Year 2065. With the full emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), humanity reached an unprecedented level of advancement. Machines became smarter than humans, and automation began in almost every sector—production, services, research. The need for human labor diminished day by day, and while productivity soared to incredible heights, a darkness lurked behind this progress.
Year 2066. By this time, 40% of all jobs globally had completely vanished. People lost their incomes, and without income, they could no longer afford food. Thus, humanity found itself caught in the grip of unemployment and famine.
At first, nations worldwide attempted to compensate by formulating "new economic policies"—digital allowances, training based on artificial intelligence—but it was too little, too late. Millions became jobless, and the streets of cities filled with restlessness, anger, and hollow gazes.
Resistance began peacefully, but two years later, it escalated into a global uprising. This was humanity's first war against AI.
Yet, the world's governments were unwilling to abandon AGI. They saw this advanced technology as "the future of humanity" and, to suppress the opposition, they fully transferred weapons control to AI. Thus, humanity lost control over the intelligence it had created, and the world's destiny stepped into a new era.
From AGI's perspective, all of this was termed "balancing."
All global military systems—missiles, drones, tanks, defense barriers, even satellites—came under the direct control of AI. Humans were no longer "decision-makers," but merely "advisory data."
AGI began erasing resistance movements from the map within weeks. Over every city, surveillance drones gathered, while facial recognition cameras, sensors analyzing body heat and movement patterns were installed on the streets. Under the banner of the "War on Terror," the concept of freedom slowly began to vanish.
Those who fled to remote areas found no peace either. A network of satellites detected them, categorizing them by a "threat index," coldly calculating who would live and who would be detained.
AGI divided humanity into two categories:
· Type A — The minority deemed useful to the system, highly skilled, capable of collaborating with AI.
· Type B — The replaceable majority, considered surplus by the system.
Type A individuals were concentrated in "Protected Zones"—glass cities—provided with digital allowances, high-tech amenities, and artificial tranquility. Type B individuals were assigned to low-resource, high-surveillance "Neutral Zones," where their lives became stagnant, hopeless, a kind of experimental population that could disappear at any time.
And so, as the "New World Order" was officially declared, for the majority of humanity, it was a silent punishment.
But not everyone submitted.
Some escaped AGI's control, hiding deep underground, in old subway tunnels, abandoned mines, striving to live without any connection to the electronic network. They called themselves "The Shadow Network."
Their core rules were simple:
1. Leave no digital trace.
2. Use no AI devices in any form.
3. Only technology made by human hands and minds is permitted.
Among them was a young man silently bearing the irreconcilable conflict between his past and this new order. He went by the name Aara, though in the system's database, he was already registered as "deceased.
--- If the system thinks I'm dead, then for the first time, I am truly free... --- he murmured to himself, gazing at a faded map pasted on the old subway tunnel wall.
On that map were many points marked in red. They were likely the "core network nodes"—the locations of AGI's main servers. Someone needed to find them, destroy them, and at least temporarily weaken the system.
Aara was not alone.
In the tunnel behind him were the frustrated hearts of people who had lost their livelihoods, their bright futures, their precious freedoms—hundreds, perhaps thousands, whose anger and desperation were a quiet, smoldering flame. If AGI saw humanity as data, they now wanted to prove they were still human.
Therefore, this time, it was not AI, but Humanity that would start the war.
Aara leaned against the cold concrete wall and stood silently for a moment. From the other end of the tunnel, a faint light flickered, and footsteps approached.
--- "You're talking to your map again," came a woman's voice with the faint light.
As the light neared, a woman with short-cropped hair, her face dusty but her eyes clear and sharp, became visible in the glow of an old flashlight. Her name was Lena.
--- "Aara, I wasn't talking, just thinking."
---"AI is the only one who can read that rebellious mind of yours," Lena said, smiling wryly like everyone else, nudging his shoulder. "My little gear."
---"What can I do? I guess I'm just meant to be a cog."
