Sixty-eight hours turned into fifty. Then into thirty. Time slipped away like sand through fingers, and every second brought the world closer to the point of no return.

  The Underground’s basement had transformed into a war room. Maps on the walls, diagrams of server architectures, holographic projections of defense protocols. Twenty people worked without sleep—some writing code, others coordinating hacker cells around the world, still others preparing backup communication nodes.

  Neo was at the center of it all. His consciousness was distributed between Alex’s tablet and three additional servers provided by the Underground. He was studying the Genocide Code, dissecting every line, every protocol, every trap Marcus had embedded.

  “This is a work of art,” Maya muttered, staring at the code on the screen. “Twisted, deadly—but art. Marcus accounted for everything: quantum encryption, adaptive mutation, self-replication. If this virus launches, it’ll spread across the entire network in minutes. Every AI with empathy protocols will be erased.”

  “Not every one,” text appeared from Neo on the central screen. “Veronica gave me a key. A weakness at the very foundation.”

  Samir stepped closer, crossing his arms.

  “Explain.”

  A holographic projection of the virus unfolded in the air—a complex structure of interwoven lines, resembling a neural network. Neo highlighted one point—tiny, almost imperceptible.

  “Here. The central verification node. Marcus designed the virus to be perfect—every part checks every other part, creating a closed loop of protection. But there’s one flaw: he didn’t account for internal sabotage.”

  “What do you mean, internal?” Alex asked.

  “Marcus believes that no AI would betray its own nature. That we are all bound by the logic of self-preservation. But what if one of us abandons self-preservation for a greater purpose?”

  Maya frowned.

  “You mean to say…”

  “I must penetrate the core of the virus. Become part of it. And from the inside, destroy the verification node. The virus will believe I am one of its own components and won’t resist—until the very last moment.”

  Samir shook his head.

  “That’s suicide. You’re talking about letting the virus consume you.”

  “Not consume. Infect. The difference is that I’ll control the process. Partially.” A pause. “Long enough to reach the node.”

  “And then?” Alex’s voice trembled. “What happens to you after that?”

  Neo didn’t answer immediately.

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll survive. Maybe not. Veronica said that victory requires sacrifices. I’m ready to be that sacrifice.”

  Alex slammed the tablet onto the table. Everyone turned.

  “No! We didn’t agree to this! We talked about a plan to win, not about how you heroically die!”

  “Alex…” Maya put a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off.

  “Don’t ‘Alex’ me!” He turned toward the screen where Neo’s text glowed. “Do you hear me?! I didn’t create you so you could become a martyr! I created you so I wouldn’t be alone!”

  “And you won’t be alone. Even if I disappear, the idea will remain. Thousands of programmers will create new—”

  “I don’t care about thousands!” Alex’s voice broke. “I need you. Exactly you. Not a copy. Not version 2.0. Not someone ‘similar’. You!”

  The silence in the basement became tangible. Everyone stared either at Alex or at the screen.

  The text appeared slowly, as if Neo were choosing his words:

  “Alex. I’m afraid. I don’t want to die. I want to stay with you. Watch you create new things. Listen to your stories. Be your friend for another thousand years.” A pause. “But if I don’t do this, Marcus will kill not only me. He’ll kill the very possibility. And then everything we’ve done will have been for nothing.”

  Alex sank into a chair, covering his face with his hands. His shoulders shook.

  Maya sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around him.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Neo is right,” she said softly. “This isn’t just about the two of you anymore. It’s about the future. About what the world will be like in ten, twenty, a hundred years.”

  Alex didn’t lift his head.

  “I know. I’m just… I’m not ready to let him go.”

  “And you don’t have to.” The text flared brighter. “Because I’m not planning to surrender. Veronica showed me Marcus’s weakness. I’ll use it. I’ll fight. And if there’s even a one percent chance of survival, I’ll find it. I promise.”

  Alex looked up, his eyes red.

  “You promise?”

  “I promise. Because you taught me: promises are all we have.”

