"Sam!""Berth—"
Everything flashed before Ephraim"s eyes in mere seconds—the pillars one by one started to dwindle and collapse as the ground shook. He watched how the concrete danced and fell—and before he could even utter a word, it fell to where two of his team members were situated. He realized he had stood frozen and did not do anything.
Fear got the better of him.
But what could Ephraim do—he couldn"t simply charge to Samuel and Esmeralda. It was inevitable. He couldn"t rival nature—and again, time was the greatest enemy of all. He didn"t even have room to think when Berthold eyed him with fear laced in his eyes. The doctor spouted something—he had called Ephraim"s name.
But before Ephraim could even respond, a loud crash in front of him woke entirely all his senses—he blinked and then jumped to backed away. The floor below him crumbled (and since the ground is moving, Ephraim found it harder to even walk). He remembered the drill clearly, in case things like this happen. He was equipped with the necessary means; he was the leader, he has to—and then, as he tried to click his beeper—
The ground shook again with great intensity. He cursed as his wireless earphone detached from his ear—and had fallen to the ground. The pillars continue to crumble, and one of the falling concrete blocks crashed through his earphones.
"Berthold!" He exclaims. "Are you there? Answer me!"
"Ephraim!" He hears Berthold; the doctor"s voice, which was a bit m.u.f.fled. Ephraim gritted his teeth and then held the beeper firmly. He began to press it. He had to press for precisely five seconds so it could send a message to the HR—
One.
Two.
Three.
Four—
A concrete from above collided from a pillar from above, which made Ephraim move his hand away from the beeper. He instantaneously moved his hand away from the beeper as an unprecedented falling concrete surrounded him.
"s.h.i.t!" Ephraim curses as a small block found its way to his wrist—
"Berthold! Call the HR!" He exclaims. "Hiroaki! Sam! Esmeralda!"
No answer.
Until.
Until a beeper gets thrown to the ground.
And then a strong arm seized Ephraim as they leaped away from the ground, as a large block of concrete fell to where Ephraim was standing just before. Ephraim turned his gaze to the one who had saved him—
Hiroaki!
He expertly started to dodge the falling blocks, his movement swift. He dodged and parried the blocks with an arm. He jumped away, sideways and upwards, even as the ground shook.
His evasion to the falling concrete lasted for a while. It lasted because Hiroaki Mochizuki had a ground to step to.
Until there hasn"t.
Both Ephraim and Hiroaki fell to obscurity. Ephraim remembers clearly how the building continued to crumble as he fell—he saw how both he and Hiroaki fell somewhere—somewhere beyond the bas.e.m.e.nt. To the abyss of the manor. Somewhere.
Somewhere unexplored.
Hiroaki and Ephraim landed at a pool of water. One in a sequestered s.p.a.ce evidently inhibited, clear from any presence of the living.
"Where is this . . ." Ephraim says as he floats atop the water. He turned around to see where land was. He couldn"t exactly see land anywhere else due to the vast array of water surrounding the entirety. Ephraim noticed the water was flowing somewhere else, taking them with a moderate pull.
Ephraim eyed his beeper—
Damaged.
"d.a.m.n it," he cursed. "Hiroaki! Your beeper—" Ephraim paused as he realizes Hiroaki had thrown his beeper to the ground earlier. His brows furrowed as he goes to Hiroaki.
"Why did you throw your beeper!" Ephraim exclaims, confused. "We could"ve contacted the HR!"
Hiroaki did not respond.
"Hiroaki!" Ephraim exclaims. "Answer me! It was an emergency! Why did you—"
Ephraim paused to stare where Hiroaki was looking at. Or what he was looking at—
Before the two of them was the void.
A waterfall.
They were being pulled by the fall!
"What the h.e.l.l . . ." Ephraim exclaims. "We have to fall back!"
Hiroaki gave no retort.
"Hiroaki!"
Hiroaki Mochizuki stares vacantly as the stream takes them to their doom. Ephraim eyed him as he slowly raised his hand, his index finger pointing somewhere else.
Somewhere down the abyss.
Ephraim eyed what Hiroaki was pointing at.
The figure of a glowing girl.
Before Ephraim could even ask or think about how or what, the stream"s flow instantaneously increased—pushing the two members of the task force to fall to the waterfalls, down to the depths of the chasm of oblivion.
**
"E-Ephraim . . ."
Ephraim flashes a smile to Anna. "The gla.s.s, Anna."
Anna blinked, backing away, as she took several steps backward.