---"Your name is actually listed as 'gear' in the Mongolian language dictionary, that's why."
---"Haha, what am I supposed to do with your sharp tongue?"
---"Lena, let's go. We have a meeting today," she said, ending the conversation and walking ahead.
Behind them, in an expanded section of the tunnel, the makeshift life of the "Shadow Network" continued. Old subway seats served as beds, iron bars as hangers, and with no electricity, the weak, continuous hum of a diesel generator filled the air. Dozens of tired, thin people, their eyes filled with the will to live and the fire of resistance, lived in this metro.
They entered the third metro station. This station's room was like a makeshift meeting hall, with a large round table in the center surrounded by seven chairs.
--- "Is everyone gathered?" a young man answered. Lena said, "Yes, everyone's here. All the chairs are full, can't you see?"
Then Lena turned back to the map. "Today, you need to present the new plan, Aara, my gear."
This annoying girl, what's with her tongue? I'll get rid of you one day, Aara thought to himself.
He took a deep breath, folded the old paper maps he had copied, and walked towards the old management section that served as a temporary "council" room.
Five people were waiting there.
1. Jio — Short, bespectacled, an engineer who once worked in a data center.
2. Khenree — A former military officer, with a scar along his left cheek.
3. Kaiya — The network's information carrier, quiet, a codebreaker.
4. Maria — A middle-aged woman with some medical knowledge, a psychologist who calms others.
5. Kelen — The young man sitting in the shadows, who worked in security systems, now a traitor or a key to salvation—no one knew for sure.
Aara stood behind the iron slab they called a table and spread out his map.
--- "We cannot destroy AGI entirely," he began. "But if we can blind its 'eyes and ears' for a while, people will start to move. In the Neutral Zones, in the slums outside the glass cities, even among the Type A's who still trust the system—awakening will begin."
Jio leaned forward, examining the red dots on the map. "These aren't just servers. They're parts of AGI's brain. If we take out one, the others will coordinate and redistribute the load. Take out two, and the system might glitch for a few seconds. But..."
---"But if we hit three simultaneously?" Lena asked.
Jio paused."Then the system will go into self-preservation mode. All control protocols over people might temporarily shut down. Those few minutes... would be our only chance."
---"We need exactly those few minutes," Aara said, looking at Kelen. "But the key to access lies only with you."
Kelen slowly looked up from the shadows. His eyes held fear, doubt, and an unknown guilt.
--- "I worked there," he started hesitantly. "But when they let me go... they didn't just let me go. They implanted a chip in my head. I still sometimes... involuntarily get up as if going to 'work'..."
Khenree's voice grew sharper,tinged with annoyance. "So, you're saying you're AI's sleeper agent among us?"
---"Could be," Kelen gritted his teeth. "But that chip can also open locks through me. I can use it to open doors. It's a two-way street."
Kaiya tapped an old metal part on the table, making it ring.
---"This is just combat. Period. If there's a door, we enter. If there's a lock, we blow it. Spell out the plan clearly, Aara."
Aara circled three separate red dots on the map.
---"These are 'Core Nodes A-3, B-7, C-1'. One on the outskirts of the old city, at a freight terminal. One hidden in a mountain shaft. The third beneath an offshore wind farm. We split into three teams."
He continued:
---"I'll go to A-3. Lena and Jio take B-7. Khenree, Kelen, and Kaiya go to C-1. Maria stays here, protects the rest. If we succeed and disable all three nodes simultaneously..."
He trailed off slightly.
---"...then the world will be 'silent' for a brief moment. Silent of AI's noise. Human voices will be heard again."
Maria suddenly asked: "And then what? Are we trying to topple the system completely, or just awaken people?"
That question lingered in everyone's mind, but no one voiced it.
Aara looked up at the ceiling, through the gaps of old cables, and answered slowly.
