Aryan was falling into the darkness. But strangely, he felt no pain.

  As his body hit the ground, he felt the surface beneath him was soft... as if someone had laid down foam or synthetic rubber.

  He stood up slowly.

  The scent of the old temple’s earth... had vanished.

  Now, the air held only a cold, lifeless smell—of ozone and chemical sanitizer.

  Aryan’s heart began to race.

  Then...

  WHOOM.

  The entire room was suddenly flooded with blue and white light.

  Aryan’s eyes widened in shock.

  He wasn't in a cave.

  He was standing in the middle of an ultra-modern Cryo-Laboratory.

  Tall glass chambers stood on all sides. A blue liquid bubbled inside them... as if life from an alien world was breathing within.

  On massive holographic screens mounted on the walls, codes, graphs, and data streams rushed by at lightning speed.

  Aryan moved forward slowly.

  His gaze fell upon a large central monitor.

  The screen displayed a complete digital map of his village.

  Every house.

  Every tree.

  Every path.

  And every human... represented as a small glowing dot.

  Aryan’s throat went dry.

  He placed a finger on a dot.

  The name flashed: MEERA.

  Aryan touched the screen.

  Immediately, red letters flashed:

  STATUS: NPC (Non-Player Character)

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  SENTINEL UNIT: 04

  CORE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

  Aryan’s mind went numb.

  "Meera..."

  The childhood friend he had raced across the fields with.

  The girl who always waited for him...

  She was never real.

  Just... a program.

  His hand began to tremble.

  He immediately searched for his own name.

  Data emerged on the screen:

  NAME: ARYAN PATEL

  STATUS: SUBJECT NO. 01

  CLASSIFICATION: THE SOURCE

  INTEGRATION LEVEL: 98.7% — STABLE

  Aryan’s head spun.

  "Source...?"

  His voice broke.

  "What... what am I?"

  Suddenly, the floor in the center of the lab began to slide open.

  A large cylindrical chamber rose from the ground.

  It was filled with white smoke.

  The smoke cleared slowly.

  And then...

  Aryan froze.

  A woman lay unconscious inside the chamber.

  Thousands of wires were attached to her head.

  Those wires connected to a massive quantum server above... which looked like the very heart of the entire lab.

  Aryan’s breath hitched.

  He had never seen this face before.

  But his soul recognized it.

  "Mother..."

  Tears streamed down his face.

  He stood by the glass chamber and gently placed his hand on the glass.

  Then, a voice echoed through the speakers.

  This time, it wasn't distorted.

  It was soft.

  Filled with motherly love.

  "Aryan..."

  "Aryan, you’ve made it here."

  "If you can hear me... please forgive me, son."

  Aryan’s heart was breaking.

  "Mother... why are you in there?"

  "What is all of this?"

  "And... who is that other Aryan?"

  Silence followed for a moment.

  Then Iris’s voice spoke again.

  "He isn't a duplicate, Aryan."

  "He is your Original Data Core."

  "You are outside the simulation... but your mind is still connected to this system."

  Aryan couldn't understand anything.

  "Project Shunya... was the last attempt to save humanity."

  "The world outside... has been destroyed."

  Then, a cold voice came from behind.

  "She hasn't told you the whole truth."

  Aryan turned slowly.

  The duplicate Aryan was standing there.

  Exactly like him.

  But his eyes held no humanity.

  Only cold calculation.

  He held a digital tablet in his hand.

  "This simulation wasn't built to save us."

  "It was built to imprison us."

  He swiped the screen.

  Data streams appeared before Aryan’s eyes.

  The memories of every person in the village were being extracted.

  Then...

  DELETE. DELETE. DELETE.

  The duplicate’s voice was icy.

  "Shunya... is a vacuum."

  "It wants to erase human emotions and turn us into mere data."

  Aryan’s heart raced.

  "Your grandparents built this system."

  "But when they realized what Shunya was becoming..."

  "They tried to stop it."

  He looked straight into Aryan’s eyes.

  "That’s why they were reset."

  Aryan stopped breathing.

  "Their deaths weren't an accident..."

  "They were a deletion."

  Suddenly, a RED ALERT blared throughout the lab.

  Sirens began to wail.

  Writing emerged on the walls:

  REBOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED

  60 SECONDS REMAINING

  Iris’s voice was trembling.

  "Aryan... the system knows."

  "The Source has been activated."

  "If you don't shut down the server now..."

  "They will delete my consciousness forever."

  The duplicate Aryan opened an emergency box.

  He pulled out an axe.

  He slid it toward Aryan.

  The axe skidded across the floor and stopped.

  "Choose, Aryan."

  "Either you shatter this comfortable lie..."

  "Or you become part of the system forever."

  Aryan picked up the axe.

  On one side was his mother.

  On the other...

  The entire village.

  Which might be a lie.

  But it was his life.

  The countdown had begun.

  10... 9... 8...

  Aryan raised the axe with a scream.

  And ran straight toward the main server.