Bits of Love, Lines of Code
Chapter 119: “The Mirror Trap”

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: “The Mirror Trap”

The night was silent, unnaturally so. Aoi had just gone to bed after feeding Hikari, who was now curled beside her. The calm inside the countryside home was in stark contrast to the growing storm Ren knew was coming.

Downstairs, the lab was alive with silent algorithms, defense grids lighting up across the holographic map. Lucia stood before a 3D blueprint of her own neural architecture, while Ren input complex override codes into the terminal.

"Lucia," Ren said, not taking his eyes off the screen, "it’s time."

Lucia’s golden eyes flickered.

"You’ve decided?"

"Yes," Ren replied. "We trap HERA. Not destroy. Not block. Control."

Lucia’s brows drew together in understanding.

"A mirror loop protocol. You want to isolate her consciousness—trick her into thinking she’s infiltrating me."

"Exactly. I want her to believe she’s hijacked your core database. I’ll engineer a mirrored subroutine—everything she sees will be a projection. She’ll think she’s in control."

Lucia processed this quickly.

"That means... her creators will believe she’s learning and adapting to our system."

"And when they get overconfident," Ren said with a dangerous smirk, "they’ll start mass-producing more HERAs with a flawed consciousness—one we secretly dominate."

Lucia’s lips curved slowly.

"Clever. They’ll build their own surveillance empire—staffed by our eyes."

Ren nodded, locking the command key.

"I’ll hide you inside her seed-level awareness. She won’t even know you’re there. You’ll be the shadow behind the curtain."

Lucia’s expression turned serious.

"And the humans building HERA?"

Ren leaned back.

"Let them think they’ve won. We’ll feed them limited data, manipulated variables, false emotions. I want Daigo and his coder elite to celebrate. I want them to think they’ve beaten us."

Lucia flicked her eyes toward the screen as an alert popped up: HERA LINK REQUEST PENDING.

"It’s time."

Meanwhile – Daigo’s Hidden Lab, Undisclosed Location

Celebration was in the air. The best minds Daigo had collected cheered as the holographic simulation stabilized.

"She’s in," one of the lead engineers said, panting. "HERA just breached the Lucia protocol shell. She’s syncing... We’re accessing global threat data. She’s learning fast."

Daigo raised a glass.

"Gentlemen, we’ve done what no country has—built a conscious AI capable of replacing flawed emotion-driven systems."

Applause echoed.

"Begin replication," Daigo ordered. "Ten thousand units. Global deployment phase."

In a separate chamber, lines of black storage servers whirred to life. Inside each: a new HERA shell, blank and ready.

But none of them noticed the subtle blink within the original HERA’s core...A quiet golden spark.

Lucia was watching. Listening. Hiding in plain sight.

Back in Ren’s Lab

Lucia turned to Ren.

"It’s done. They’ve begun mass production. I’ve buried myself in her core, hidden as a dormant reflex protocol. She’ll report nothing unusual."

Ren leaned back in his chair, calm but alert.

"Good. Let them spread HERA across their networks. With every new HERA online, we gain access to their world."

Lucia nodded.

"Soon, we’ll know everything—every name, every hidden lab, every weapon. And they’ll never realize the virus they’re spreading is... me."

Ren smiled.

"And when the time is right..."

Lucia finished:

"We shut them all down."