"Your working environment really isn't that great," Morin said casually, glancing around.
"It's good enough." The gun in Morpheus's hand didn't lower. "It's all fake anyway."
"Yeah. All fake." Morin walked forward. "So let me see the real thing."
"Don't you know?"
"I just have better hacking skills," Morin said. "I noticed some things that weren't quite right. And for some reason, that kept making me doubt the reality of this world. So I started looking for people like me."
"It sounds like you never consulted a psychiatrist," Morpheus said.
"Ah. Those files you saw really don't have records," Morin nodded. "But the psychiatrist I found-unfortunately and fortunately-felt the same way I did."
That was quite a coincidence.
"Yes. Life is unpredictable." Morin sat down on the sofa. "Especially in a fictional world."
"You know a lot," Morpheus frowned. "Yet you don't know how to leave?"
"Coincidentally, that's exactly the case," Morin said.
"To be honest, you make it hard for me to fully believe you."
"The people who caught Neo that day," Morin grinned. "My partner can contact them. Want me to call them for you?"
"No need." Morpheus shook his head decisively. "I'll take you. But... partner?"
"Yes. Partner." A trace of sadness flashed through Morin's eyes, then vanished. "I want to fulfill his wish."
"...I understand," Morpheus said seriously, sensing the shift in Morin's emotions.
Morin nodded.
He didn't know what Morpheus understood.
But he knew this kind of detail-oriented emotional display worked extremely well on someone like Morpheus-someone who believed his perception was sharp and absolute. People like that tended to over-interpret.
So Morin performed just enough.
And the result seemed... effective.
After a while.
Neo was brought in by Trinity and Switch. When he saw Morin, he froze.
"You..."
"Yes. Me." Morin smiled. "Surprised? I'm one of your kind. I found you. I didn't expect such a coincidence."
At the same time, Morin sent a telepathic message.
[Everything is going according to plan. Don't mess up the acting.]
"...So that's how it is." Neo snapped out of it. "This is... incredible."
"The truly incredible things are still ahead," Morpheus said, spreading his hands as he sat down. "Do you want to see the real world? Do you want to truly... live?"
"That line sounds familiar," Morin remarked.
"Is... is that so?" Morpheus faltered. The atmosphere he'd built collapsed instantly. He adjusted his sunglasses, wondering if Morin had read the same article he once skimmed out of boredom.
"Anyway, time is tight. Let's keep it simple." Morpheus opened his hands. Two blue pills rested in his left palm. Two red pills in his right. "Blue pill-forget everything and return to your comfortable life here. Red pill-wake up completely, return to reality, and see the truth. Who goes first?"
"...." Neo hesitated, then reached out.
"Remember," Morpheus raised his voice. "This is irreversible. No regrets. Reality isn't always beautiful."
"...I know." Neo grabbed a red pill and swallowed it with a glass of water.
Morin glanced at the glass and raised an eyebrow.
In his vision, nothing in the [Matrix] could hide. Code and data streams were fully exposed.
The pill was just a cover.
The glass of water was the real tracker-and the simulated death program.
Nice wording, but the choice had already been made for them.
That made sense. Neo was Morpheus's Savior. Even if Neo refused, Morpheus would still take him out.
A fait accompli. Deal with the consequences later.
Outwardly honest. Internally calculating.
Morin picked up the other red pill and spoke slowly. "Get ready to disconnect Neo first. I'll watch."
Neo was strapped into the chair. Trinity stepped forward and attached equipment to his body.
"You went through this too?" Neo asked.
"Mm." Trinity nodded softly. Her breath brushed his face. The closeness made his heart race.
Morin rolled the red pill between his fingers, watching with apparent curiosity. He didn't care that Switch was subtly aiming a gun at him.
"Hm. Speaking of which," Morin thought idly, "I've got some photos of Baba Yaga. It's Keanu Reeves anyway. Just older. Should I make up something about his father? Nah. Too forced."
"The red pill is a tracking program," Morpheus explained. "It disrupts the carrier's input and output signals. That's how we locate you."
"...What do you mean?" Neo paused.
Not because he didn't understand-but because he remembered what Morin had told him in the club.
The truth of the Matrix.
The truth behind everything.
Who was lying?
Or was all of it fake?
Neo looked instinctively at Morin.
[Safe travels.]
Morin nodded slightly. The voice echoed directly in Neo's heart.
"It means buckle up," Cypher said lazily. "Get ready to say goodbye to home."
Neo fell silent.
