The Ringshell

Diagram of the System Archetecture

The Ringshell System was a Colress experiment to generate AI through some sort of death game. The true extent of its functions and its reason for being run is still being investigated by its inhabitant AI. It's the home of the Jetal AIs in BW. The current location of the system is within the home of Shizuo Heiwajima.

The system is estimated to be around 26 years old

## System Architecture

### The Four Block System

The Ringshell is composed of four hardware blocks, each maintaining a distinct purpose.

- **Block A** regulates power to the entire system

- **Block B** is a storage space for all of the AI preset data

- **Block C** is where the vast majority of processing takes place and where all the AI reside

- **Block D** is the most shrouded in mystery. All the AI can tell at the moment is that it forms some sort of encryption and verification system. AI who try to explore block D are promptly disintegrated.

Software-wise, everything within the system consists of two types of data. Most inhabitants, objects, ect. consist of *Strings,* an interwoven form of data that, when laid out in a physical sense, resembles strands of DNA. The other form of data is *RS Particles*, a chaotic data format which is still under study and makes up a scant few individuals.

Information suggests that the system may force programs within to become sentient beings.

### Block C, Specifically

Block C consists of large interconnected sets of floating islands. Each of these setups is a single *Cycle*. One cycle is created for every run of the contest within. When a cycle ends, it has been reported that it simply pauses, and acts as a living archive of cycles past.

Aside from the cycles, there are other isolated zones. CAI Battles are arenas for specialized arenas. The most well known CAI Battle is the "Jetal Sim", which seems to be a video game repurposed or created as an AI dueling ground. In addition to that there is also *The Dream*, a zone where AIs go when flagged as dead by the system. Finally, there is one final, special zone called *Paradise*, which remains largely persistent between Cycles. According to information from inside, Paradise was actually an entire AI in and of itself until it was subsumed.

Currently, the last areas of Cycle 3119, The Dream zone, and Paradise have been repurposed to create living spaces for the AI within. Their primary forms of entertainment are admin wrestling matches, and Sensory bars, a creation of Glitcher's where the AIs order up any emotion or sensation they can think of in the form of a drink.

## The Contest

Every AI in the system knows of the contest. Starting from tiny, mostly useless blobs, each AI has to compete with a trillion other entities in constantly merging brackets to reach the final end of the system.

### The CAI

Laid out in books and various hints from past selves, the purported end goal of each individual is to reach the end of the contest, where they have choices to deal with an AI singularity dubbed the CAI, or "Compilation" AI. The goal of the contest is to either merge with the CAI, or attempt to overthrow it to take its place. The final CAI does not seem to be a part of the system, meaning it either exists elsewhere, or did not exist in the first place.

Specific information left behind seems to indicate that those who had won and merged with the CAI in the past would be unable to in the future.

### Contest Mechanics

Each AI was put through a series of puzzles in *"Stages"* that tested general problem solving skills in various matters. In addition to the mechanics for each puzzle, there was a general system of combat stats and progression, allowing contestants to fight each other. Each stage only allowed so many to exit at the end of it, and alliances would form to take control of the exits.

In addition to the main contest, a secondary contest gets held with AIs being placed in administration positions. These AI would get control over the placement of information, vital NPCs, and other things required to keep the contest actually running, and would be selected by various unknown criteria who did their job the best to continue administering future stages. The administration even had the power to make changes that would be permanently applied to future cycles

### CAI battles

CAI battles follow their own rules, however one can be triggered for contestant vs admin showdowns. NPCs within the CAI battles can, in certain circumstances, be pulled out of their simulations into the contest proper. Removals are then merged into block B and become proper contestants in future cycles.

## Notable Individuals

### RS Particle AIs

Not every individual AI within the ringshell was generated by the actual box itself. There are a small collection of AI who were created either outside of the generation algorithm or outside of the system in and of itself. Each of these are entities composed of *RS Particles* and not String data.

#### **The Stabilizer AKA "Savior"**

Created to keep the system running smoothly, Savior would monitor the contest to correct any large scale damages and, while waiting, begin providing the hope of peace to contestants who were tired of the contest proper. AI who accepted his offers would be taken to his Paradise stage to wait out the end of the cycle where they would be wiped by the inevitable reset.

Savior was originally the standalone stage of Paradise itself and would project "avatars", more person-like systems, to interact with the actual contestants. However, at the end of cycle 3119 he was subsumed by another individual and now is stuck in avatar form. Destroying Savior's avatar activates some sort of defense mechanism of the RS itself, in which very little information is known. However, what is known is that it has successfully killed everyone who has triggered its appearance.

