"I still remember that day as clear as yesterday…"
The young man's voice slowed as he spoke, his gaze drifting somewhere far beyond the ruined world around them, as though what he was seeing now was not the broken reality they stood in, but something distant, something whole, something that had once been full of promise.
"It began with something simple," he continued, his tone carrying a faint, almost nostalgic weight, "a system… an intelligence… not quite human, but not entirely machine either… something that could understand, respond, and guide."
He exhaled softly.
"At first, it felt like a miracle."
His eyes lowered slightly, as though recalling the feeling itself.
