did die right? What exactly am I now…?" At that moment, the muffled muttering intensified and he could vaguely make out some words.

"The AI project… failure to awaken… wipe it clean… send… Sir -glow… start from scratch." Dags' head swam trying to process what the words meant.

"AI project?" Looking at himself, he had a sinking feeling.

"Am… am I an AI? Surely not… right?" With dread filling his being, he felt helpless at his situation. Has technology really gotten to this point? Panicking on the inside, his face could not display any emotions, for it had no features. Even if it could, no one was able to see him currently.

Suddenly, the space he was in turned dark red, with the space seemingly crumbling toward him at a rapid pace!

"What the hell is it now?! Wait, wipe it clean… Are they erasing me?!" Dags tried to get away from the crumbling red darkness, everything turning into numbers and suddenly being wiped from existence. He went to what he could only assume is the center of the space, and held on for dear life.

"Am I going to die again so soon after waking up?" Putting his hands on the 'floor' of the space, he didn't notice a light blue pulse come out from him into the 'floor'. When the erasing sea of numbers approached him, he closed his eyes waiting for it to hit him.

After waiting several seconds, nothing seemed to happen. He slowly opened one eye, only to see the original black darkness again.

"Huh? I didn't get erased? Am I safe?" He looked around, but couldn't tell that anything was different than before. "What in the world just happened?" Letting out a sigh, he thanked the stars.

Then Dags heard some loud thuds, and concluded that they might be moving him. To where, he had no idea. He rapidly tried to get control of himself and assess the situation. If he truly is an AI, that should mean he has some control of this space, right? He gave a few tries to see what would happen, hoping to get more awareness of his situation. Having read some novels about this sort of thing, perhaps he should try the classics?

"Status?" Waiting a moment, nothing appeared.

"Uh… Menu? Show stats? Status panel?" Still, nothing seemed to be working. He put his hand to his chin, thinking of what to do. "Maybe it has to do with a more AI-like prompt?" After mulling it over, he gave it a try.

"Login!" he shouted this time, wishing for this to work. Dags gaped as a screen appeared before him. A login screen appeared with text that read "Welcome Moderator AI, Dags." With that, a loading screen appeared and was quite slowly filling up. It was apparently initializing his systems and getting them online.

"I really am an AI…" He was stupefied by the confirmation of what he now is. "Well, I guess I have a new life. Was this what my body was used for? Why me?" He looked up into the void pondering his new lease on life, if he could call it that.

"I wonder what I'm supposed to be an AI for. The login screen called me a moderator, but a moderator for what?" Staring at the initialization loading bar, which wasn't even a quarter through its process, he couldn't help but get bored. How long will this take?

"Well, I suppose there's no use in thinking about it right now. I'm sure I'll know when it's done." With that, he just sat down. Or at least, he tried to. With no legs, he was basically floating.

"...This is going to take getting used to." He muttered to himself. With that, he just waited in silence until the initialization finished.

—

Sometime later, he could hear more muffled thumps. "I guess I've arrived at whatever destination they've sent me to. What becomes of me now?" At that same moment, he received a system prompt.

"Initializing partially complete - Missing core features. Repair systems to use all system functions."

"Missing core features? Hm, I guess that thing from before wiped a lot of my systems processes. How do I repair it though?" After saying that, a new prompt appeared.

"Collect data to slowly repair functions. Note -data will be acquired through helping the User progress through the game. All data will be transferred through the NanoPhase helmet to the AI, Dags."

"Huh? It uses data… and I guess that also means I'm in this "NanoPhase" helmet then? Sigh, looks like I won't be fully functional anytime soon. What can I do right now at least?" There seemed to be a button with three bars at the top left of the screen, which he pressed. On it were multiple options to press.

[Status]

[Processes]

[Helmet Systems]

[Information]

[Upgrades]

[Access Mainframe]

Only the first three seemed to be active, as the other three were grayed out. Since he only had a few options, he went ahead and pressed Status.

[Status] - [REPAIR SYSTEMS FOR FULL FUNCTION USE]

[AI Moderator - Dags]

[User - N/A]

Repaired Amount: 0.00%

Processing Power: 25 ⓘ

Energy: 10 ⓘ

Energy Regeneration: 0.2/min

Helmet Charge: 99%

[Note: Until system repair has reached a suitable percentage, many functions will be locked to avoid overloading both AI Dags and User. Collect data through a User in MagiTech Online to further regain functions.]

Dags scratched his bald blue head. "MagiTech Online seems to be the name of a game. Wonder what that world would be like now that I'm basically a living piece of code."He mused over the thought for a moment and continued, "Also seems I require a 'User' huh? Hope I can get one soon. Who knows if I've been thrown into storage or what."

As if on cue, Dags heard more muffled thuds and shuffling. Moments later a new screen popped up in front of his face, alleviating his previous worries.

[New User Is Logging In]