Chapter 21 -- Blackout

 

Chapter 21

Blackout

Yet Tetria’s security system had already been activated.

• All the robots in the bar,

• All service units,

• All support units

had been shut down remotely.

Only three robots remained active:

The security protocol robots

Arch

Gideon

And now…

Gideon, one of the robots not shut down, was active in front of the security protocol.

Everyone in the bar watched the scene frozen in place.

Tables, people, waiters…

No one moved.

Salih was in shock.

Gideon trying to protect him completely shattered the balance in his perception. Gideon was shielding him.

Because Gideon, in such a spontaneous manner,

with a protective instinct,

acting like a living being…

meant only one thing to Salih:

Gideon was not behaving like an ordinary robot.

He seemed alive.

Immediately after that tense moment in the bar,

something no one expected happened.

The system initiated an extraordinary security protocol.

Only the two online security robots,

and the robots still active with them—Gideon and Arch…

Arch had just experienced real pain. He didn’t simulate it. He had genuinely felt it, though he couldn’t comprehend it.

Suddenly, they were remotely shut down.

All of them collapsed to the ground instantly,

as if deactivated by a single command.

Everyone in the bar saw it with their own eyes;

yet they had no time to react.

Immediately following this shutdown, a second protocol activated.

All customers wearing the simulation suits,

that is, every user present in the bar…

were instantly switched to “death mode.”

Without any warning,

without showing any sign of pain,

they all collapsed to the floor at the same time.

Now, in the bar:

• There wasn’t a single robot standing.

• Not a single human consciousness remained active.

Waiters, customers, combat players, security personnel…

All of them lay on the ground, unconscious, their awareness turned off.

In seconds, the bar

was plunged into complete silence.

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