AI Replacement

The System, dormant for years, suddenly flickered to life. In the depths of my despair, it was my only chance.

It told me that, given my circumstances, it had secured a new identity for me.

It also said that this broken body of mine would be handed over to an AI to manage. I had three days to complete the handover.

I thought back to a short time ago, to the man Id poured my heart and soul into for seven yearsthe story's second male lead. For the sake of the so-called heroine, he had done this to me.

First, hed snapped my arms. Then, hed driven steel nails through the soles of my feet, leaving me permanently crippled.

Seven years of devotion, shattered by his own hands, reduced to nothing.

Id always considered myself a person with backbone.

So, when Corbin was tormenting me, I never once begged for mercy. At my most defiant, Id even spit curses back at him.

"Corbin! Youre blind and heartless! Youre nothing but Lilas lapdog!"

Before the System reappeared, I had completely given up. I figured since there was no going back, we might as well spend the rest of our lives making each other miserable.

Our lives had become a twisted cycle. I would provoke him, and he would torture me.

But now, the System, gone for two years, was back.

It told me it had secured one last chance for me, a new mission with a new target. To avoid alerting anyone, I would be given a new identity.

This battered body would be left in the care of an AI, programmed to mimic my behavior and mannerisms, ensuring the story continued uninterrupted.

A laugh escaped my lips. My throat, raw from constant dehydration, produced a hoarse, muffled sound. But it was a laugh of pure joy.

Right now, the most important thing was getting out of this basement.

After taking five minutes to compose myself, I dragged my mutilated legs across the floor, crawling toward the door. Biting my chapped lips, I forced the words out.

"Corbin, let's make up. I swear, I I won't act out anymore I'm willing to apologize to Lila, too"

Silence from the other side of the surveillance camera.

The silence stretched on for so long I thought his men had given up on me, not even bothering to pass on the message.

Then, a soft creak.

The door swung open.

Corbin came home the next day. I was lying in the guest room bed, discussing my new target with the System.

He entered wearing a dark overcoat, bringing the winter chill in with him. In his hand, he clutched a small, exquisite box. When he caught my eye, he instinctively tucked it into his coat pocket.

I scoffed internally.

Whats the point in hiding it? The internet was buzzing with news of Lilas upcoming birthday and how the CEO of Blackwood Corporation had commissioned a priceless piece of custom jewelry. Hed been abroad for two weeks, no doubt personally overseeing the creation of this gift.

It was laughable, really. Id pulled him out of the gutter, stood by his side as he fought his way from having enemies on every corner to standing at the top of the world. And I had never once received a gift hed made with his own hands.

But Lila just had to show up at the right time, whisper a few words about their childhood connection, and all of his principles would crumble.

If I had known, I never would have chosen him as my target in the first place. At least without my help, it would have taken him a few more years to succeed.

For the past two years, the rift between us had grown into a chasm. His first suspicion was that this was another one of my tricks. He stood by the bed for a while, studying my face, searching for any hint of deceit.

Once he was convinced I had let go of my animosity, he approached and lifted me from the bed.

"Go sleep in our room."

His voice was cool but tinged with a softness, as if the cruelty of the past had never happened. The thought of that master bedroom, the one he had redecorated, made my stomach turn. I flinched involuntarily but forced myself to endure it for the sake of the plan. I even managed to snuggle my head into his chest.

Corbin paused for a fraction of a second, then let out a soft sigh. "It's good that you see your mistake. You're not the spoiled heiress you used to be. Stop being so proud. Lila has a soft heart. If you apologize sincerely, she'll forgive you. If you have to, kneel for her at the party. In front of all those people, she'll have to accept."

Two years ago, just as Corbin and I were preparing to get married, the heroine, Lila, appeared.

It was the year she finally resolved to escape her abusive adoptive parents and change her fate. It was also the beginning of my nightmare.

Because she had once snuck him a bowl of porridge when they were children in the same orphanage, Corbin welcomed her with open arms.

But as someone with the System, I knew this wasn't about repaying a kindness. It was the joy of recovering a long-lost first love, of finally having the chance to cherish her.

At first, I didnt mind. I believed the Corbin I knew was no longer the same character from the book. He had me now. He wouldn't get dragged into the heroines dramatic love life, fighting the male lead and ending up in ruins.

I even helped him take care of Lila. I brought her to events and parties, setting the stage for her to meet the story's main male lead.

