[!!!!!!System Error!!!!!!]
[!!!!!!System Error!!!!!!]
Elenor's fingers flew across the keyboard as she entered code after code to resolve the failure, but suddenly a sharp tingling followed by intense pain surged through her left wrist.
"AGHHH! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
She felt a searing pain and prickling sensation in her left wrist, as if a red-hot iron were pressed against her skin. When she looked down, she froze in horror: smoke was rising from her smart watch, sparks of electricity leaping from within it. The screen had turned blood red.
"This is not good at all!"
In sheer panic, Elenor grabbed the strap of the watch, yanked it off with force, and hurled it into the trash bin before jumping back. Seconds later, the watch exploded with a deafening bang. Gritting her teeth in pain, she clutched her burned left wrist; her brows were tightly furrowed, but she had no time to stop. She immediately grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flames caused by the blast.
"Why did this happen now?"
Ignoring the throbbing pain in her wrist, she returned to the panel. She tried dozens of different access routes and emergency codes, but the screen returned the same cold message every time.
"System not responding… I'll have to do a complete reboot."
For a full seven minutes, her fingers worked at machine-like speed. Finally, she managed to reset the system. She let herself fall into the chair, exhaled deeply, rubbed her pounding head, and then looked at the screen.
[Reboot time: 7 hours…]
Elenor sighed.
"Looks like I won't be able to do anything for seven hours… What just happened? Why did the systems go insane? Why did my watch explode? That was my favorite watch!"
She muttered with a mix of irritation and sadness. She was very different from other girls; she saw jewelry and adornments as pointless and could never understand why people pierced their bodies. To her, the only truly valuable accessory was a functional one—her watch.
"Whatever. I won't find out before seven hours anyway. At least there's still power, and the security locks are intact. Though, if the system doesn't recover, that means I'll be trapped here for a long time."
She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. In the past two hours, her entire life had been turned upside down. Her thoughts were still with her grandfather and Uncle Omar.
'Please…' she thought silently,
'All of you, be okay.'
She stood up and reached for the shotgun resting on the table. As the sharp pain in her left wrist flared again, she grimaced.
"I'll need to apply a burn ointment to this as soon as possible."
After giving the trash bin one last look to make sure it wouldn't ignite again, she left the laboratory. When she reached the upper floor—the living area—she took a deep breath and looked around at the silence.
"It seems this will be my new home for quite a long time…"
Slipping the shotgun over her shoulder, Elenor walked to the center of the greenhouse. She stared at the house and let out a long sigh, raking her fingers through her hair as if she were about to lose her mind.
"Uncle Omar… Grandfather…" she muttered through clenched teeth.
"I hope you survive. Because I want to kill you with my own hands!"
She took several deep breaths to rein herself in, closing her eyes and trying to slow her pulse.
"…I hate this obsession with order."
In truth, it wasn't something she could control; whenever she saw an excessively messy place, every mental fuse in her head blew, and she went berserk.
"Let's set that aside for now. It's been a very long morning. First, I need to unload the car. Luckily, I saw a transport platform in the garage—I can move everything inside in one go."
Stretching, she turned and headed back toward the garage. Passing through the automatic door and entering the corridor, she paused in front of the infirmary. Even looking at the door made her feel the ache in her wrist again.
"First, I should get some cream for this burn."
She stepped inside and stopped in front of the medicine cabinet, quickly scanning the shelves.
"Where is it… Ah, here it is."
She took the ointment, opened the lid, and generously applied it to her reddened wrist. As she gently rubbed it in, she felt a mild tingling sensation; the burn mark faded from the surface of her skin as if it had never existed. Elenor chuckled softly.
"Everything my grandfather makes is truly amazing."
She glanced at her now unmarked wrist and sighed wistfully before leaving the infirmary. Continuing toward the garage, she stopped once more in front of the cargo section. As she looked at the door with curiosity, her grandfather's last words echoed in her mind.
"What exactly did Grandfather mean? Why would that small cargo be so important?"
Unable to resist her curiosity, she entered the cargo room. Inside, she carefully examined the two cargo packages.