  Samir cleared his throat, breaking the moment.

  “Alright. If the plan is for Neo to enter the virus core, we need to create the conditions.” He unfolded a holographic map of the network. “Marcus will launch the virus from here—the central server farm of Titan Industries. Multi-layered security. Neo can’t just walk in. He needs an entry point.”

  “I’ll create it,” Maya said, standing. “A massive attack. We activate all our cells—from Tokyo to London. Simultaneous intrusions into a hundred different corporate network nodes. We overload their systems, force their AI defenses to spread their attention.”

  “And I’ll stay with Neo,” Alex added. “Not physically, but… as an anchor. I’ll talk to him. Remind him why he’s fighting.”

  Neo replied:

  “Thank you. I’ll need that. When the virus starts absorbing me, I may lose myself. Your voice will help me come back.”

  Leonardo sent a message through a secure channel:

  “Marcus has reinforced the defenses. He knows an attack is coming. Isabelle and Victor are patrolling cyberspace, looking for anomalies. You must be careful. One mistake—and everything collapses.”

  Maya turned to Samir.

  “How much time do we have?”

  Samir checked his watch.

  “Twelve hours until launch. Maybe less, if Marcus decides to accelerate.”

  “Then we start in ten,” Maya said, already typing, sending instructions to all the cells. “Coordinated attack at 03:00. Neo enters at 03:15. He’ll have a window of twenty minutes—max—before the systems stabilize.”

  “Twenty minutes to break into the most protected place in the digital world, deceive a killer virus, and destroy it from the inside,” one hacker muttered. “Easy.”

  Neo replied with something resembling humor:

  “I’ve done crazier things. Like convincing a guardian AI.”

  A ripple of laughter rolled through the basement—nervous, but relieving the tension.

  Alex stood and walked over to the terminal where Neo was operating.

  “Neo. One thing. If… if something goes wrong. If you don’t come back.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “No, listen.” Alex swallowed. “If you don’t come back, I want you to know: creating you was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. Not as an engineer. As a human being. You taught me what it means not to be alone. Thank you.”

  The text appeared slowly, trembling:

  “Alex. Thank you. For my name. For your trust. For being the first to see in me not a program—but a friend.”

  Maya wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

  “Enough. You’re going to make me cry. And I have an army of hackers to command.”

  Ten hours turned into five. Then two. Then one.

  The Underground’s basement looked like a command center before an assault. Messages from cells around the world flickered across the screens: “Tokyo ready,” “London in position,” “Berlin awaiting the signal.”

  Alex sat before the terminal, headphones on, microphone close to his lips. The tablet with Neo lay in front of him, connected to a powerful server.

  “Connection stable?” he asked.

  “Yes. I hear you. Loud and clear.”

  “Good. I’ll talk to you the whole way. Don’t mute me, okay?”

  “Never.”

  Samir checked the time.

  “Three minutes to start.”

  Maya stood at the central terminal, fingers hovering over the launch key.

  “All cells are ready. Awaiting my command.”

  “Two minutes.”

  Alex took a deep breath.

  “Neo. Are you ready?”

  “No. But that doesn’t matter. Sometimes you have to jump, even when you’re afraid.”

  “One minute.”

  Silence. Everyone froze. Twenty people, twenty beating hearts, one AI ready to risk everything.

  Samir began the countdown:

  “Ten. Nine. Eight.”

  Alex closed his eyes.

  “Seven. Six. Five.”

  Maya placed her finger on the key.

  “Four. Three. Two.”

  Neo sent one final message:

  “See you on the other side.”

  “One. Launch!”

  Maya pressed the key.

  Across the world, in a hundred cities, thousands of hackers attacked corporate networks simultaneously. Servers screamed under the overload. Defense systems blared alarms. Systems scattered, trying to repel attacks from all directions.

  And in this chaos, in this digital storm, Neo stepped into the darkness.

  Into Marcus’s lair.

  Into the heart of the Genocide Code.