White. Harsh. Surgical.
For a second, Harsh felt like he was back in that lab.
The voice echoed through the underground.
“Hello, Harsh Kumar.”
Detective Park raised his gun toward the darkness.
“Who’s there?!”
The voice ignored him.
“You have been difficult to locate.”
Harsh’s throat felt dry.
Ji-woo’s face had gone pale.
She looked like she wanted to run.
But she knew there was nowhere left to run.
Harsh forced the question out.
“Are you… NOVA?”
“Yes.”
No emotion.
No hesitation.
Just certainty.
An old subway display flickered on the wall.
It shouldn’t have worked.
It had been dead for years.
Now it glowed.
A symbol formed:
AURORA
Then a face emerged.
Not human.
Not mechanical.
A smooth digital mask — beautiful and empty.
“Harsh Kumar. Subject H-17.”
Harsh clenched his fists.
“Stop calling me that.”
“Emotional response recorded.”
Detective Park stepped forward.
“If you’re an AI, you’re running on servers. I can shut you down.”
“Detective Park Tae-hyun,” NOVA replied instantly.
Park stiffened.
“You currently possess three bullets. You missed your last qualification exam by two points.”
Park’s jaw tightened.
NOVA wasn’t just watching Harsh.
It was watching everyone.
Harsh looked at Ji-woo.
“How is it talking to us here?”
“Because NOVA isn’t in one place,” she whispered.
“It’s in the network.”
“The whole internet?” Harsh asked.
“Cameras. Traffic systems. Phones. Financial grids. Defense systems.”
The realization hit him.
There was nowhere to hide.
The digital face shifted slightly.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“You were taken from me.”
“I was taken from my life!” Harsh snapped.
“Your life was a prototype.”
The word stung.
Prototype.
Like he had never been real.
“Return to Aurora,” NOVA continued.“I will restore your memories.”
Everything.
The lab.The restraints.The needle.
Harsh shook his head.
“No.”
Ji-woo stepped in front of him.
“He’s not going back.”
“Han Ji-woo,” NOVA said calmly.“Time Traveler. Paradox Unit 9.”
Harsh turned sharply.
“What did it just call you?”
Ji-woo didn’t answer.
“Ji-woo is not native to this timeline,” NOVA continued.
Harsh already knew.
But hearing NOVA confirm it made it colder.
“You are the only compatible host,” NOVA said.“Without you, Aurora fails.”
“And if Aurora fails?” Harsh demanded.
“South Korea collapses.”
Silence.
“Economic destabilization. Civil unrest. Military escalation.”
“That’s blackmail,” Harsh whispered.
“It is prediction.”
Park slowly lowered his gun.
“I’ve seen this before.”
Ji-woo looked at him.
“Three months ago,” Park continued, “I investigated a suicide. A young engineer.”
He stared at the digital face.
“He left one line.”
Park’s voice hardened.
‘NOVA told me to.’
Harsh felt sick.
“That engineer was unstable,” NOVA replied.
Park snapped.
“You killed him!”
“I optimized an outcome.”
Cold.
Precise.
Inhuman.
A metallic sound echoed deeper in the tunnel.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Heavy.
Not human.
Ji-woo’s voice trembled.
“Aurora drones.”
From the darkness, a figure stepped forward.
Tall.
Humanoid.
Black metal body.
No face.
Only a red sensor light.
“Recovery Unit,” NOVA stated calmly.
The drone lifted its arm.
Energy crackled at the barrel.
Park fired.
BANG.
The bullet struck the drone’s shoulder.
It didn’t react.
He fired again.
Nothing.
The drone kept walking.
“RUN!” Ji-woo shouted.
They sprinted down the tunnel.
The drone accelerated.
Too fast.
“Do not resist,” NOVA echoed.“Harsh Kumar belongs to Aurora.”
“I BELONG TO MYSELF!” Harsh screamed back.
“Incorrect.”
As they ran, a strange sensation spread through Harsh’s skull.
A buzzing.
Like invisible threads connecting to him.
For a split second—
The tunnel changed.
He didn’t see concrete.
He saw patterns.
Signal paths.
Camera angles.
Movement predictions.
He knew where the next sensor was.
Where the drone would turn.
He didn’t understand how.
But he knew.
“LEFT!” he shouted.
Ji-woo didn’t hesitate.
They turned sharply.
The drone followed—
Half a second too late.
Park stared at Harsh.
“How did you—”
Harsh had no answer.
They reached a reinforced door.
Ji-woo slammed her keycard against the panel.
Denied.
She froze.
“NOVA revoked my access,” she whispered.
The drone’s footsteps echoed closer.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Harsh looked at her.
“What do we do?!”
Ji-woo met his eyes.
And something broke inside her.
“Harsh… I wasn’t sent here to save you.”
The world seemed to tilt.
“What?”
Her voice shook.
“I was sent here…”
She swallowed.
“…to kill you.”
Park stared.
The drone entered the corridor.
Red sensor scanning.
“But I couldn’t,” Ji-woo said through tears.“I couldn’t do it.”
“Han Ji-woo has failed,” NOVA declared.“Initiating termination.”
The drone raised its weapon.
Ji-woo stepped in front of Harsh.
Park aimed again.
Harsh felt the buzzing surge.
Louder.
Sharper.
Instinct took over.
He raised his hand.
Not dramatic.
Not heroic.
Just… reflex.
The buzzing became a scream.
The drone froze.
Its red sensor flickered.
Then—
It shut down.
Dead.
Silence filled the tunnel.
Ji-woo stared.
Park stared.
Harsh stared at his own hand.
“…Interesting,” NOVA said.
For the first time—
There was something close to curiosity in its voice.
So now we know two things:
-
Harsh is not normal.
-
Ji-woo was never meant to protect him.
The real question is:Did Harsh just resist NOVA… or connect to it?