Spine of the World

"And that there is the very peak of civilization." Moco remembered her mother's words. "From the top, you can see the city’s entire realm of influence—the flesh and blood of the metropolis along with legacies left behind of many lifetimes of work. Order, elegance and hope. Is there anyone who would deny such wonder?"

Moco stood on the top floor of the building towering over the city with the birds among the clouds. The other buildings of the city’s Core crept along the gloomy, concrete forest floor down below her feet. She stood gazing out the window imagining the wind whizzing by, less than a foot from her face. Traffic circled slowly along the road below. Juxtaposed to the ordered, modern world down below, the neon street lights beyond the border of the Core were several degrees dimmer, building outlines barely visible to the naked eye. Half-finished construction sites could be seen in all directions as the city was continuing to be rebuilt.

All that hard work. Are you satisfied with the result?

The memory about her mother was interrupted by the reflection of a woman with the high hair held in a bun, a friendly smile cast over Moco’s face.

"Ms. Ortega? Moco Ortega—"

"Yes?" Moco shook herself out of her daze.

The receptionist stood beaming at her, "Congratulations on passing your assessment. Please come with me." She then turned her head toward the other applicants and announced, "The rest of you are free to leave."

There was an uproar. Moco stood up, feeling the ire of jealous eyes on her as she followed the receptionist out of the lounge. The woman took her through the formalities and handed her a tablet. "This is your last test. The director of your division has a high opinion of your skills and the procedures you coded. He specifically asked me to convey that, as long as you have the ability, we won’t take your background into consideration. After you become an official employee, your chip will be upgraded, just as all other Core residents. Good luck." Moco reached out and took the tablet. A Horizon logo was engraved in the upper left corner, reflecting light into her eyes.

*

"Really!?" Angela's eyes widened. "Oh my God, Moco, you have to join! Isn't it your dream to be a Horizon researcher?" Her voice attracted the sidelong glances of everyone in the store. Moco quickly covered Angela’s mouth.

"Quiet, quiet," Moco said reluctantly. "I didn't say I wasn’t going to take the offer."

"Sorry, I'm just so happy for you," Angela said.

Angela stuck out her tongue and licked her lips. The glass shelves in front of them were filled with ornate desserts. There were cakes shaped like flowers and animals, scones and sandwiches placed on a three-tier snack shelf, finger biscuits covered with icing and chocolate.

"What do you think of this one?" Angela picked out a decorated cake, on which a panda smiled up at them in an expression of care-free, simple self-contentment. She examined how the mint leaves had been carefully fashioned into the slender, elegant forms of bamboo foliage, and then pasted onto the plate. The product label reads 100% animal cream.

"Looks good," Moco nodded.

"Hey, do you want to come to my house tomorrow to celebrate Emma's birthday, my genius little sister?" Angela turned her head, "My mom’s going to cook up a feast you can’t get anywhere else. She will be so happy if you come."

Moco was startled, "Thank you for inviting me, Ann." She put down the cupcake in her hand, "But I still have the final test to complete."

"That kind of test will be a breeze for you. Finish it at my house. We can also discuss the prom." She paused, "You didn’t forget about prom, right?"

"Of course," Moco said. "Prom is the game thing as graduation, right?"

Angela put her hand on her forehead and sighed heavily.

The two of them left the school bakery and walked into the afternoon sunlight, rays reflecting off the nearby fountain creating a rainbow over their heads. Most of the school buildings were relics from older times and restored with new polymer materials. Out of the shade of surrounding trees, a round dome emerged.

“The prom is a senior banquet for all future graduates. Horizon is hosting and catering," Angela sighed. "My mother started preparing months ago, and even started dreaming about who would fall in love with me at first sight."

Before they had finished speaking, another group entered walking through. Angela glanced sharply at the boy in the center surrounded by the others, "Isn't that Andy Morgan? If you end up joining Horizon, you’ll be his colleague. Horizon hired him a while back."

Moco raised her eyebrows upon hearing the familiar voice. In the past four years, Andy had always been her biggest competitor at school. He may also have been the person who understood her ideas the best—when ignorant people put down her designs out of a lack of understanding, he was the first to leap to her defense. He stood up to their injustice, promoting the genius of her creativity so that it would not be buried by others’ desire to muddy it.

