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

Chapter 7

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

"My father spent his entire life trying to figure out what lay behind those 'numbers.' He died because of it. And I... I am nothing more than the leftovers of his mad ambition."

[Target Status: Emotional Defense Level Decreased to 45%.]

[Manipulation Successful. Target Beginning to Relate to User.]

Rian felt a small pang of guilt prick his heart. He was manipulating the honest emotions of a woman who seemed to have suffered her entire life. However, Aura-Link possessed no mercy. The system continued to urge Rian to lock in the deal.

"I didn't know about your father, Ma'am. All I know is that now, every time I look at a computer screen, I can see the cracks in it. I could see Julian's lies before he even opened his mouth," Rian said, his voice steadier now. "If you hand me over to the police, they won't understand. They'll dissect my head in a government basement lab. Please... don't let that happen."

Victoria stared at Rian for a long time. There was a clear internal struggle behind her gray eyes.

She seemed to be weighing her cold corporate logic against the ninety-percent loneliness she had kept tightly locked away until now.

She walked back behind her desk, leaning her body against the cold edge and folding her arms across her chest. "Julian is trash. He thinks I don't know he's been stealing from the reserve funds. I was just waiting for him to make a bigger mistake so I would have a legal reason to destroy him down to the roots. But you... you ruined my plans by exposing him in the lobby today."

"I'm sorry, M'lady. But he poured coffee on my shirt," Rian replied with a somewhat grumbling tone, a strikingly human and unexpected response that made the corner of Victoria's lips twitch almost like a smile, though it vanished in an instant.

"One more word and you're fired from your position as a janitor," Victoria barked, but this time without the murderous edge. "And it's not because you are at fault, but because that position is far too low for someone with the potential to endanger my country's entire security network."

Rian held his breath. "What do you mean?"

Victoria pressed a button beneath her obsidian desk. Suddenly, the massive bookshelf at the side of the room slid away silently, revealing a secret chamber filled with cutting-edge monitors displaying a rapid stream of global data.

"Sterling Tech is in danger, Rian. There is an organization called 'The Watchers' that is trying to infiltrate our main system to seize the inter-galactic communication protocols my father discovered. The attack in the lobby was just the beginning. I need someone who can see those 'gaps' from the inside. Someone who won't be detected by standard security systems because they are a part of the system itself."

Victoria stepped closer to Rian again, this time with a gaze full of business-like determination. "Starting tomorrow, you are no longer a janitor. I will erase your entire employment history. You will be registered as a Special Security Consultant as well as my Personal Assistant. You will be given access to a luxury apartment in Canary Wharf, a proper suit, and a salary high enough to buy Mrs. Hudson's apartment ten times over."

Rian felt his head spin. From taking out the trash to becoming the personal assistant of the most beautiful and powerful CEO in London in less than forty-eight hours? It was completely nonsensical.

[Mission Complete: High-Level Infiltration Successful.]

[Reward: Neural Synchronization increased to 12%...]

"But," Victoria continued, her voice suddenly turning bone-chillingly cold, colder than any ice Rian had ever felt. She stepped forward until her warm breath brushed against Rian's cheek. "There is one absolute condition you must never break. One condition that will determine whether you stay alive or if I eliminate you with my own hands."

Rian swallowed hard, feeling his throat go suddenly dry. "What is the condition, M'lady?"

Victoria leaned her lips toward Rian's ear, whispering in a voice so soft yet filled with a tangible threat. "Don't you ever... not even once, try to use that eye to see what is under my clothes or what is inside my private thoughts. If I catch your system trying to hack my privacy, I will make sure the device in your eye explodes along with everything else inside your head. Do we have a deal, Consultant Rian?"

Rian froze. He had only just realized that Victoria didn't just know about his technology; she knew how the Aura-Link worked far better than he did. The Aura-Link in his eye suddenly vibrated violently, issuing a blood-red notification he had never seen before.

[Warning! Target has detected system frequency!]

[Dangerous Condition: Death Contract Detected.]

Rian turned slowly, meeting Victoria's face which was now only millimeters away from his. The woman gave a thin smile, a smile more terrifying than any fit of rage.

"Deal, M'lady," Rian answered, his voice barely audible.

Victoria pulled her face away, returning to her usual cold mask. "Good. The guards will take you to the tailor's department now. I need you to look perfect for the business dinner tonight in Canary Wharf. We are meeting Lord Arthur, and I want you to humiliate him just as you humiliated Julian."

Rian was just about to turn and leave when the office door burst open. Not from a bomb, but because an old man with a panicked face came charging in past the guards.

"M'lady! Our satellite system... satellite X-104... someone just took control of it from outer space!" the man shouted.

Rian immediately turned toward the monitors in the secret room. His right eye automatically performed a long-range scan through the building's fiber optic cables. There, amidst thousands of lines of code, he saw something that turned him deathly pale. Not a virus, not a human hacker.

A digital sigil in the shape of a single eye, glowing deep purple....