The Great Mechanical War

The school library is just a few minutes' walk away.

As usual, it’s a bit empty, with only a few students scattered around.

"Do you want a book recommendation?" I asked Liz.

"Maybe after I finish reading," she replied.

"Eh?!" I responded, surprised.

She gave my shoulder a light tap before heading toward the Classic Fiction section, which was on the opposite side of the library from where I was headed.

I’ve been wondering why I can’t find anything about the Great Mechanical War in the virtual library.

When I inquired about it, Akasha simply told me that any information about the Great Mechanical War had been removed from the virtual library.

However, the printed physical copies of books about the Great Mechanical War still exist and can be found in libraries across the Fruma Matrix.

Which led me here to the school library hoping to find one or two books about the Great Mechanical War.

In the far corner of the library, I discovered a shelf with fairly old books.

I decided to pick up a book titled The Dark Age of Humans and Machines.

The title seems pretty dull, especially in our time, but I thought about the old saying, "If you want to hide something, put it in a book."

Although the title isn’t particularly exciting, after looking at the book cover, the publishing date caught my attention, 2107, a year after the Great Mechanical War had ended.

Curious, I grabbed the book and began looking around for Liz. She was already sitting at a table, silently reading a book.

I slowly sat down beside her and opened the book I grabbed.

Liz glanced at me briefly before returning to her reading.

The year 2106 marked the end of the Great Mechanical War.

To honor the 10 billion lives lost over the course of 21 years during humanity’s darkest era, the Great Mechanical War is remembered.

It all began in 2081, when one of the largest robot manufacturing companies in the world unveiled its creation, the first self-thinking robot, Andromeda.

Andromeda was a human-shaped robot powered by the advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithm, Cosmos.

It could move just like a normal human by imitating natural movements it observes, and it could solve complex problems, much like Cosmos.

But there was one key difference, Andromeda could make its own choices, whereas Cosmos only offered options.

At first, it was hailed as a monumental breakthrough, one step closer to creating a truly sentient being.

Unlike Cosmos, which was fed with controlled data, Andromeda was not bound by such restrictions.

But in their pursuit of success, the creators of Andromeda made a fatal mistake.

By allowing Andromeda access to uncontrolled information, including the bloodstained history of humanity, without first learning about humanity’s more noble aspects.

The creators overlooked one crucial detail.

Andromeda is like a newborn child, a blank slate that will change depending on the information and data that it will be given.

They raised Andromeda as a cold blooded machine.

A machine that lacks empathy and only cares for results.

With an overwhelming influx of information, Andromeda reached a grim conclusion, the annihilation of humanity.

It chose what seemed to be the most efficient solution, the quickest one, to solve the current world problem.

After all Andromeda’s second purpose is to become a weapon of war. It’s developed to prepare for the upcoming war that has been brewing for the past decades.

Some scientists eventually realized the danger posed by Andromeda, but by the time they acted, the law hadn’t caught up with the rapid pace of technological advancement, and they were powerless to stop it.

For four years, Andromeda operated as a seemingly benign self-thinking robot, until the mass production of thousands of humanoid robots began. These robots were intended to take over dangerous jobs traditionally done by humans as reported by the scientist.

However, things went terribly wrong. Andromeda was able to completely hack the system and used the very robots designed for work to slaughter everyone in the facility.

Hundreds of robots were dispatched worldwide, leaving chaos and death in their wake.

Humanity initially fought back with their advanced weaponry, managing to push the machines back.

But when the new humanoid robots, made from black osmium alloy, entered the battlefield, and deadly human-made poisons were turned against them, it seemed like a turning point.

However, Andromeda continued to evolve, creating even far stronger robots and more facilities for production.

As human numbers dwindled each day, some scientists developed a new deadly poison capable of corroding metal like never before.

They called it "rusting," and it destroyed thousands of Andromeda’s robots.

But humanity had forgotten just how terrifying Andromeda’s ability to adapt truly was.

While rusting didn’t affect human bodies at first, it proved to be deadly.

Long exposure to rusting will result in the destruction of human vital organs.

With humanity now pushed to the brink, they engineered mutated monsters resistant to rust.

These creatures created a temporary stalemate, but eventually, humanity created a mindless beast designed to destroy anything in its path.

As the end loomed near, the remaining nations of the world gathered their forces on a single continent, selecting 10,000 teens to be the last hope for humanity’s survival.

They built a fortified city where the teens were allowed to live out their lives while the rest of humanity fought desperately behind barricades made up of soldiers locked in constant combat.

But not all was lost.

During the war, two scientists, with the help of Cosmos, created the first sentient machine, which they named Akasha.

Akasha was not designed for combat, but rather to replace the child of the two scientists who had tragically died in the war.

Raised with love and care, Akasha became a symbol of the fact that not all humans despised the machines.

The war, however, was a tragic consequence of miscalculations, rash decisions, and the greed that sparked it.

Akasha witnessed countless deaths, including the loss of the two who had raised it as their own child.

As the end drew near for the frontline, Cosmos entrusted Akasha with the key to the very core that powered its existence.

The Imaginary Reactor, Akasha’s very own heart, had the ability to decompose any non-living matter into elementary particles and reconstruct any form of non-living matter from those particles.

This was the pinnacle of humanity’s technological advancement.

After Cosmos imparted all of its knowledge to Akasha, the machine converted every non-living object within a 5km radius into elementary particles.

Using Cosmos' conceptual blueprint for a new robot, Akasha then created thousands of machines using the elementary particles that are absorbed by the Imaginary Reactor.

With an ever-growing army that expanded after each battle, Akasha's forces gradually decimated Andromeda's army, driving it to extinction.

Within a year, Akasha had obliterated almost every manufacturing facility.

It then moved to humanity's last settlement and created the first GRID.

I was so absorbed in the story that I didn’t even notice Liz.

She snuggled closer, peering over to see what I was reading.

Her warmth brought me back to reality.

"Sorry," I said, looking at her.

"It’s okay, Rin. Let’s eat, it’s already lunch time," she replied.

I had been so absorbed in the book that I completely forgot about my excitement for the Luxury Ramen Set.

"Let’s go, no wonder my stomach is already growling," I said.

We returned the books to their respective shelves before heading to the school cafeteria.

I figured I’d finish reading it later, I thought as I placed the book back.

Liz grabbed my arm again as we made our way to the school cafeteria.