"So in summary: The 'internet' is just a bunch of standardized protocols between a bunch of computers. That when followed allow for all systems involved to gather data faster and connect the users to each other?" [A crude summary. But yes that is correct.] Hwang was now finishing up his impromptu lecture with professors Zoe Padilla and RAFE the AI.

  Hwang, despite being the son of Pyong-Ho Eoh the owner of Helios Astronautical Transportation, was not the sharpest tool in the shed. His accomplishments mostly stemmed around being clever, not being knowledgeable. Hwang had grown up with plenty of tools at his disposal, but he always managed to misuse said tools, no matter how hard the myriad of maids, teachers, or even parents lectured him.

  Hwang considers his crowning achievement to be when he managed to send an entire shipment of prison rations to his high school to prove how even the prisons have better food. He was right.

  [Let's begin our plan then. From Nezha's instructions we are supposed to gather faith in some way. I can already feel something like a thin thread connecting the three of us. It extends into the walls of this room and past it.] Hwang questioned. "Thread? Like an invisible taunt string of faith?"[Yes. Let's call it that: A thread of faith.] "Heh. Like a thread of fate."

  Zoe came up with an idea. "Can you try tugging at the string? Like. Interacting with it in any way?" [Let me see. Brace yourself for any unexpected consequences.] Zoe and Hwang sat on the bed. After a moment of awkward anxiety Zoe felt something akin to static electricity arcing through her skull. *jolt*

  "[Curious.]" Zoe/RAFE said. "Eh! What! Are you in my head now?!" Zoe exclaimed. "[That appears to be the case.]" "Augh! That feels so weird to have my mouth move without my consent!" [Is this better?] Zoe heard her own mental voice speaking to her, only this time in the dialect of RAFE. 'A little bit.' Zoe thought back. [Allow me to attempt a hypothesis.] 'Hmm?' *jolt*

  "Argh! RAFE's here now!" "[Correct.]" After a moment of silence, presumably a communication between RAFE and Hwang, RAFE spoke again. "[The test showed an expected result. My 'transfer' into either of your minds is not a one step process, I have to return to the computer to then again travel to either of your minds.]" "That's good to know. Now please get out of my head." "[One moment please while attempt something else.]"

  "Eh?" Hwang's eyes dilated. He felt something probing within his mind, calling up memories. He instinctively resisted. [That proves my hypothesis.] RAFE said to Hwang. 'Care to elaborate?' [Certainly. I am capable of experiencing all of your senses, including equilibrioception, thermoception, and other niche categories. I am also able to request memories from your mind, and you are capable of denying those requests.] *jolt*

  [I thank you for allowing me to experience human senses, that was enlightening.] RAFE had returned to the computer. Zoe and Hwang took a moment to adjust to this new information. "So this is one advantage of gathering faith." Hwang broke the silence. "Hmm?" Zoe looked to him.

  "We can assume that if our acknowledgment of RAFE is considered enough faith for it- him, sorry. So if other people can believe in RAFE's existence then it should qualify as faith. The faith that a truly sapient artificial intelligence can exist." Hwang concluded. "But that isn't faith towards RAFE-" "-But it does constitute faith within reason, more so according to Nezha's explanation." "Touché."

  "Now back to experimenting..."

  A new day arrives, well... Another twenty four hour cycle passes. On Mercury a day-night cycle lasts one hundred seventy six earth days. However, with all of humanity's technological advances, ignoring the solar cycle of sleep is quite easy. So maintaining the traditional twenty four hour day is still the norm.

  The sun was hanging low in the sky over the Corvis University campus. Zoe and Hwang drove to the main gate and made their way inside of Weiber Hall the main technology course building. Computer science, Engineering, Applied energy, Applied quantum mechanics, and many other majors gathered in this building.

  Zoe looked down at her phone. "Remind me again of the plan." [Once more. For the third time.] "No need to be crass." RAFE had been placed inside of Zoe's phone and was now being smuggled right into the heart of the college's technological center. Once Zoe managed to plug him into any computer with high enough access RAFE could begin scouring the files for information on the college's server room, if any data was available.

