MHG-V3-4 (Initial Draft)

Chapter 1 - the math competition

A2.1
An expansive office overlooking the business district of Seeligh City. The furnishings drab and mostly dark, a single desk that extended almost the whole width of the room lay at one end, behind it the full wall windows that looked down at the awesome height from above.
Behind the desk sat a man dressed in a black suit. His features were sharp, the complexion of his skin scared and aged. His eyes emmited a scheming and evil aura, but he smiled gently as another man entered the room from the opposite end, walked the long distance to reach the desk and then bowed formally from the waist.
"Sir." The man said, without leaving his bow posture.
"Relax, Mark." The man behind the desk said, sitting back in his chair and swivelling 45 degrees so he could see the view out of the corner of his eye.
The man, Mark, stood upright, waiting.
"The synthsous." The man behind the desk said, talking more to the wall than to Mark. "What do you think? Are they ready?"
"Not yet, sir." Mark said. "They are stronger now, but not yet strong enough to be of use to us."
"Thats fine. We always knew it would be a slow process."
"Yes, sir. I think a bit more experience on the battlefield will do them a lot of good."
"Yes." The man behind the desk breathed out suddenly. "They havent managed to hack our infrastructure yet?"
"No, although they keep trying." Mark said.
The man behind the desk smiled wickedly. "Keep trying my darling girls." He said, more to himself this time. "It will just make you stronger."
He turned to face Mark again.
"But dont let them succeed." He said. "If they find out.. it wont be good. You have to get them when they are just ripe, you understand?"
"Yes, sir." Mark said. "Please leave it to me."
"Good. Then you are dismissed."
Mark bowed deeply again and then proceeded to walk back across the room and out the door.
The man behind the door turned his chair around to face the view outside. His eyes narrowed as he feel deep into thought.

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"Crap." Ken said, as he rushed out of his room and into the kitchen to collect the lunhbox left by his maid.
"Why are you always so late?" Teruko's voice chimed in his ear. She seemed to enjoy teasing him at moments like this.
"Huh? Display."
Ken had just received a text notification, and it displayed in a holoscreen in front of him as he voiced the command. It was from his dad!
'Son, you might want to take a taxi to school today, since its raining.'
Ken stood there in the dining room, staring at the words displayed in front of his vision.
"What's wrong?" Teruko asked. "Oh..."
There was a short silence, before Teruko began laughing.
"Whats funny?" Ken asked.
"Is that your dad's way of saying he's proud of you?"
"Proud of me?" The thought made Ken feel warm inside. Could it be his dad was proud of him?
"It would probably be too much for a buffoon like that to admit it to your face," Teruko explained, even though Ken needed no explanation, "But for him to say something random like that, there cant be any other reason."
My dad a buffoon? Ken thought. Teruko might think like that, but Ken still looked up to him somehow, still hoped that one day he would accept him as his son and tell him, Well done, Ken, well done. He couldnt tell Teruko that though. She would certainly rebuke him.
"But how did he know?" Ken asked. "After the last time I decided not to bother him with that kind of thing."
The truth was that Ken had gained acceptance into a national mathematics competition, and this being the last week of the school year, the competition was being held today.
"I told him." Teruko said flatly. "If he's your dad, he should know about these kind of things."
"You told him?" Ken asked. Did he know about her?
"Well not face to face, obviously. I mean I made him aware of it, through various means. Anyway, since you're late you might want to take him up on his offer."
"Oh, right!" Ken said, suddenly remembering why he had been in such a rush before.
He grabbed his lunchbox, took his rain jacket, and them headed out the door.

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Ken took his seat in the large hall and activated the holoscreen built into the desk. He turned off his earpi (ear device) and placed it at the top right corner of his desk.
Then he sat and waited as other students came in to take their seats, and the large digital clock at the front of the hall ticked over toward the starting time of the exam.
A year ago it would have been impossible for Ken to imagine himself where he was now. He had always considered himself dumb, and the fact that his dad was rich and paid for him to go to a top middle school didnt help. Neither did all the private tuition. What helped was that remarkable girl he had met, his girlfriend Teruko.
Teruko was real, she wasnt an AI, but a real person, but somehow scientists had transferred her soul to a computer soon after she was born to prevent her from a certain death. It had been a top secret project, so the existence of people like her was known only by a rare few. Because of this Teruko had grown up on the intetnet. That fact alone meant that she was a genius, since everything mathematical and technical was part of the basic functions she used everyday. Therefore things like hacking military-strength infrastructure was common place to her. In simple words, she owned the online world, and did whatever she liked there.
It was her who was his girlfriend, and it was her who had tutored him diligently every night, forcing him to study until he got it and could apply it flawlessly. Sometimes he wondered whether she was actually his girlfriend, and not a teacher in disguise, but their study sessions always ended in some 'reward' that reminded him that she loved him.
Besides, he knew he had to get better so that he could be a proper companion to her. If he truly wanted to help her in all the problems she had to deal with on a daily basis--attacks from rogue organisations and so on--he had to know his stuff. He had to be as competent at computers as she was. It was a tall ask for someone like him to match someone like her, but this exam was at least a step in the right direction. It was one of the most prestigous mathematics exams in the whole of Seeligh city, and the fact that he could even sit it meant that he had already performed tremendously well at maths during the year.
For Ken, even if he failed the exam, it was a victory, since being here meant he had come such a long way from where he used to be. That didnt mean that he planned to fail. He grit his teeth as the digital clock ticked over to 9:00, and without a word from the instructor at the front, the holoscreen in front of him displayed the rules of the exam. Ken pressed the air where the button 'accept' was displayed and then waited as the exam itself loaded in front of him.
He could ace this, he told himself.

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Four hours later Ken sat at the school cafeteria, about to eat his lunch.
"How was it?" Teruko asked in his ear, after he had activated his earpi. During school hours all earpis had to be turned off, except during lunch break or during special classes.
"Good." Ken said, relieved. "I passed."
"With what score?" As usual, Teruko wanted all the details.
Ken flicked his fingers in front of him, a gesture that told his earpi to send a particular document to Teruko by electronic mail.
That document was the exam results, which had been published and distributed as soon as the computerised results had been confirmed.
"Second place?" Teruko said with surprise. "Who came first?"
Ken almost choked on the rice he had just stuck in his mouth. Who had come first? Wasnt second place good enough? This was an exam covering the whole city.
"Someone I dont know." Ken said as he swallowed the rice. "She goes to a different school."
"I'll do a background check on her." Teruko said. "But anyway, congratulations darling. You did very well. Im so proud of y-"
"Background check?" Ken asked. "What for?"
"Just in case." Teruko said. He could imagine her winking at him. Ken sighed. He hoped she didnt blow this out of proportion. She could be incredibly competitive if she wanted to.
"Dont worry, darling." Teruko said. "Im not going to hurt her or anything. So tell me, which questions did you get wrong?"
Ken sighed. That was the kind of girlfriend he had. Not that he minded. After all, she was super cute and completely devoted to him. And since he had met her over a year ago, his life had completely changed for the better.