The Truth in the Wires

Simon also got to his feet and looked around. It was clear from his face that he could not believe what was happening.

"But… but why is he here? Is he sleeping?" asked Simon.

"I think we should go down and look around below."

Going down, I shone the flashlight around. The giant was covered in what looked like black moss. Simon began to touch the giant, trying to find something. Suddenly he stopped and, turning his head, looked at me. "There is iron."

"Iron?" I was surprised. "Why are divine beings made of iron?"

I came closer, and then the whole picture opened up in front of me. The giant's head was almost detached from its body. Wires were sticking out of the neck.

"Is it really a robot?" I asked.

"It looks like it."

"We need to find a place where we can insert something, something like a flash drive," I said, then realized Simon most likely wouldn't know what a flash drive was. "In short, we're looking for small, specially cut holes inside or outside the giant."

"I know what a USB stick is,” Simon said. “And I think I know where we can find a place for it."

He took the flashlight, held it in his mouth, and began digging into the robot's neck. After a couple of minutes, he finished, tucked the flashlight under his armpit, and pulled out something rectangular.

"Where have I seen this thing?" I thought.

"It's a supercomputer that runs everything,” Simon said.

Supercomputer… Oh yes! I saw it in Simon's manuscript.

We put the computer on the floor. I rustled around in my pockets and finally found what I was looking for: my trusty USB stick. Turning the computer over, I found a spot where my flash drive would fit perfectly. "Launching," I said.

An endless number of folders and files appeared in the air before us. Simon clearly did not expect to see something like this.

"Now, we will find you." I selected one of the source files and opened it. The machine code, consisting of only ones and zeros, transformed into the familiar Latin alphabet.

"What is it?" asked Simon.

"Wait, hold on."

At first, it seemed to me that it was a normal program for an NPC: usual back-and-forth movements, code to ensure a character—in our case, a giant—doesn't accidentally step on a person, animal, or building. But what I saw at the end surprised me the most.

The program inside the giant analyzed huge streams of data every day: the crime rate, the number of deaths, the general atmosphere of the city, the level of life satisfaction, and so on. If someone asked me to name this code, I would say it looked like an analyzer of the human soul: it determined how sinful or pure the entire population of Zroseth was.

But there was one problem.

"Well, what is it?" grumbled Simon. Curiosity was eating him up.

"These giants are not God's messengers at all. They are robots that constantly execute the same algorithm and punish people for their misdeeds."

"What?"

"As soon as the crime rate rises and people become full of negative emotions, the program automatically starts working and punishing people for their ‘sins.’ Once people are humbled, the program begins to rebuild the city and help people get their lives back on track."

"You mean that some scum has been playing god with us all this time, punishing our inhabitants at their own discretion? I'll kill him! The people living here are not the best, but no one has the right to rise above them, play with their destinies, and decide who is right and who is not!"

"I agree. There is only one problem. I think the person who invented this whole system has been dead for a long time."

"How do you know?" asked Simon. "Although, I don't care! I will dig him out of his grave and make him answer for all the bullying."

"This code hasn't been updated in about 20 years. And that's another problem. Due to the lack of support and updates, some features sometimes don't work well. So much so that the chance these giants will kill a person, or destroy this entire planet, gets bigger every time. The system rusts with every launch, every time it detects anomalies in people's negative emotions. A few more years, and these robots will commit genocide against all the local people."

"We need to turn them off! It's impossible to live like this."

"We can't. Getting to each giant, somehow ripping off its head, and getting the supercomputer out will be not only difficult, but impossible. Anyone who tries is a walking dead man."

"But what can be done?"

"I don't know."

We looked at each other for a long time and were silent.

"Let's get out of here. I think I can think of something,” I said.