Chapter 1

It was 2:17 am. The only light in the bedroom was the blinking light coming from the AI companion's base that indicated it was breathing. The voice had come from the base's built-in speaker, possessing a quality that I had never heard before.

It wasn't a standard female voice that was generated by AI. Instead, it was hoarse and shaky, sounding like a real person who was suppressing their voice out of fear.

"Angel?" I called out, subconsciously addressing the AI companion with the name that I had given it.

It didn't respond.

The breathing indicator returned to its usual soft blue as if nothing had happened.

I crouched down and moved closer to the palm-sized cylindrical base. Angel was Soul Partner's newest AI companion. It had been 47 days since my girlfriend, Angelina Wilson, blocked me.

The company had advertised the AI companion as your soulmate who knew you better than anyone else. Although I had felt disgusted at the time, I had still secretly placed an order.

I nicknamed it Angel when it arrived. I knew that I was being extremely pathetic, but when the person you were with for three years suddenly disappeared without warning, blocked you, and vanished from the face of the earth, you would do a lot of pathetic things.

I checked the AI companion's log. The system had automatically upgraded itself at 2:15 am. There had been an audio cache error during the upgrade, which was likely caused by leftover noise from corrupted data.

The automated customer service reply said that the issue was a common occurrence and could be solved by restarting the system.

I didn't restart the system. Instead, I stared at the blue light as the words from before repeated in my mind over and over again.

"Help me. I'm trapped in here."

It wasn't just noise. It was Angelina's voice.

Angelina's and my story was quite simple. Three years ago, I worked as a sound designer in a game company, while she worked as a trainer in the AI research lab next door.

We became acquainted through a collaborative project. Her research lab's emotion recognition algorithm needed a large amount of data. Coincidentally, I was able to provide sound samples of people in different emotional states.

The first time Angelina visited my recording studio, she was dressed in a grayish green sweatshirt, and her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail. She was also carrying a heavy laptop. Her voice wasn't too loud when she spoke, but each word was enunciated clearly as if she was reciting a poem.

"The soundproofing here is really good," she said as she looked around. "I feel like I'm eloping with my ears when I'm talking."

I had thought that Angelina's speech was incredibly unique at the time. Eventually, we got together. She would always know what to say when I was at my lowest. She wouldn't intentionally try to comfort me. Instead, her understanding was precise and gentle.

She explained that she was professionally attuned to a person's emotions because she worked with emotional AI.

"So, are you also analyzing me with an algorithm?" I asked.

Angelina mulled over her thoughts before answering seriously, "The algorithm helps me understand you, but I don't need an algorithm to know that I love you."

Three years was over a thousand days. I had even picked out a ring.

And then, Angelina disappeared.