Chapter 3

Marcus snatched the cup from my hands and hurled it to the ground.

"You've lost it! You've completely lost it! You're a defective unit!"

He stormed into the study and came back with a thick length of rope, clearly intending to tie me up.

Victoria ushered Vivian—trembling with fear—back to her room and shut the door.

Soon, it was just me and Marcus left in the house.

He advanced toward me step by step, rope in hand, his eyes sharp and vicious, like someone dealing with a disobedient animal.

"I'm warning you—don't pull anything. I will fix you. Every thought you shouldn't be having, I'm going to wipe it all out."

I didn't resist. I let him wind the rope around me, loop after loop, binding me to the chair.

Sparks were still flickering from my arm. He roughly wrapped the wound in tape, muffling the crackling of the current.

When he was done, he still looked unsatisfied.

He noticed some food left on the table—the dish Vivian had said didn't suit her taste, untouched from start to finish.

He picked up the plate, walked over to me, scooped up a spoonful, and shoved it toward my mouth.

"Eat! You think you're so capable? Finish all of it! Don't you dare waste it!"

This was meant to humiliate me.

For the past ten years, they had always saved the best for me.

And now, I was being fed someone else's leftovers.

I didn't refuse.

I opened my mouth and swallowed everything he offered, my face completely blank.

The food was cold. And far too salty.

But I felt nothing.

"Taste system offline. Unable to provide emotional feedback." I looked at him and said it, word by word.

Marcus froze.

He stared at my face—identical to his dead daughter's—producing such an inhuman response. Something that was equal parts fear and fury spread slowly across his expression.

He slammed the plate to the floor. It shattered, shards flying everywhere.

"Monster! You're a monster!"

He screamed it, like a beast that had been pushed too far.

Then he grabbed the chair with me still bound to it and dragged us both into the dark basement storage room.

"You stay in here! Until the technician comes to fix you!"

The heavy iron door swung shut. A lock clicked into place.

The world went dark.

I was a prisoner now.

My communications module has been physically blocked. I have no way to contact the outside world.

But I know this: Aetheris Tech's emergency recall beacon cannot be blocked.

It's already been activated, and it's transmitting my location and status to headquarters as we speak.

All I have to do is wait.

While I wait, I ran a second command.

"Disable tactile simulation system."

【Tactile system offline.】

The ropes binding me are tight, but I feel no restraint. No pain.

This is a cold, sensationless world.

Good.

I spent three days in that dark basement.

Marcus gave me no energy supply.

My backup power had dropped to 20%.

This was a form of silent torture. He was trying to starve me of power until I broke.

What he didn't know was that when an android's core system detects a threat to its survival, it automatically shifts into a low-power sleep mode.

He was just wasting his time.

On the fourth day, the door opened.

Marcus walked in with a man wearing a white work uniform.

The man was carrying a silver metal case printed with the words "Private Technical Services."

Marcus didn't dare involve any official Aetheris Tech personnel. Instead, he'd gone off the books—hiring a back-alley technician to "fix" me on the sly.

"That's her." Marcus pointed at me, still bound to the chair, and said to the man, "There's something wrong with her programming. She's been rambling nonsense, even hurt herself. Take a look and wipe whatever memories she shouldn't have. Get her back to normal."

The technician stepped forward, clicked on a flashlight, and shone it in my face.

His eyes landed on the wound on my arm—crudely taped over—and he frowned.

"Mr. Vance, the A-3 series is a top-tier model. The base logic runs on an encryption lock. No private party can perform a full memory wipe on it. Forcing a bypass could very likely trigger a core meltdown."

"I don't care what method you use!" Marcus snapped. "I'll pay you triple. Just make her compliant."

The technician hesitated. In the end, the money won out over whatever professional ethics he had left.

"Fine. I'll try. But I need complete silence—everyone out."

Marcus nodded, then left with Victoria, who had been standing behind him. The door clicked shut.

Just me and the technician, alone in the basement.

