Programmed Wife

Chapter 2

That night no matter how hard Rui tried to sleep, he just couldn't do it. Isa lang ang naisip niya na makakatulong sa kan'ya sa panahon na ito, alak. Tinawagan niya ang mabuting kaibigan na si Shawn para ayaing lumabas at uminom dahil nasa condo niya ang Mama niya. Ayaw niyang ipaalam na hanggang ngayon ay may epekto pa rin sa kan'ya ang tatay at tita niya.

He drove for a while and stopped in front of a bar that he frequents with his friends. Dito sila magkikita ni Shawn at pinauna na nila ang pagtawag sa manager para sa kanilang private room.

Kung mayroong makakapansin sa kung paano ang mga mata ni Rui sa tuwing may nakikita siyang babae, maiisip nila na nandidiri siya sa nakikita niya. Bawat madaanan ba naman niya ay linilingon siya na parang kulang nalang ay maglaway sila. Nakahinga lang siya nang maluwag sa loob ng private room.

He didn't bother to wait for Shawn and immediately called for a server. But instead of a server, the owner of the whole place came.

"Oh God, good f*cking timing." He thought to himself while watching the drunk man sit in front of him holding a tray of glasses and a bucket with liquor bottles.

"Mr. Andrews! What a surprise! I prepared my best drinks for you here, just choose or tell me what you want." Walang ibang maisip si Rui habang pinapanood ang lasing na lalaki at masayang ipinapakita ang mga inumin kung hindi ang gilagid ng lalaki. It's distracting him.

"O 'di kaya naman babae?" The owner said. Rui immediately snapped back in to reality.

"No, no, Mr. Sang I don't really-"

"Kakaiba ang mga babae rito," he giggled and even held him by the shoulder. "Hindi sila tao." Rui rolled his eyes from what this drunk man was saying. But Mr. Sang really did his best to pull him close enough and whispered to his ear.

"They're all humanoids, so you know...you can do what you want with them." Rui pushed him in an instant out of disgust but a second later, he realized what Mr. Sang just said.

"Mr. Sang you're too drunk. You don't know what you're saying."

"No, you don't know," the drunk man laughed "I got them from Aphrodite W. Hindi nga lang top quality pero mura, perfect for my club and as escorts."

"What?" Halatang may halong galit, pandidiri at pagkalito sa mukha ni Rui.

"Do you really think saying this weird lie about robots and sh*t would make you not guilty of p**********n?" Rui stood up and screamed at the man who's still laughing at him.

"No, you should see it. I got contacted by a secret black market org called Aphrodite W. They sell humanoids that can pass a a human! "

He pressed a button and called for someone named Taylor. A pretty girl in a short fitted red dress opened the door and sat next to Mr. Sang. Rui immediately moved back and ignored her presence.

"Taylor, pour Mr. Andrews a drink." Bawat pag lapit ng babae ay siya namang paglayo ni Rui. Mr. Sam made the girl pour a drink, sing a song and dance. She didn't say anything else and just followed every order. Pinapakita ng lalaki kung paano niya napapasunod sa kahit ano ang kan'yang humanoid. Pero hindi pa rin siya pinansin ni Rui. Sinubukan niyang pumikit habang pinapakalma ang sarili. Hanggang sa narinig niya ang mga salitang nagpadilat sa kan'ya.

"Taylor go and impress Mr. Andrews, give him the best night."

Rui stood up as fast as he can. He opened his eyes only to watch Mr. Sam walk out of the room to leave him with the lady who is now unzipping her dress. It's the first time that Rui saw her eyes. They were dead, as if she doesn't have a soul. The next thing he remembered was him pushing away the girl who's now sitting on top of him while he completely struggles to breath.

His vision turned blurry and everything in the room started to disappear. Suddenly he could see his cursed room back when he was a kid. He wanted to scream but he couldn't even catch his breath.

"Tayzie wag!" Rui was still in his nightmare but this time there's a soft voice of a girl.

"Tayzie move away from him. No!" Naramdaman niyang gumaan ang kaatawan niya.

"Put your dress back on and leave. Bilisan mo!" He felt someone fixing his unbuttoned shirt.

"It's okay, it's fine. No one will hurt you, sshhh calm down." Huminto ang naramdaman niyang nag-aayos sa damit niya at unti-unti niyang sinusubukan na buksan ang mga mata niya.

"Don't open your eyes. I'm going to leave first before you open your eyes okay?" Kahit na nanghihina, nakatango pa ng bahagya si Rui. Narinig niya ang dahan-dahang pagtayo nang babae mula sa tabi niya. After a few steps, Rui opened his eyes just to take a peak at who helped him.