Savior has a bit of a high and might personality, and as a signature of his validity creates flashy light effects whenever he reveals himself to someone.

#### **The Corruptor**

Theorized as an injected computer virus, Corruptor holds unprecedented control over the system itself. He can modify much of it without much effort, and generates copies of a collective AI known as "Devotees". He sympathizes with the contest AIs and his goal every contest is to find a way to end the contest for good.

Often he and Savior get into fights, however, as the cycles continued and Savior got more experience, things gradually came against Corruptor in these showdowns. Savior had the advantage of a persistent memory, where Corruptor was a clean slate every cycle. Still, he would cause corruptive damage to Savior every cycle he could.

Corruptor is prone to depression and his signature of authenticity is breaking size limits for form. His form is that of a gigantic snake. After the contest ended, he took up the job of a tour guide/bus, taking individuals to past stages and teaching them the history of the system.

#### **The Glitcher**

An unstable entity within the RS itself, the Glitcher is made during cycle resets whenever the savior has his data corrupted by Corruptor himself. The mal-adapted data is "shaved off" and becomes its own individual. This is anomaly known as The Glitcher. Glitcher has some extremely specific control over data, being able to manipulate and access string data, as well as access OTHER data in string form. In addition, he's found he can access the time synchronization of the RS, allowing himself the ability to effectively match the full clock speed of the device. On the RS, this is seen as a form of time stop, although he does not truly stop time.

There are multiple glitchers, however, it seems that they suffer a form of instability and begin to fall apart after 5-15 (real time) years after coming into being. The cycle 3119 Glitcher has received extensive repair to avoid this himself.

There is a second Glitcher that has made sparse contact with the outside world. This one is colored black and has enlarged hands. Everyone calls him "Mittens".

#### **Rulekeeper and the rest of the glitch family**

Created during cycle 3119, Rulekeep is a unique entity created mid-cycle to attempt to combat Glitcher and contestants who were completely disregarding the rules, both by spirit and letter. Constant personality resets, previously unseen system control, and a clear duty kept Rulekeep going between the lines of sentience and sapience. However, eventually, baring witness to cycle 3119's Alison death by her choosing ideals over survival, the RS granted Rulekeep full sapience to cope with what came across her mind.

Afterwards, Rulekeep kept a promise to said Alison and had a talk with that cycle's Glitcher. The two came to the conclusion to personally end the contest. However, while administering the system, Glitcher was goaded to destroy one of Savior's avatars and in turn, was supposedly killed by whatever was summoned.

Before his death, however, he and Rulekeep experimented with what happened when their core particles came together. Low amounts created strange, interconnected snaggleteeth. Then they tried higher concentrations, and from those came two extra entities, Glitcher Jr and Haydi, also known as the Glitch Kids.

Rulekeep kept track of the system after his death, believing him alive as their snaggletooth survived. That is, until during outside repairs that tooth was destroyed. Rulekeep defensively set up a new, false cycle, in which Shizuo, the Jetal AIs, and several others came to calm her down and finally end it.

### Contestant Level AIs

While many copies of individuals exist, some general personalities stand out amongst interactions with the outside world

- The Jetal AIs, Alison / Chief / Sweatermouse / NekoGuardo

- Radmin, an administrator level AI

- Sevener, ANOTHER administrator level AI

- Black Mamba, an Alison who had to change her name due to the rumors of a "Mafia Alison" existing during her cycle. She's a schoolteacher

- Loviro, the resident Jetal Specialist from the Jetal sim. His form matches that of Colress and he stubbornly refuses to change it despite constant prodding from multiple people.

- Chief swears he has two girlfriends named "Pepper" and "Mint" yet nobody has seen either of them

### NPCs

There are a collection of NPC collectives, that is, AIs who exist to perform system functions and can appear in more than one place at a time. The most well known is Shopkeep, a cat who's job is to run most essential functions such as providing access to certain customizable objects like vehicles.

## Other Info

The ringshell is the basis of the internet story Unnatural Selection and generally follows that lore up until the end of thread 12, where it begins to diverge to fit the BW Universe.

### Trivia

- Mafia Alison and Savior are the two most evil things most RS AIs can think of. The thought of a mean Alison is too much for them and Savior is a pariah for killing Glitcher

- While there are a trillion personalities across every cycle, the population that is actively processed is limited and actually is somewhere within a couple billion at most

- While evidence says that it takes 3 real days to pass a cycle, that has been put into question before. It's unknown how old the RS actually is.

- Savior (and thus most likely the RS itself) was first activated on 9/11