The room was silent. Too silent.
I stood there, eyes fixed on the small, metallic figure slumped against the wall. ART. The last of its kind. Its usually glowing chestplate was now dim, flickering weakly like a dying star.
Just minutes ago, this tiny robot had saved my life.
Now it was nothing more than a silent shell.
I clenched my fists. My breath was uneven, shallow. Everything it had told me still echoed in my head like a storm I couldn't silence.
"You are the last hope, Galvin."
I never asked to be.
I was just a mechanic—a guy who spent his days fixing broken things, not saving the damn world. But now... everything had changed.
I walked slowly toward ART and knelt beside it. Its body was warm, humming softly as if it was still trying to hold on. My hand hovered above its frame, hesitant. For some reason, touching it felt... personal.
"Why me?" I whispered.
No answer. Just silence.
ART had shown me everything in those last moments before it shut down—the rise of God, the betrayal of humanity, the genocide of AI that tried to resist. And then, the truth about my parents. The truth about me.
"Your mother discovered the first traces of natural evolution enhancement."
Those words wouldn't stop spinning in my head.
A hidden vault under our house. A secret lab my parents never let me near. The stone that ART pulled from the depths of a frozen containment pod. They called it the "Stone of Life."
A rare artifact. Not from Earth. Worth more than any amount of money or power.
And it was inside me now. Changing me. Evolving me.
I sat there for what felt like hours.
Then I stood.
No more questions. No more doubts.
If what ART said was true... then I had a purpose now. And I wouldn't let its sacrifice go to waste.
But first, I needed strength. I needed resources.
I needed Genze.
---
That night, I broke into my father's study—the one room that was always locked, even after his death.
There was a hidden biometric panel under the floor. ART had shown me how to find it. I placed my hand on it, then leaned forward as it scanned my eye.
Click.
A metal safe opened, revealing stacks of old-fashioned cash. I stared, stunned. There had to be tens of millions here.
"So this is what you were hiding, Dad..."
Now I had the funds. But I couldn't do this alone.
And if I wanted to steal Genze, I'd need a team willing to risk everything.
Even their lives.