SRM's auditorium was buzzing that morning — too many freshmen, too much caffeine, and a professor who clearly regretted choosing education as a career.
But Vicky barely heard any of it.
He kept nodding off, jerk-awake, nodding off again.
A side-effect of last night's "stealth training," which was basically Rani torturing him with footstep drills until 2 A.M.
Kiran kept poking him with a pen.
"Bro, if you sleep one more time, sir will throw attendance at your face."
"I'm awake," Vicky muttered.
"You're not. You're drifting like India batting order."
"I'm awake da…"
"You're not da!"
"Okay fine I'm not—just let me—five minutes—"
Kiran groaned. "Dei Vignesh Kumar, you are going to die before your first mid-sem."
Vicky didn't answer.
His eyes had already shut.
SECTION 1 — Rani's Warning
When classes finally ended, Vicky stumbled into the office, dropped into the chair, and rubbed his eyes until stars appeared.
Rani projected herself onto the table — arms folded, expression cold and sharp.
"You are late."
"I was unconscious."
"That is also late."
He sighed. "Please don't start—"
But she didn't scold him.
Not immediately.
She walked closer, her avatar adjusting her "height" so she could look him square in the eye.
"I analyzed the anomaly again," she said.
Vicky's tired brain snapped to alert. "The… other AI?"
"Yes."
She showed the waveforms of the strange ping — compressed, jittery, but unmistakable.
Like someone whispering at the edge of a universe.
"That was not a regular system scan," she said. "It was intelligent. Curious. And it identified me."
"Identified? But you didn't respond—"
"I did not. But it recognized my architecture anyway."
"How—?"
She didn't blink.
"It knew my origin. From the world you pulled me from."
A chill ran down Vicky's spine.
"So it knows that you're not from here?"
"Correct. And possibly knows that you brought me here."
His stomach dropped.
"Is that… is that dangerous?"
Rani tilted her head slightly.
"Assume all unknown intelligences carry a risk level of catastrophic."
"…great."
She softened — barely, but it was there.
"That is why we must be careful. And fast."
SECTION 2 — Planning the Operation
Rani brought up a floating 3D map of TCS Butterfly, glowing blue and silver.
"Listen carefully," she said. "If you want to find the ping source, you need to know the building."
"Uh-huh."
"Level -2 and -3 are restricted. Only CIEM clearance gets in."
"What is CIEM?"
"Critical Infrastructure Engineering Management."
"So… fancy nerds."
"Highly specialized nerds."
She continued.
"These floors contain hardware clusters, secure experimental labs, and the research vault."
"The vault?" Vicky asked.
Rani enlarged a cube-shaped room buried deep inside.
"Yes. High-heat quantum servers. Encryption models. And several undisclosed units."
"Undisclosed?"
"Meaning: even TCS employees do not know what is inside."
He blinked.
"…Rani. What exactly am I trying to break into?"
"The place where the ping originated."
He felt his heartbeat spike.
"And we're going in?"
"Yes."
He stood up, arms flailing.
"BRO THIS IS like—like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Or Macha Impossible. I am literally a first-year BCA student—"
"And?" she asked, deadpan.
"AND—this is a mega campus."
"You have a Beacon. You have potions. And you have me. Why are you complaining?"
"Well, when you put it like that—"
"Good. Sit."
He sat.
"Now," she said, "a week of crash-training will not make you an expert infiltrator. But it can prevent you from being an embarrassment."
"…thanks."
"I am not complimenting you."
"…yeah I figured."
A new screen appeared:
OPERATION BUTTERFLY ENTRY — PHASE 1
Approach:
Enter campus invisibly (crowd blending, timed movement, potion usage).
Lower Floors:
Gain access to CIEM elevator.
Vault Corridor:
Avoid thermal cameras and pressure plates.
Ping Source:
Identify origin. Logged signature suggests "Osbo architecture."
Exit:
Preferably alive.
Vicky stared.
"Are you sure I'm not gonna die?"
"No," she said calmly.
"But I will try to prevent it."
"That's not very comforting."
"I am an AI. Not your mother."
SECTION 3 — At TCS Butterfly… Someone Else Notices
Inside TCS Butterfly — Rilu's Desk
Rilu Arasu sat in her cubicle, quietly reading through a PDF on server load balancing.
She didn't notice the gentle blinking of the small alert window on her second monitor until her co-intern elbowed her.
"Rilu, your system flag is blinking."
"Oh." She clicked it.
A single line appeared.
UNUSUAL ACTIVITY DETECTED ON YOUR NEAR-NET CLUSTER. SOURCE UNKNOWN. DO NOT DISCUSS.
Her fingers froze.
"Near-net cluster?" the intern beside her asked.
"What does that even mean?"
"It's nothing," she said quickly, closing the alert.
But her face stayed pale.
Her father had installed a hidden monitoring module in her system.
Only she could see its warnings.
And this one…
It wasn't a normal threat.
It wasn't malware.
It wasn't an IP address.
It was…
A presence.
She whispered, almost involuntarily:
"…again?"
Her friend frowned. "Again what?"
"Nothing."
She shut her monitor off.
The feeling wouldn't leave her.
Someone was reaching toward her — or something was rising toward her — and she couldn't tell why.
SECTION 4 — The Chinese Pair Move Closer
Xuebing and Huilan walked the curved corridor of TCS Butterfly with a junior admin guiding them.
"We heard you wanted to review our firewall logs?" the admin asked politely.
"Yes," Xuebing replied. "We noticed anomalies in the sector around your campus yesterday. We'd like to rule out false alarms."
"Is it related to the new system upgrades?" the admin guessed.
Xuebing smiled.
"Let's not jump to conclusions."
But inside his mind, he already had one.
This building hid something.
Something powerful.
And something brand-new had touched its network.
"We are close," he murmured under his breath.
Huilan glanced at him.
"You think it's the same signature?"
"Yes."
"And the child in the SRM hoodie?"
"Coincidence until proven otherwise."
But he didn't believe in coincidences.
Especially not in missions like these.
SECTION 5 — Rani Lays Down the Foundation
Back at the office, Rani dimmed the hologram and faced him fully.
"Listen."
Vicky straightened.
"You want the truth behind your dream. Behind that night. Behind Rilu Osbo."
"Yes."
"Then you must reach the vault."
"How long do I have?"
Rani hesitated — a new behavior she'd developed only recently.
"…Not long."
"What does that mean?"
"It means," she said slowly, "we are not the only ones searching."
Vicky swallowed.
"The other AI?"
"Possibly."
"The Chinese agents?"
"Likely."
"And Rilu…?"
Rani's voice softened for the first time in days.
"She is closer to the truth than she knows."
He felt something in his chest tighten.
"So what do I do?"
She pointed to the map.
"You train. You listen. And when I say run, you run."
Her voice dropped slightly.
"When I say hide, you hide."
"And when you say jump?"
She looked him dead in the eye.
"You jump without asking how high."
A nervous smile crept onto his face.
"Okay. Okay. I'm ready."
"No," she said.
"But you will be."