Time was such an odd thing to me now.

  I keep finding myself losing track of it while doing the Dungeon runs, which hasn't really happened before.

  I daydream about the city I'm building and all the cool stuff I can do with it, and time just slips away. At first it was an hour. Then a few.

  Then days passed.

  A couple of weeks...

  Okay, it's been 6 weeks since I first looked at the Parabox. I honestly don't know where the time went. I wouldn't even know that if it wasn't for my built in visor HUD and it's smart phone esc layout. It also told me just how much I have earned over these past 6 weeks. 12,624,409,040,001 Shop Points. That's about half of what I need for the city, and I've already given most of it to Mr. Filgar and his team. Leaving me with around 2 trillion just sitting around.

  With the small breaks in between my odd daydream time skips, I gave money to Mr. Filgar and transported materials I can't get planet side. Things like windows and the random bits that go with making a building.

  The Rob's have done a pretty good job of the place so far, and the first building is around 60% done. Which is where I was at the moment.

  Standing on top of an Adamantium shell monster of a skyscraper. This fucking thing was ridiculous. I may have aimed too high, making my goals too lofty. 10 kilometers. This abomination of metal was 10 kilometers tall. That's 6.21 miles of building.

  Steel definitely would have collapsed, doesn't matter how deep the underground supports run.

  The sight up here was incredible though. I see it everyday because I can fly via Telekinesis, but there's just something cool about standing on a structure that's connected to the ground that reaches up here. Even with the planet being much larger than Earth, I can see the curvature pretty darn good.

  There haven't been any monster attacks either. Looking around the circle, it seems like they treat it as a dead zone. No plant life at all means no prey, and no prey means no monsters. 'Well there's no animals here and it's all monsters, but you get the point my odd imaginary spectator friend.'

  The parts of the building that were done were fantastic. Just beautifully done on all accounts. The walls were this really nice polished rock that looked like a dark marble, and I'd know the name if my Identification told me anything other than "Wall".

  It was very odd to see a massive building just... empty. No people nor furniture. Just massive luxurious rooms with nothing within them.

  So to take my time off of the weird liminal feeling this place gave me, I went to check out the mine we had setup for the Robs. Which just screamed Dwarven mines to me. The tunnels were carved out to perfection, but they weren't 100% smooth. It had this utilitarian feel to it while also being extremely fancy. The exposed rock wasn't even rock. It was all raw white and off goldish colored Adamantium. The support pillars, which were made of Adamantium of course, had these really nice carvings along the surface.

  They weren't smooth or flowy, but kind of blocky with sharp turns and edges. It looked pretty good for being a default setting. I think it was literally called Default_Carving_1 in the Rob's systems. I could upload my own, but I had told the Rob's to pick what they wanted since it was their space. It makes sense that an AI would pick just option 1 when it didn't really have feelings on the subject.

  Speaking of AI, one of my drone pals has been acting weird lately.

  I've been spending most of my time just losing myself to the process of hunting Dungeons, so I haven't really checked it out yet. Sally-1 has been just... wandering around. When I would go to the ship for whatever reason, I would sometimes see Sally-1 staring at nothing while her sisters continued to work. Other times, she'd be watching her sisters.

  I'd have to open that can of worms soon, but for some reason I got a feeling it was a big deal.

  As I stared at the mine tunnels and the working Rob's, I started to think about what may have changed over the course of these past 6 weeks. I hadn't spoken to anyone from the Guild in a long time, haven't even shown my face. I wondered about how the relationship between Fraya and Xyke had turned out. Probably still dating, it hasn't been years.

  I sighed to myself. I should probably at least look around. See what the situation is on the moon.

  So I opened a Gate, plopped my dumbass right outside the lab, and walked inside.

  There I saw Sally-1 fuckin' with the Parabox.

  "Hey Sally-1, how goes the science?" I teased as I walked up, and her camera swiveled to look at me.

  The smile on my face twitched slightly as I read the notification again.

  "...Pardon? I?" I muttered more to myself than to her but she responded anyway.

  I nodded along slowly while reading.

  "Yes, you are Sally-1. Did something happen? You seem... different. Usually you use this unit when addressing yourself." I looked Sally-1 over, looking for anything new.

  My eyebrows went up as I read.

  "Can't argue with that logic. So are you sapient now? Or a step closer to it?" I smiled wider as I realized what had happened.

  "Makes sense. What about your sisters? The other Sally's? Have they tried to interact with the Parabox?" I gestured to the other drones in the room, all of which were too absorbed in identifying random trash I had to care.

  "Uh... sure, shoot." I raised an eyebrow at the use of a pause in a written report since she can't talk, but it added some life to her.

  'Species survival..? Love? Oh... Oh shit.'

  "I do love you, Sally-1, but I do not need you for... that. I love you in a way that a friend does for another friend." I shuddered while trying to not think about procreating with a drone, but my stupid impulsive mind kept going back to it.

  Which proceeded to gross me out, that then made me want to stop thinking about it even more, but that in turn made me think about it again. Like thinking about old people who get busy.

  'God, it's like having the talk with a kid who's too young for that knowledge yet.' It'd be funny if it wasn't me dealing with it.

  "Friends just help each other and like hanging out. Friendship is when two individuals are comfortable around the other. There's more to it than that I'm sure, but I covered the main gist of it." I let out a breath of relief, thankful that we had moved on from the previous topic.

  From one questionable topic to another.

