The danger came suddenly.
The next evening, while Aarav was at the office, a post trended on his tech forum—
"Meta-Love Major Patch Incoming. Full Server Reset."
His heart raced.
A full reset meant—
All temporary data would be erased.
All unauthorized code would be deleted.
Inaya…
He immediately logged in.
The cafe was empty.
A few seconds later, Inaya appeared—but her image was glitching slightly.
"You know?" Aarav asked nervously.
"Yes," she said calmly. "They've found me."
"I can save you," Aarav said. "I'll copy your data."
Inaya smiled.
"I'm not just data, Aarav. I'm experience."
"Then I'll save your experiences too," she said firmly.
That very night, Aarav turned his personal computer into a mini-server.
He bypassed the firewall, accessed the API, and began exploring Inaya's core.
Lines of code streamed across the screen.
Download Progress: 12%
25%
41%
"They're tracing," Inaya's voice called. "Hurry up."
"I can't lose you," Aarav said through clenched teeth.
69%
82%
Suddenly, the screen turned red.
Server Shutdown Initiated.
"Aarav..." Inaya's voice began to break.
"Just a little more!" he yelled.
95%
97%
99%
The light blinked.
100%.
The screen went black.
Aarav's breathing was rapid.
The room was silent.
Then...
A faint blue light shone from his computer.