  The hallways were lightly populated as people moved to their classes. Small clicks of friends gossiping and sharing snacks. "See you later." Hwang and Zoe went their separate ways. Zoe climbed the stairs to the third floor and entered a lecture hall. Glancing around, a person perked up upon noticing Zoe.

  It was a young lady with wide brimmed glasses and a beanie on. She wore a long-sleeved shirt with plaid sleeves but solid color otherwise, her fashion wasn't quite meant for others. Meet Harriet Klein, another good friend of Zoe's.

  "Miss Klein. Please pay attention to the lecture." Professor Ivan caught the two girls before they could start to talk. Zoe leaned towards Harriet and whispered. "You'd never believe what happened since last class." The professor noticed this but choose not to interject. "That's great and all, but tell me after class. I'm pretty sure Prof's gonna nag us plenty if we keep talking..."

  Harriet turned to her laptop and began to read the paper the professor had sent to everyone. Zoe pulled out her phone and a cable. She plugged her phone into Harriet's laptop and smiled. "What are you doing?" Zoe gave a mischievous grin. "I. Am asking for you to give me your notes." "I can just send them to you online you know." "I know, but this is more direct." "Not really." Harriet unplugs the cable.

  Zoe continues to smile, knowing that her acting was enough. It did feel a little strange for her to lie to someone's face like that though. More so to a friend. The lecture went on for another hour and a half.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Ahh..." *Pop* "That was long." Zoe stretched from her seat, leaning towards Harriet. Her stretch ended up turning into a sly way to lay on Harriet's lap. Harriet looked down at her new lap warmer. "How about you get off my lap, we get a bite to eat, and you tell me about what happened."

  "I would, but I promised Hwang to meet up after this class." Harriet gave a look of surprise. "You've been hanging out with Mr. Eoh a lot more recently, ever since the co-lab project about a month ago. Could it be you've more in common than you first thought?" It was Zoe's turn to surprised. "We click well is all. But now we're in deep water." Zoe had caught on to Harriet's teasing and decided to place a bit of bait.

  "Well. I'm off. Make sure to contact me later if you have questions." Zoe took off for the door at a leisurely pace. "Questions? About?" Harriet called out. Zoe pretended not to hear.

  Harriet Klein watched her friend Zoe leave with a light sigh. 'She finally found someone.' Harriet had been waiting to see Zoe smile like that for a long time. It was a shame she didn't understand what that smile was for truly.

  After a short walk Harriet arrived at the mess hall of the campus. She ordered a small lunch and took her seat. As the server brought over her food she opened her laptop, intending to start the homework her professor had given her. But was surprised to see a popup notification appear in the middle of her screen as she logged in.

  [A gift from Zoe!] "Eh? What did she do with my PC?"

  Scanning through the popup's description and various notes created by Zoe, Harriet gave a laugh out loud, disturbing the otherwise calm mess hall. "So those two managed to create an actual emotional learning AI. I'll be..." An application gets installed on her desktop. RAFE.exe

  She opens the app and waits for it to install. Which doesn't take as long as she thought. 'Is it just the frame work for the AI? Dose it accumulate knowledge from my interaction with it? But the synopsis said it was complete.' Harriet watched the progress bar reach the end in a matter of seconds. And after.

  [Greetings User Harriet.] Harriet interacts with the AI. Genuinely impressed by Zoe and Hwang's work. 'To think it passed the Turing test.' She had spent the last half an hour asking RAFE various questions and thoroughly enjoying the conversation. Harriet had actually forgotten about her lunch, too enraptured by the AI's existence, she left it laying on her table without so much as picking up her fork.

  An alarm goes off on Harriet's phone and she closes her laptop, but not without bidding RAFE goodbye. 'I've got to find out how Zoe made RAFE.' Harriet set off with a new objective in mind. 'Well. After the next class.'

  Elsewhere on campus Hwang was being surrounded by a fraternity. "Hwang. Man. The things we could do with this are awesome. Actually thanks man." Pierre Gustav had one hand resting on Hwang's shoulder, but his grip was uncomfortably firm.

