Rohit stormed into Ragini's room. He wasn't thinking much—he just wanted to comfort her—but someone else had already occupied the space.
Arya sat huddled close to Ragini, one arm around her shoulders, the other hand gripping hers lightly. Ragini herself was curled on the bed, knees drawn to her chest, eyes red and swollen from crying. Both women startled at the sudden intrusion.
Arya was the first to break the awkward silence. "What now?"
Rohit felt his throat dry, as if he didn't belong there, but he stood firm and ignored her. Looking straight into Ragini's eyes, he said, "Listen, Mom."
"It doesn't matter what outsiders said. It changes nothing."
"It was you who came to the hospital to see me, you who sacrificed so much for my treatment. It was you who introduced me to the world outside, who gave me the umbrella to embrace glory and fame. That means more than I can put into words."
Ragini bit her lips, a faint smile forming despite her tears. She hesitated, unsure how to respond, as if afraid that any word might shatter the moment.
Rohit let his gaze drop, recalling all the past incidents he didn't remember fully but had witnessed—the devotion, the quiet sacrifices. "Sure, I don't remember everything," he admitted softly, stepping closer and cupping her cheeks, "but I have seen your genuine care. Blood ties or not, you are still the woman I admire, respect, and love. Please… don't take their words to heart."
Arya, seated a little away, blinked, her jaw dropping at being completely ignored. "Hey… I'm also here. We don't need—"
But Rohit cut her off mid-sentence, addressing her directly. "And thank you, sis, for taking Mom's side. I'm also glad you came to the hospital."
Arya scoffed. "Don't bother. I came because of Mom."
Rohit smiled. "And that's enough for me to see you in a new light. Sure, we have our differences, and I don't think we share a close relationship—but I will certainly take your gesture as a favor. Thanks."
With that, he left.
Arya's gaze followed him, her lips curling into a sardonic smile. "Weird kid… butting in where it's not needed," she muttered, then leaned toward Ragini. "Mom, have you noticed? Rohit seems… different. And why does he look so obsessed with you?"
Ragini stayed silent, lost in her own thoughts, her fingers tracing the edge of the blanket as she tried to process the weight of Rohit's words.
It's been after a long time, the storm outside didn't matter—only the quiet truth in the room with him did.
Rohit, on the other hand, went straight to his room. He had never felt this emotionally attached to anyone in decades. He paced around his room, thinking of ways to improve the situation.
He sat on the bed and finally reached a conclusion: he needed to hack into people's lives and bend them to his will. Information is power, and secrets are the leverage that makes people surrender.
Today it was the twins, but later it could be anyone. He needed to think big and far, not focus on short‑term benefits. That would come in handy for his future goals. For now his priority was building a network and raising money—and hacking would play a critical role.
In his past life, after Keita and Ayane died, he and the remaining team completed the deal with the Chinese and collected their share. He even volunteered to help with research and development of the Chinese re‑engineered AI for the next two years.
From that work they gathered intel and blueprints and hired professionals in parallel to create their own copy of EL0S, which they named Electra. Apart from that, they also had the advantage of access codes for NATO's EL0S, which they'd faked as destroyed during the deal with the Chinese.
Their new AI was so powerful that, with its applications, they were able to bypass many firewalls and hack into servers undetected. However, any AI needs training, and so far they'd only managed to train Electra to generate plugins and a few remote jobs that suited their needs.
It was only because of that that they were able to hack into a Hong Kong bank's data server, chinese general survellaince server and even penetrated the Japanese PSIA headquarters — all before the recent COVID pandemic.
If he was not wrong, its homemade server was still running operations from Taiwan, the home country of Li, which was more secure against Chinese and Japanese officials.
However, there was a risk: his friends might notice his presence online if he decided to remote‑access their home server, which they'd also designed.
Still thinking through his needs, he decided to take the risk. Besides, his other friends weren't that technical anyway and would perhaps stick to generating plugins only. The risk would lessen if he was careful.
With that decided, he pulled out his mobile, inserted his newly registered SIM, and connected his new laptop.
He opened his private website, which required a password, and then passed a series of security questions.
Three versions sat in the download menu:
[electra_clone_version_ready_2017]
[electra_clone_version_baby_2016]
[access_elos_mod_remote_2014]
Rohit hesitated. Since India used Meta services, using EL0S would be attractive, but he suspected EL0S supervisors might have remote countermeasures that would flag access from a developing country like India (not a sponsored member). Besides, EL0S was a decade newer; the risk of getting caught felt higher.
The ready 2017 version was upgraded and mostly used by his current teammates, so logging in there would be suspicious if they later needed to verify activity. He chose the baby 2016 version.
In Add‑ons he downloaded the training modules of all three tiers: basic, intermediate and advanced. He selected basic and let it run in the laptop's background. This set up a clone AI on his desktop with its server based in Taiwan.
It took ten minutes to complete the basic training.
A green dialog box appeared, showing a scan. It blocked a lot of data‑stealing malware based on Meta services, then the screen switched to a homepage message:
[hello host, Electra at your service]
Since it was trained basic, only chat communication was enabled; video and audio interactions would be updated after layered training sessions.
Still, it did a remarkable job of blocking data‑stealing or suspicious behaviors from third‑party Meta services that typically come online by default — all without hampering normal services. This way, Rohit's laptop became the most secure laptop for his activities.
The baby version was a generic app: installable on Windows, macOS, or Android. He inserted his old SIM into the iPhone and put it to charge; the other install went on the Android, making it surveillance‑free.
Then he started the intermediate background training, which would take an hour. It was time for the next step.
Since his first target was the twins, he decided to hack them first. He checked their Facebook profiles: Tanya's was private, so he tried the other cousin, Aisha. Surprisingly, Aisha had an open account.
After scrolling, he discovered Aisha's professional account. She was a social influencer who did bitcoin trading and affiliate marketing for pocket money.
And she'd listed her phone number for DMs.
A smile crept over Rohit's face. A personal phone number is a hacker's key. It was a Irony that despite being cousins, they didn't have each other's numbers; their relationship was that sour. That problem seemed solvable now.
He went back to his private server and under "Add‑ons" he scrolled past chat modules and scrapers to a compact library of pre‑tested exploits — small, proven scripts his crew had used many times and shelved.
He downloaded an SMS‑phish template and a micro‑exploit payload as an add‑on, patched to his locale.
He opened and installed some SDKs and ordered Electra to reconfigure the code to create malware for hacking Androids through a simple click on link. Unlike current public AIs, Electra was unhinged and produced the necessary scripts in seconds.
He copied the link, pasted it into the SDK, did minor edits for data binding, and embedded the bug into a message inviting Aisha to a Zoom‑style meeting for a collaboration. For that he created a fake profile with Electra's image and text generated contents and sent the invite.
Now all that remained was waiting.
An hour passed and Electra's intermediate training completed. As he checked the logs a familiar female voice called his name, breaking his focus.
"What are you doing? is that some server stuff?"
He turned around in panic, and it was his second sister, Arya, standing at doorway with her bossy hands on her waist, trying to figure out his situation.
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//A/n: I wrote it in haste without much double check. Apologising if got some issues