But I had underestimated the power of the first love.

Especially after the male lead appeared, Corbin became possessive and volatile in a way I had never seen before. He went to insane lengths to show Lila how much he cared.

The most extreme example: someone said a few harsh words to Lila, and Corbin, right in front of me, had the person's tongue cut out.

Blood splattered everywhere.

For weeks after, I was plagued by nightmares. Id dream of a figure with a lolling tongue, laughing a high, sharp laugh. During those times, Corbin would hold me tight, whispering soothingly, telling me not to be afraid.

He said he wouldn't do it again. He promised. He wouldn't hurt anyone for Lilas sake again.

Instead, he just started hurting me.

Life was peaceful for a while after that.

I took up the piano, using music to soothe my frayed nerves. When I was feeling particularly good, Id even enter amateur competitions. Lila expressed an interest, so I taught her and we signed up for a competition together.

I made it to the finals. Lila, lacking practice, didn't make it past the preliminary round. I comforted her, told her not to be sad, that we could try again next year. I took her shopping to cheer her up.

I didn't realize that when I tried on a pair of high heels and casually mentioned to the sales clerk that I planned to wear them for the piano finals, Lila would burst into tears.

Everyone rushed to her side, but she just clammed up and cried harder. It wasn't until Corbin arrived that she finally spoke.

"The shoes look so beautiful on Aria. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of beautiful clothes or shoes, or of playing in piano competitions. Everyone was right, my being here is just a joke. I never should have come looking for you, Corbin!"

Corbin's eyes went cold. "What did you say to her?"

My explanations were drowned out by Lila's sobs. Corbin wouldn't listen. I begged Lila to explain, to tell him the whole story, to tell him who this "everyone" was, to explain that we had all been nothing but kind to her.

But she just bit her lip, a look of profound humiliation on her face, and cried in silence.

That night, Corbin ordered his men to torture me.

He had my finger bones broken. He drove steel nails through the soles of my feet.

He made it so I could never play the piano again. So I could never wear beautiful high heels again. All to soothe Lila's "wounded" heart.

"It was just a small punishment," he told me later. "But Lila was so upset she cried!"

"You were so lucky to have me. Why did you have to bully her?"

That was the day the System abandoned me.

For a long time, I couldn't walk. My hands couldn't even hold chopsticks. I had to drink through a straw, completely dependent on the staff for my daily needs.

Being crippled and failing my mission made me even more volatile than Corbin. He would have fleeting moments of regret and pity, but they were always followed by the same stern question: "Have you learned your lesson?"

What lesson was there to learn? I couldn't figure it out, so I just spit in his face.

Lila visited me once, asking how I'd ended up like this, wondering if it was her fault. I didn't say anything, which only made her start crying again, promising she'd try to talk to her "dear Corbin."

Of course, when Corbin walked in, she didn't say a word.

That was the first time I began to question the heroines supposed innocence. And my own role in all this. Had my presence somehow corrupted her? Had my interference prevented the pure, innocent girl who had suffered so much from blooming?

I gave up. I let Corbin punish me as he pleased. When the heroine cried, the whole world lost. His goal was to make everyone else miserable to compensate for the injustices she had suffered, to make them a dark backdrop for her bright future. I couldn't stop it.

But I could still provoke him. "This is boring, Corbin. So boring. If you love her, just go after her. Make it official before someone else snatches her up and you come crying back to me. Don't worry, I can be the other woman. Wouldn't that be fun?"

His face would turn to stone. "What nonsense are you talking about? I only see Lila as a sister!"

After that, whenever I provoked him, he would lock me in the basement to "reflect." At first, it was for a few hours. Then a few days. Then for weeks at a time. The place, once a wine cellar, became a filthy, stinking pit.

Six months later, Lila suddenly agreed to a contract marriage with the male lead, Rex. Corbin, acting as her "big brother," threw her a lavish wedding. But secretly, he had our master bedroom remodeled to look exactly like their bridal suite.

Oh, and his phone's wallpaper? Its a picture of the happy couple on their wedding day.

The whole thing was so absurd I wanted to burst into song.

The handover was set for the third day, Lila's birthday.

The night before, not wanting to speak to him, I turned my back to Corbin and pretended to be asleep. For some reason, he came to bed early too, pulling me into his arms.