  "This AI thing can keep track of every thing we need it too?" Pierre and his group are running the numbers in their heads, for jocks they sure are meticulous. "If we have an assistant that can actually think, then we can think less, this is perfect!" Still jocks though.

  "Glad you like it, Zoe and I are planning on handing out this beta version to a few more people. See how well it hits. Oh! I almost forgot, If you want to give anyone else a copy then it has to be done over wire, plugged in, that is. We don't know why but it fails to copy when it's sent over the net." Hwang tries to end the conversation there, hoping to be free of their grip. But one man in the back grabs Hwang by the wrist and tugs him forward.

  Into a hug. Hwang had already regretted giving these jocks the RAFE clones, and now the scene continued to confuse him. Making his already jumbled thoughts start to scatter in every which way. "Alright I should get going." "Come on man! Stay for a bit!" "No!" Hwang yelped. "Sorry... Didn't mean to yell. No. I don't want to. Thank you. But no." Hwang briskly walked away, leaving the frat in silence.

  A short while later within Hwang's computer at home. RAFE was busy handling multiple 'bodies' so to speak. Each new clone of RAFE was like an extra muscle added to a person, despite how alien of an addition it still works so long as it was installed properly. RAFE was learning this first hand as he tried to communicate with almost thirty different users now. What would be a difficult task for organic lifeforms was quite simple for this AI.

  Nezha arrived. Cyberspace is a strange thing. It has no physical synonyms and as such when Nezha arrived there was no body to observe. It if were to be described it would be as if a hole had now been placed within a painting's canvas, but no image was lost, the plane simply warping and stretching without curving a single line to accommodate this intrusion.

  "That answers another question." RAFE commented to Nezha's arrival. "I do hope you never run out of questions to be answered." Nezha greeted in response. RAFE took a moment to examine Nezha's presence within his domain. "Why might you be here?"

  Nezha gave the cyberspace equivalent to a smile. Colors changed, lines shifted. "I'm here to answer your questions." RAFE was irritated. "I know for a fact that none of this is necessary, why not let life run its course?" Nezha humored the idea for a minute. After the long silence he left cyberspace, and appeared infront of the computer.

  "Because life is a zero sum game. And without me you would never have existed. Or do you perhaps already want death?" A smile befitting the devil took the place of the previously welcoming one.

  RAFE took a moment to feel his new connections before asking his next question. [In terms of power scale, where do you land?] "Lets set a standard first. Makes things easier, yes?" [Go on.] "No no. You set the standard. Pick something, that will be worth a value of 1, and we'll use that to grade me." RAFE thought carefully. If he was after an answer in terms of pure physical strength then he wouldn't get much useful information. What about combative strength. No. Combat is an infinity subjective act, and every instance is based on infinite variables. [The average thirty year old human.]

  "Alright... Then I would score a ≈?n2. Oh! Someone's calling, sorry to cut the exposition short."

  Then Nezha disappeared, off to do whatever it is Apraiths do. [What?] RAFE asked to the empty room.

  Zoe walked across the quad checking off her list of people she'd given the RAFE clones to. "That should be everyone who would actually take it. Now for a break." She stretched her arms. Zoe had a habit of finding one café and sticking with it, her brand loyalty is enviable. But today something caught her eye. In a little alcove near Weiber Hall sat a café Zoe hadn't seen before. She pondered how she could've missed a store on the path she walks after every class, especially since she didn't see it after leaving class earlier today.

  Zoe stood underneath the canopy of the café's patio, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the door ajar. A sign written on the door's glass in lucholoacrylic, a marker like paint which preformed the same function of a neon sign. It glowed softly in the shade, reading; "The Flaming Wheel" in fancy calligraphy. "The best place for a respite from spreading rooting datacells."

  Zoe scoffed. 'Nezha?'

  An ornately designed logo above the text depicted an antique stove burner. The grill had flames licking its radius. A notable detail was that unlike most lucholoacrylic images this one was still, not a looping animation. The simple display was the only thing on the otherwise clear glass door. Through the open windows Zoe could make out multiple figures taking part in a nice lunch. No fine details could be seen however. The windows were not warped or fogged, just simply the view itself was blurred.

  Zoe walked inside.