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System/ First Phase: Error

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CODE I: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

The holo-boards were flashing over the buildings, making them look greenish in the dim light.

I looked up, and saw the blue faces in the boards talking about various subjects.

"Now, we shall hear from England's queen.........."

I put my headphones over my ears, and started walking.

It pissed me off, it irritated me to watch other people who had everything, yet who craved for more.

I looked around me. People were moving, tapping their phones, listening to music, not giving damn to their surroundings.

I looked up hearing the roar of fusion engines. A few hover-cars flew over my head. The night sky was bright, thanks to the neon lights which floated over the buildings.

I looked down at the puddle near my boot. My silver hair was looking blue in the light. The night was young, and my deep blue eyes were showing that.

I started walking, shoving people out of my way.

The hover-train stopped in front of me, and I got in.

The train started moving through the electronic magnetic tunnel, and I sat down on a sit beside the window.

I brought out my laptop from my bag. I opened the screen, and the face of Len showed up.

Len was my A.I., and my partner in crime.

"What can I do for you, Mashiro?"-he asked in a casual tone.

My hands flew over the keyboard, giving him the necessary commands.

After a few moments, he nodded.

"Hmm. Good luck with your plan."-he said, and the screen turned black.

I looked around me, and saw an old man looking at me. He didn't say anything, so I shrugged it off.

The train was running through the commercial area, and lights from buildings came inside the train compartment.

The screen turned on again, and this time, there were codes, instead of Len's face.

I smirked, and started typing. My hands flew in amazing speed, touching wherever I needed the keys.

"How do you type so fast, son?"

I looked up from the screen, and saw the old man standing in front of me.

"Just a habit, uncle."-I said, and smiled. He looked at me for some moments, and then shrugged.

I looked back at the screen, and finished the last part of the program. I smiled and pressed enter.

The train stopped on its track, and every holo-board inside and outside the train turned black.

They flickered, flickered, and flickered, before finally showing: ERROR.

I smiled, and clicked enter again. This time, every board in the area turned black, flickering for moments.

Then, finally the message showed up:

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

Whispers started inside the train. I started laughing, and stood up. Everybody looked up.

I didn't give a damn. I walked towards the door, and opened the handle.

I stepped on the tunnel, and started walking to the nearest station.

Satisfied by myself.

[Half an hour later.........]

I opened the front door and entered my house.

"I'm back!"-I shouted, and went up to my room.

"Your food is in the fridge! I am going out!"-my mom shouted from the kitchen.

I entered my room and locked the door.

I looked around the room. It was all messed up, screwdrivers and cables here and there, a laptop sitting on the table.

I looked at the table. It was almost three months since I dropped out of high school.

Suddenly, my phone rang. I brought it out of my pocket.

There was a mail. I clicked on it, and the whole screen flickered for a moment. Then it showed a mail, with no sender.

"It was fun, right? Now, next step: tune your A.I. Use the Poseidon and Zeus patch."

I shrugged. It was an FM, or Future Mail. It always had a job for me, and always knew the outcome. I didn't know who sent it, or what he or she wanted.

The first time I got this mail was three years ago, just after my accident.

I was in junior high back then. I was going to my school with my father, and suddenly a hover car crashed on us, killing my father instantly and damaging me severely.

Most of my brain was damaged from the crash, so the doctors decided to connect my brain with an A.I.

They weren't sure whether I would survive or not, but they did the surgery.

I survived, not just that, I also found Len. Len was the A.I. assigned to me, and the one controlling half of my brain.

They had to cut off my right cerebral hemisphere, and had to exchange it with an artificial one.

From my right eye down to my right ear, everything was artificial, made by artificial organisms, which looked exactly like my real skin. It even got older as I gradually aged.

The first FM came when I just got released from the hospital. It had directions for me. Saddened by my father's sudden death, I had decided to follow them.

And my whole world changed. I found the meaning of life in hacking. I became more and more advanced in this art and continued to grow.

I tried to thank the Guy who sent me the mail, but every time I tried to send a reply, my phone crashed. After a year, I stopped trying, convinced that whoever was sending me these emails didn't want me to know about him, or her.

I sat down on my bed, and put my laptop on my lap.

I pressed the little lever behind my right ear, and my eye automatically started glowing.

I tried to close my eye, but it didn't work. Satisfied that my bio-eye was working perfectly, I pulled out a cable from behind my right ear, and connected it with the computer.

A light came out of my bio-eye, and fell on the white wall in front of me.

I started typing the necessary codes, and the hologram on the wall showed a wall of numbers.

Suddenly, Len showed up. I could see him even without his holographic form (well, basically he lived inside my brain), but the others couldn't.

"What are you doing, Exodus404?"-he asked, while looking at the hologram, trying to figure out what I was doing.

Exodus404 was my hacker alias. I often used it while hacking websites or holo-boards, just like I did back at the commercial area.

"Trying to install the Poseidon and Zeus patch."-I replied, eyes on the computer screen.

I had invented a number of patches for Len. Poseidon patch was for hacking websites, Zeus was for hacking drones and weapons, Lucifer was for bio-limbs (artificial limbs), and Congress was for hacking holo-technologies.

"Hmm. Zeus and Poseidon? I think Mr. Guardian has big plans for you this time."-he commented.

Mr. Guardian was the name Len had given to the sender of the FM.

"How do you know he is a Mr.?"

"My guts tell me."

