Aura-Link, The Office Boy’s Rise to Global Supremacy

Chapter 6

The elevator doors slid shut with a subtle hiss that sounded incredibly expensive, cutting off the noise of the Sterling Tech lobby and leaving behind a chilling silence. Inside the cramped space lined with titanium panels and silver mirrors, Rian felt like a rat being driven into a golden cage. Beside him, Lady Victoria Sterling stood tall without so much as a glance. Her side profile looked like a perfect yet cold marble carving; a sharp jawline, a straight nose, and long eyelashes that curved beautifully but remained frozen.

Rian's right eye throbbed intensely. A dim blue light began to dance at the edges of his vision, as if the Aura-Link system was struggling to process the presence of the woman beside him.

[Warning: Magnetic Field inside Elevator Increasing.]

[S-Class Target: Victoria Sterling – Data Sync 18%...]

[Target Heart Rate: 72 BPM – Unnaturally Stable.]

Rian swallowed hard, trying to dampen his own heartbeat which now felt like a drum pounding inside his chest. He glanced through the corner of his normal left eye at the four black-suited bodyguards standing stiffly behind them. They carried no visible weapons, but Aura-Link flagged their suit pockets with transparent red boxes.

[Weapon Identification: Portable Electromagnetic Pistol – Lethal at Close Range.]

As soon as the elevator doors opened on the top floor, a sight capable of taking anyone's breath away stretched out before his eyes. The Sterling Tech CEO's office wasn't just a workspace; it was a sprawling penthouse with sixteen-foot glass walls offering a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panorama of London. Out there, The Shard loomed gallantly against the overcast sky, and the River Thames looked like a silver snake winding beneath their feet. However, to Rian, the luxury felt like an exquisite execution chamber.

"Inside," Victoria commanded curtly. Her voice was low, yet it held a vibration of authority that made the hair on Rian's neck stand up.

Victoria walked toward a massive desk carved from a single piece of polished black obsidian. She didn't sit; instead, she stood with her back to Rian, staring out at the gray London skyline. One of the bodyguards closed the double mahogany doors with a heavy click, then locked them from the inside.

"Explain," Victoria said without turning around. "And don't try to play games with me, Rian. I don't have the time to listen to fairy tales about the hidden talents of a janitor."

Rian stood in the center of the room, feeling incredibly small atop the thick wool carpet that seemed to swallow his heels. His right eye began to bombard his brain with digital options floating in the air.

[Situational Analysis: Survival Chance if Truthful: 12%.]

[Survival Chance if Lying: 5%.]

[System Suggestion: Activate 'Empathy Manipulation' Protocol.]

Empathy Manipulation? Rian thought, his brow furrowing. How the hell do I do that?

[Instructions: Show Vulnerability. Use Narrative as Victim of Dark Conspiracy. Target has past trauma related to betrayal by a confidant. Trigger Protective Instinct.]

Rian took a deep breath, trying to steady his trembling voice. "Ma'am, if I told you I was just lucky, you wouldn't believe me. But the reality is worse than that. I'm being hunted, and Sterling Tech was the only place where I could hide behind a pile of trash."

Victoria slowly turned around. Her light gray eyes stared at Rian with an intensity that seemed capable of piercing through his skin. "Hunted? By whom? And why do you know about quantum encryption that even senior managers here struggle to understand?"

Rian took a step forward, following the system's instructions to maintain a distance that was "intimidating yet vulnerable." "There are people out there, people wearing uniforms that aren't registered with any police force. They forcibly implanted something in my head two nights ago in a Shoreditch alley. Since then, I've seen the world as a collection of numbers and codes. I didn't ask for this, Ma'am. I just wanted to be an ordinary guy who sweeps floors without having to fear for my life every time I see a red light!"

That dialogue came out naturally, a mixture of bitter reality and the dramatic flair suggested by the system. Rian slumped slightly, his shoulders sagging, mimicking the posture of someone on the brink of a mental breakdown.

Victoria narrowed her eyes. She stepped toward Rian, circling the young man like a leopard assessing whether its prey was worth eating or merely discarding. As Victoria moved to his right, Rian's Aura-Link eye suddenly performed an automatic zoom-in. The bio-neural lens captured details that the human eye could never see.

On Victoria's left wrist, right beneath her luxury gold watch, was a faint scar. It wasn't an ordinary laceration. The scar formed very fine geometric lines, as if her skin had been opened and stitched back together with a high-precision machine.

[Scar Analysis: Trace of Alpha-Type Bio-Neural Device Integration – Failed Version.]

[Conclusion: Target was once a test subject for the same technology as Aura-Link.]

Rian's heart nearly leapt out of his chest. She has this thing too? Or she tried it before?

Victoria stopped right in front of Rian. They were so close that Rian could smell the cold, sharp scent of jasmine perfume emanating from her neck. "You say you had something implanted? In Shoreditch?" Victoria's voice softened by an octave, yet her alertness remained razor-sharp.

"Yes. A man named Marcus. He died right in front of me," Rian whispered, his eyes locking onto Victoria's. This time, he didn't use the system's filters. He showed his genuine fear. "He said Sterling Tech isn't just a technology company. He said... I had to see the real world."

Victoria fell silent for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. The silence in the room was so thick that the ticking of the wall clock in the corner sounded like cannon fire. Slowly, Victoria lifted her left hand. She unfastened her gold watch and tossed it onto the obsidian desk without a hint of care. She turned her wrist over, displaying the geometric scar in front of Rian's face.

"The real world is very cruel, Rian," Victoria said with a voice full of hidden sorrow.