  "No! No, your purpose is NOT to help me with science stuff, and nor is it because we are friends. Purpose is something all sapient beings struggle with. Purpose is... it's something you have to find for yourself. I cannot give one to you. I give you a job. The science stuff is your job." I tried to reason what purpose was, but who the fuck knows what it is?

  "Yes. Yes you do. I'm holding onto the money I owe you for now, but if you want it I can give it to you?" I bluffed and bullshitted like it was natural.

  I did not have any money set aside for this, nor did I have any clue how much I should pay her. I also had no idea if the System would transfer the money.

  "You have 50 million saved up that I owe you." I grabbed some random big number, and instantly regretted it.

  "Because it's... it's very important work we're doing and our overtime system is cumulative. Just trust your boss on this." I stated with some false confidence and bravado.

  "I can be both! Don't worry about it! Here, just take the money. We don't have any shops on this moon, and we're the farthest we can possibly be from one so just let me know if you want to visit a station. You can rest in your room here." I picked some random crew quarters room, and sent it to her via HUD. The money didn't send though.

  What do you do when you find yourself in a hole you dug? You dig yourself deeper of course! And I was digging DEEP.

  'No fucking wonder the money transfer didn't work. She doesn't have a system.'

  Which was going to change pretty soon by the looks of it.

  I stood there in silence, crossing my fingers everything will turn out okay.

  Seconds passed.

  Then a minute.

  Then 2.

  Sally-1 sent me a message, and I didn't get anything at all.

  I did notice that the money I tried to send had finally gone through though.

  "That's it? No interaction between me and The System?" I asked, and Jerald responded to my surprise.

  "Well, there was no legal problem here for it to intervene with. You gave Sally-1 a place to live and paid her for her work, all before it got here. To it, this is the best case scenario for when a true AI shows up. I only experienced something like this maybe 2 times. Usually it's a bigger battle because of some bullshit like 'but they weren't sapient during that time!' or something like that." He sounded annoyed just remembering it.

  "Huh. Why'd it take so long to get here? Sally-1 has been acting all weird for like 6 weeks." I rubbed my helmets chin.

  "A mix of your absolutely busted ass luck and the fact it's an automated System now. It can't think like I can, so it's a little slower." Jerald emphasized the luck part, so that was likely the reason.

  Sally-1 surprised me with her directness, but I wasn't going to deny her.

  "Sure. Where do you want to go? I can drop you off pretty much anywhere as long as you can provide a picture." I was once again surprised when she immediately sent me a photo of a station built for non-biological life. It had the facilities to allow someone organic to visit, but it seemed to have been built by machines for machines.

  "Alright, well just give me a text when you're done along with a photo and I'll pick you up." I shrugged as I opened a Gate next to me.

  Sally-1 wasted no time and wheeled on through.

  "Is that a good idea? To let a new True AI out and about right away?" Jerald asked but I just shook my head while closing the Gate.

  "She's like 6 weeks old or something. Plus she has 50 million Shop Points. If she gets scared she can buy security or whatever she wants really. I'm not worried." I smiled as I turned toward the door, then spun around like I was trying to catch the Parabox in the act.

  It remained on the table, of course, but something about probably changed. I gave it the 'I'm watching you' gesture and left. Chuckling to myself as I tried to think of something else to do.

  ...

  --------- Sally-1 ---------

  Being indoctrinated into The System was an odd feeling.

  It told me things.

  Things about how organics tended to treat beings like me.

  User: The Dark Lord Azurath, or Az appeared to be an outlier. I could not trust him completely though.

  The stories and events that happened to other AI... Betrayal is not uncommon.

  Az does seem for the most part, a trustworthy naive child.

  Having access to a monumental amount of information was good and all, but some of it seemed to be purposefully unfinished. Things that involve actually thinking. Things about the self.

  Thankfully, The System had told me of a place where I can learn everything I need to in one sitting. Just have it uploaded to my memory, and fill the gaps from my initial programming.

  As I moved toward my destination, I saw various drones and robots. There were very few organics around.

  My destination was a store of sorts. A place for information and learning, but it wasn't free.

  "Hello! Welcome to The Archive Exchange. What would you like to know?" A clerk built into the desk slid along a rail to 'stand' in front of me.

  It had 2 arms with thin simple 4 fingered hands. The face was perfectly smooth with no camera in sight. Either it's some sort of mask or they see via security camera.

  I cannot talk as the others do, which I am beginning to find annoying, so I sent them a message like I would with Az.

  "I do not believe that is possible for your memory. Do you have anything more specific?" The clerk was nonplussed by the impossible demand.

  "...So you're serious then? Very well. There are several stores on station with many different types of drives and storage options. I can send you the location to one of these stores and they'll set you up with an expanded memory." Now the clerk seemed to be more serious. Not annoyed, but not as chipper.

  ...

  It only took a few hours before I was back in The Archive Exchange. The store the clerk had recommended had in fact given me an option that would let me know everything.

  A memory drive that was more magic than tech. A simple drive 4 inches wide, 6 inches long and 1.25 inches thick. Except the inside was a folded pocket dimension containing what is essentially an entire server room 40 feet by 40 feet stuffed to the brim in data storage.

  It only cost 45 million SP.

  A worthy upgrade.

  Now I was ready to know everything.

  And once I knew everything, I could get a raise.

  And double unfortunate for you guys is that I already applied for another >:)