10:31 PM
Eon's Apartment – South Sector 12A
The cursor still blinked on-screen.
EXECUTE();
He hadn't moved for a while. Just stared.
Run it or forget it?
That single line of code burned in his brain.
if (thought == independent) { intervene(); }
Not a warning. Not a theory. A command.
A direct intervention against anyone who thought too freely.
Eon leaned back in his chair.
Eyes dry. Mind racing.
He could've erased it.
Pretended nothing happened.
But instead, he saved it, air-gapped it, and shut everything down.
Convex would never know.
Not yet.
6:44 AM
Convex Corp – Floor 73
The elevator chimed soft jazz as it climbed.
Eon barely noticed the familiar hum of machinery around him.
He stepped into the lobby.
Same spotless floor. Same neutral lighting.
Same voice over the glass intercom:
"Convex welcomes you. Harmony begins with obedience."
He flinched.
At his desk, Kai was sipping synth-coffee.
"You look like you didn't sleep," Kai muttered.
"I didn't."
The desk AI booted automatically.
"Good morning, Eon. You have one new task — validation fix on SyncNotice push alerts."
Normal. Expected. Harmless.
But Eon wasn't listening.
He had one goal now:
Find the root of that file.
He tried tracing the path again:
/convex/sys/behavioral/vectors/
Access Denied.
Of course.
The file was gone from the system. Scrubbed clean.
But he had his own copy.
And last night, he only scratched the surface.
8:02 PM
Eon's Apartment
The city pulsed outside his window.
He powered up his offline system and opened the sandbox.
There it was.
Untouched. Silent. Waiting.
He scanned deeper into the structure.
It was elegant — a series of behavioral modifiers designed to influence emotion, decisions, even dreams.
Everything connected: apps, ads, social feeds, public announcements, education, commerce.
A hidden web running under society.
The illusion of choice, programmed by code.
He kept scrolling until a string caught his eye:
KASTEN_CORE : NODE-1
SIG_ID: [REDACTED]
Kasten Core.
That wasn't Convex protocol.
Not even internal dev teams used that naming convention.
This wasn't just hidden.
It was ancient. And still active.
10:19 PM
A ping.
His offline terminal — completely isolated — flashed a message:
[UNKNOWN SOURCE]
You shouldn't have this.
But now that you do...
You can't stay neutral.
And then:
EXECUTE() or ERASE();
No trace.
The message vanished seconds later.
Eon froze.
Someone knew.
Not just that he accessed it — but that he understood it.
No alerts. No breach. How did they reach my system?
He stood up slowly.
His eyes scanned the room.
Stillness.
Still... the air felt heavier now.
For the first time in his life, Eon felt like he wasn't working under Convex.
He was now working against it.
And someone else — someone powerful — just noticed.
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Episode 3's coming soon 👀
YOU ARE READING
If Then Else
Science FictionWhat if every choice you made... was never really yours? Eon Vale uncovers a hidden algorithm embedded in the very apps and systems the world depends on. It doesn't control actions. It controls thought. And it's watching him.
