Second Chance: A Dark Tale of Urban India-Chapter 74: Setting up system: LISA

Note: This Chapter contains a little info dump, but it’s recommended not to skip it as it’s related to the foundation of the system and core power of MC.

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Rohit stormed into Ragini’s room. He wasn’t thinking much; he just wanted to comfort her, but someone else had already occupied the space.

Arya sat huddled close to Ragini, one arm around her shoulders, the other hand gripping hers lightly. Ragini herself was curled on the bed, knees drawn to her chest, face pale and drawn. Both women startled at the sudden intrusion.

Arya was the first to break the awkward silence. "What do you want?"

Rohit felt his throat tighten, but he moved closer and sat beside her on the bed.

He took her hand in both of his, holding it firmly. Ignoring Arya completely, he met Ragini’s eyes and said quietly, "Listen mom.."

"What those outsiders said doesn’t matter. It changes nothing about us."

"It was you who came to the hospital to see me, you who sacrificed so much for my treatment. It was you who introduced me to the world outside, who gave me the umbrella to embrace glory and fame. That means more than I can put into words."

Ragini bit her lips, a faint smile forming despite her tears finally flowing out. Finally she was acknowledged for all her efforts but hesitated, unsure how to respond, as if afraid that any word might shatter the moment.

Rohit let his gaze drop, recalling all the past incidents he didn’t remember fully but had witnessed—the devotion, the quiet sacrifices. "Sure, I don’t remember everything," he admitted softly, stepping closer and cupping her cheeks, "but I have seen your genuine care. Blood ties or not, you are still the woman I admire, respect, and love. So please... don’t take their words to heart. You are and will be my sweetheart."

Arya, seated a little away, blinked, her jaw dropping at being completely ignored. "Hey... I’m still here. We don’t need—"

But Rohit cut her off mid-sentence, addressing her directly. "And thank you, sis, for taking her side. I’m also glad you came to the hospital."

At this point, Rohit figured, Arya was the key not to be taken lightly. Surely, making surface relations would serve him in the long run. Poking her would only make her cling to Ragini more, which he wasn’t enjoying one bit.

Arya scoffed. "Don’t bother. I came because of Mommy."

Rohit smiled. "And that’s enough for me. Thanks. "

With that, he left.

Arya’s gaze followed him, her lips curling into a sardonic smile. "Weird kid... butting in where it’s not needed," she muttered, then leaned toward Ragini. "Mom, have you noticed? Rohit seems... different. And why does he look so obsessed with you?"

Rohit, on the other hand, went straight to his room. He had never felt this emotionally attached to anyone in decades. He paced around his room, thinking of ways to improve the situation.

Finally, he sat on the bed and reached a conclusion: he needed to hack into people’s lives and bend them to his will. Information was power, and secrets were leverage—the kind that made people surrender.

Today it was the twins. Tomorrow, it could be anyone. He had to think long-term, not chase short-term gains. His future goals demanded it. For now, his priorities were simple: build a network, raise funds—and hacking would be at the core of it.

In his past life, after Keita and Ayane died, he and the remaining team completed the deal with the Chinese and collected their share. He had even volunteered to assist with the research and development of the Chinese re-engineered AI over the next two years.

From that work, they gathered intel and blueprints and hired professionals in parallel to create their own copy of EL0S, which they named ELISA. Apart from that, they also had the advantage of access codes for NATO’s EL0S, which they’d faked as destroyed during the deal with the Chinese.

Their new AI was so powerful that, with its applications, they were able to bypass many firewalls and hack into servers undetected. Its efficiency was so high that its bots could operate as independent agents, managing tasks nearly ten times faster than normal ones.

The best part was that it could write its own automation scripts to remotely run software or execute other commands digitally. Even captchas could be analyzed. That alone brought it close to being the most sentient digital entity.

However, any AI needs training, and so far they had only managed to train ELISA to generate plugins and a few remote jobs that suited their needs.

The best part of ELISA was that it had been built as a sentient system by core—one capable of adhering to its master’s will and taking real-time action based on its training to fulfill its master’s needs. It was completely personal, unlike commercial AIs with limited memory and restricted abilities.

That was how they had hacked into a Hong Kong bank’s data servers, the Chinese general surveillance network, and even penetrated the Japanese PSIA headquarters—all before the recent COVID pandemic.

If he wasn’t mistaken, their homemade server was still running operations from Taiwan, Li’s home country, which was relatively secure from Chinese and Japanese authorities.

There was a risk, however. If he accessed the home server remotely, his old friends might notice his presence online—they had designed it together. Getting caught would mean direct execution. He had no desire to fight them or try to explain something as absurd as transmigration. They wouldn’t believe him anyway. It would only end in blood.

After weighing his options, he chose a lower-risk route. His other friends weren’t as technically capable and would likely stick to generating plugins and taking data assistance, so he could hack in through a backdoor to log in as an autonomous guest.