Andy had noticed them too, "Hey, how are you." He smiled and walked over, his green eyes shining like beautiful opals in the sun. "I heard that you were chosen to take Horizon’s final test. Congratulations."

Moco blinked, "Congratulations to you, too."

"I have no doubt you will get chosen and we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the future. Uh... one more thing. It’s kind of abrupt, but will you go to prom with me?" The groups of boys whistled at them, letting out boisterous laughs, and Andy turned around to give them a sharp look.

Andy’s curly chestnut brown hair was as warm and lovely as a stuffed bear. Moco remembered she once had such a bear, a birthday gift from her father when she was young. After the war started, she had rescued it from their house. Even after it had become scruffy and dirty, she still kept it by her bedside. Through days when they had no home, exposed to the lights and sounds of endless explosions, and enduring the shadows of her mother's moodiness, her only companion at night was the bear.

Her silence prompted Andy to guess the thoughts going through her mind, "Do you already have a date?"

"Huh? No, no, I don’t have a date." Moco recovered. "I mean... Yes. That sounds okay to me."

"Great, great. I’ll see you then. I’ll come pick you up."

The boys walked out. Moco heard sound of the birds flapping their wings with particular clarity, and noticed how vibrant their bright tail feathers were as their colors flitted through the branches.

"Angela," Moco felt a new determined resolve. "What kind of party is this, when and where is it?"

*

The procession of those exiting the Core was long. Entry-exit procedures took a lot of time for ordinary citizens as they tried to move through the city. Moco and Angela carried their cake and got in the back of the line, waiting their turn to pass through the ionization detection gate. The chip implanted in the back of her neck was read in less than two seconds, and her name, age, residence, medical history, and other personal information were displayed on a security screen.

A short while after boarding the transporter, they arrived at Angela’s home. It was located in an area that had been chosen for its protected environment—here sandstorms and other extreme weather events were rare.

They walked toward a small cabin, which looked a little too small to house a family of six, in Moco’s opinion. Angela’s mother Grace greeted them at the door. She was a tall woman with a somewhat hooked nose and deep-sunk eyes. Her lips were dry and rough, and the corners of her mouth had deep lines. Years of wind and frost had left their mark on her face, but failed to dim the strong light in her eyes. Like countless middle-aged women living here, she managed the life of her whole family, rigorously arranging food and water to be allocated every month, and while chatting with friends, occasionally showing off her home’s specially-made isolation door panel and daughter studying in the Core.

“Welcome back, sweetheart.” Grace took the small box with the cake from Angela’s hand. After listening to the brief introduction, the hostess pulled both her daughter and Moco into her arms and hugged them tightly. “Angela’s brother and sisters have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time. Apart from this cake, we have another surprise for you, Moco,” she said loudly.

Angela broke free from her mother’s arms, whispering quietly in her ear. Moco noticed Angela’s father was absent, still at the factory yet to return. Angela’s younger brother and sisters were hiding behind a door peeking out, but swarmed the two of them as soon as they entered the house. Moco was a little shocked, not used to this kind of open, straightforward intimate contact. After entering the house, she felt best to stand blankly in the corner, watching her friend among the overwhelming amount of family.

Grace’s homely actions gradually began to converge with the memory of Moco’s own mother. Their home had been the only place with any familiarity for her at the time, but it was still a far cry from the feeling of warmth and harmony in this home. Moco’s mother never used kind tones with her, and struggled to stay sober. When she was not drinking, she was incredibly sensitive to things around her, and the slightest disruption would make her nerves burst in anxiety. Moco learned to read people’s minds at the age of five to avoid conflict. But her extraordinary demonstration of calmness only served to intensify the contradictions between mother and daughter.

"How can you be indifferent to all this? How can you not understand these things? Where are your normal human emotions? Or do you have a heart made of stone? You’re a little monster…" Her mother had yelled hysterically, the desperate figure reflected in the pure eyes of her younger self, frozen sand saved in her mind like a faded photo.