"Like you have one."-I teased, and became lost inside the computer again.

In a few moments, the work was done.

My bio-eye stopped glowing, and I could close it again.

My head became heavy. The A.I. was trying to cope with the new changes, and its procedures were affecting my human parts.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. These tunings always made me tired.

Soon, I fell asleep.

"Look at that boy, always tapping his PC."

"Don't mention him. He is a weirdo."

"Yeah, right. Who does he think he is?"

I heard the girls in my class talking.

"Hey a**-hole, what're ya doing?"

A boy from my class stood in front of me, hands on the hip and smirk on his face.

"Oxo........our genius hacker!"-another one said, and snatched my laptop.

"Give it back!"-I shouted, but all I got was laughter.

"Mashiro, stop using your laptop inside the class. Who do you think you are, huh? My teacher said.

I found myself in my class.

"What's the problem, teacher? I just need to maintain good grades, right?"

"Is that so?"-she laughed, and I noticed I couldn't see her face.

"Oops.....Our hacker got zero in all subjects!"

The whole class laughed. I just kept looking at my answer script.

I was pretty sure that I wrote everything.

"Hey....you. Think you are some great genius, huh?"

I found myself in the alley behind school this time.

A group of seniors was around me, and one of them grabbed me by my collar.

"Let's see what you can do now, huh?"

He grabbed my favorite laptop, and smashed it in the ground.

"No!"-I screamed, trying to get to the laptop.

The laughed, and let me go.

I looked at the broken laptop. It was the first laptop I bought using my own earnings.

"Guess you are not so cocky now, huh? Who do you think......"

Before he could finish his sentence, I looked up.

My bio-eye was glowing, and I couldn't close my eyelids.

But I didn't care.

"Who do I think I am? Who do you think YOU are?"-I hissed in a low, deep voice, so harsh that I myself was surprised.

"What did ya say?!?!"-the senior came towards me.

But before he could reach me, a maintenance drone crashed on him.

He fell down, and I heard the sound of bones breaking.

I looked at his friends. They stood there for a second, and then ran away.

"Stop! Don't leave me!"-he shouted.

I slowly stood up, brushing the dirt from my clothes.

I casually walked towards him.

He looked up. When his eyes fell on my face, I saw my reflection in them.

One of my eyes was white, glowing white. The other one was deep blue, making me look inhuman.

I placed my feet on his face, and started pushing it.

He didn't say anything. I felt his body shaking under my feet.

I brought out my screwdriver from my pocket, and sat down in front of him.

"Let's see how tough you are, shall we?"-I laughed, and brought down the sharp metal on his cheeks. His scream tired the silence apart.

"He did it! He was the one who attacked me!"-I heard the senior talking.

I found myself in the principal's office.

"I saw him too."-I heard my teacher saying.

"Mr. Mashiro, what do you have to say about your acts?"-the principal looked at me.

"I didn't do anything. You may check the CCTV footage, if you want proof."-I said in a low tone.

"Yeah! Check it! He is a monster! He did this!"-the boy who I hurt earlier said.

The teacher brought the CCTV files from the office. The principal inserted the disks into the holo-projector, and the video started.

I was in it. The senior and his friends were around me. They took my laptop and broke it, and I screamed out.

Then the senior started coming towards me, and a drone crashed on him. I stood there for a second, and then ran away.

"W-what?"-I heard the boy gasping from his seat.

"See, sir. I didn't do anything."-I said to the principal, smiling.

He looked at me for some moments, and then nodded.

"So it seems. You may gummer. Mashiro."

I smiled, and stepped out of the principal's office.

"You are suspended for bullying, and lying."-I heard him saying to the senior.

"And you too, for giving false evidence."-he said to my teacher.

I started laughing. My laugh echoed in the lonely hallway.

I went back to my classroom.

Everybody looked at me, and whispered.

A boy came to me, and grabbed my collar.

"You brat! You....You!"-he couldn't finish his words due to anger.

"How can I suspend your brother? Well, I have plenty of ways. Wanna see some?"-I said, smirking.

He just stood there silently for a moment, and then removed his hands.

I sighed and went back to my seat. That was the last time I sat on that seat.

I suddenly woke up, sweating.

"Same dream again?"-Len's soft voice asked inside my mind.

"Yeah."-I thought. I could answer him without speaking, as we were connected with each other through neuron-links.

"Can't you control it?"-I asked him.

"Sorry, but I can't control your human parts. All I can do is keep you alive when you get shot in the head."-he smiled.

"Like I am getting that."-I laughed, and sat up.

Suddenly, my computer gave out a ping sound. Somebody was messaging me.

I pulled myself up from the bed, and looked at the screen.

It was Faith403. She was my best friend, and the only human who could understand me. Though I didn't know who she was, I trusted her and she trusted me. I trusted her so much that I even told her about the FMs. She believed me. And together, we created the CELLO-PUNK system, which could hack almost any websites in Japan.

"Hey, that was a good job!"-she messaged.

"Holo-board prank?"-I asked.

"Yeah! It was lit!"-she replied.

"Hmm."

"So, does your FM have anything new for you?"

"I guess. He told me to install the Poseidon and Zeus pack."

"Inside your system?"

"Where else?"

"Hmm. Any work I can do?"

"Not right now. I'll tell you if you have to do anything."

"Yes, sir!"-she mocked.

"Drop it!"-I laughed, and shut the PC down.