His breath was warm on my ear, his voice so soft it was almost a hallucination. "Aria, after tomorrow, we'll be together forever. We just have to get through tomorrow"

I nodded vehemently in my mind. Sure. You and the AI are both inhuman in your own way. You'll probably get along great.

Lilas birthday party was held at the most luxurious hotel in the city. It was crowded and chaotic, the perfect cover for the handover.

I entered the ballroom in my wheelchair. Through the gaps in the crowd, I could see Lila, dressed like a princess, standing before a towering six-tiered cake, surrounded by admirers, her smile radiant.

Of course. The heroine's halo, always allowing her to rise above it all. By now, her dark past with her adoptive parents had been taken care of by Rex and Corbin. Her new in-laws, aware of her powerful "brother," treated her with the utmost respect. Once the absentee male lead finished his groveling win-her-back storyline, her life would be perfect.

And me? I was just a joke from beginning to end.

According to the plan, while Corbin was helping Lila cut the cake, I pretended to ask about the food and completed the handover with the AI, who was disguised as a waiter.

I thought the process would be long, painful.

It wasn't.

A brief moment of vertigo, and then I was in a new body. The pain was less than a thousandth of what Corbin had inflicted on me.

The highly-trained AI had already mastered my expressions and was now looking towards Corbin. I, holding a tray of food, carefully took my first steps away from the ballroom, my legs unsteady but blessedly whole.

The walk to the exit felt like a journey through another lifetime.

At the door, I couldn't resist one last look back.

Just then, the crowd parted.

And I saw Corbin leading "Aria" to Lila and forcing her to her knees. Because of the injuries to her limbs, it looked less like kneeling and more like a humiliating prostration.

Corbin pressed the back of her head down, forcing it to touch the floor again and again. He was smiling, a hollow, performative smile. I couldn't hear his words, but I could make out Lilas feigned surprise and the shocked gasps of the crowd.

A hand squeezed my heart, stealing my breath for a moment.

The "Aria" AI was incredibly advanced. The face I had worn for seven years twisted into an expression of groveling submission, identical to the one I had worn in the basement three days ago.

It was pathetic enough to fool everyone.

But only I knew the difference. Her submission was seamless, absolute. Mine had always been a mask for my struggle, my defiance.

I had considered it before, a life of submission. If I just gave in, if I just played the part, would things have been easier? But every time I wavered, a voice screamed from inside meIt's useless! You'll just become his toy!

He didn't love me. But I couldn't give up on myself.

Corbin's expression was solemn, earnest, even relieved.

I wanted to laugh. He knew exactly what this would mean to me, and he did it anyway. Or rather, he did it because he knew.

It was disgusting.

When I first found Corbin, he had just left his life as a street tough. He was broke, desperate, and being hunted by old enemies.

At the time, my own wealthy family had cast me out. I had no choice but to take him with me, moving from one hiding place to another.

One night, they broke in. In the chaos, Corbin threw himself in front of me, taking a knife to the gut. Through gritted teeth, he whispered a reassurance, then half-carried me as we fled.

The car broke down, and he finally collapsed from blood loss.

I watched his blood mix with the rain, washing over the asphalt of that deserted road. As his body grew cold, my heart sank with it. I held him and cried.

"Corbin, hold on! You're going to be okay, we're both going to be okay! What will I do without you?"

Before, my concern for him was only about the mission. I had been careless with him, treating him with a certain detachment. He was the second male lead; he was supposed to love the heroine. I just had to play my part, earn some affection points, and never, ever give him my real heart.

But that night, the image of him shielding me without a second thought replayed in my mind. My perspective shifted completely. He was a man of few words, but he had always been good to me. I had, without realizing it, come to depend on him.

And he depended on me, right? He wouldn't have risked his life for me if he didn't feel something.

That was the most terrified I had ever been. It was also the first time I truly understood my own feelings. I knelt in the middle of the road, bowing my head to the pavement, begging for a kind driver to stop. I was sideswiped by cars, cursed at, shoved, soaked in muddy water.

Somehow, against all odds, we were saved.

To pay for his medical bills, I had to go to my stepsister, the one who had always tormented me. She made me kneel, then used the tip of her shoe to force my chin up.

"Well, well, Aria. You're not so tough now, are you?"

She threw a piece of cake on the floor and ground it into the carpet with her heel, just as she was grinding my dignity into the dirt. "Lick it clean, and I'll give you the money."

