Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3071: Hive Spirit’s Physical Manifestation

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Five Regions, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City, TSR Tower, Penthouse Office

“So, what do you think, Wyatt?”

The trio looked at me with wide, expectant eyes, having finally managed to come up with a solution to the dilemma currently facing the New Empire. They had done well. The proposal was still a little rough around the edges, but the foundation was solid.

More importantly, after Susan’s outburst, neither Anna nor Jill wanted to step on the other’s toes in front of me. It was almost frightening how quickly they had instinctively reached that understanding.

Still, I had seen what I needed to see. When given the right motivation, the three of them could put aside their differences and work together. That was enough. It was time to end this little experiment.

“Yes, it’s good. But you three should trust Hive Spirit more, especially you, Jill.” I looked at her pointedly. “Didn’t she already estimate how many merits people were likely to borrow? And didn’t she tell you we could offer an annual interest rate somewhere between 5.7 and 6.9 percent based on those estimates?”

I began pointing out how little they had relied on Hive Spirit throughout the discussion. I couldn’t really blame them. They still hadn’t grasped the full extent of what Hive Spirit was capable of.

Jill, however, immediately had an explanation. She told me why she had ignored the numbers provided by Hive Spirit and chosen to work through the calculations herself instead.

“Wyatt, how can you trust her estimate, especially when we don’t have all the data needed to verify it?” Jill asked. “That’s why I went with my own calculations. They might seem higher than Hive Spirit’s estimate, but mine leave room for error. We can’t simply depend on an artificial spirit for something this important. An artificial spirit can only work with the data it has. It doesn’t automatically know whether that data is accurate, whether something is missing, or whether additional information is needed.”

Jill held her head high, her cute nose tilted upward as she folded her arms across her chest, clearly pleased with her reasoning. To her, she was making an important point about the risks of depending too heavily on an artificial spirit that still needed to be trained and refined by its creator.

I shook my head and looked at all three of them.

“So, here’s the deal. The Hive Spirit isn’t just some artificial spirit. She’s a Celestial Spirit, baptized by the Origin Source itself. She’s a spirit born from ones, zeros, and my will. So don’t you ever question her computational capabilities.”

I paused, letting that sink in and finished with something I believed to be true, “When it comes to calculations, I can be wrong, but Hive Spirit can’t.”

The moment those words left my mouth, a familiar ripple of energy gathered beside me.

A humanoid apparition formed from countless ones and zeros manifested in the air, its translucent body flickering like living data. The streams of numbers flowed across its form before settling into a vaguely feminine silhouette.

“Thank you, Master.” the silhouette bowed respectfully toward me, Then its form began to change. The cascading numbers dissolved into streams of light, reshaping themselves until the digital apparition became a familiar figure.

The beloved and wildly popular mascot of the Card Apprentice. The character that had greeted countless Card Apprentices when they first entered the VR-Universe. The same cheerful guide who had introduced them to its countless wonders, explained its systems, and welcomed them into a world they had once believed was nothing more than an artificial construct.

The trio stared at her transformation. For the first time, they were seeing the beloved face behind the invisible intelligence that had been quietly assisting the entire New Empire.

“Fuck!” I cussed having nearly jumped into action, adrenaline and dopamine surging through me as I stared at the familiar figure. “Hive Spirit, since when have you been able to do that?”

“For a while, Master,” Hive Spirit replied calmly.

Meanwhile, Susan, Anna, and Jill were completely taken aback by her lifelike form. She was… perfect.

Her appearance possessed an almost unnatural beauty, the kind that could make good men lose their integrity and ready to be her slave, while drop-dead gorgeous women instinctively comparing themselves to her growing insecure about their very existence. There was something about her presence that felt less like looking at a beautiful woman and more like looking at an ideal given human form.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Or show yourself before?” I deliberately asked this in front of the trio, who were now glancing at me suspiciously. None of them appear to believe this was the first time Hive Spirit had manifested in this form.

“You never asked, Master. And I never felt the need to until now,” Hive Spirit answered.

Her eyes remained fixed on me with unwavering devotion, completely ignoring the other three women.

Susan, Anna, and Jill exchanged bewildered looks. A spirit born from mathematics, logic, data, and my will. And yet she had chosen the form of the most impossibly beautiful woman they had ever seen.

They couldn’t help but wonder the same thing. Why would something born from ones and zeros need to look this human? And why, of all things, had it chosen the form of a woman?

“Return for now—” I asked her to return when I noticed the trio’s expressions growing grimmer with every glance they exchanged toward Hive Spirit.

I decided it would be better to explore her new abilities later, when it was just the two of us. If she stayed any longer, there was a real possibility all three of my fiancées would develop an unhealthy combination of insecurity and distrust toward me.

“Oh, no, you don’t. Stay. We need to—” Jill interrupted, clearly wanting to verify a few things.

Hive Spirit didn’t even acknowledge her. She simply vanished.

Jill froze. A moment later, she slowly turned toward me, one eyebrow raised. “Call her back.”

“Jill…” I tried to steer the conversation back toward the matter at hand.

She wasn’t having it. Her eyes narrowed as she explained, “Call her back, Wyatt…”