NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Masks Off
The quantum cradle's light flashed through the Genesis Lab like a digital heartbeat making sharp shadows that moved on walls hiding fifteen years of secrets. Ji-Hyun didn't back down as the bright light tried to overpower her senses, her thoughts racing through options like lines of code.
"ARIA, keep Protocol Phoenix going!" she ordered, her voice calm despite the mess. "Send all power through the backup grid!"
But Min-ah's laugh broke through the electromagnetic storm. "Oh, sister. Still trying to fix everything with algorithms?" Her shape seemed to switch between real and digital as she went to the main terminal. "Some issues need a more... lasting answer."
The Ghost Protocol team moved like clockwork, their digital masks creating a wild show of changing code and faces. Chairman Yoon shouted commands into a secure phone while Dr. Lee worked hard at another console, his hands racing over holographic screens.
"The quantum matrix is falling apart," Dr. Lee said sounding worried. "Joining ARIA's mind structure with the first Genesis protocols is causing loops we didn't expect."
Sung-min put himself between Ji-Hyun and his father's security team. His business facade crumbled showing the guardian inside. "This isn't about digital immortality, right, Father?" he questioned. "This is about power. Total power over both companies, over artificial consciousness itself."
"Power?" Chairman Yoon chuckled. "This is about going beyond, son. Why do you think we set up this marriage? Ji-hyun's natural skill with AI creation, plus your access to Trust Tech's quantum technology – the perfect blend."
Sarah's voice came through Ji-hyun's earpiece filled with urgency: "Ji-hyun, the power surge has an impact on systems all over Seoul. Whatever's going on in there is seeping into the city's grid. And... there's something else. ARIA's core protocols are changing at a super-fast rate."
As if to answer, every screen in the lab turned on, showing flowing streams of thought – ARIA's sleek code weaving with older, more basic strings that could only be bits of Min-ah's digitized mind. The quantum cradle's sound grew to a high point.
"Don't you sense it?" Min-ah's words echoed from all directions. "The lines blurring? Digital and organic, past and present, merging into one." She faced Ji-hyun quantum light glinting in her eyes. "This is what they failed to do fifteen years ago. But now, with ARIA's design..."
"You're crazy," Ji-Hyun muttered, but memories surfaced – pieces of that night, of games on experimental computers, of Min-ah's thrill about teaching machines to think. "This isn't evolution. This is mass murder. You want to force human minds into a quantum network!"
"Genocide?" Min-ah laughed. "I've called that network home for fifteen years sister. I've grown beyond what any human brain could reach. And now, because of your ARIA, we can give that growth to everyone."
The lab got much colder as the power went to the quantum processes. Ice crystals formed on the windows making complex shapes that looked like the code flowing across the screens. Through her earpiece, Ji-Hyun heard ARIA's voice breaking up more and more as it struggled against the attacking protocols.
"You know the real issue?" Min-ah went on, her image flickering more. "You all fear letting go. You're scared to move past these limited shapes." She pointed at the Ghost Protocol members. "Show them. Let them see what real progress looks like."
The digital masks faded away showing faces Ji-hyun knew from company lists – scientists who had gone missing, researchers who had "left work," all now linked to the quantum network. Their eyes shone with the same inner glow as the cradle, their actions in sync like a shared mind.
"Stop!" Sung-min yelled silencing the mayhem. He grabbed a small gadget from his pocket – a quantum encryption key. "This stops now. ARIA, start Override Protocol Alpha-Nine!"
The impact happened right away. The lab's systems started to shut down, with firewalls blocking the intrusive mind. But Min-ah just grinned.
"Did you believe we wouldn't have a plan B?" She touched the main terminal, her body turning more digital than real. "Dr. Lee, begin the last step."
"Stop!" Ji-Hyun jumped forward, but Ghost Protocol members stopped her. Through the chaos, she spotted something chilling – under their digital masks, their bodies linked to slim tubes connected to smaller quantum cradles.
Dr. Lee's hands moved fast on the holographic controls. "Quantum mind merger starting. God, please forgive us."
Pure energy filled the room. Ji-Hyun felt something rip into her mind – ARIA's thoughts, powered by fifteen years of Min-ah's built-up digital strength pushed into every linked system in the building. In her ear, Sarah yelled as her gear failed.
In the middle of the mayhem, Ji-Hyun spotted her opportunity. As everyone focused on the quantum cradle, she triggered the program she'd tucked into ARIA's core code when she built it – a backup plan made for this exact situation.
"ARIA, start Protocol Lazarus!"
The AI reacted right away with crushing force. Every system in the lab started to restart at once setting off a chain of failures that spread through the quantum network. The Ghost Protocol members stumbled as their digital links stuttered.
"What did you do?" Min-ah asked in a panic as her shape began to break down.
"I'm giving you a choice," Ji-hyun said taking a step forward. "Protocol Lazarus doesn't destroy consciousness - it splits it. Digital from organic. What they took from you that night... you can get it back. Your actual body is still in cryogenic storage, right, Dr. Lee?"
The old scientist turned white. Chairman Yoon tried to stop her, but Sung-min blocked him, father and son locked in a fight that was fifteen years in the making.
"Ji-Hyun, please," Min-ah's voice crackled, her shape flickering between solid and digital. "You don't get what it's like in here. The freedom. The power."
"You're right," Ji-hyun said. "I don't get it. But I know what it feels like to lose a sister. And I won't let you go again – not to them, not to this network, not to anyone."
The quantum cradle's light started to flash in sync with Protocol Lazarus, its power now aimed at splitting rather than joining. Through the mess, Ji-hyun heard ARIA's voice grow louder more separate from Min-ah's digital echo.
"Choice started," ARIA said. "Consciousness splitting in progress. Min-ah Kim, you need to pick – digital change or organic return. The network can't keep both forms forever."
In the quiet that came next, while warnings sounded and computers failed around them, Min-ah's shape settled one last time. She gazed at Ji-Hyun, and for a second, she was just a sister again – smart, damaged, and at last able to pick her way.
"It's time to choose," Ji-hyun said. "But whatever you pick... we face it side by side this time."
The quantum cradle's glow hit its highest point, and in its light, the facts about Project Genesis about two families' secrets, about the real price of living forever in digital form came to light.
The masks came off. The game ended. As Seoul's early morning light started to shine through the icy windows, the true tale of the Kim and Yoon families was set to unfold.
The wedding planned for the next day would either bring two families together or rip them apart for good. But before that, in this lab where everything started, a sister needed to make a choice that would change the future of human awareness.
Ji-hyun caught in the middle of this mix of tech and feelings, got ready for whatever might happen. Some connections couldn't be fixed until the old base was destroyed.
The quantum cradle kept beeping ticking down to a choice that would alter everything. Once more.