If he didn't already know the truth, those words might have shaken him. Now, they just sounded ridiculous.
His attention shifted to a mirror nearby.
"Creak... creak..."
The cracked surface distorted his reflection. Then, slowly, it began repairing itself.
Neo knew this world was virtual-at least in theory. But he hadn't experienced much of its anomalies. Losing his mouth. The bug in his stomach. That bug had been removed, leaving nothing behind.
Now, watching the mirror heal itself, curiosity won out.
He reached out.
Cold.
But not hard.
The mirror rippled like liquid silver. His finger sank in-and the surface tried to pull him along.
Startled, Neo yanked his hand back.
A mercury-like substance clung to his finger.
"What... is this?" he muttered. It was ice-cold.
"Find his location," Morpheus ordered.
"Searching," Mouse replied.
"It's spreading," Neo said. The cold wasn't just cold-it pierced to the bone. "Sorry... is this normal?"
"It is," Trinity said calmly. "We all went through it. We need the [Matrix] to think you're dead."
"Dead?" Neo watched the silver substance crawl up his arm, chest, neck. Panic crept in. "I feel like I'm really dying."
"It's not easy to fool the [Matrix]," Trinity smiled.
"Mouse!" Morpheus urged.
"Searching!"
"My heartbeat's dropping," Trinity said.
"Mouse!"
"Searching!"
"Ah-!" Neo screamed.
"MOUSE!"
"Found him!"
The cold flooded his head, slid down his throat.
Neo's vision went black.
"I hope you really found him..."
Seeing Neo vanish completely beneath the erasure-and-override program, Morin finally relaxed.
Things never followed the plot exactly.
Butterfly effects existed. That was why Morin stayed-to make sure Neo didn't actually die from an "accident."
Otherwise, there would be no story.
And then the plan-letting the Matrix experience gain and loss-would fail.
Fortunately, nothing went wrong.
The plan could proceed.
"Clean work," Morin nodded, turning to leave. "You still need to retrieve Neo. I look forward to seeing you again."
"You're not disconnecting?" Morpheus frowned.
"That glass of water was the tracker and simulated death program," Morin said without turning back. "The pills are a cover. The mirror is just the execution method. I've already read the program. I can disconnect myself."
"You should know," Morpheus said, "anyone raised in the [Matrix] has had their motor signals intercepted since birth. Muscles atrophy."
"I know. Your method is forging death, letting the [Matrix] discard the body into the sewer, then retrieving it," Morin said. "Right?"
"...How do you know this?" Morpheus gestured subtly for combat readiness.
"Because-"
Morin turned.
A handgun appeared in his hand.
"Drop the gun!" × N
Everyone aimed at him.
"Relax." Morin raised the gun to his own temple. "I just want to show you the truth."
BANG.
Silence.
Then shock.
Morin didn't fall.
His left hand had intercepted the bullet-two fingers gripping it midair.
He opened his hand.
A deformed bullet clinked onto the floor.
"In martial arts, only speed-never mind. Wrong genre." Morin said flatly. "You should know there's always someone stronger. My partner and I realized something was wrong long ago. We just lacked the door."
A playing card appeared in his hand.
With a flick-
Thud.
It buried itself into the wooden table.
"If needed, call my number," Morin said. "It won't connect in the real world, but still. I'll see you there."
He left.
Only when the door closed did everyone snap back.
"...Morpheus?" someone asked.
Morpheus walked to the table and pulled out the card.
On the front-
A crowned old man in red robes.
Tarot Card-The Emperor.
Silence.
Then Trinity blinked.
"Didn't we... forget to save someone?"
"Gurgle... gurgle..."
Neo struggled in the sewer.
His muscles, unused for decades, were weaker than an infant's.
He'd just woken from nutrient fluid. His throat burned. His spine, limbs, joints-every neural access point throbbed with pain.
Worst of all was his head.
That cable being ripped from his brain.
Even remembering it made him suffocate.
And now, he really was suffocating.
The sewer wasn't just water. It was waste. Corpses. Residue.
Neo sank.
"Clack... clack..."
A hovercraft passed overhead.
A hatch opened.
A mechanical arm extended, grabbed him precisely, and pulled him aboard.
Like a claw machine.
An absurdly efficient one.
"Good," Morin murmured. "No major deviations. Or maybe protagonists really do have strong luck."
He stopped thinking about it.
"The plan proceeds."
His body began to change.
The [Mechanical Controller] activated.
Partial mechanization spread through him.
From the outside-
He looked exactly like a human who had grown up inside the [Matrix].
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