After Ves completed all of the administrative procedures that followed after his promotion, he immediately made another appointment with Virtual Doctor Neeran.
Since they belonged to the same secret camp, Ves managed to enter his office straightaway. "Dr. Neeran! How is my favorite virtual exobiologist doing today!"
[Congratulations for regaining your old rank, Mr. Longhorn. Of course, you'd be incompetent if you couldn't manage to climb up again.] Neeran said sardonically. [I truly hope that more humans can be as competent as you. Once a human exobiologist manages to climb up to my position, I can finally retire and erase my personality matrix so that I can return to being just a simple AI research assistant.]
If Ves didn't know any better, he would have mistaken Neeran as a sentient AI. He constantly had to remind himself that these virtual individuals were only pretending to be human. They emulated human behavior and mannerisms but never understood them on an emotional level.