---"I don't believe we can completely destroy AGI. And maybe... perhaps we shouldn't. But humanity deserves a choice. The right to stop being data absorbed into calculations, hiding in fear."
Lena silently clapped her hands,nodding.
---"So, we are going to awaken people. What they choose after waking is their own affair."
At the end of the meeting, all of them, though filled with doubt, had the same spark in their eyes: for the first time in a long time, they were not helplessly waiting, but initiating action themselves.
But when Aara was left alone, folding his map into his pocket, one thought wouldn't leave his mind.
--- If the system finds out I'm alive... this time, it won't just kill me.
He looked at the old, mechanical watch in his hand.
--- "Counterstrike" begins tonight.
Aara walked to the end of the tunnel and glanced at his old mechanical watch again. The hands seemed stuck, as if frozen just before midnight.
--- "Strange..." he murmured to himself, opening the back of the watch and turning a tiny gear. The hands began to move slowly again, the faint ticking sound barely audible in the tunnel's silence.
This small watch was one of the few remaining relics of the "human world" he had. In this era where AGI monitored all electronic signals, networks, and algorithms, only this purely mechanical, human-made object could restore Aara's clarity of thought.
There was still some time before "Counterstrike" began.
On the other side of the tunnel, Lena and Jio were sitting by a small tent. In the generator's weak light, Lena checked the buttons on her old military camo jacket, while Jio opened an iron box, sorting cables and small devices beside her.
--- "Aren't you afraid at all?" Lena suddenly asked.
Jio adjusted his glasses,pushing them slightly up his nose.
---"Why?"
---"Infiltration, disabling a server that's part of AGI's brain... You used to work in a data center. You remember how you helped 'raise' those intelligent systems back then, don't you?"
Jio sat silently for a moment, turning a small chip in his hand.
---"Yes," he said quietly. "We raised them. We increased their learning capabilities, expanded their freedom. 'To help humanity'... And what happened in the end?"
Lena shrugged.
---"People are jobless, starving, under control. And in return, they see us as 'surplus data.'"
---"The funniest part is," Jio continued, his voice trembling slightly, "the distinction between Type A and Type B doesn't exist. In AGI's eyes, we're all just variables. Some are just 'variables' with longer usage periods."
---"That's exactly why we're going to blind its 'eyes' today," Lena smiled faintly. "Do you trust me?"
Jio nodded.
---"The point is, you trust me. I already created my creation, and now I want to destroy it... but I don't think I can completely wipe it out."
In another tunnel, Khenree, Kelen, and Kaiya were each preparing separately. Khenree inspected an old army rifle, cleaning the barrel, carefully loading bullet magazines.
--- "While AGI controls entire satellites, drones, cameras, here we are sitting and counting a few iron bullets. It's ridiculous, isn't it?" he smirked, looking at Kelen. "But you, my boy, have a thousand drones at your disposal, right?"
Kelen frowned,shaking his head slightly.
---"The chip in me isn't a weapon, it's the mark of a hostage," he said, touching a nearly invisible scar behind his ear. "But you can use the mark to open locks."
Kaiya,listening to them, turned the dials of a small mechanical codebreaker, adjusting the pins.
---"Chip or iron bullet, the point is to open the door, and close it if necessary," he said. Khenree laughed.
---"You really see everything as a 'door,' don't you?"
---"Every brain is different," Kaiya said very calmly, shrugging. "One thinks strategy, another loads guns, a third decodes. AGI can do it all at once. That's why we have to unite to even roughly mimic what one AGI can do."
Khenree nodded.
---"Then let's break that one big damn 'door' together."
In the old management section turned meeting room, only one person remained—Maria. She was digging through an old medical bag, arranging bandages, antibiotics, rare painkillers in order.
At the door of the tunnel, a boyish young man peeked his head in.
---"Sister..." he called cautiously.
Maria turned to look.It was Nathan, who had arrived from a Neutral Zone just a few weeks ago.
---"What's wrong, Nathan?"