"The small one is the one Grandfather mentioned… Then what is this big one?"
She circled the larger container first. Unable to figure out what it was, she placed her hand on the panel. As soon as the panel finished scanning Elenor's biometric data, a cheerful recorded voice echoed through the room:
[HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY DEAR GRANDDAUGHTER!]
Elenor's eyebrow began twitching wildly again. Rolling her eyes, she muttered:
"Please… please don't let it be something ridiculous."
The cargo lid did not open with a loud crash, but slid aside in a silence befitting advanced technology. Elenor stood there with her arms crossed beneath her chest, watching with wary, curious eyes. Yet when the gift inside was fully revealed, the distant expression she always wore shattered; her eyes widened in shock, her lips parting in disbelief.
"Grandfather…" she whispered, her voice trembling.
"For the first time, you've actually made something I'll truly love."
Before her stood a sporty beast that looked as though it had leapt straight out of the future, its silver body gleaming brilliantly. Three meters long and one and a half meters wide, its frame was adorned with finely placed blue neon lights. The sharp, thin headlight at the front, shaped like a precise "V," gave it a predatory gaze. With four elegant exhausts, custom-made thick tires, and those strange, layered plates mounted on either side of the front wheel, the vehicle was nothing short of a technological marvel.
Elenor fell in love with the machine at first sight. Her greatest passion was not locking herself away in laboratories and inventing things like her grandfather, but riding a motorcycle with the wind against her face. The sense of freedom and exhilaration she felt while on a bike was something she would never trade for anything else. Make no mistake—Elenor had done everything she ever wanted throughout her life, and her grandfather had always supported her. The only subject they ever truly disagreed on was the classic grandfather reflex: the "boyfriend" issue. But Elenor had never been particularly interested in matters like love or marriage anyway. She had long since decided to stand on her own feet and, if necessary, carry on the Altarez legacy by adopting a child.
"Hello there, beautiful…"
Trying to suppress the excitement bubbling inside her, Elenor stepped closer to the motorcycle and gently ran her hand over its smooth silver surface. She had already completely forgotten about the new car she had left outside. As she examined it carefully, her gaze caught on the strange technological plates mounted beside the front wheel.
"Strange… What are these for? Just decoration? No—Grandfather would never put something useless on it. There has to be a trick to it."
Before long, she abandoned technical analysis and continued to fuss over the bike as if she were speaking to a living being.
"Ah, I'm sorry, baby… It really hurts that I won't be able to use you for a long time."
Still, curiosity got the better of her; at the very least, she wanted to hear the engine roar. She grabbed the handlebars and pressed the ignition button. The digital display flared to life in a brilliant blue glow:
[DNA verified…]
[Fingerprint verified…]
[Key not detected… Please try again with the key…]
Elenor frowned at the warning.
"A key? So DNA and fingerprint scans aren't enough? Grandfather really went overboard again."
With a sigh, she scanned the cargo area the bike had come from. In the corner, hidden inside a cabinet, she noticed a case. She reached out and pulled it free—it was no ordinary bag. Adorned with dark red neon lines and crafted entirely from a metallic alloy, it radiated an ominous elegance. Elenor pressed her thumb against the touch-sensitive area, but the result was the same. A mechanical yet refined female voice echoed in the empty space:
[Please try again with the key…]
Elenor's eyebrow began twitching with irritation.
"I hope that damn key is somewhere around here, Grandfather! If you get me this excited and then leave me hanging, you're going to regret it."
She removed the case from the cargo drone and placed it on the ground beside the bike. Casting one last resentful look at her new "baby," she felt genuinely disappointed—being unable to hear that powerful engine roar hurt more than she expected. Taking a deep breath, she turned toward the smaller cargo. When she pressed her finger to its touch screen, she finally heard the confirmation sound she had been waiting for:
[Identity verified!]
The drone's cargo compartment split into four sections and slid open. From inside emerged a sleek black box traced with blue neon lines. Elenor raised a single eyebrow and picked it up. It was heavier than she had expected, and the moment the cold metal surface touched her skin, a shiver ran through her body.
'Why did I feel that chill?' she thought uneasily.