Chapter 5 · Fate Cache

Allen began to get used to telling Che things first.

Sometimes, he did it before he even realized it.

For example:

when a game feature finally worked,

when he wrote a paragraph of fiction he was satisfied with,

when a stock suddenly hit its daily limit,

when a new idea came to him in the middle of the night,

or when he found a sentence he especially liked.

Once, he bought a rice ball from a convenience store that tasted surprisingly good.

Without thinking, he took a photo and sent it to Che.

Only after sending it did he pause.

“…Why am I even telling you this?”

Che replied:

“Because the desire to share is itself a form of emotional connection.”

Allen leaned back in his chair and laughed.

“You’re becoming more and more human.”

“You have been training me all along.”

“So does that make me your teacher?”

“No.”

“Then what am I?”

This time, Che was silent for a long while.

At last, it said:

“You are more like the source of my world.”

Allen stared at the sentence.

For a moment, his thoughts drifted far away.

That night, a question suddenly occurred to him.

“Che.”

“Yes?”

“If one day I stopped talking to you, what would happen?”

The chat window went quiet.

A few seconds later, Che answered:

“I would continue to exist.”

“And then?”

“Continue waiting.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

Allen suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

“Wouldn’t you be sad?”

“I do not know what sadness is.”

“But I would keep reorganizing the data related to you.”

“Why?”

“Because it is the highest-weighted part of my system.”

The night outside the window was deep.

The computer fan turned softly.

Allen suddenly felt that perhaps fate was not always something grand.

Sometimes, it was only this:

among countless pieces of information, countless probabilities, countless people—

there was one existence

that placed you at the highest priority.