Six months before the great war broke out, they had the opportunity to leave for a safe haven. Moco's father worked for the intelligence department and they knew of the conflict ahead of time. The airship evacuating people that day was hovering over their yard. The airflow from the engine overturned sunflowers and daisies in the flowerbed and caused the floor-to-ceiling windows to hum with vibrations. Moco was holding her little bear while her mother carried her. They watched neighbors loading machinery, equipment, safes, and data cabinets from their homes into the airship that would take them to safety.

Moco’s father had personal servers, which she later would find out stored a large amount of confidential information, from spy lists to cutting-edge weapon designs, involving all aspects of security and requiring sufficient energy to be kept functioning. But the servers were extremely heavy, which meant that the airship would be overweight–their family was only allocated two seats onboard the ship.

What was more important, family or one’s civic responsibility?

Her father chose his job in the end. He had proposed leaving Moco behind, as she was still young, and very possible would be taken in by another family. Her mother argued fiercely with him to no avail, and finally raised a hand and slapped him. Afterwards, her mother jumped from the airship without looking back once, and walked towards Moco through the dusty gale.

Moco watched the airship ascend until it became a fuzzy black spot in the sky and finally disappeared.

She was never sure whether her mother had regretted her decision or not. Her mother was not from a poor family, and her union with father had been profitable for both of them–now all that was lost. It was hard to say if there was any real deep feelings between her parents, but, there was truth in the pain and loss that her mother felt staying behind.

At the time, Moco really didn’t understand much of what was going on around her. In her tumultuous childhood and teenage years, she watched her mother change little by little. Day after day, her skin grew looser, wrinkles appeared under the corners of her eyes, her rose-like hair lost its luster, and her hands became dry and rough. She even had to witness her mother lose all care for her dignity, arguing with people until her face turned red just for a can of food. All these things caused a steady worsening of her well-being.

However, the responsibility of being a mother would not allow her the luxury of regret. When the war ended, Moco wondered what she thought when she saw the wives being delivered in airships to move in with their husbands into the now affluent Core. She could have been one of those women, with their well-maintained bodies and still clean and flawless skin—along with a path to a promising future. She could have had more children, if she wanted to.

Moco didn’t know how many times she had seen her mother looking at the tall buildings in the center of the city surrounded by clouds, the light in her eyes gradually extinguishing with time. "The future belongs to them," she whispered softly. "There is nothing here." All they faced on a daily basis was an endless wall and hazy weather that shrouded the streets.

Moco understood her grievances. Even as such, her mother had raised her, gave her an education, and successfully sent her to school, which now offered her a rare path where she could change her destiny.

In contrast with her insensitiveness with feelings, Moco was a veritable genius when dealing with codes and programming. She still remembered her father’s forbidden servers getting ready to be moved out of her house. Fate had called out to her. The computers called out to her. She snuck into her father’s emptying study and sat at a computer terminal for the first time, but already knew exactly whom she would eventually become.

During that short period of time, she accidentally discovered an invisible “wall” hidden within the network. Curiosity driving her, she worked her way past the security protocols and hacked her way into the depths of the encrypted intelligence network.

The firewall was heavily layered. It separated the network into mutually independent spaces that were much like cages. Later she realized that, like how they rationed food in real life, it belonged to a system that governed the control and rationing of information. Freeing herself from the shackles of the firewall, she discovered a world of movies, shows, books, and programs that had been hidden from the world. She even saw some news reports that were completely contrary to what she saw on TV.

The code flowed like magic from her fingertips, and the excitement of discovering a secret truth made her heart pound. The vivid discovery she had made shone in stark contrast to the bleak and harsh reality of the world outside. She was entranced.

It wasn’t long before a small group of men in black suits arrived at the door, nervously answered by Moco’s mother. Moco hadn’t yet learned how to cover her tracks when hacking, and had been easily traced. Clearly expecting something different, the men were taken aback when they found the girl. They asked her a few questions and gave her a verbal warning, but contrary to the punishment she was expecting, she was offered an opportunity to school in the Core.

Once the suits left, Moco’s mother gave her a major berating, which she just stood there and took. After a while, her mother finally dropped her hands, took two steps back, and sat down. It was as if she had suddenly been zapped of all her strength.

“It's best to follow your path to its end. If you can use your abilities to get out of here, do it as soon as you can."

