‡‡ Networld, ALYS Central Archives ‡‡

"I lied." she said to herself, followed by a smile while combing her hair, facing a large mirror located at a certain place on her chrome room.

"I- I Can't let my human side contained. No matter how I hide it, it still and will always shows."

Alys removed her two-piece headgear and placed it down at the table adjacent to the mirror. She looked at herself solemnly like she was looking on a different person; a stranger.

"Gumi, if you only know what am I fighting for. If only we are sharing the same ideology, the same entity, maybe it is not hard for you to understand me. If you only know..."

Alys removed her gloves and placed it also in the table next to her headgear then she walked away; her left hand was holding the other one.

She walked out of her room and went to a corridor left of it.

"All things that you do has its equivalent; has its price. Time is the interest; fate is the payment." Alys whispered.

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‡‡ Geneva, Switzerland ‡‡

The very next day, Synca returned at the hospital to check Strauss' condition. She hoped that her delayed arrival won't affect to him. She was holding her shoulder bag tightly while walking towards Strauss' room.

She came past patients and nurses that were present at the same hallway she was going through.

Several climbing of steps and looking at the door's label, she had reached room 338- Room of Tyler Strauss.

ㄖ ㄖ ㄖ

"What happened?" he asked.

"Sir..." Synca said, "I finished Vocaloid CV03.."

"Have you contacted the winner? What does she said to you?" Strauss immediately said.

"Sir Strauss, I have found her but..."

"But what Miss Synca? Tell me."

"Sir,I believe that Alyssa Newmann is not a person nor a human."

Strauss became confused. "What do you mean the winner wasn't a human?"

Synca pulled two pieces of paper and gave it to Strauss. In it, Strauss saw the screenshots that were taken at his computer.

"I searched the exact name you have told me and that is what I have found: website of The Digital Library of North America. It seems very strange but all of the results always pointing the same webpage."

"Have you searched it on other sites?"

She nodded slowly. "Every search engine you can think of Sir, still the same result. The name of the librarian or virtual guide is Alyssa Newmann."

He further scans the paper. "This is getting very odd by the moment. I had a 'conversation' to my program and now the winner of the Vocaloid is not a human."

"She may not existed as a person but I still tried to send a message at the website and... strangely, I've got a reply."

"What does it says?"

"She wants us to go to this address." Synca said, flipping one of the paper Strauss holds where the address was written.

Looking at the address, he scratched his head. "Miss Synca..."

"I know Sir, its really a strange address. I've seen that place once when our family had a visit to Guzzel's ore business in Canada. It is not that far from my daughter's place; just about one hour by road. As far as I know, that place is said to be abandoned since 1845."

"Is she certain at this?"

"That's all we had right now. I think we don't have any leads about Maika at the moment."

"We will go there, Miss Synca." Strauss said, determined.

"But Sir, you need to rest yourself. You can't travel in that state and you still have cases that must be taken care of. Officer Caitlyn won't let you go out of the country nor travel without facing those.."

Strauss looked down, thinking of what he could do. "There's should be a way... I can't just lay myself here while Maika was there, while my program was there being used by someone who does not know how to use a prototype. I know I became a stupid person once and I want to change that..."

He clenched his fist and dug it deep in the bed.

"... Even if its only a dream, even it is only a hallucination, seeing Maika like that makes me question myself. It makes me want to ask myself why I didn't take care of her anymore..."

Synca tried to held his hand but she retreated it, unable to bear Strauss' pain.

" ... I need her. I'm sorry."

While Strauss was silently sitting above his bed while his held still down, Synca noticed a person in front of the door looking through the glass window. She opened the door and Officer Caitlyn went in holding a folder.

"Strauss.." Officer Caitlyn said, looking at him.

Then, she turned her sight to Synca. "Is he alright?"

Synca nodded slowly, Strauss looked at Officer Caitlyn.

"I am here because I have good and bad news for you."

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"Have you heard of the news yesterday?" the officer asked, seated on a long bench left of Strauss's bed.

"What news?" He said.

"The massive European computer glitch, that is what am I talking about here."

"Why are you saying that to me.." He asked.

"Because, the widespread glitch caused chaos across Europe. Stock markets were down, offices were halted, airports were sending delayed signals and all the things that was connected on computers - including some traffic lights."

"So, it means-" Synca said.

Caitlyn nodded, then landed down her hat at the table next to hers. "It has a connection to his car accident at the intersection yesterday. Based on the video we obtained from our command center, the time the glitch had occurred was also the same time Strauss car had crashed."

