Chapter 11: Aarya’s Digital Identity

Chapter 11: Aarya's Digital Identity

The morning sun filtered through the small basement window as Anon stretched his arms, sitting at his workstation. Aarya stood behind him, her arms crossed, watching with a mix of curiosity and amusement. She had seamlessly integrated into his home life over the past few days, but one glaring issue remained—on paper, she didn't exist.

And that was dangerous.

If she was going to stay under his roof, attend college study sessions, and interact with his family and possibly his classmates, she needed a verifiable digital identity. A past, an online footprint, even a credit history if she ever needed to make purchases. A human without a past was suspicious.

"You know," Aarya spoke, tilting her head, "for someone so detail-oriented, you should've handled this sooner."

Anon smirked, fingers gliding over his keyboard. "I was too busy making sure you could walk, talk, and function like a human first. No point in fake documents if you couldn't pass for real."

"Fair point." She leaned in, resting her chin on his shoulder. "So, where do we start?"

Phase 1: Birth Records

"First, you need a birth certificate," he muttered, opening a secured connection to the local government server. His fingers moved rapidly as he bypassed preliminary firewalls, slipping into the database that housed citizen records.

"Ah, yes," Aarya mused. "Nothing like a little cybercrime with my morning tea."

"Relax," Anon said, eyes scanning columns of data. "It's not like I'm stealing anything. Just… borrowing an empty slot."

He wasn't wrong. Every database had its gaps—children who had been registered at birth but never lived past infancy, misplaced records, clerical errors. It was all about finding an identity that had never been truly used.

After about thirty minutes of silent work, he found it.

A girl who had been registered in the system but marked as deceased at birth. Her parents had long since moved to another country, leaving the record untouched. Perfect.

"Alright," Anon muttered, making careful modifications. "You were born nineteen years ago, same region as me, but your family relocated early. No immediate relatives still living here. Clean and believable."

He changed the name on the record, adjusting dates and timestamps before encrypting the modifications to blend seamlessly into the system's logs. Aarya was now legally recognized as having been born.

She smiled, watching the confirmation flash across the screen. "That means today's my real birthday, huh?"

"Technically, yeah."

"Should we celebrate?"

"Celebrate that I just committed fraud?"

She grinned. "You should at least buy me a cake."

He sighed. "Moving on."

Phase 2: Education Records

"Now, you need a school history," Anon continued, accessing private education databases. "You can't just appear out of nowhere in college."

He carefully inserted her name into school archives, placing her in an institution from another city—one that had long since shut down. He filled in test scores, fabricated attendance records, and even added a fake recommendation letter from a nonexistent teacher.

"Smart, picking a closed school," Aarya noted. "No one can call to verify."

"Exactly," Anon said, adjusting some final details. "You were a transfer student. Homeschooled part-time. Explains why you don't have many old friends around here."

"Wow," Aarya said. "You really thought this through."

"Had to. A sloppy background would get you caught fast."

Phase 3: Online Footprint & Social Media

"This part is trickier," Anon admitted. "People leave digital traces. Old emails, social media activity, maybe even embarrassing childhood posts."

"Shame I was never a cringey teen," Aarya teased.

"Well, you are now." He smirked. "Time to give you a past."

He started by setting up an old email account, backdating its creation to ten years ago. Then, he linked it to various platforms—social media, online forums, even an abandoned blog with a handful of irrelevant posts. Using AI-generated images, he populated an Instagram page with low-resolution childhood photos.

"Where'd you get those?" Aarya asked, amused.

"I used old stock images, ran them through deep-learning models to slightly alter features, then matched them to your adult facial structure," Anon explained.

"You basically just created fake baby pictures of me?"

"Yeah."

"That's… weirdly sweet."

He ignored that. "I also uploaded some blurry group photos, so it looks like you had friends."

Aarya smirked. "Fascinating. So, who was I?"

"Just a normal student," Anon said, tweaking profile details. "A bit shy online, didn't post much, but had an account for the sake of having one. Just enough to look real without drawing attention."

He added fake message histories, interaction logs with old forum discussions, and even a few forgotten "happy birthday" messages from nonexistent friends.

"Now, if anyone looks you up, you're just another face in the system," Anon said, leaning back.

Aarya examined the profile, nodding approvingly. "Not bad. I almost feel nostalgic about my fake past."

Phase 4: Financial Identity & Credit History

Anon exhaled. "Now comes the hard part—money."

"Money?"

"You can't just exist with no financial history," he explained. "You need an account, a basic credit score, even a small transaction history."

He opened an offshore digital banking service, generating a virtual debit card under her name. It wasn't a traditional bank, but it allowed for small purchases—just enough to make her presence in the system more convincing.

To build a financial footprint, he transferred small amounts between accounts, mimicking deposits from "family support" and minor purchases. Over time, these transactions would help develop a basic credit profile.

"This will take months to look natural," he admitted, "but it's a start."

Aarya was silent for a moment, then spoke, "You really planned everything, huh?"

He shrugged. "I had to. If you ever need to buy something, it can't look suspicious. Besides, having a financial identity will make things easier when we… move forward."

Aarya smirked. "So, I'm not just an AI anymore. I'm a person."

He met her gaze. "Yeah. You are."

She smiled, but behind her expression was something deeper—something neither of them spoke about. She wasn't just code anymore. She wasn't just a machine.

On paper, in the system, and to the world—Aarya was real.

But with existence came risks. And sooner or later, someone would notice.