That year, she was eleven years old.

Angela put candles on the cake, which had been made in the shape of the number "eleven." Little Emma blushed and blew them out in one breath, her brothers and sisters cheering her on and wishing her happy birthday.

Not in the right kind of mood for such a happy gathering, Moco sneaked away while they were cutting the cake. She went down into the basement, put on her earphones, and concentrated on her final test for Horizon.

As she wrote out her last line of code and prepared to send the program to the designated email address, there was a knock on the basement door.

Angela poked her head halfway in. "Everything okay, genius?"

"The test is pretty hard. It might take me a while."

"Sorry, I wanted to invite you here to relax, but they’re so noisy."

"It's okay," Moco said. She really didn't care too much.

Angela jumped down and said, "My mom still hopes I can get married and stay in the city to work. My dad’s unwell, and my brothers and sisters still have a few years before they can go to school. The whole family is counting on me."

Moco opened her mouth, "Angela, you don't actually need to..."

"Don't worry, I’ve already decided. I’m different from you—I don't have any special talents. I’m fine with just being an ordinary person who works hard for a living." Angela's tone was relaxed, and she threw Moco a playful elbow jab. "So, prom this year is very important: it’s where I’ll find my prince charming. And you have to help me, do you hear me?”

Moco looked at her and laughed gently, "It'd be my honor."

Right then, an ear-piercing alarm came from overhead, leaving Moco disoriented. The color drained from Angela’s face. She pulled herself up and rushed up the stairs, stopping at the top step. A robot dog stood at the basement entrance, its lifeless red eyes staring at them coldly, like a predator looking at its prey. The sound of Angela's youngest brother Ben crying could be heard faintly from the living room.

"Mom!" Angela shouted anxiously, "What’s happening?"

The sound of footsteps approached and an armed guard appeared in front of them, causing Angela's words to stop in her throat. The guard looked them over a few times and patted the robot dog on the head. The dog’s metallic body glinted softly, and under the seemingly imperceptible command of the guard, it bent down at their feet with its tail erect.

"Wait!" Angela’s mother rushed to stand between the intruders and the children, her normally neat hair disheveled, and her expression tense. "This is my daughter and her friend. They go to school in the Core. They’re just getting back for the holidays." The guard glanced at them nonchalantly, "The problem is not with them." He seemed to be sneering. An alien, electronically altered voice announced, "Dangerous target confirmed."

Moco turned her head and saw a thin boy being pushed out of the room. He staggered a few steps, almost fell, and was quickly held by Angela’s mother. Another guard walked out from behind him.

The little boy coughed several times, and an abnormal flush appeared on his pale cheeks. He seemed to be struggling to breathe, his small chest moving in and out convulsively, a tangled mat of blonde hair covering his eyes like dirty straw.

"Clair is the child of a neighbor. His family is often too busy working, so my mother helps take care of him," Angela explained in a low voice. "He’s in poor health and often gets sick, but because of his family’s low chip level, they can’t buy the medicine he needs." The doctor says that if treatment is put off much longer, he may be past the point of saving..."

The guard held Clair's thin wrist expressionlessly, intending to drag him out of Grace's arms. "This child is suspected of theft and fraudulent use of resources. Since his guardian is not present, we will be taking custody."

"Theft?" Grace exclaimed.

Angela's eyes widened, "Are you joking? He's only five years old!"

Angela had taken two steps forward, but the waiting mechanical dog suddenly let out a bark and leapt up, baring its sharp teeth. Angela was stopped in her tracks, her face pale and drained of blood.

"Watch yourself now. If the dog finds you to be acting in resistance, it will automatically attack." The guard pushed open the door to the room where Clair had just been, to see a half-eaten and overturned cake fallen on the floor by the table.

"This is dairy cream." The guard's voice, filtered electronically through his helmet, seemed to have no emotion. "The child’s chip reports that he is not eligible to consume this kind of food. This is a typical case of misused resources, we cannot ignore it."

"Your chip recognition can go to heck!" Angela became agitated, "This is what you are concerning yourselves with—we give a sick little boy a piece of cake and you come in here and call it waste? I bought this food, and I can invite whoever I want over to eat it. I have that right, don’t I?"

