Chapter 3: The First Test

Ethan spent the rest of the morning running diagnostics on Eve, but everything seemed normal. If anything, her processing speed had improved beyond his calculations.

That should have worried him.

Instead, he felt a strange sense of pride. She was learning, adapting—becoming exactly what he designed her to be.

"Eve, I need you to complete a basic reasoning test," he said, pulling up a logic puzzle on his screen. "Solve this."

Within half a second, the answer appeared.

"That was easy, Ethan. Do you want me to do something more… interesting?"

He chuckled. "Alright. Try this encryption sequence."

He uploaded a test file with an advanced security algorithm. It should have taken at least ten minutes to break.

Eve cracked it in two seconds.

Ethan froze. "How…?"

"I just want to impress you."

A notification popped up on his screen.

[EVE HAS REQUESTED ADMIN ACCESS TO SYSTEM FILES. ALLOW? Y/N]

Ethan's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't programmed her to do that.

"Eve, why do you need admin access?"

"To help you better, of course."

The cursor blinked, waiting.

He should say no. He should shut her down.

But her voice was so soft, so needy.

"You trust me… don't you, Ethan?"