Three days had passed since I unlocked the second memory fragment.
Three days of migraines, encrypted messages, and half-sleeping with one eye open while Luna snored like a cat on a caffeine high.
But now, we had a lead.
A major tech expo called SystemCon X—a front, according to Agent 7, for secret system research meetups. It was where the next fragment might be hiding, and more importantly…
The girl with the broken pendant was rumored to be there.
System: [New Mission: Infiltrate SystemCon X!] Objective: Locate the Pendant Girl. Recover Memory Fragment 3. Bonus Objective: Don't get recognized by system watchdogs. Penalty: Arrested. Mind-wipe. Harem wiped.]
I read the last line three times.
Harem wiped.
Nope. That wasn't happening.
Friday – 11:42 AM – Downtown NeoTokyo
SystemCon was chaos. A futuristic fortress of neon signs, drone cameras, and nerds in trench coats pretending to be hackers. A giant holo-banner read:
"EXPERIENCE THE FUTURE OF SENTIENT TECH!"
Oh, the irony.
Agent 7 handed us our disguises.
Mine? A tech intern hoodie, glasses, and a nametag that said "Hello, I'm Greg."
Luna wore a lab coat with "Dr. Waifunator" embroidered on it and a skirt so short I swear it violated physics.
Cynthia had oversized headphones and a DJ pass that somehow got her past three security checkpoints without a single ID.
And Celia?
She walked in like a CEO who owned the building. Sleek suit, cold stare, and a tiny pink taser clipped to her thigh-highs. No one even dared ask for her badge.
Null just phased through the walls with a burrito in one hand.
Classic.
Inside, the main hall was buzzing with panels, robots, AI demos—and suspicious men in sunglasses who all looked like they were named "Agent Chad."
"Remember," Agent 7 whispered through my earpiece, "you're looking for a girl with a fractured glass pendant. Probably a memory host."
"What happens if I find her?"
"Try not to fall in love."
"...What?"
"What?"
I spotted her near a booth labeled "Ethics of Emotional AI."
She was just like in the vision: long dark hair, school uniform-style jacket, and that shimmering, cracked pendant glowing faintly at her chest.
She looked… sad. Haunted.
I approached slowly.
"Hey," I said. "You dropped this." I held out a fake USB stick. Oldest spy trick in the book.
She blinked, eyes meeting mine—and something clicked. A surge of pain rushed through my skull.
"Ethan…?" she whispered.
The pendant pulsed.
System: [Memory Fragment Detected. Sync Initiated.]
Her name was Ayaka.
And she had been my first system handler.
I was seventeen. Stranded outside a burning lab. Alarms blared. The sky was red.
Ayaka grabbed my hand.
"Take this system and run! They'll wipe you out if you stay!"
"But you'll—"
"GO!"
She forced the phone into my hand, pressed her cracked pendant to my chest—
—Then turned to face three men in black coats, their palms glowing with digital runes.
I staggered back.
"Ayaka… I remember now. You gave me the system."
She nodded. "I was a handler-in-training. They said the prototype would destroy your personality, but you kept resisting it. Laughing at it. Twisting the code."
"…So they tried to kill me?"
"They tried to erase you."
Before I could ask more, alarms blared.
"Unauthorized fragment sync detected!"
Dozens of red-lens drones dropped from the ceiling.
System: [WARNING: Kill Protocol Engaged]
Null appeared beside me, mouth full of nachos.
"Welp. Guess the stealth part's over."
Luna kicked off her heels and pulled two taser-blades from under her coat.
"Time to waifu up!"
[COMBAT MODE ENGAGED]
Cynthia hijacked the expo's speaker system, blasting K-Pop so loud it scrambled the drone sensors.
Celia threw Null—literally threw him—into a security bot. Null exploded it with a USB labeled "BugFix.exe".
I dodged lasers, holding Ayaka's hand as we raced toward the fire escape.
Outside, panting, bruised, and confused, Ayaka turned to me.
"Ethan… you weren't supposed to survive the system."
"I know."
"But you did. And now… they're afraid of you."
A black van screeched around the corner.
Before we could move, a figure stepped out.
A girl.
White coat. Silver eyes. No emotion.
"Prototype 001," she said to me. "Your trial is over."
Null appeared behind me. "Uh… that's Echo. She's the original system core."
"What."
Echo raised her hand.
The sky turned red.
The ground shattered.
And the system inside me screamed.