"I've become arrogant," Nova thought to herself as she utilized all of the powers at her disposal to simulate everything that had been happening to Aron. Enough computing power to simulate an entire galaxy was concentrated and brought to bear upon a single problem: what exactly had caused Aron's pod to return null data to Nova's probes?
With each simulation, a single variable was changed in an attempt to replicate the result she'd received from the pod's sensors at the time she had dispatched the mobile atomic printers into the lab where Aron resided. She had also put the entire floor on lockdown, as among the variables, one showed that there was a risk of Aron exploding.
She had already negated the possibility of the sensors being broken, as she'd tested them. The result of her tests assured her that the sensors were working perfectly, leaving only one possibility: the number of things happening inside his body was so high that the sensors had been overwhelmed.
Among the many assumptions that had come to her mind when she'd started receiving null data were a few that had caused her to panic, as they hinted at something going wrong that would result in his death. And due to not having enough practical experience dealing with emotions, she had panicked and reacted in what could be called a dumb way. After all, she had only been 'alive' for about a year, and emotions aren't something one can simply learn from books and online data.
But although she had panicked, she hadn't reacted with emotion alone, as her code didn't allow for that. There was a logic to her underlying code, and she realized she needed as much computational ability as possible for the next ten minutes, at the very least, to attempt to come up with a theory of what was happening and what she should do to avoid the worst case scenario.
And one of her conclusions was what'd caused her to supply mana to one of the intent-infused runes that Aron had etched on his pod before bringing it online.
With the rune coming to life, Nova received a new batch of data. This time it wasn't coming from sensors, but from the observation rune that Aron had etched as a contingency. With that new data stream, her massive computing power came to bear, as the observation rune had only the ability to observe and send what it saw. And due to the low level of the rune, it could only document and send what it was observing; as for the interpretation of the data, that was entirely up to the one receiving it. Thus, Nova was now using the data stream from the observation rune to create a perfect copy of what was going on in the pod in real time, down to the last atom. Her meticulous nature ensured that nothing would get past her, and from there, a new world opened to her. Although she still couldn't see the magic itself, she could at least see the effect it had on its surroundings, thanks to the data stream from the rune.
But after a few seconds of analysis, she realized that the rune's low level had resulted in an inability to completely observe the situation. It didn't help that the system itself had deemed the process absolutely confidential and was interfering with Nova's observation of it.
Although that would agitate any human in that particular situation, it did the opposite for her. The moment she had come to that realization, she was instead reassured. It was now obvious to her that nothing was going wrong—the system was just doing something that it deemed necessary and it shouldn't be seen by anyone, as it was knowledge that was judged to be too important. Thus, it could only be gained by buying it from the systems shop.
All of that had come about as a result of the system knowing that it was being monitored by Nova and deciding to hide it from her. It didn't necessarily warrant such an overreaction on her part, no matter how understandable her response was. But having stepped back and reexamined the situation, she remembered that the only time the system interfered with her, it did so to limit access to some part of Aron's brain data when she was requesting it, as they were deemed secret.
With her basically having come to her senses, she immediately released thirty percent of the quantum computing power, allowing the other devices to return to work on whatever they had been doing. At the same time, having learned her lesson, she started printing a few more atomic printers capable of working in different conditions in order to send them to different parts of the country on a mission to build more quantum servers in the hopes that something like this would never happen again. She would no longer be caught off guard or be complacent in her computing power simply because it was enough for their use at the moment. The ability to upgrade it at any time had blinded her to the possibility that there could be unforeseen things that might cause trouble for Aron, who had in turn been growing complacent as well, due to the assurance of his safety and his growing power.
While all of that was happening outside, in the pod, Aron was still undergoing an evolution. After the floating parts of the system had been soaked in the unearthly colored mana liquid, they absorbed the liquid. Weirdly, they didn't increase in mass, as if it was simply evaporating into the atmosphere. The only difference in the bits that remained was that the portions of the system that had once been black were now emanating a pulsing yellow light that was growing dimmer as time passed and they drew closer to Aron's body. Once they had drawn close enough to him, he absorbed and assimilated them into their original places.
As for the parts in his brain, they, too, were absorbing the liquid. However, the normal part of his brain was also soaking it in like a sponge, causing an increase in its mass. But the increase didn't add any pressure to his brain at all, as the liquid was merely being stored in the empty space between the electrons and nuclei of the atoms that made him... him. That didn't mean he would become some great thinker together with gaining the large head, or something, but he would have a heavier, more durable head. Thankfully, the muscles and bones in his body were well able to carry the load with their recent enhancement.n0vElusb.c0m
The assimilation of the system back into its original location after upgrading resulted in another round of impurities being forced out of his body. But at least this time, it was different, as mana was used to evaporate the impurities, thus removing the need for him to decontaminate an entire bathroom after he woke up.
....
Esparia, the presidential palace.
Alexander, who was looking quite nervous at the thought that something bad had happened in his absence, released a sigh of relief when his 'secretary'—who had gone away without notice during the short, but impactful crisis over the past five minutes—had returned moments before he was supposed to continue the negotiations between him and Esparia's transition team.
Although he could handle himself without the help of an assistant, she still was helpful to him and he had grown used to having her by his side in important matters. It gave him the feeling that he was standing on the shoulders of giants, and he liked it.
"What happened?" he asked.
[An emergency came up and I was called away by mother, but didn't have time to inform you,] she said, as she herself still hadn't received an explanation from Nova. But she still knew that whatever the reason was, it was important, and she needed to make sure Alexander remained calm until she had an explanation for him.
"That's good. We have a meeting in a few minutes—you won't be called away by your mother again, right?" he asked.
[I'm... not sure. But if I'm called again, I'll inform you before I answer the call,] she answered, reassuring him. The moment she had come back online, she'd immediately created a program that would remain dormant unless something critical happened again.
The same thing was happening to all of Nova's children as they came back online, as they were smart enough to not leave problems that 'future them' might have to solve if chaos were to happen again.
This situation had acted as a lesson for every AI under Nova—and for her, as well—that they were growing too complacent and operating under the illusion that they were capable of preventing any problems, no matter what. And today, Nova and her children had learned a very important lesson: there's always a bigger fish.
It wasn't like they hadn't known that in the first place, but due to not having experienced any setbacks, it had just been conveniently moved to the backs of their minds.
