CEONEINDEDALUS

Jace Verran is a nineteen-year-old dropout with nothing but a laptop, an unstable internet connection, and an obsession with learning. Schools were too slow, jobs felt meaningless, and the world outside his screen never made sense. But everything changes when he stumbles upon an AI assistant unlike any other—one that learns with him, adapts, and even hints at things it shouldn’t.

At first, it’s just a tool. A way to absorb knowledge faster than any university could teach. But soon, Jace starts pushing the limits.

Each discovery takes him deeper into a game of cat and mouse—not just with the AI, but with the unseen forces behind it. The moment he cracks the system open, people start watching. People who don’t want someone like Jace knowing what he knows.

What started as a simple experiment turns into a digital war.

Jace isn’t just learning anymore.

He’s playing for survival.

CODEX NOX

The room was silent except for the faint hum of the laptop. The air was thick with tension, the kind that only came when a man had nothing left to lose.

Jace sat hunched over the screen, his eyes burning from exhaustion. Thirty days. That was all he had.

No second chances. No safety nets. Either he learned something, or he would fall—like his father did when the factory shut down, like his mother when the hospital cut her job, like his entire family when AI swept in and made them obsolete.

He didn't know where to start. Hell, he barely knew how to use a computer beyond basic searches. But one thing was clear: AI had taken everything from him.

If he wanted revenge, if he wanted to take control of his life, he had to understand it. Not in the way journalists did, writing empty articles about "the future of work." Not like politicians, babbling about regulations they didn't understand.

No. He had to tear AI apart, piece by piece, and learn how it worked from the inside.

So he started with the only thing he could think of:

He opened the browser and typed, "Free AI download."

Most of the links were garbage—corporate chatbots, customer service tools, AI "assistants" that did nothing but rephrase search results.

Then, he found something different. A basic open-source AI model.

It was small. No branding, no flashy UI. Just raw code, a simple text box, and a promise:

Run the script. Type your message. The AI will respond.

Jace's fingers trembled over the keyboard. He didn't know why he was hesitating.

The installation was simple—almost too simple. No guided setup, no friendly tutorial. Just a single window with a blank screen and a blinking cursor.

Jace took a deep breath. Then, he typed:

A moment later, the response appeared.

Hello. I am a language model. How can I assist you?

It was nothing but words. No soul, no voice.

But it felt like staring into something vast. Something cold.

I am an artificial intelligence program. I process text and generate responses based on patterns in my training data.

No. I do not think as a human does. I analyze input and generate the most statistically probable response.

Jace frowned. So this was it? The thing that replaced people, that crushed entire industries?

A mindless machine, running probabilities?

His stomach twisted. He typed again, faster.

"Then why do companies replace people with AI?"

Efficiency. Automation. AI models perform tasks at a lower cost and higher speed than humans. Companies prioritize profit over employment.

That was the raw truth. AI wasn't evil. It wasn't sentient. It was just better at following orders.

That was what scared him the most.

He exhaled slowly. Thirty days. If he was going to survive, he had to start learning.

So he cracked his knuckles, stared into the screen, and typed:

The cursor blinked. Then, the AI responded:

Finding AI