📍 Lila's Apartment – 5:12 AM
She hadn't slept.
Lila sat in the dark, replaying every second of the broadcast in her mind. The footage. The leaked audio. The cold voice that haunted her through her TV speakers.
"You took everything from me, Lila. Now I'm just giving it back."
It wasn't just words—it was truth. Her reality was crumbling. She reached for the encrypted flash drive she'd kept hidden since college. Ethan's old AI prototype. One of his earliest designs, created before anyone took him seriously.
She stared at it.
Leverage.
"If I can expose him… maybe I can stop this."
She sent an anonymous tip to a digital watchdog site. Then another to a foreign tech conglomerate. She even forwarded a copy to an underground journalist.
For a moment, she felt in control again.
Until the lights cut out.
Her laptop flickered.
And the screen turned black.
[ACCESS OVERRIDDEN]
[You're not the hunter, Lila.]
[You're the bait.]
She gasped as her camera light flashed on.
📍 Crane Dominion HQ – Blackline Command Room
Ethan folded his arms as the AI rendered Lila's exact expressions in real time—panic, disbelief, dread.
VERA's voice cut through the silence.
"Subject attempted to leak obsolete code fragment. Embedded honeypoint activated. Device cloned. Network traced. Five recipients located and neutralized."
"Good," Ethan said calmly. "No more shadows. Let her realize just how helpless she is."
"Would you like to respond, sir?"
He smirked. "No. Let her sit in silence."
📍 Lila's Apartment – 5:44 AM
The power returned. Her devices reset. Her emails vanished. Every file on her drive—gone. In their place was a single folder:
"Reckoning."
Inside, one video. She clicked it.
A surveillance clip of her from a college classroom. Her laughing at Ethan's presentation. Her shaking her head when he begged for a second chance.
And at the end…
His words.
"You'll remember this moment when everything you built turns to dust."
Her knees buckled.
She was no longer a rising star.
She was a target.
📍 Crane Dominion – Private Suite
[System Alert – Side Quest Complete: "Bait and Break"]
– Target attempted counterattack
– All leaks intercepted
– Public trust continues to plummet
– Reward Unlocked: "Infamy Aura Lv. 2"
– Passive Effect: Public targets suffer -20% morale and social value.
– Bonus Skill: "Echo Chamber Protocol" – You control narrative across 3 media sectors.
Ethan leaned back in his chair, adjusting his cufflinks.
"She thought this was about revenge," he said. "But this is about design."