In a villa far from the city, hidden deep within the mountains.
A burly, bearded man wearing only a tank top frowned slightly as he stared at the three computer screens in front of him, solid muscles fully exposed.
He understood the logic, but... the lottery system designed to select one person had, after he made his choice, selected another?
Nathan, the owner of BlueBook, began operating the computer, directly entering the internal "lottery" program to check for traces.
Almost effortlessly, he found them.
Blatant. Undisguised. Crude.
Through those traces, Nathan could even imagine how the other party had acted-forcing their way through the firewall and then directly modifying the result.
"Not worried about me finding you at all?" Nathan felt surprised, then quickly understood. "No... since the change was this obvious, it means he knew I'd find it no matter what. Better not to hide it at all."
Interesting.
After understanding that, Nathan followed the traces straight to their source.
"Such an obvious intrusion... what exactly are you trying to tell me?" Nathan thought as he took control of the computer corresponding to that IP address.
Then he realized something.
That computer... was inside BlueBook itself.
The company's firewall was formidable, but to its owner, it might as well not exist.
And so, on the computer in front of Morin, the indicator light in the top-right corner of the webcam turned on.
When Nathan saw Morin's face, he frowned.
How could someone be this handsome?
That aside, the priority was obvious. Nathan pulled up the internal employee database. After a quick search, the result appeared.
"Morin. Twenty-two years old. Joined today?" Nathan's brows furrowed deeply.
"This forgery is way too obvious..."
Shaking his head, Nathan used Morin's identification data to investigate his real background.
A moment later.
Nathan was sweating.
Everything was there.
Every record. Every detail.
But... but...
There were no problems.
And that was the biggest problem of all.
Who was this person, really? And what was his goal?
Beep. Beep.
An email notification snapped Nathan back to reality. He opened it.
"Hello, Nathan. Or should I call you BOSS?" The message displayed calmly. "You should've already checked my ID, right? Don't bother digging further-you won't find anything. Let's just play by the rules. First prize gets a week-long vacation at your villa, doesn't it?"
"...Who are you? What exactly do you want?" Sweat the size of corn kernels formed on Nathan's forehead. Morin's words gave him clues, but those clues only made his imagination spiral further.
"As you can see, I'm just a regular BlueBook employee. First day on the job," Morin replied. "I saw a colleague win the lottery and got a bit jealous. Mr. Caleb Smith, right? I joined too late to participate, so I took a look at the lottery program out of curiosity. Turns out the lottery was just a front and the result was decided by the boss anyway. Since it's already unfair, adding me shouldn't matter, right?"
Morin smiled.
"...Of course. Of course it doesn't." After a long pause, Nathan finally replied. "Congratulations on winning first prize, Mr. Morin. You'll enjoy a one-week vacation at my villa."
"I'm looking forward to it," Morin replied.
Back in the mountain villa, Nathan thought for a long time.
Then he began preparing.
If Morin really was an investigator from some government department, this was the polite approach.
Resistance was impossible. Nathan understood that clearly. No matter how powerful he was, he was still just a businessman. Even as the owner of the world's largest search engine, he was insignificant before a nation.
Fortunately, he hadn't done anything illegal.
Letting Morin come was the safest move-for now.
If cooperation was possible, that would be ideal.
If not...
He would kill him.
And then start building a machine army.
Once he made his decision, Nathan began making arrangements. In truth, he'd already prepared contingency plans long before researching AI.
Because of this, however, Caleb-who had originally been chosen for the Turing Test-could no longer come to the villa.
Too many people meant too many variables.
Nathan wasn't confident he could handle two at once.
At this moment, he had no interest in a Turing Test. What mattered was figuring out where this man-whose background couldn't be traced at all-came from, and what he wanted.
After some thought, Nathan sent another email to Caleb.
He explained that something urgent had come up, and the original seven-day villa stay would be replaced with a seven-day trip to Hawaii. Daily allowance: $1,000. Lodging and travel: $3,000.
A total of $10,000.
Caleb, naturally, accepted without hesitation.
Most people would.
Ungrateful people were rare. Those willing to give up a free week in Hawaii to stay in the mountains with a bearded man were even rarer.
With that settled, Morin didn't stay idle.
Since it was his first day and he hadn't been assigned any tasks, he had nothing to do.
So he left the company and wandered the streets.
The sun was bright. The breeze was gentle. Traffic roared as crowds passed by.
At first glance, everything looked normal.
But in Morin's perception-
Everyone's thoughts were wrapped in shadow.