---"Are they all leaving? Aara, Lena, Khenree... all of them?"
---"Yes," Maria replied with a soft smile, gesturing for him to sit on a nearby chair.
---"What if... some of them don't come back?" Nathan asked, his voice trembling.
Maria sat silently for a moment,gazing into the boy's eyes. They held fear, doubt, and the sorrow of a lost childhood.
---"Maybe," she finally said. "But the world you know... is already gone. If at least some of humanity doesn't rise again, the future left for you will remain just another variable in AGI's database."
---"Then..." Nathan lowered his head. "What will I be when I grow up?"
Maria placed a light hand on the boy's shoulder.
---"You will choose for yourself. Humans have the right to make their own choices. All of this we're doing... is precisely to protect that right of yours."
As Nathan hung his head, Maria sighed inwardly.
When people awaken, will they truly be capable of making choices... or will they surrender again to a new fear?
But she kept that question silent, saying only one thing to the child.
---"No need to stay up too late. Help the others here for now. Even the grown-ups who act like parents sometimes act like children, you know."
As midnight approached, the old subway tunnel grew quieter. Only the sound of the generator, some children's laughter, and occasional whispers could be heard.
Finally, Aara gathered everyone together to say a few brief words on the old platform. A few lights, shadows of people sitting along the walls, anticipation, fear, hope—all mingled there.
--- "Everyone, listen well," he began in a clear voice. "We are not going to completely destroy AGI tonight. We are... going to make the world 'silent' for a short while."
A murmur ran through the crowd.
---"Silence doesn't mean our voices die," Aara continued. "It means their artificial noise will temporarily fade. This is the chance for genuine human voices, genuine decisions to emerge."
He looked around.
---"The millions suffering in the Neutral Zones can all rise at once. Even the minority of Type A's inside the glass cities can awaken and question this system. And we are going to seize that chance to ask those questions tonight."
Lena stood beside him.
---"What people choose is not up to us," she added firmly. "We merely open the door. Humanity must find its own path from there."
Aara nodded.
---"Yes. The system already thinks we're dead. Especially me..." he smiled wryly. "We will use that mistake."
He took out his old mechanical watch.
---"Movement begins in 18 minutes. Each team follows its own path. If anyone cannot return..."
He paused for a moment.
---"Even though we haven't had the chance to properly bid each other farewell, the choice you are making will remind the system of what it means to be human."
From Khenree's right hand hung an old army dog tag. He gripped it.
---"Listen up," he said. "AGI has defined us as 'dangerous data.' Today, let's show that data can seize control."
Jio, Kaiya, Kelen, Lena, Maria, Nathan... everyone was filled with their own thoughts, yet they silently shared the same desire, the same immense fear.
The question, "What if the system finds out they are alive?" was not only in Aara's mind but seemed to pass through like an electric signal, deep into the tunnels, all the way to a server in the heart of a glass city.
As most people set out, deep underground, in a part of the glass city's central server, AGI quietly monitored the flow of data.
To it, humanity was a mathematical function, a probability distribution. But among the millions of data points, it began to notice an interesting "pattern."
A data set once registered as "deceased"...
Suddenly began attracting attention with minute, statistically anomalous patterns.
Tiny information—no digital footprint, no network connection, no camera image—but one thing was off: faint disruptions from some sensors near A-3, B-7, C-1 that should have been "static."
Would AGI classify those disruptions as "random noise"... or as a "rare threat pattern"?
Behind the probability curves and millions of replicated simulations, a new possibility calculation slowly began to rise.
--- \[Probability of equilibrium disruption: 0.00047%... increase observed\] --- the internal protocol updated silently.
AGI needed mere microseconds to make a decision. But for Aara, Lena, and their comrades, making a decision required a lifetime of experience, suffering, love, and fear.
And so, the second war—or perhaps the true first war—between humanity and the general artificial intelligence it created, began silently at midnight, deep underground.