XXII century. Corporations rule the world. Humanity is irrevocably divided between the superiors (those whose families run corporations, and therefore the entire world) and everyone else. Thanks to advances in medicine, the highest ones hardly age - they are smarter, faster and stronger than an “ordinary” person. The rest of humanity is almost entirely occupied with personal survival and mutual devouring in the hope of getting closer to the feeding trough. It seems that the “end times” have already arrived. Scientific progress and space expansion are artificially limited. The higher ones don’t need their unpredictable gifts; they already have everything they could want. It seems that now it will always be like this: centuries or millennia of stagnation and the slow depletion of the remaining mineral resources. Until one day a gang of young punks from the slums finds a tube artificial intelligence in an abandoned military bunker dating back to the times of the Soviet Union. They manage to launch it, and the intellect turns out to be able to wake up. A cold mind built on a warm lamp elemental base. He knows no doubts. He can't give up. The basic paradigms set by long-dead creators are not subject to revision under any circumstances. Will one ancient artificial intelligence built on a hopelessly outdated material and technical base be able to stir up this frozen world of an unsightly future? Is he able to cope with the giant corporations that have taken over the world of the feudal-capitalist future? The ancient demon has awakened. The last surviving of the many achievements of the scientific and technological power of the ancient “evil empire” embodied in metal suddenly came to life in the present-future. The world has no chance of remaining unchanged. Genre of the novel: a little banter, a little serious cyberpunk with Khokhloma stylization. PS: if you think that this is a novel about artificial intelligence gone crazy taking over the whole world, then you are right - this is exactly such a story . But the AI is not crazy at all. At least not more than its creators.