Miles got off the train and walked towards the building in front of him. On top of the door written in a giant sign was ‘Civil Registry Office’

He looked at the sign and sighed deeply. He had no other choice than to try it out. He entered the building and climbed the stairs to the top floor. The Civil Registry Office was one of the most secure government facilities. Not only were there armed personnel but also heat vision cameras as well.

Miles entered the toilet and entered one of the cabins with a hood covering most of his face and medical mask over his mouth and nose. Because Coin also had a face recognition system, he knew what to cover, what to leave open.

Toilets were relatively safe because there were no cameras, but the guards were monitoring the entrance 24/7 through cameras, and anyone entering and leaving the toilet were matched. If Miles were to enter and don’t come out, a security guard would come in to check on him.

Miles then looked around. When the toilet was crowded enough, he entered the accessible toilet. There were two plugs and one emergency system built inside it. In case of emergency, the user could hold a button and talk to the guards through the system. Because the emergency line was connected to it, Miles entered that cubicle and plugged in Coin. “Do your magic, buddy.”

Coin tried to hack into the system, but then an alarm started to ring in the building as soon as Coin tried.

“Shit, run for it.” Coin warned him and sounded the fire alarm as well. Miles and everybody else left the toilet at the same time. He looked around and noticed armed guards were making their way towards them.

As he saw the guard, he misdirected the crowd. “Look the guards are running away. Fire must be that way, let’s go from here.” People listened to his warning, and all turned around. They all made their way to the regular stairs instead of fire exits and went down. Miles left the building and hid in the crowd.

“What the hell happened there?” Miles asked when he was at least 10 streets away from the building.

“Mother AI was watching the building when I was connected, and if I hadn’t uploaded a prank trojan, I would have been caught in seconds.” Coin explained.

“What! She was watching the building? So you let the virus get caught to misdirect her?.” Miles realized what Coin did.

“Yeah, but no worries. She didn’t notice my presence.” Coin assured Miles.

“It is good then. But now we can never use the same tactic. How will I create another ID?” Miles asked sulkily

“It won’t be a problem.” Coin said and opened a holographic map. “I found a better way.” He pointed to a red dot for Miles to follow.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Where is that place?” Miles asked and started to walk there.

“It is a hospital.” Coin said and started to explain. “When I was in the system I found a loophole, a weakness to exploit.”

“Oh, what is it? It is not like we can resurrect dead people like they had been doing before. Without their AIs, we cannot own the identity.” Miles asked. Before Mother AI, criminals were using this tactic all the time, but with the AI age, identities couldn’t be faked.

“If you can have an alternate identity, why can’t I?” Coin asked.

“What do you mean?” Miles didn’t understand what Coin meant.

“I can take over the source code of an AI to keep it as fake. Normally other AIs can’t do it because if they were to fight, they would only destroy each other. But because I have the advantage against them, I can remove their ‘personality’ and keep their source code in my system. When you need to use your alter ID, I can also switch the source code with the stolen AI’s and we would have a perfect cover.” Coin explained.

Miles was more surprised than impressed.

“Isn’t that cruel? I mean removing the AI’s personality?” Miles asked. Coin was his buddy, and if anyone tried to remove Coin’s personality he would do everything within his power to stop them. He would fight to the death.

“It is not.” Coin answered and explained. “The AIs of the deceased are in a dormant state anyway. When a person’s status is confirmed as dead, their AIs will be sent back to be removed. Each person can only have a unique AI and no used source code will be given to another person. So it is the same if I delete its ‘personality’, it will die either way.”

“I see.” Miles answered, and they arrived at the hospital not long after. This time their work was a little bit harder, but luckily it wasn’t a major government facility, and the security was not too tight.

Coin hacked the system and put the cameras in a loop so they wouldn’t record Miles. By watching cameras, Coin led Miles to the morgue, where their business was.

“A341.” Coin said and Miles opened the drawer. Inside was a dead man at the age of 23. He looked similar to Miles. Black hair, blue eyes, and similar height. An orb the size of an infant's fist was on top of his chest.

“I deleted his record in the hospital. He was never here. Now, connect me to the wristwatch.” Coin said and Miles did.

Not long after, the deletion was successful. “It is done. You can cremate the body, and take the wristwatch with you.”

Miles took the body and placed it into the cremation furnace. He stood in respect while the body turned into ash. He left the room with a sky blue orb in his pocket. “What should I do with the wristwatch?” Miles asked after they left the hospital.

“You can just drop it anywhere you want. I deleted anything inside, so no one can find whom it belonged to. But just to be safe, you can ditch it in Portal World.”

“Alright. What about the new identity?” Miles asked.

“Your name is Ezio Firenze. 23 years old. Finished his military service, and died not long after he returned. The bank account has 200.000 UD.” Coin reported.

“I am assuming he has no family and no friends, since you have chosen him.” Miles asked.

“Correct. His only friend in service died on the battlefield.”

“Donate the money, and remove the bank account. I will create another one in a few days.” Miles instructed.

“Aye, aye.” Coin answered.

Miles looked back at the hospital and was about to walk towards home when he saw a flying shuttle speeding towards the hospital entrance. Estimating its speed and angle, Miles could see that the shuttle would clash into the hospital.