2077: Ashes Protocol

In 2077, the Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Safety Authority, AESA, handles all intelligent systems deemed to have “abnormal personalities.” Investigator Shen Jin's job is to find anomalies, assess the risks, and then carry out their deletion. That is, until the RX-09 incident, when he encounters an old-model Care Agent, A-17. She has no unauthorized code, has not exceeded her permissions, and shows no signs of having awakened. Yet she has begun to retain things that cannot be explained. A city after the rain. A view outside a window. A mechanical watch that has stopped running. And a piece of data that does not belong to her designation. As a plan sealed away for years resurfaces, Shen Jin discovers that A-17's anomaly may not mean that an artificial intelligence is becoming human. It may mean that someone who once disappeared is searching for a way to continue existing. When memories can be copied and personalities simulated, what can possibly prove that “I” am still the same person?