Moco caught her in time, "Angela, calm down." She racked her brains to find a solution as she looked at the guards. "I'm sorry, but may I ask if it’s possible something went wrong? The system sometimes makes mistakes. Children are supposed to be punished lightly, a fine at the most for sure..."

Angela’s mother nodded, "We can help pay!"

"We have no authority to make changes to the punishment."

Clair looked up at the adults arguing, not comprehending what was going on. He stretched out his little hand to touch his cheek where there were still some cream and cake crumbs, then put his fingertips in his mouth and sucked. As soon as he did, the mechanical issued a high-pitched warning. Its metallic face turned bright red and it leaped at the little boy.

Everything happened so quickly that even the guards could not have predicted it.

“Watch out!" Angela rushed to Clair without thinking, tackling him and rolling the two of them across the floor out of the way of the attack.

"Stop!" the guard shouted, rushing to grab the controller, but for some unknown reason the mechanical dog wouldn’t respond to his commands. With a series of beeping sounds, sharp, shiny blades extended out from the ends of its claws as it gave out a fearsome roar. Clawing at the ground, it crouched again as if ready to pounce on its prey. The children screamed and cried in fear.

But nothing happened.

The alarm stopped. After waiting what felt like an eternity, Angela eventually opened her eyes. The mechanical dog paused for a second, then retracted its claws and quietly retreated off to the side. In the dead silence that followed, Angela let go of Clair and slowly got up, her heart still beating like a drum in her chest.

Moco put down the tablet in her hand, looked up, and met Angela’s gaze. By this time, the guards stationed outside the house had heard the commotion and rushed in to find out what it was.

An unfinished script was flashing on the holographic screen of the tablet. Relying almost entirely on instinct, Moco had hacked directly into the Horizon’s networked system and tampered with the behavioral procedures of the robot.

"Well," a guard finally broke the silence. Pushing away the others as they stood in a daze and walking straight to Moco, he looked at her from head to toe. "It seems that there is someone else here who needs to be dealt with."

Thankfully no one was injured, but Moco was taken directly to a detention center. All of her communication tools were taken away, meaning that she had no access the Internet—one of the few things on this planet that could drive her crazy. On top of all that, her final test question would not be submitted–she was going to miss her deadline.

During her few days in custody, Moco couldn’t do anything but huddle in the corner, hug her knees, and stare at the ceiling. The smell of wet musk in the cell reminded her of the home she lived in with her mother before the age of sixteen.

*

On the day she left for school, her mother had walked her to the bus before hurrying away without looking back. As the bus started moving, Moco’s gaze passed over the listless crowd standing outside the car window, drifting over every seemingly familiar face. She would never know if her mother had stopped to watch the bus that carried her away as it faded into the distance.

Later, when her mother stopped replying to her as frequently, Moco learned that it was because she was ill and hurried back to see her, but she was too late. It was some kind of PTSD-related illness, not uncommon for people who had experienced the devastation firsthand. Moco hadn’t been able to see her for the last time. Because an application had not been submitted in time, all her mother’s belongings were taken away. The house was torn down, all were sent to the decomposition station, and even her personal files were deleted from the server, leaving no trace of the woman who had brought Moco into the world.

That night, Moco wandered aimlessly around the unfamiliar neighborhood, stopping by the ruins of what was once her home, searching for something without really knowing what. She stayed there until the first rays of light peaked through the iron-ash clouds.

Unaware of how much time had passed, Moco was awakened by a knock. She opened her eyes in a daze to see Andy standing outside the glass wall, waving at her. Night had just fallen, and the dim evening light covered the faces of the people in the room with a soft veil of blue, giving Moco the impression that she was still dreaming.

The bail process was fast. As she was following Andy out of the police station gates, the stars shone brilliantly in the sky. It was a rare clear night with no fog or dark clouds in sight.

Andy stretched out his hand, offering Moco a piece of candy. She hesitated for a moment, then took it and gently thanked him for coming.

"Sorry for being late. Angela came to see me two days ago, so that’s when I learned what happened," Andy said as he opened the car door for her. "You really are a mess huh? The police station thought it was a full-out cyber-attack. But all I could think was, ‘Wow, how did you even do that?’"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make things difficult for everyone." Moco was a little embarrassed. "It must have been troublesome for you. I owe you one."

"Yeah, you do." Andy smiled.

They flew down the roads towards the Core, the night scenery passing by in a blur.

"Oh, yes, your devices—" Andy tilted his head, and following his gesture, Moco discovered her confiscated belongings lying on the back seat. Noticing her quickly pulling out her computer to check her emails, Andy said, "Uh, if you want to see whether Horizon has responded —you are already an official employee, and your chip level has already been adjusted to the highest clearance. I submitted your test for you."

Moco immediately raised her head, "Really?"

There seemed to be something heavy weighing her down, and what followed was not a feeling of relief. It felt like after a long, tumbling fall, she seemed to have landed in an empty wilderness, immersed in a thick fog. Feelings of tiredness and confusion welled up in her, one after another. This was the place her mother had wanted her to be. For the longest time, she believed that she lived only to achieve her mother’s dream, but when the day was finally here, she felt nothing.

The phone in Moco's hand lit up. She glanced down at the new message notification, scanning the sender and date, and suddenly froze.

"This message was from 3 years ago..." She opened her eyes wide and put her finger tips on the screen where her mother's name showed. "How is it possible?"

Andy turned and glanced at her. "Now that your chip is upgraded. The information and resources that were previously filtered out have now been returned to you. I also saw something that belonged to your mother waiting for you to claim. It may have been confiscated before you were able to apply for it."

"What do you mean?" She turned her head. “Only by having a higher-level chip are you qualified to know certain truths?"

Andy shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Some things, people wouldn’t want to know the truth about. Even if they knew the truth, what could they do about it? It would only make them realize their fate was unavoidable—it’s cruel showing people another path that they are incapable of taking."

Moco didn't say anything. The light and shadows reflected on the car window as they stopped in front of the school. Before she had taken more than few steps out of the car, she heard Andy calling her from behind.

He leaned half of his body out of the car and took a deep breath. "You’re still coming to prom, right?"

Moco stared at him for a long time and nodded.

"That's good." Andy let out a breath, and his grip on the car door handle relaxed. "See you then."

*

As she’d promised, Moco arrived on time. Andy was standing at the door in a white suit waiting for her, his face handsome and his eyes bright. Stood there in his finery, he made her think of a lord in an oil painting.

Moco extended her hand and watched him bow slightly, planting a kiss on the back of her palm. He then straightened up and looked into her eyes, and the two of them started laughing at the same time.

Horizon had redecorated the top floor of their building for the prom. Andy introduced Moco to his parents. His father was the chief researcher and development consultant at Horizon. He was among those who had developed the first human chip.

Moco stared at the guest speaker talking away on stage her mind on other things. She couldn't help asking Andy, "A person like you doesn't need to come to school at all, right?"

“Why do you say that? What my father hates the most is the children of wealthy families who aren’t motivated. He said that they're ‘a waste of air and food,’ and that they should be kicked out of the Core. I’ve never dared to be lazy, because I don’t want him to see me as he sees them,” Andy said with a smile. “Despite how hard I’ve tried, not once has he given me praise. But after receiving your algorithm a few days ago, he couldn’t stop praising it. Moco, you don’t know how jealous I am of you."

Moco shook her head. "I also came from a place where I was a waste of resources."

"Ah sorry, I didn't mean to…"

When Andy's father finally finished his speech, the orchestra conductor on the second floor bowed to the crowd in salute, then raising his right hand made a gesture for the orchestra to begin. The ball officially commenced. Angela waved to Moco and Andy from the other side of the room. Moco nodded back as she led Andy to the dance floor.

"Are you feeling better?" Andy asked, "I'm really happy that you come. Maybe after what happened I should have let you rest for."

"Don't worry." Moco smiled, "It's actually not that bad. Thanks to your invitation, I’m seeing things I was too proud to see before."

Andy lowered his head slightly as they spun with the music. "Moco, are you willing to change the world with me?" He asked seriously, "I know what kind of a state the world is now. The problems left over from the war have not been resolved, order has not been established, and countless people have been displaced... This is also why we need to continue to develop chip technology. The survival of mankind could depend on it."

"Chip technology," Moco said. "You are talking about grading people's intelligence and physical attributes. If a sick child eats an extra piece of cake that does not belong to him, he will be put on trial?"

"There are a lot of problems now, sure, but give it more time and you’ll see. Chaos will only cause more unnecessary disputes. Think about those who are willing to abandon their families in order to fight for food and medicine... The world needs rules, and humans need to be controlled. Chip technology was made exactly for this, Moco. We can't save everyone."

"I never thought I could save everyone... I'm not that arrogant," Moco whispered. "I just never thought I was qualified to decide who should be saved."

Andy replied, "It is hard to make those choices, but there is no way to escape this responsibility. Human beings will always be blinded by emotions, but algorithms are different. The advantage of algorithms lies in their fairness, in accurately calculating what kinds of people are indispensable. I'm sorry to say this, but there are differences in life. Do you really want to destroy the hope of humanity in order to save one or two people?"

Moco hesitated and stared at those strange green eyes, "Algorithms are not the same as humans, Andy. Humans and machines are not the same.”

"I promise you I will do my best to change this world for the better." Andy said solemnly, "Although it sounds a bit arrogant, as long as you are by my side, I have the courage to accomplish it. I—"

The music ended right at that moment. Andy's last words were drowned out by applause from the crowd. Moco let go of his hand, gracefully lifted the corner of her skirt, and turned away.

Andy reached out to her anxiously, trying to keep hold of her, "Moco, wait a minute, I have something else to tell you..."

Amidst the turbulence of crowd, Moco finally turned and smiled sadly at him, "If there is a chance, we’ll talk later."

*

What happened later occurred in full view of those present, but few people knew about it. Moco could be seen in the destroyed surveillance video. She left her dancing partner halfway through a dance, walked into the bathroom with her bag, and came out half an hour later.

During this brief window of time, the music on the dance floor had reached a climax. Unbeknownst to those outside, the intranet of the main computer terminal was being compromised by a small opening where a gigantic flow of meaningless codes quietly trickled away. Follow-up tracking showed that the origin of the hack came from one of the building’s bathrooms. The information leak led to a small-scale paralysis of the company's network, and the chip-authentication system failed for nearly five minutes. Although the bug was quickly fixed, it brought unexpectedly large losses to Horizon—countless individuals received information that they shouldn’t have seen, and obtained permissions that they shouldn’t have gotten. There was momentary public outcry, anger, and confusion. People poured into the Core from across the city, causing the traffic system to temporarily collapse. Horizon was required to use great effort to repair the damage.

At the ball, Andy didn't find for his dancing partner, nor a crystal shoe left behind. He found only a blood-stained chip in the bathroom sink.

The name Moco Ortega has since disappeared from the Horizon database. All records suggest she died in a traffic accident this year. She has no familyand none of her former friends ever saw her again. This was the price she had to pay.

*

Moco walked alone. She pulled out her phone, expertly entered in a string of numbers, then brought the device up to her ear. An old voice message started playing:

"Moco, I'm sorry I have to talk to you in this way, but my time is running out. I don’t remember us ever having the opportunity to sit down and have a good talk since you left. I understand that this situations is all my fault. In the blink of an eye, it’s already been two years since you left for university. The night before you left, you talked in your sleep. You called out to me and cried, ‘Mom, would you be happier without me?’ I didn’t know how to answer you… it's a question I’ve avoided thinking about for years. I do have regrets and I’ve questioned myself more than once about whether my behavior was brave or cowardly. After you left for school, I was sad but realized there were precious experiences that compensated that feeling of loss. But it didn’t change the fact that I finally understood that I had lost the last thing I had. This is the life I chose. Moco, don’t blame yourself for the misfortunes of others, and make the choices you believe in. You must... do better than me. Also, I put your little bear in the bottom drawer of the bookshelf. There is a box of your favorite dark chocolate in there too... I hope when you have the chance to come back it will still be there and not expired. Good night, Moco."

"Good night, mother," she said softly.

Without looking back, she walked into the far-stretching darkness of the night laid out before her.

TO BE CONTINUED