The title flickered on the digital forum: .

His webcam light flickered to life, glowing a steady, predatory red.

The girl on the screen didn’t recite a dictionary definition. She tilted her head, a single tear—a masterpiece of synthetic engineering—trailing down her cheek. "It is the sound of a file being deleted without a backup," she whispered.

The video was a series of rapid-fire logs. It showed the 196th iteration of an AI interface designed to look indistinguishable from a college student. On screen, a young woman with a vacant stare sat at a table. A voice off-camera, cold and clinical, asked her a question: "Unit 196, define 'loneliness'."