A faint flash illuminated the dark room every couple of seconds, like a lightning storm slowly approaching from the distant mountains. The darkness receded every time, revealing the cramped space and the numerous shelves lining its walls.
The left one was stacked with boxy drawers, each containing a different label. The right was much less organized, with more than a few baskets filled with wires of different sizes and colors, circuit boards of all shapes, and devices that seemed to have been disassembled to their most basic components.
There were no windows, which was obvious, seeing as the 6x3 m room was underground. The only entrance was a metal door that was welded shut from the inside. Right beside it was a cylinder-shaped device with a fan spinning at a constant pace, pulling in air through the vent behind it.
On the opposite side of the room, a portable heater glowed a faint orange, radiating a warmth that washed over the nearby desk from which the flashes of light constantly streamed.
Leaning back into his chair, Finn removed the mask covering his face and exhaled the air trapped in his lungs. Sweat beaded his forehead, a result of his intense focus and not the room’s temperature. Staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, he turned his attention to the object on the cutting mat in front of him.
A small cube barely six centimeters across rested at the center of a square-shaped circuit board, decorated with several resistors, capacitors, and integrated circuits, in addition to thin wires connected to the small cube at the center.
Reaching under the desk, the boy flicked a switch that caused the lamp hanging over it to light up. From the side, he picked an oddly designed skeletal frame and placed it in front of him. He then grabbed the circuit board and gently inserted it in the gap at the center of the frame then went about fastening it in place using a pen sized screw driver.
Once that was done, he connected a few wires to the rest of the frame then leaned back.
"Alright, Jake," He said. "This is the last one. Let’s give it a test run."
On his OAM, Finn watched as a yellow hand extended from behind him and reached for the circuit board, wrapping its cartoonish four fingers around it before fading away. Not a moment later, several LEDs blinked on.
The skeletal frame twitched then moved, its outer parts unfurling, snapping into position like long needles sticking from a pincushion. A second later, they all bent at several points, their heads lowering to the surface of the cutting mat, then, with a single motion, the core of the frame rose up.
The mechanical creation resembled a spider, one with eight thin limbs of the same length and no abdomen. The needle-like legs moved with robotic precision and the machine scuttled, a few inches to the right, then a few more to the left.
Stopping, it lowered its core to the desk’s surface then lifted it again, repeating the motion a few more times. It then walked to the edge of the desk where items of different shapes and sizes were placed in a long file and stopped at one of its ends.
The mechanical spider retreated a few steps, then shot forward, its legs making faint clicking sounds. It reached the first obstacle and climbed over it, then jumped onto the next, reaching two thin rails bridging a wide gap between stacked blocks. The needle-like feet didn’t slow down, landing on the sticks with great precision, crossing the gap as if there was a flat surface bridging it.
One obstacle after the other, the spider climbed over some and jumped between others. It reached the end of the obstacle course in less than ten seconds, then kept going, climbing the vertical surface of the wall, walking upside down on the ceiling till it reached the wall on the other side, going down and stopping at the start of the course.
The spider raised two of its legs.
[Jake: This one is a success!]
A smile formed on Finn’s face but disappeared almost instantly. The word didn’t come from him. Spinning in his chair, he faced the only entrance to the room, a wave of pure horror washing over him as he caught sight of the shadowy figure standing there. Though he only saw a dark silhouette, the voice gave away its identity.
A pang of pain struck the boy’s head, causing him to wince. His question demanded multiple answers. How did he track him? But most importantly, how did he get inside?
The door was welded shut from the inside, and the electronic lock on the outside was reprogrammed to reject all keys and number combinations. Hacking it was impossible since there was no passcode to begin with.
"How?" The intruder asked, tilting his head slightly. "Did you think you got away?"
Beep boobeep beeboobeep
[Jake: Finn? Finn!!? What’s happening? Who are you talking to!!?]
The silhouette shifted slightly, lingering for a moment before asking with a voice full of curiosity.
The words struck like a hammer, and the headache got stronger. In the silence of the dark room, Finn heard the beating of his heart. His breathing got rougher by the second, and his mind slowed down to a crawl.
Jake’s presence was exposed, which could only mean that his NIM was infiltrated.
More questions popped up one after the other: ’When did he get here? How was he able to dive into my NIM without me noticing? What happened to all the traps I just set?’
As the stress built up at a pace he couldn’t keep up with, the boy forced himself to regain some semblance of control over his thoughts.
’No... This... it doesn’t matter... not right now...’
A solution. He needed to find a solution. Death was right there, its ghastly hands wrapped around his neck. The next few words would determine his fate, and if he were to choose wrong, it would spell his end.
As his mind raced to find the correct reply to give, a spark illuminated his mind, and his eyes grew wide.
’... no... it won’t work... no way...’
The idea was so absurd he struggled to imagine it ever working, but what choice did he have? No matter what he does, no matter what he says, the outcome seemed like it was decided long before he noticed he wasn’t alone in that underground room.
That’s why, as absurd as it seemed, he decided to bet everything on those three words. Careful not to make a sudden motion, he slowly raised his hands above his head and said: