Chapter 1 Disaster

Today marked the darkest, most tragic day of Liam's life. In approximately five minutes, he would witness the execution of a prisoner, observing the entire process firsthand and even having the opportunity to speak with them. The reason? This prisoner had murdered his entire family.

His father, his mother, and his six-year-old sister.

Just two months ago, eighteen-year-old Liam had completed high school and earned a place at the prestigious Velmora University. However, during his graduation trip, he received a sudden call from the judicial authorities. They informed him that the family's housekeeper, Sophia, had brutally killed his parents and sister, dismembering their bodies with kitchen tools such as knives.

Though Liam was not their biological child, having been adopted before he turned one, eighteen years of devoted care and unconditional love had made his adoptive parents as dear to him as if they shared the same bloodline.

A whirlwind of anger, hatred, and grief nearly broke Liam, but disbelief clouded his mind as well. He could not fathom how Sophia—once so gentle and kind, and who had worked for the family for a decade—could commit such an atrocity.

In Liam's heart, Sophia, who had cared for him since childhood, was nothing short of family. He desperately needed to confront her and demand an answer: Why?

Sitting on a bench while waiting to be called in, Liam lowered his head and slowly opened his left hand. With a flick of his wrist, the watch on his arm projected a holographic phone screen. Moving his right fingertip, he navigated to the message inbox. The top message was from the night his father had died.

"I've never asked much of you, but you must go to Ravenwick Theological Seminary. Reply once you've read this."

Liam still didn't understand why his father had wanted him to forgo a world-renowned university to attend some obscure seminary. The disagreement had sparked a heated argument between them.

Now, thinking back, regret overwhelmed Liam. Staring at his father's grayed-out profile picture on the screen, he was overcome with sorrow. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks, unbidden.

…

Four minutes later, Liam was escorted by the court's enforcement officer into a dimly lit waiting room—a place where death row inmates spent their final moments before execution. The oppressive atmosphere exuded a chilling sense of foreboding.

"You have five minutes," the officer reminded Liam before positioning himself at the doorway.

In the shadowy room, a woman in her early thirties sat shackled in lightweight alloy electronic restraints. Her features were strikingly beautiful, her figure almost unnervingly perfect, yet her gaze was fixed coldly on Liam.

This was Sophia—the housekeeper who had raised Liam since childhood.

For a long moment, their eyes locked. Liam clenched his fists, struggling to suppress the anger surging within him, and slowly bent to sit in the chair opposite her.

Sophia's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile as she stared at him. "So, you've come to watch me die? Does witnessing my execution bring you the satisfaction of revenge?"

Liam looked at Sophia, her demeanor verging on madness, his heart brimming with confusion. "Why did you do it?!"

"Why shouldn't I?" Sophia tilted her head, her piercing gaze unwavering. "You weren't home that day. If you had been, I would have laced your food with sedatives too. I would have dismembered you piece by piece just like the others!"

"You're insane!" Liam's voice trembled with fury as he stared at Sophia, who showed neither guilt nor remorse, only a chilling indifference.

"Insane?" Sophia's voice rose, and she stood slowly, her bloodshot eyes glaring at him. "Yes, I'm insane! I've been insane for a long time! I worked for your family for ten years—did you ever treat me like a human being?"

"That's not true! Look at other housekeepers—compare their lives to yours! My mother even bought you jewelry. Who else would have done that for you?!"

Four minutes later, Liam was escorted by the court's enforcement officer into a dimly lit waiting room—a place where death row inmates spent their final moments before execution. The oppressive atmosphere exuded a chilling sense of foreboding.

"You have five minutes," the officer reminded Liam before positioning himself at the doorway.

In the shadowy room, a woman in her early thirties sat shackled in lightweight alloy electronic restraints. Her features were strikingly beautiful, her figure almost unnervingly perfect, yet her gaze was fixed coldly on Liam.

This was Sophia—the housekeeper who had raised Liam since childhood.

For a long moment, their eyes locked. Liam clenched his fists, struggling to suppress the anger surging within him, and slowly bent to sit in the chair opposite her.

Sophia's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile as she stared at him. "So, you've come to watch me die? Does witnessing my execution bring you the satisfaction of revenge?"

Liam looked at Sophia, her demeanor verging on madness, his heart brimming with confusion. "Why did you do it?!"

"Why shouldn't I?" Sophia tilted her head, her piercing gaze unwavering. "You weren't home that day. If you had been, I would have laced your food with sedatives too. I would have dismembered you piece by piece just like the others!"

"You're insane!" Liam's voice trembled with fury as he stared at Sophia, who showed neither guilt nor remorse, only a chilling indifference.

"Insane?" Sophia's voice rose, and she stood slowly, her bloodshot eyes glaring at him. "Yes, I'm insane! I've been insane for a long time! I worked for your family for ten years—did you ever treat me like a human being?"

"That's not true! Look at other housekeepers—compare their lives to yours! My mother even bought you jewelry. Who else would have done that for you?!"

"So, what you mean to say is that no one else but her would care about a mere housekeeper like me, isn't it? Ha!" Sophia let out a chilling laugh, her face contorted with bitterness. "Yes, in your eyes, I've always been nothing more than an inferior being whose only purpose is to do the work you assign. Do you think her buying me jewelry was an act of care? It was charity, nothing more—giving me the things she no longer needed, the trash she wanted to discard, all dressed up as a token of generosity. It was her way of making me feel even more like a slave, a beast of burden, while she flaunted her false kindness to elevate your family's self-righteousness!"

"You're being too extreme! What you're saying is inhuman—completely unreasonable!"

"Inhuman? What is 'human,' then?" Sophia's expression twisted with hatred as she glared at Liam, her fists clenched tightly. Her voice rose to a roar, trembling with suppressed fury. "Ten years! In all these years, did any of you ever care about how I felt? I had no social life, no family, no friends, and no one who ever bothered to consider my emotions! In your house, I was nothing more than a caged slave! I rose early to prepare meals, spent my days cleaning, served tea to your family of four in the evenings, laundered your undergarments, and from afar, watched you flaunt your happiness, your perfect life! What did I have? Nothing but the endless monotony of labor! Did any of you ever spare me a glance? Did anyone treat me as a person?"

Liam stared at her, dumbfounded, unable to reconcile the woman before him with the person he thought he had known.

"Loneliness!" Sophia's voice wavered, her head shaking slowly as her expression turned vacant. "Do you even know what loneliness is? For ten years, I lived the same hollow existence. I saw you as family, as my closest kin. I craved even the smallest sign of care, but all I got was indifference. You treated me like I was invisible. And the one I hated most—your sister, that heartless brat! That night, the three of them sat in the living room, playing a virtual game together. I wanted so desperately to join them. I mustered the last shred of courage in my heart, smiled, and asked if I could play with her that evening. And do you know what she said? She told me my place was in the kitchen." Sophia laughed bitterly, her voice hollow and cold. "Do you remember? Five years ago, when she fell gravely ill, I braved a storm to fetch the doctor, nearly dying on the way. She doesn't remember that. She never once appreciated my care!"

"She was just a child!" Liam retorted, his voice shaking with indignation.

"Then why does she know how to be grateful to her parents? Why can she even show kindness to that dog of yours?!" Sophia screamed, her voice trembling with fury. "She's nothing but a heartless little beast! That's why I dismembered her first. Her body was so small, her skin so tender. With every slice, I felt a surge of pleasure. She owed me that!"

"I'll kill you!" Liam roared, utterly enraged. He leapt to his feet, grabbed a chair, and swung it at her.

Thud!

The chair struck Sophia's head with a dull sound, and she slumped back into her seat.

"You're despicable!" Liam shouted, his eyes red with anger, lifting the chair again, ready to strike once more.

"If you had been home that day," Sophia sneered, her laughter cold and deranged, "I would have made you join that little beast. I would have dismembered your body too, then fed both of you to that pitiful dog... Ha!"

Sophia's manic laughter echoed through the room, but before Liam could strike again, the officer at the door rushed forward, seizing his arm. With a stern expression, the officer warned, "Sir, you can't harm her, or we'll be forced to intervene."

