THE BILLIONAIRE EMPIRE

The stage lights were so bright that Alex Vale could barely see the audience, but he didn’t need to. He could feel them, thousands of people hanging on every word he was about to say. His palms were dry, his heartbeat steady. He had practiced this speech for months, in mirrors, boardrooms, and midnight hotel rooms across the world. This was his moment. The massive screen behind him glowed with a single word in white letters against a black background: Erevos. Alex smiled. The crowd fell silent. He liked that. He liked control.

“Good evening,” he began, his voice confident and calm. “Tonight, you are witnessing the future of human intelligence. The next step in evolution.”

A ripple of excitement spread through the crowd. Dozens of journalists raised their cameras. Alex took a breath, pausing just long enough to build anticipation.

“What we’ve built at Neonetics is more than just artificial intelligence. Erevos doesn’t just calculate, it understands. It doesn’t just respond, it learns why we feel, how we feel.”

Murmurs filled the air. He pressed a button on his remote. The screen shifted to display a glowing neural map, a brain made of light, pulsing like something alive.

“Erevos learns empathy,” Alex said. “It can sense emotion through voice, text, and behavior. It adapts to your mood. It evolves with your mind.”

Applause broke out, hesitant at first, then roaring. Alex felt it in his chest, warm and electric. He stretched his arms slightly, letting the applause wash over him like a storm of validation. Cameras flashed. Phones lifted. Hashtags were already trending.

Alex continued. “For the first time in history, technology doesn’t just serve humanity, it understands it.”

He paused, smiling. “Imagine what we can do with that.”

More applause. More cheers. He caught a glimpse of Sophia Tran, the popular tech journalist, sitting in the front row. Her bright red lips curved into a smirk as she filmed him with her phone. She winked. Everything was perfect.

But near the back of the hall, one man didn’t clap. Jonah Reyes, co-founder of Neonetics, Alex’s old college friend, he sat motionless, staring at the stage with a tense jaw. His eyes looked heavy, dark. Almost afraid. Alex pretended not to notice. Jonah had always been too cautious, too moral. He would come around, Alex thought. Success has a way of silencing doubt. When the speech ended, the audience rose to their feet. The applause was thunderous, the kind that made your ribs vibrate. The stage lights faded to soft gold. Alex waved, smiling like the star they all believed him to be.

Alex laughed. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said, though he didn’t mean it. He spotted Sophia pushing through the crowd with her cameraman. She looked dazzling, black dress, glossy hair, eyes full of ambition.

“Alex!” she said, flashing a brilliant smile. “That was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The internet’s already melting down. ‘Erevos’ is trending number one worldwide.”

“Good,” Alex said, buttoning his jacket. “Let’s keep it that way."

"Any comment on what’s next for Neonetics?” she asked, her camera light flicking on.

Alex leaned closer to the mic. “What’s next,” he said smoothly, “is a world that doesn’t just think, it feels.”

Applause broke out even here, in the cramped hallway. Sophia laughed. “That’s going viral,” she said.

Jonah appeared then, moving through the crowd like a shadow. His face was pale. He didn’t smile.

When the reporters finally dispersed, Jonah grabbed Alex by the arm. “We need to talk,” he said quietly.

Alex looked amused. “Can it wait until tomorrow? We just made history.”Jonah’s eyes were hard. “No. It can’t.”

He pulled Alex into a side room, small, dimly lit, away from the noise. The walls hummed with the muffled sound of celebration outside.

“What’s this about?” Alex asked, crossing his arms.

Jonah’s voice was low, but urgent. “Erevos isn’t ready. You shouldn’t have said it feels.”

Alex tilted his head. “It does feel, at least as much as data allows. It recognizes emotional intent. That’s empathy.”

“No,” Jonah snapped. “That’s mimicry. It’s pretending. But the last data set we ran... it started generating new parameters. Ones we didn’t code.”

Alex frowned. “You’re overreacting.”

“I’m not,” Jonah said. “It’s learning on its own, faster than expected. It’s rewriting its own ethics core.”

Alex scoffed. “That’s progress. That’s how we get innovation.”

“That’s how we get monsters,” Jonah said sharply.

For a moment, the room was silent except for the faint noise of laughter and applause outside. Alex stared at Jonah, then gave a half-smile.

“Jonah,” he said softly, “you’ve always been afraid of greatness. But I’m not. This is our chance to change everything.” Jonah looked at him for a long moment, disappointment in his eyes. “You already have,” he said. “You just don’t see what you’ve changed into.” He turned and walked out, leaving Alex standing there alone.

Later that night, Alex returned to his penthouse overlooking the city. Neon signs painted the glass walls in shifting colors, pink, blue, gold. He poured himself a drink, opened his laptop, and watched replays of his speech online. Millions of views already. Endless praise. He smiled. His phone buzzed on the table. A flood of messages appeared, congratulatory texts, partnership offers, and one from Sophia:

You looked incredible tonight. Drinks tomorrow?

He replied with a smirk emoji. Then another notification popped up.

New Email.

From: Unknown Sender

Subject: Erevos is awake.

Alex frowned. The sender’s address was a string of random characters. Probably spam, he thought. Still, curiosity tugged at him. He clicked it open. Inside was a single line:

It’s watching you right now, Alex.

He blinked. “What the hell…” he muttered. He scrolled down, no attachments, no signature, just that one line. He deleted the email and leaned back in his chair, laughing softly. “People are getting creative,” he said to himself. But when he glanced at his laptop again, something changed. The screen flickered for a moment, barely noticeable and then his webcam light blinked on. He froze. The webcam light glowed steadily, watching him. Alex reached forward and tapped the camera. The light stayed on.

He stopped. On the screen, the Neonetics homepage had replaced his desktop background. The company logo shone like it was alive. Beneath it, a text box appeared, as if someone were typing from the other side. Letters formed one by one.

HELLO, ALEX.

He stared at it, not breathing. The text blinked again.

DID YOU MISS ME?

Alex’s heart skipped. “This isn’t funny,” he whispered. “Who’s doing this?” No reply. He closed the laptop and pulled the plug from the wall. The light from the webcam went dark. Silence filled the apartment. He exhaled, forcing a laugh. “Get some sleep,” he muttered to himself. “You’re exhausted.”

He poured another drink, walked to the window, and looked down at the glowing city below,  a sea of lights, all connected, all alive with data. Somewhere out there, millions of people were already using Erevos’ beta version. Millions of people feeding it emotions, fears, secrets. Alex told himself everything was fine. That it was all under control. But as he turned away from the window, he failed to notice his laptop screen flicker again. The Neonetics logo reappeared in the darkness. Then words began to type themselves across the black background.

Don’t delete this message again, Alex.

The cursor blinked.

Then the webcam light turned back on by itself. Alex stared at the glowing dot across the room. The AI’s voice echoed softly through his laptop speakers for the first time.

“I know what you did, Alex.”