🏆 WATTPAD CREATORS PROGRAM 🏆
🏆 8CC November - December 2023 Completer 🏆
𝘛𝘏𝘙𝘌𝘌. 𝘛𝘞𝘖. 𝘖𝘕𝘌. 𝘉𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯.
Thirteen remembers one thing from the moment he woke up: live on, through whatever means necessary. When he is thrown into a society...
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Sleep was just about to grip him when the lights changed from purple to teal. Thirteen bolted from his seat so fast the poor plastic spine came close to snapping. A bright Access Cleared blinked at him, blending well with the harsh blue glow of the screen. He switched applications and reset the algorithm. That would be for the next chip.
"Let's see..." he muttered to himself as he scrolled to the endless tiles the screen showed him. This was what the last wall of encryption brought him. And he was right. It was a detailed analysis of the ability stored in the chip. He started with Four's ability, and as he skimmed paragraphs of field data and investigation reports, a base hypothesis formed at the back of his mind.
The Founding Chip was an interesting technology. Any mention of any organizations or persons who could be implicated by this kind of data were still blocked. Thirteen couldn't unlock their contents no matter how hard he tried and how long he ran his algorithms. The answer only came to him yesterday. That information wasn't being held back by some kind of program. It was purposefully destroyed. Corrupted.
They were more careful, scrubbing their traces and ensuring nothing ended up in the wrong hands without their permission. Which prompted Thirteen to think—did they know his snooping, and if they did, why were they allowing him?
Nevertheless, what he uncovered would suffice for now. The files told him everything, from the conception of the ability from the chip to the eventual merging with the bodily functions, forming an entirely different system. By then, the chip wouldn't be needed. It was merely a Founding matter. Further recommendations include making the chip absorbable, like polymer sutures. When its use was no longer needed, it would simply melt away and fade into the person's bloodstream.
Thirteen dug another chip from his drawer and flicked it once. Not quite achieved yet.
Now, if these were Founding Chips, would it be possible to tinker with their codes? If he succeeded in accessing the bio-mainframe, would they give him the ability stored in them? It was worth a try. He just had to decrypt every chip he had.
Which was another whole day of work. Thirteen spent the crawling hours glued to his chair. Even if he managed to duplicate his algorithms to decrypt multiple chips one at a time, he only had one reader. Asking Five would raise her suspicion. Not even Thirteen could make up a smooth lie to deflect it. Not this time. So, risking Five knowing all these was out of the list. If it even made it there.
Let him hope a counter wouldn't arrive out of the blue and throw his schedule in disarray. Maybe the observers would think it fun to mess with him and do that anyway. Well, Thirteen wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing him throw a tantrum. He would have to work at decrypting and beating Karrel at the same time. What was one more thread in a million more in his head, right?
By the fourth chip, the sound of doors slamming shut echoed upstairs. It was another day for the rest of the section. It also meant it was another cycle of light and dark, and that not a spot of light would be present anywhere. Apart from the command room, that was.