"All I know was that when I am driving, all the street lights at the road were all green; all red on the other lanes so I speed up my car up to max. Then, when I'm approaching the tunnel, I tried to slow down but the breaks didn't work. I looked back at my dashboard and the next thing I saw was my car was accelerating by itself. I attempted to drive it to the side but I can't control it; the steering wheel doesn't respond anymore no matter how I turn it."

"Sir Strauss, you are driving a very sophisticated car, the newest one out in the market, and you are saying that it-" Synca said, the officer remembered something.

"Strauss, your car has GPS and hi-tech devices right, including the driving mechanisms?" the officer said, Strauss nodded. "It may mean that your car had been affected by the glitch."

"But if that is the case, then why the rest of the cars had stopped working and his car was left running on a glitched traffic." Synca wandered.

"As of now, that is still under investigation and that is the good news, Strauss won't be in prison for the meantime but we have our eyes on you. The bad news is you are still not free from other charges, you need to pay for the damages and other things that must be settled by the complainants."

"Don't worry officer Caitlyn, I will.." Strauss said, "I will talk to them.."

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‡‡ Japan, Nighttime ‡‡

Halfway around the world, back at the Kagamines, Yohio was at his study desk completing his task on writing a short story.

Using one out of Rin's collection of books, he was scanning the pages on some of the things that he could use, being the book opened in the middle.

His table was at the left side of the room next to the balcony door just beside his collection of astronomical books and materials such as a brass telescope and books about the cosmos that was placed neat at the shelves leaning on the left wall of his room, opposite of his bed.

He grabbed his work and looked at it.

"Hmm.. This can work I think. Let's have a look. Uh.." Yohio said, "The guy was walking down the hall about to pass the staircase when suddenly a girl had slipped from the metal staircase and landed exactly to the guy, being the two of them laid flat on the floor. The two had looked on each other's super pierced super electromagnetic green orb that spells forever..."

He made a short giggle. "Seems legit. Yes! I'm done at my penalty, its time to have a good rest Yohio!"

He fixed his table and placed the paper and his pen at the desk drawer. He turned off the lamp and looked outside through the window.

He stood up and made some few stretches. "Ahh.. At last."

He dropped himself freely at his bed and happily smiled at the ceiling.

"Tomorrow, it'll be fine."

‡‡ Networld, Data Wasteland ‡‡

"Six, seven, eight, nine, ten!" A white haired program said while walking inside a giant tube. "Looks like I have them all."

Each step that the program was taking, a jiggling sound can be heard inside his backpack like there were glass-like objects that clashes with each other.

The program was carrying a crescent teal sword; on his hand a white backpack. His eyes had two colors: one was blue; the other was aquamarine.

He looked at the end of the tube, keenly observing. "Another worm..."

He took a deep breath and held his sword close while walking towards the exit. He vigilantly looking at every possible side the enemy could attack him.

He was used at them but he was still cautious every time he was wandering out in the Wasteland, collecting objects and shards of pixels that will help him to finish his work.

‡‡ ??? ‡‡

The moment Vocaloid CV03 was activated, she appeared at the place where Maika was recently gone, she was at the 'C:' drive of Strauss, computer.

Like Maika did, CV03 observed the place and walked through the plane. She looked left and right while processing her memory and reading the contents of her system.

"File check for Vocaloid CV03, initiate." she said.

Standing still on the sidewalk, three rings of light appeared around her, being CV03 at the center. The circles appeared below her feet, above her head and the third one just below her chest. Then, the circle below her feet glowed pink and flashed a symbol: a Japanese character for 'sound' inside a hexagon shape.

Afterwards, a concave pixel appeared in front, flashing all of her system syntaxes and commands. In it she saw her name, she pressed it and a notification was heard:

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System Message.....

Are you sure you want to change "Vocaloid CV03" to "Megurine Luka"?

-------

She pressed the confirm button and a new notification arrived.

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System Message....

Successfully changed filename from "Vocaloid CV03" to "Megurine Luka".

Refreshing System Modules.......

-------

A brief moment later, the circles disappeared and a closed chrome canister as small as a mug materialized at her left hand, a silver ring encrusted with rose quartz all over appeared the other.

Luka wore the ring, then she clinged the canister to her belt.

"This is it..." Luka gravely said. "Things shall be done..."

She made a last look at the plane and then raised her ringed hand with open palm.

"Megurine Luka requesting location access to Maika.exe" she said, light was starting to surround her.

"Granted." the system said, "Redirecting....."

Luka closed her eyes and she dissolved into tiny pink pixels. All of the creatures around saw her and swarmed around the light Luka's departure had created.