The screen remained still.
No reply.
Aidan leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the line that had upended everything:
> "Manually Assigned — Override Decision Detected"
Somebody chose him.
Not the system. Not the logic. Not a match from data.
A decision had been made.
And decisions implied intent.
That night, Aidan didn't sleep.
He fed everything he had into the Core—every line of code, every interface design, every command from other systems he had intercepted.
He wanted to see the pattern.
Understand the source.
Around 3:12 a.m., the Core finally responded:
> [Cross-Referencing Legacy Logs...]
[Origin Tag Found: Genesis Protocol // Access Level: Restricted]
[Would You Like to Request Unlock via Cognitive Bypass? Y/N]
He stared at it.
This wasn't the Core acting on its own.
This was a request. As if the Core itself… didn't fully control the answer.
> Y.
A long pause.
Then, slowly:
> [Cognitive Bypass Engaged...]
[Simulating Mental Trust Conditions...]
[Decryption Threshold — 76% Achieved]
> [Partial File Unlocked: "Genesis Protocol — Log 1"]
"To those reading this: If you're seeing this, it means the system worked. But it also means the world failed.
We didn't build the Core to control. We built it to counterbalance what we couldn't trust anymore — human bias, corruption, the erosion of truth.
But even that… needs a mind that chooses growth."
Aidan froze.
The message wasn't from a machine.
It was from a person.
Someone had created the Core.
And they expected him to go beyond it.
---
By morning, Aidan knew what he had to do.
"I'm going to build a secondary layer," he told Rhea. "A shield protocol. Something decentralized. Not just for me. For the other users."
"You mean the ones Ghostlink is hunting?"
"Exactly. He's attacking them one by one. If we let him, he'll be the only voice left."
Rhea hesitated. "And what if they don't trust you?"
Aidan smiled faintly. "Then I'll give them a choice the system never did."
---
Emily listened quietly as he explained it.
"You're not just fighting Ghostlink anymore," she said. "You're starting a movement."
"Not a movement," he replied. "A mirror. If the Core was built to solve problems… we need something that prevents new ones."
Jeremy added, "You're basically creating a system… for system users."
Aidan nodded. "Exactly. Not control. Collaboration."
"And what are you calling this counter-system?"
Aidan looked at the screen for a long moment.
Then typed two words into the interface:
> "Decision Web"
---
Later, while testing his new code protocols, Aidan received a direct ping.
Unencrypted.
A message from one of the minor system users.
Someone he hadn't met yet.
Message content:
> "They told me you were different.
That your system learns instead of commands.
I don't want to be hunted.
Tell me where to meet."
Sender:
> Codename: Finch
---
Meanwhile, Ghostlink watched from his network.
Saw the message.
Saw the birth of the Decision Web.
He laughed softly.
> "So. The strategist finally steps out of the simulation and into the arena."
He turned to his assistant—an AI hologram flickering like static.
"Let's show him what real evolution looks like."
He pressed a key.
And the AI's eyes turned red.
---