Everyone, without exception.
Except himself.
And beyond that, omnipresent, unmistakable complex magnetic fields filled the space around him.
To Morin, this world looked completely different from what normal people saw.
Still, he had no intention of exposing anything yet.
He knew that "someone" had probably already noticed his arrival.
Before tearing everything open, he wanted to understand more.
For example-
The AI.
Ava.
And this "off" world.
A few days later.
"Sir!"
Inside the roaring helicopter, the pilot turned back toward the passenger. Morin had been propping his head up, silently watching glaciers pass by since boarding.
Curious, the pilot shouted over the noise.
"What is it?" Morin replied.
"Aren't you curious why we've been flying for so long and still haven't arrived at Mr. Nathan's place?"
"I am curious why we've been flying for so long and still haven't arrived," Morin nodded, following the pilot's lead.
Pilot: "..."
Even if you're just going through the motions, can't you sound a little more interested?
But since he'd already spoken, backing out would be even more awkward.
So the pilot laughed and continued. "We've actually been flying over his estate for two hours already!"
"Mm." Morin nodded slightly.
The pilot smacked his lips.
Seeing that Morin showed absolutely no surprise, he could only turn back in silence.
Damn it. Better to have stayed quiet.
Eventually, the helicopter landed on an open patch of grass.
Morin stepped down.
"Follow the river. I'll pick you up here in seven days," the pilot said quickly before taking off again.
Morin didn't care.
He followed the river, passed through several trails, and finally saw the massive estate hidden deep within the uninhabited mountains.
At the gate, he took a photo as instructed by a voice guide. After receiving a magnetic ID card with his image, the gate opened.
Morin entered and walked toward the villa.
At the entrance stood a burly, bearded, nearly bald man in a tank top, staring straight at him.
Glasses. Thick arms.
He looked more like an underground boxer than anything else.
No one would guess this man was the owner of the world's largest search engine-or the genius behind artificial intelligence.
"Don't judge a book by its cover" fit Nathan perfectly.
"So, you're Morin?" Nathan spoke slowly.
"The one and only," Morin smiled. "Just call me Morin."
At the same time, his mind stirred.
Feedback from electromagnetic forces flowed in.
Inside Nathan's brain was a magnetic field region that clearly couldn't exist in a human.
Combined with what he'd sensed before-and the strange nature of this environment-Morin had basically confirmed what kind of place this was.
Now, there was only one question left.
Who created it?
And what was their... or its... purpose?
"Morin... good." Nathan nodded and gestured inside. "Come in."
Morin didn't hesitate.
After the door closed, Nathan spoke, his body tense. His hand rested on the gun behind his back.
"I've investigated all your data through every method I have," he said. "But I still can't find the answer I want."
"Really? I'm honored." Morin glanced around, then casually lay down on the sofa. "So what answer are you looking for?"
"Your origin." Nathan finally snapped and drew the pistol. "What organization do you belong to?"
"My origin?" Morin lay there lazily, staring at the waterfall beyond the glass wall. "You already found it. Everything there is real."
"This isn't a toy gun. If you die here, no one will ever know," Nathan warned.
"I know, I know." Morin sighed. "Fine. Since you don't believe the truth-I'm from the FBI. We noticed your massive data collection and purchases of specialized equipment. Naturally, we suspected you were working on something. I was sent to investigate."
"As I thought..." Nathan fell silent. "So if you don't leave after seven days, an army shows up on the eighth?"
"Hmm. Good guess." Morin went along with it.
These days, no one believed the truth anyway. They preferred filling in the blanks themselves.
"...You know what I'm researching?" Nathan asked quietly.
"AI. Robots." Morin tapped his finger. "Superconducting gel, simulated skin, ultra-sensors, advanced fiber optics, missing top engineers. Combine that with your history of data harvesting and programming expertise. It's not hard to figure out."
Nathan slowly lowered the gun.
He had originally planned to kill Morin and replace him with a robot wearing simulated skin.
Now, that was clearly impossible.
And even if he tried-how many combat robots could he produce in seven days with a barely functional production line?
There was no good solution.
So Nathan suppressed his killing intent.
"I'm only researching AI," he said.
"Whether that's true isn't for you or me to decide." Morin stood and pointed at his eye. "Seeing is believing. Mostly."
"Mostly?" Nathan frowned.
"There are always exceptions," Morin replied calmly. "What the eyes see isn't always real. Though what I see usually is."
He turned toward the corridor.
"Come on. Take me to see your results."
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