When Corbin woke up and found out, he was heartbroken. He kissed the scars on my knees and my forehead. The man who hadn't made a sound when he was stabbed had tears in his eyes for the first time. "Never again," he swore. "I will never let anyone bully you again."

That was the moment I started to fall for him.

Now, a new path lies before me. When I look back, the road I came from has vanished.

For some reason, as if sensing something, Corbin suddenly looked in my direction. Across the crowded room, his eyes locked on me for a fraction of a second.

My heart seized. I tore my gaze away and ran.

I never expected that as I stumbled down the stairs, I would run right into my new target.

He was running toward me, catching me just as I was about to fall. Under the warm glow of the streetlights, his eyes shimmered like distant stars. Even his fingertips were trembling.

I looked up. The starlight in his eyes spilled over, tracing a silver path down his cheeks.

His voice was deep and hoarse, shaking slightly. "Where did you run off to?"

10

My new target's name was Noah.

He said he was here to take me home. But once we were in the car, he couldn't hold back his emotions any longer. He covered his face with one hand, holding mine with the other, and began to sob quietly. His grip wasn't tight, but I couldn't pull away.

I sat in the passenger seat, completely bewildered. I racked my brain, desperately trying to find any memory of a connection between this body and Noah.

They were childhood friends, reunited after a long separation. But they had only seen each other a few days ago, after seven long years.

Yesterday, I asked the System what his initial affection level was. It was vague. "Don't worry," it said, "he's easy to win over."

Was he? That's what it had said about Corbin, too. And Id spent seven years stuck at ninety-nine percent.

11

Noah eventually composed himself and drove me home. At the door, he suddenly stopped me. "Wait here a second."

I stood in the hallway and watched him rush inside. He went from room to room, turning on every single lightthe living room, the bedroom, even the bathroom.

Only then did he come back to me, smiling. "It's not dark anymore. Don't be afraid."

I looked down at his outstretched hand. It was pale and slender, but covered in calluses and fine lines that didn't match his age. A still pool deep inside me rippled. My nose stung with an unfamiliar sorrow.

In a blur, his image overlapped with that of a young boy from a memory that wasn't mine.

On a rain-soaked street, a boy stood in knee-deep water, his pants rolled up. He held out his hand, just like this, and said, "Don't be afraid, Zoe. I'll carry you."

Zoe?

Who was Zoe?

I tapped my head. I didn't know. I couldn't remember. After I was brought to this world, the dimensional interference had wiped many of my memories. I had begged the System to help me recover them, but they were just fragments, impossible to piece together.

"That's because your life was always in fragments," the System had told me, its tone laced with pity. Abandoned by my parents, alone in the world, dead before my time. My only way out was to complete the missions and be reborn.

So, how could someone born in darkness be afraid of the dark?

Besides, for years, I was either on the run with Corbin in the dead of night or locked away in his pitch-black basement. Even if I had been afraid, I had long since gotten used to it.

Noah stood a step away, his eyes fixed on mine. He saw the confusion on my face, and a flicker of pain crossed his. It felt like he was always looking through me, searching for someone else.

In this unfamiliar body, I felt like an impostor. I thought about changing the subject, but then I remembered my mission. I couldn't be timid. I couldn't spend another seven years waiting for a dead end.

I looked back at him. Unlike Corbin's naturally aloof, world-weary face, Noah's was gentle and kind. His soulful, melancholic eyes were so expressive that for a moment, I wanted to cry with him. A few strands of silver in his dark hair caught the light.

I frowned. Almost unconsciously, the words slipped out. "Noah, why do you look so much older?"

In his eyes, a light flared brightly, only to be extinguished in the next instant. I froze.

Those weren't my words They couldn't have been. I had never met him before. How could I know how much he had changed? I didn't understand. I tried to call the System, but there was no response. It had been silent ever since Noah appeared.

A knot of anxiety tightened in my chest. Had I just escaped one trap only to fall into another?

Noah's lips curved into a smile, but his eyes drooped at the corners. For a second, I thought he was going to cry again.

He looked at me, a deep, searching gaze. He placed his large, warm hand on my head and said something I didn't understand. "They said you have to remember on your own. I'll wait for you"

"Remember what?"

"Remember" He stopped abruptly, pressing his lips together and shaking his head. His smile withered like an autumn flower under the harsh light.