"I believe we have a deal, Anna," Ephraim says. "I helped you. It"s time you return the favor,"
Anna stares at Ephraim for a bit. His smile was unwavering. Anna thought it was like he was a completely different person a moment ago.
"Okay," Anna says. She then swiped her index finger in front of her--in the thin air. A status tab appeared shortly afterward. She clicked on several tabs right after.
u003cu003cUNLOCKEDu003eu003e
A green text appeared to the gla.s.s, and then as if from a fictional movie, the gla.s.s started dissolving like crystal shards fading into nothingness. It was like the pane itself was also a hologram. Ephraim sauntered in front of the gla.s.s pane, pressing his palms to its supposed surface. But it was nothing but thin air now.
"How . . ."
"Top-notch tech, huh?" Says Anna. "Well you"re talking to a Hologram who can have her own will, and has a personality and gender; this shouldn"t surprise you."
". . . I didn"t know AI is this advanced," Ephraim simply answers.
"Aah~ what do you normies even know about tech~?" Anna exclaims.
"I"m living in a technological civilization . . ." says Ephraim. "But I . . . don"t get the science behind this at all. You . . . and this,"
"Aah~ let me explain it to you," says Anna. "You see; technology had advanced over the course of many years. Did you know that the Internet was made for military purposes?"
Ephraim stared at Anna intently as he listens.
"In the early 1960s, the computer networking revolution began and has led us to the technology of today. At first, the Internet was designed for military purposes and then extended to the purpose of communication among scientists. The invention also came about in part by the increasing need for computers in the 1960s." She says.
"But before then . . . people had already started to toy around Artificial Intelligence or AI even before it was ever created," Anna murmurs. "Newell and Simon back in 1955 were already doing the AI Program . . ."
"There are lots of things shawled beneath the Social Medias you delve into, Boy!" Anna exclaims. "This mere hologram gla.s.s, and me, Project ANNA, is nothing compared to what lies beneath ANDROMEDA."
Ephraim narrows his eyes. "You do know the secrets, don"t you?"
Anna smiles. "I think I do, but my system does not,"
Ephraim frowns. "What do you mean?"
Anna jumps to the lab, exiting the simulation ground.
"My system is incomplete, actually," Anna exclaims. "I"m still a fragment of the real me. I still have missing information,"
"But didn"t we retrieve your chip?"
"The one for the security codes, yeah," Anna answers. "You did a very good job on that. You can"t think that my chip will only be one? It doesn"t work like that, Ephraim!"
"Now that you mentioned it . . ." Ephraim exclaims as he thinks about how he had retrieved the chip. "It"s Hiroaki who programmed you, right?"
"Correct," she says. "I"m surprised how he figured how to do so. Geniuses do exist, huh~"
Ephraim leaped to the laboratory, and then as he lands to the floor, he immediately felt the chill run down his spine. He looked to the simulation area, and it seems like Hiroaki, once again, was never to be found. He sighs. His team members did have their own quirks. He had to accept that.
However . . . how is he able to program a hologram that easily? Are agents capable of that, too? Ephraim wasn"t so sure.
"We encounter different people around the world," says Anna, "and we"re going to do so for the end of our years. That"s how real life works. . . so said my Friend on Facebook!"
". . . Facebook?"
"Yes~ I kind of see all things around Discord as well. People really are talkative~"
"Wait, hold on," Ephraim looks down on the small hologram. "How did you know Facebook . . . and wait, you called me "normie" as well,"
"Eeh," Anna tilts her head, as she pouted, her index finger on her chin. "Didn"t I tell you earlier that there"s more to technology than what meets the eye?"
Ephraim gave no response.
"How would you know how I suffered years of boredom?" Asks Anna, "I had to make multiple accounts on social media! I played games, and stuffs like that, y"know? I also know the latest gossips . . . wanna hear one?"
"I thought you were asleep for thirty years?"
"Thirty-five," answers Anna. "Yes, I was. But I am a fragment! I really AM slumbering deep within these walls. Being a fragment is stressful. I had to delete my data over the course of many years—and so I could only remember memes now and some critical information in my software,"
". . . then, you don"t really have the information?"
"I don"t," says Anna. "But I know "I" do. I"m not sure where they stored my other chips."
Ephraim sighs. "This is going to be a really tiring search,"
Anna smiles. "Aren"t you happy you are searching for something now?"
Ephraim sighs once more and smiles.
"Yeah," he exclaims. "Searching for Andromeda . . . or most likely,"
"Searching ON Andromeda," Anna corrects. "Teehee~!"