"Go ahead! Kill me!" Sophia shouted defiantly, springing to her feet, her face contorted with madness.

Bang!

A low-energy electromagnetic cannon mounted on the wall fired without warning, knocking Sophia to the ground. Her body convulsed violently as she collapsed, trembling uncontrollably. Around her iron chair, a thin, shimmering energy barrier materialized, sealing her in completely.

Liam stared at her, devastated. Slowly, he sank to the floor, clutching his head in his hands. His voice was choked with anguish as he murmured, "…You're wrong. So terribly wrong. I... I've never ignored you. I've always been grateful to you. I cared about you deeply because you raised me, because both of us were brought into this family from the outside... I'm just not good at expressing myself, but that doesn't mean we didn't care about you!"

Sophia stared blankly at Liam, her eyes wide with astonishment. She had never anticipated hearing such words from him. In her mind, his purpose for being here today was to witness her execution firsthand, to revel in the satisfaction of revenge. It was this belief that fueled her aggressive demeanor and led her to relentlessly provoke the most vulnerable corners of Liam's psyche.

But she had not expected this—a broken Liam, crumbling before her, tears streaming down his face.

"...Do you even understand?" Liam murmured through sobs, his head bowed. "In just two months, I've lost everyone I loved—including you. I came here today… to see you off on your final journey, to hear the words of regret you should have said…"

Sophia froze, her mind unable to process his heartfelt confession.

A sudden beam of light illuminated the room, and the floor beneath Sophia's chair gave way. She plummeted downward, descending swiftly into the execution chamber below.

"Go... go to Ravenwick Theological Seminary. You must go! There are so many secrets there—secrets about you!" Sophia's voice, filled with desperation, broke as she spoke. She had never intended to reveal this, but as she fell, witnessing Liam's raw and unguarded emotions shattered her resolve, and she changed her mind. "You must go!"

Ravenwick Theological Seminary? Again? Liam's father, too, had urged him to attend that place before his death.

The floor beneath Liam suddenly turned transparent, revealing the room below.

It was a stark, empty chamber, roughly forty square meters in size. Four execution officers stood ready, every preparation meticulously in place.

Sophia sat calmly in the chair, her voice soft and measured as she said, "Please grant me euthanasia. Respect my rights."

The officer ignored her plea, merely gesturing toward the camera with a wave of his hand.

Creak, creak.

The mechanical hum of machinery filled the room as two massive robotic arms emerged slowly from the walls on either side, their cold, unfeeling grip closing around Sophia's head.

"No! I demanded a lethal injection! You cannot treat me this way!" Sophia suddenly screamed, her voice escalating to a manic pitch. "You are supposed to respect my rights, not follow the old protocols…!"

"Proceed," the chief officer commanded with a curt gesture.

Bang!

The mechanical hands tightened around Sophia's head and lifted it upward, brutally wrenching it from her body.

No blood spattered, no grotesque scene of flesh and gore unfolded.

From the severed neck, only a complex array of electronic components and sparks of flickering light were revealed.

The officer regarded Sophia's detached head with a cold indifference, remarking flatly, "You don't even have blood vessels. How could I administer euthanasia to you?"

Creak, crack.

Without hesitation, the robotic arms tore apart Sophia's body from both sides, ripping through the synthetic fibers of her artificial skin to reveal an intricate network of mechanical parts and a gleaming metal skeleton beneath.

"Per the AI Management Regulations, extract the electronic neurons and incinerate them. The remaining body is to be pulverized," ordered Officer No. 2.

Five minutes later, Robot No. 000954, designated as Sophia, had her neural network severed. Her "remains" were discarded into a shredder, obliterated beyond recognition.

In the year 2120 of the Common Era, a new race gradually emerged within the world we once knew.

AI beings.

...

One week later.

After much deliberation, Liam finally mustered the courage to dial his mentor's number. "I've decided to decline my admission to Velmora University and attend Ravenwick Theological Seminary instead."

"What kind of institution is that?"

"It's an unranked seminary," Liam replied calmly.

"Have you lost your mind?! Why on earth would you go there? To commune with God up close?"

"There are countless questions weighing on my heart, questions I need answers to, Professor…!"