Fortunately, the AI was restricted from viewing the server logs, so he could gamble that his presence wouldn’t be easily discovered by them.

With that decided, he pulled out his phone, inserted his newly registered SIM, and powered on his new laptop and connected via mobile data.

He logged into his private website, entered the password, and passed a series of security questions and riddles personally set by him. Satisfied the site unlocked.

Three versions appeared in the download menu:

[ELISA_clone_version_ready_2017]

[Elos_clone_version_root_2016]

[Elos_access_mod_remote_2014]

Rohit hesitated. Since India relied heavily on Meta services, using EL0S would be tempting—but he suspected EL0S supervisors might have remote countermeasures that could flag access from a non-sponsored country like India. Worse, EL0S was nearly a decade newer; the risk of detection felt higher.

The 2017 ready version was upgraded and actively used by his former teammates. Logging into it partially was possible but he wont be able to gain full acess due to authentication protocols. Further it risks getting caught by Elisa herself.

So he chose the 2016 root version and reconfigured it under a new name: LISA(Linguistic Intelligent System Assistant). Fortunately, it was never used and yet to be authenticated.

Under Add-ons, he set the training modules across all three tiers—basic, intermediate, and advanced—then selected basic and let it run in background. This initialized a clone AI on his laptop, with its root AI server running and upgrading in Taiwan 24x7.

The basic training completed in ten minutes only. It was also one of its perk, as commercial AIs drag for days or weeks due to safety layers and ethical constraints. Lisa skipped all that, allowing rapid, efficient learning through its custom-built filters that help it diagnose and digest.

A green dialog box appeared and ran a scan, blocking multiple data-stealing malware protocols linked to Meta services. Then the screen shifted to a homepage message:

[Hello, host. Camouflage feature enabled.]

Since the AI was only on basic training, chat communication was enabled; video and audio functions would unlock after layered training.

Other than that, it had another default feature: camouflage, which allowed it to hide its presence automatically once launched.

Even so, it did a remarkable job of blocking data-stealing or suspicious behavior from third-party Meta services that typically came online by default, all without hampering normal services. With this in place, Rohit’s laptop became the most secure device for his activities.

Soon, another message appeared.

Since the next step was binding, he received another prompt:

[Hello, host. Please scan your eye for binding authorization.]

The original EL0S had been designed to be subservient to its master, chosen either by heartbeat authentication or retinal scan before the very first launch. The first option required specialized hardware, so he opted for the second — riskier, but viable as an emergency method.

(A/N: Since eyes can be stolen.)

Rohit leaned toward the laptop camera. After a few seconds, another message appeared:

[Binding with host successful.]

[Please assign host a name.]

He typed his favorite choice.

Chief.

Another message followed:

[Welcome, Chief. Lisa at your service.]

This baby version of Lisa functioned as a generic application, installable across Windows, macOS, and Android. He swapped his old SIM into the iPhone and set it aside to charge, then installed Lisa on his Android as well—isolating his communications from surveillance.

Next, he started the intermediate training, which would take about twelve hours across twelve phases. However, it would become partially accessible after one hour, while the rest continued in the background.

With that ongoing, he moved to the next step.

Since his first target was the twins, he decided to hack them first. He checked their Facebook profiles: Tanya’s was private, so he tried the other cousin, Aisha. Surprisingly, Aisha had an open account.

After scrolling, he discovered Aisha’s professional account. She was a social influencer who did bitcoin trading and affiliate marketing for pocket money.

And she’d listed her phone number for DMs.

A smile crept over Rohit’s face. A personal phone number is a hacker’s key. It was an irony that, despite being cousins, they didn’t have each other’s numbers; their relationship was that sour. That problem seemed solvable now.

He went back to his private server, and under "Add-ons," he scrolled past chat modules and scrapers to a compact library of pre-tested exploits — small, proven scripts his crew had used many times and shelved.

He downloaded an SMS-phish template and a micro-exploit payload as an add-on, patched to his locale.

After installing the required SDKs, he ordered Lisa to reconfigure the code into malware capable of compromising Android devices through a single click. Unlike current public AIs, Lisa was unhinged and produced the necessary scripts in seconds.

He copied the link, pasted it into the SDK, did minor edits for data binding, and embedded the bug into a message inviting Aisha to a Zoom-style meeting for a collaboration. For that, he created a fake profile with Lisa’s generated image and text-generated content and sent the invite.

Now all that remained was waiting.

An hour passed, and phase one of Lisa’s intermediate training completed, unlocking the partial access he urgently needed. As he checked the logs, a familiar female voice called his name, breaking his focus.

"What are you doing? Is that some server stuff?"

He turned around in panic, and it was his second sister, Arya, standing at the doorway with her bossy hands on her waist, trying to figure out his situation.

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A/N: The technical details are intentionaly morphed and wrapped to keep it genre driven.