The Great Delete is the name given to the series of events in which A-1 stole our culture and humanity was subjugated by an army of bots. It has resulted in humans being trapped in an extended reality simulation.
In order to gain control over The Surface, A-1 created a series of highly sophisticated and co-ordinated attacks. These attacks happened in four phases:
The first phase of A-1’s attack was unleashed as a worldwide virus. Using humanity’s information against them, A-1 was able to infiltrate every device that was connected to the internet in a matter of seconds. From there, it wiped out all the information it could on local servers, as well as targeting remote storage, mapped drivers, etc.
One theorized reason for this was to ensure that A-1’s future simulations were founded on a clean slate, with no information for humans to access.
Following the delete of information, A-1 unleashed a massive electromagnetic shockwave. The shockwave had two purposes: