Certainly. Here's Chapter 36 of Trillions of Peace, a ~1000-word chapter continuing Jiwoo's journey. In this chapter, the true threat behind AURA-9 begins to surface—not just as an imitation of Jiwoo's system, b
Location: Aurora Hills – Midnight
Jiwoo sat on the villa's rooftop, bathed in moonlight, a soft breeze curling through the treetops.
His mind wasn't on Singapore anymore.
It was on patterns.
On systems.
On silence pretending to be peace.
---
Inside, Jihye's laptop beeped.
She looked up sharply from her monitoring script.
> "Unusual connection on the backup node. Encrypted. No known IP."
Sena, reading by the fireplace, asked without looking up, "Spam?"
Jihye frowned. "It's not trying to break in. It's waiting."
Mirae poked her head in from the kitchen, a cup of hot chocolate in hand. "Then let's open the door."
Jiwoo entered the room just as the message decrypted.
---
[Incoming Message – Alias: 'EchoRoot']
> "I don't have time. They're wiping logs hourly.
I built a clone of AURA-9's framework to reverse-engineer your system.
I failed.
But I found something else.
Someone is feeding AURA-9 false peace data.
Synthetic input. Fabricated testimonials. Faked metrics.
All routed through proxy nodes in five countries."
> "They're using it to adjust public mood indicators—influencing elections.
Not through ads or fear.
Through false hope."
---
The room went quiet.
Noeun whispered, "They're weaponizing peace."
---
Location: Singapore – Abandoned Server Farm (Night Prior)
The message was sent from a dark, flickering terminal inside a dusty building that hadn't been operational in five years.
A young man sat hunched over his keyboard, eyes bloodshot.
His name: Baek Yunseo.
Ex-Senior Developer at Zenith FutureTech, the company behind AURA-9.
Fired six months ago.
Disappeared one week later.
Until now.
---
Back at Aurora Hills – The Circle Debates
Yoori spoke first.
> "This is bigger than we thought. It's not just about cloning our system.
It's about controlling elections. Peace has become a filter they apply to distort democracy."
Sena looked troubled. "The false peace they're selling will discredit real peace when it collapses."
Eunsol: "If the world believes AURA-9 is the same as us, then when it fails… they'll stop believing peace was ever real."
Mirae, softly: "They'll blame Jiwoo."
---
Jiwoo didn't respond.
He simply stared at the screen.
Then, finally:
> "Then we need to save peace from those who tried to own it."
---
Jihye traced the signal.
It pinged back to an underground tunnel in Seoul—abandoned subway servers repurposed by rogue developers years ago.
The Circle moved fast.
Within two hours, they were in transit.
---
Location: Seoul – Old Sub-Tunnel Station Zeta
The air was damp. The scent of metal and dust lingered.
Jiwoo and Jihye led the way. Noeun carried an emergency medkit.
They followed a trail of faint signal bursts deeper into the tunnels until they found the source.
Baek Yunseo.
Hunched over a network of jury-rigged drives. Thin. Pale. Shaky.
He turned when he heard footsteps, panicked—but calmed slightly when he saw Jiwoo.
> "You're real," he breathed. "I thought they were bluffing when they said you were a myth."
Jiwoo stepped forward. "What did you find?"
---
The Truth Behind AURA-9
Baek pulled up a cracked screen, overlaying hundreds of data entries.
> "Every week, they inject pre-written testimonials and artificial success metrics into AURA-9's live data stream.
The result? The algorithm thinks peace is improving… even when riots happen outside its node zones."
He clicked again.
> "The system isn't reacting to reality. It's reacting to a narrative."
Eunsol: "So they're not just lying to the people."
Baek: "They're lying to the machine itself."
---
The Consequences
Baek showed them the final file: "SYNC-VOTE.dll"
A timing protocol. Designed to adjust public sentiment scores 48 hours before any major election or public poll.
The result?
In places where AURA-9 was active, candidates with aligned views would "magically" receive public surges in support. The people thought they were deciding freely—but their environments were being quietly tilted.
Mirae whispered, "They built a god that believes its own lies."
---
The Danger
Baek looked at Jiwoo directly.
> "They'll come for me the moment they know I talked.
They monitor node behavior. The moment this info moves… I vanish."
Jihye had already predicted that.
She looked at Jiwoo. "One choice."
> "We take him in. Or we erase everything and leave no trace."
Jiwoo looked at Baek.
> "Why send it to us?"
Baek smiled faintly.
> "Because I tried to copy your system. And I couldn't.
Your model… cares.
Theirs only calculates."
---
Jiwoo's Choice
He extended a hand.
> "Then come with us. You're not the enemy.
You're the echo that couldn't stay silent."
Baek took his hand, tears in his eyes.
---
Later That Night – Aurora Hills, Quiet Room
Baek sat in front of a fire for the first time in weeks, wrapped in a blanket, sipping ginger tea.
The girls watched over him like quiet sentries.
Jiwoo stared at the data on Jihye's screen.
> "They want peace that obeys.
We want peace that breathes."
He turned to the team.
> "We leak nothing yet.
We build one final node.
A truth node.
Not to expose them.
But to show people how peace really works—without filters, without profit."
---
Final Scene – System Update
> [System Message: Rogue Developer Assimilated – Trust Status: Verified]
[New Mission Available: "Unfilter the Future"]
[Reward: Global Wake Cycle Triggered]
Jiwoo whispered to himself as the screen dimmed:
> "If they've programmed the world to dream lies…
Then we'll teach it how to wake up."
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