The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence the moment the name appeared on the screen.No one spoke at first, and no one dared to look away, as if even blinking would somehow change what they were seeing. The glow from the data core reflected faintly on their faces, but the tension in the air made the space feel smaller than it actually was.Wilson was the first to react, although his voice came out unsteady, almost like he did not fully believe what he was about to say.“That’s not possible,” he said, shaking his head as he stepped closer to the console.Beverly’s eyes remained fixed on the screen, her expression tight with disbelief.“It has to be a trick,” she said quietly, though there was uncertainty beneath her words.Reika, however, did not look surprised. Her grip tightened slightly around the handle of her blade, and her gaze sharpened as she studied the name like it was an enemy standing right in front of her.“Or it’s real,” she said calmly.Davion still had not moved.

For a moment, no one moved.The words all of them echoed in the room like a gunshot that never faded, sinking deeper into the silence until it became impossible to ignore.Wilson was the first to break.“That is not survivable,” he said, his voice unsteady but rising with urgency. “That is not even remotely manageable. We are talking about hundreds of independent systems activating at the same time across different networks, different countries, different infrastructures—this is not a problem, this is a global disaster waiting to happen.”Beverly turned sharply toward him.“Then we prioritize,” she said firmly, even though the tension in her voice betrayed how serious this was.Wilson shook his head.“There is no clear priority,” he replied. “Everything is connected in ways we do not fully understand yet. If one system goes down, another compensates. It is like trying to stop a flood by plugging one hole.”Reika let out a quiet breath, her eyes still locked on the traitor.“Then we st

For a few seconds, nobody trusted the silence.Wilson stared at the screen like it was going to betray him if he blinked too long, his fingers hovering just above the tablet as if he was waiting for something to jump out and undo everything they had just done.“…That is not normal,” he said quietly.Beverly frowned slightly.“What do you mean?” she asked.Wilson swallowed.“I mean it is too quiet,” he replied. “Systems like this do not just stop. They resist. They recover. They—”The screen flickered.All of them tensed instantly.Reika’s blade was back up in a second.“I knew it,” she said.But the screen did not explode into chaos again.Instead, the data shifted slowly.Reorganizing.Fragmenting.Wilson leaned closer.“…Wait.”Davion stepped beside him.“What is happening?” he asked.Wilson’s eyes scanned rapidly across the interface.“They are not reconnecting,” he said slowly. “They are… desyncing further.”Beverly blinked.“That is good, right?”Wilson nodded, though cautiously.

The room felt colder after the words appeared.No one moved at first. No one even tried to pretend that this was normal anymore. The screen glowed in front of them, steady and calm, like it had not just said something that changed everything.Wilson was the first to speak, and even then his voice sounded tight.“I am going to say something, and I need all of you to take it seriously,” he said, staring at the screen. “That thing just responded to us like it understands context, and that is not something a broken system is supposed to do.”Reika did not look away from the screen.“It does not feel broken,” she said.Beverly crossed her arms, but her eyes stayed locked on the words.“It feels aware,” she added.Davion stepped closer to the console, his expression unreadable but tense.“Ask it something else,” he said.Wilson blinked.“You want me to… talk to it?” he asked.“Yes,” Davion replied without hesitation.Wilson hesitated, then slowly nodded.“Okay,” he said quietly. “Okay, I am

The moment it accepted—Everything changed.The system did not just respond. It surged.The screens flared so bright that for a second, none of them could see clearly, and the low hum of the facility turned into a deep, vibrating roar that felt like it was coming from inside the walls themselves.Wilson grabbed onto the edge of the console.“Okay, that is way faster than I expected,” he said, his voice tight with panic.Beverly steadied herself beside him.“How fast?” she demanded.Wilson glanced at the data and immediately wished he had not.“Too fast,” he said. “It is collapsing the network toward us all at once.”Reika’s grip on her blade tightened as she looked around the room, her instincts already screaming danger.“It is not just coming,” she said. “It is rushing.”Davion stood still in the center of it all, his eyes locked on the screens.“Good,” he said quietly.Wilson turned to him like he had lost his mind.“Good?” he repeated. “This is not good. This is the part where thin