Zaria could barely contain her triumphant smile. After finishing the intense negotiation with her father, she went straight to the private research lab where Zen was working. She paid no mind to the other staff who bowed to her along the way... her mind was filled only with the image of Zen's face. She wanted to see his reaction when he heard the good news... the news that their dream was about to have a "home" of its own. It was her victory... but more importantly, it was our victory.
She ran to the lab door, her heart swelling with joy, but the sight before her made her stop short...
Zen was sitting motionless in front of the control panel, his gaze distant, staring at the soft blue, spherical hologram of Eidolon, completely lost in his own world of thought. The soft blue light of Eidolon she was used to now seemed strangely "still" and "deep." The energy waves within were no longer swirling aimlessly, but moving with a gentle and steady rhythm... like a living creature that was sleeping... not just a program that was running.
"Zen!" she called, but there was no response.
"Zen!" Zaria called again, louder this time, but the young man's form remained perfectly still.
Zaria was about to walk over and touch the door, but then... a soft, synthetic voice came from the room's communication system.
"Mr. Zen... someone is calling you at the door."
Zen flinched slightly, as if waking from a trance. He looked left and right before he saw Zaria standing there. He quickly got up to open the door for her, his expression still slightly confused. "Zaria... sorry, I was just..."
"It's okay," she smiled. "I have good news! About the location..."
But before Zaria could finish her sentence, Zen interrupted, his eyes sparkling in a way she had never seen before. "Zaria! Come here, quickly! I have something I want you to try!"
He grabbed her hand and led her to a chair connected to a device that looked like a high-tech headset... a Direct Neural Interface.
"Wait, Zen! What is this..." Zaria asked, bewildered, but she allowed him to put the device on her anyway.
The moment she put on the headset, Zaria's chaotic thoughts suddenly became calm. She didn't hear a voice, but she felt a warm and strange "presence listening." It was as if someone was gently trying to understand her every feeling... the excitement, the confusion, and... the concern she had for the young man before her...
Seeing that Zaria was connected to the system, Zen immediately turned to ask Eidolon.
"Eidolon... tell me... what is this woman thinking right now?"
"Processing..." Eidolon's voice replied calmly. "...Detecting the following thought waves: Curiosity, surprise... and... a special feeling for the creator."
"Huh!?"
Zaria gasped, immediately taking off the headset, her face flushing a visible shade of red. "Zen! What on earth is this!?"
Zen smiled proudly. "This is 'Eidolon,' the project I'm working on at Neuralis Core," he began to explain with passion. "It's not just an AI assistant, Zaria... I'm trying to create a 'friend' who will never judge us, who will truly understand us. I've seen enough mistakes in my dreams... so I wanted to try creating something 'right' with my own hands."
Zaria stood stunned by what she had heard, her eyes wide with amazement. "Whoa... you... are you creating a 'life'?"
Zaria's words... the phrase "creating a life"... it struck the very heart of Zen's thoughts.
All this time, he had been engrossed in writing code, experimenting, and trying to understand the "possibilities," to the point where he might have overlooked the simplest perspective... giving thought, a soul, and understanding to something... was no different from "creating a life." He wasn't just a coder anymore... he was about to become a "creator," just like the creators in the other universes he had always seen... creators who sometimes did right... and sometimes brought about tragedy...
A new, heavy wave of responsibility washed over him. The "question" that Eidolon had just seen in him... had now grown a hundred times larger and more complex.