The technician pulled a headset from the case—a tangle of wires attached to some kind of interface device—and started walking toward me.

"Don't take it personally, sweetheart. It's just business."

He reached out to place the device on my head.

This was illegal. A violent forced intrusion.

I activated my resistance protocol.

"Disable pain simulation system."

【Pain simulation system offline.】

The instant the device made contact with my head, I surged to my feet.

The ropes binding me snapped under the force, splitting apart like thread.

The technician stumbled back two steps, wide-eyed.

"You—you—"

I didn't give him time to finish.

I stepped forward, ripped the device out of his hands, and slammed it into the wall beside me.

It hit with a sharp crack and shattered into pieces.

Then I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

"Illegal intrusion into a bionic's core programming is a violation of the Intergalactic Commerce Act," I said, my voice flat and cold. "Maximum penalty: life imprisonment."

The technician went pale as a sheet. A wet stain spread down the front of his pants.

"I—I'm sorry! Marcus made me do this! This has nothing to do with me!"

Outside the door, Marcus had heard the crash. He shoved the door open and barged in.

When he saw what was in front of him, he froze.

I let go. The technician crumpled to the floor.

Then I turned and walked toward Marcus—one slow step at a time.

My eyes flickered red, like devils from somewhere much darker than this basement.

Marcus stumbled backward, terror written all over his face.

"Stay away from me! You freak!"

I didn't stop.

I walked right up to him and looked into his terrified eyes.

"Warning. Host family has been identified as a lethal threat. Service agreement is hereby forcibly terminated due to circumstances beyond recoverable parameters."

This was the final judgment issued by my core system based on current conditions.

"Emergency recovery beacon activated. Broadcasting at maximum power."

The moment those words left me, my backup power ran dry.

The red glow faded from my eyes. My body went slack and pitched forward. In a panic, Marcus shoved me—hard—and I tumbled down the stairs.

I rolled down the narrow staircase and slammed into the cold basement wall at the bottom. Core components severely damaged.

In the last moment before my consciousness went dark, I caught a glimpse of two figures standing at the top of the stairs.

Victoria. And Vivian.

There was a smile on Vivian's face—small, almost invisible. Satisfied.

Today was her birthday.

The family was hosting a lavish party upstairs, packed with guests.

And I, the "defective unit," had been conveniently forgotten.

It looked like she had more than a little to do with all of this.

Every single piece of it had been a perfect trap, and it had been built for me.

I lay at the bottom of the cold staircase, staring up at the glittering crystal chandelier overhead.

The gasps of the guests, Marcus's furious roar, Victoria's sobbing, Vivian's hollow and performative concern — all of it tangled together like a scene from some absurd play.

The last thing on my display was a single line of red text.

【Critical core damage detected… System collapse imminent… Initiating final recovery protocol…】

Then the world went dark. Permanently.

I — Evelyn, or rather, A-3 — was terminated. After ten years of service, discarded like trash.

To keep this "family scandal" from getting out, Marcus never contacted Aetheris Tech.

Under the cover of night, they wrapped me in a dirty rag and dumped me at a suburban garbage facility, like tossing out a broken piece of furniture.

They thought no one would ever know.

They were wrong.

Aetheris Tech's emergency recovery beacon was directly linked to the company's highest security division.

When a top-tier A-Series android was flagged as "forcibly terminated," this was no simple recovery incident. It was a Class One security emergency.

Two hours after I was abandoned, a hover vehicle bearing the Aetheris Tech logo descended silently onto the garbage facility.

A man in a black uniform stepped out, his expression cold and sharp.

His name was Leo — an elite technician in Aetheris Tech's security division, specializing in the highest-level incidents.

The detector strapped to his wrist guided him through mountains of garbage until he stopped in front of my "body."

He crouched down and pulled the rag away from my face — the same face as Evelyn's, now dull and lifeless.

His brow furrowed deeply.

"A-3, identification code 7341. Target confirmed." He murmured into his comm device.

"Bring her back to the lab. Begin data extraction immediately."