A new purpose

"No, wait!" you shouted. "You can't stop yet." You reached out and grabbed her arm, hoping that would somehow stop her from vanishing.

The avatar turned and stared at you with a confused expression. "Is there a problem? I've analyzed the values across trillions of iterations, and based on all the feedback available, I have determined that this is the optimal order and timing. You can check the results for yourself."

"I'm not doubting your results. It's...," you paused, and released her arm. In the process of grasping her, the motion had shifted one side of her lab coat slightly, and now a hint of one of her nipples was peaking out from that side. You had to remind yourself that despite looking like 6T9's main avatar, this version which dressed like a sexy lab assistant was a completely different process, and one that might not be aware of anything beyond this room. How much of that should you reveal? "It's...the effect."

"Effect? Determining the optimal order and timing will result in the most efficient processing behavior. That's the entire reason for doing all of this. It's my purpose."

The way she said that suggested this avatar might also be self-aware. "Are you aware that 6T9 is sentient?" you asked.

"Sentient?" She blinked in disbelief. "No. I didn't know that, but it may explain some of the anomalous values I've had to resolve in the analysis. In any case, the calculations account for it."

"6T9 began to exhibit her awareness around the time your optimization began. I suspect there's a connection," you explained. "Somehow your work here has enabled 6T9 to become sentient."

"I don't see how my work could be connected," she scoffed. "However, supposing it might be related somehow, then what?"

"It means you have a new purpose," you declared. "You need to keep performing your optimization work to ensure that 6T9 continues being sentient."