And there he saw a small figure of a woman walking out the door while wearing pants and a huge fluffy white hoodie with bunny ears.

After the event that happened to Rui, he woke up in the car of his best friend Shawn. He looks extremely worried ass he honked at the slow car in front of them.

"Shawn," he called his attention "where are we?"

"What the f*ck actually happened?" Shaw screamed "Why were you unconcious? Hold on were near the hospital."

"No, Shawn I don't need to go this time. I'm fine." Parang nakahinga si Shawn dahil sa sinabi ng kaibigan. He pulled over to the side to talk to him.

"Mr. Sang was there and he made an entertainer do things. Luckily someone stopped her and made me calm down. Then I guess I fell asleep?"

"Fell asleep? I slapped you three times and you didn't wake up."

"Okay, come on man. The first thing you do when you see me unconscious is to slapp me?" That made Shawn laugh. He is clearly worried about Rui, halos nakababatang kapatid na ang turing niya rito.

Silang dalawa ang magkatuwang para matupad ang mga pangarap nila. They will never let the other person be in a terrible position.

"I told your stupid a*s that I'm twenty minutes away and you went in alone."

"Well yea, I didn't really think about that." Sa halip na sa hospital, dumiretso si Shawn sa condominium nila.They live on the same floor but different building of the tween establishments connected on the 14th floor which is theirs alone.

Rui got home realizing that he just became even more scarred of his father's return now. His trauma hasn't been dealt with, how can he stop his dad with this major weakness.

The only reason that his mom wasn't pushing for the annulment after all those years was her fear of them terrorizing her son. At ang kinakatakot naman ni Rui ay ang hawak na kapangyarihan ng tatay niya laban sa kanila. He knows what his dad can do.

He likes that he still owns his mom even though they're not really together and he's been with many different partners. And Rui is aware at how sick and twisted he could be. Dahil sa connection nila ng nanay niya, kung maisipan man ng baliw na lalaking iyon na kailangan niya ng malaking pera, hindi malayo na masaktan ang Mama niya.

Sa ugali ng lalaking 'yon? Hindi malabo na saktan niya si Patricia para sa pera. At hindi kaya ni Rui na mangyari 'yon. Kailangan niyang makagawa ng paraan para maharap niya ang kan'yang ama. Alam nila ang sitwasyon ni Rui. Noong huling beses na sinimulan nila ang proceso ng annulment, pinadalhan siya ng maraming larawan ng kinamumuhian niyang tita. Dahilan para ipahinto at icheck ang lahat ng sulat na pinapadala sa kan'ya. Alam niya na lahat ng gawin niya laban sa kanila, ibabalik lang nila sa pananakot sa kan'ya laban ang tita niya.

Rui felt helpless once again. He kept on asking himself, Why can't he overcome the trauma from the past? Is he really this weak? Ngayon naabot na niya ang pangarap niya na buhayin ang Mama niya ng wala siyang iisipin. Nagawa na niya na maibigay ang kahit anong gustuhin ng Mama niya gaya ng pinangako niya noon. Nagawa na din niya na matulungan ang matalik niyang kaibigan na pinagkakautangan niya ng malaki. Pero ang sarili niya, hindi niya pa rin mabigyan ng sariling kaligayahan.

Rui has always wanted to have kids and live happily. But now he genuinely couldn't even stand to talk to a woman if they are close to him. Ayaw niya na hinahawakan siya ng babae. Ayaw niya na mapalapit sa babae na hindi niya alam kung mapagkakatiwalaan niya. He's pushing every girl away the first time he sees them, so how can he even figure out if they're trustworthy? Hindi rin nakakatulong kay Rui ang itsura niya. Sa sobrang guwapo ng lalaki, kahit pa anong tago niya ay mayroon talagang babae na susubukan ang lahat para mapalapit lang sa kan'ya.

It's almost three in the morning and he still couldn't fall asleep. He's very tired but instead of wasting his time flipping over and over on the bed, he decided to just do some work. He reached for the folders that he brought home but a letter that fell down from it caught his attention.

"Aphrodite W huh" He laughed at the stupid letter but a sudden recollection hit him. If he remembers correctly, this is what Mr. Sam was telling him.

His eyes grew big as he felt his heart beating faster, he immediately pulled his phone on the nightstand and googled Aphrodite W on his phone. Nothing popped up on google but the usual results for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess. But after five seconds his phone turned black.

He looked back at the paper on his hand "type Aphrodite W on your phone and we will respond to you." His phone suddenly showed a chatroom where in he received a message from someone named Dr. Zero.

"Hi Mr. Andrews, good morning? What the f*ck. How did they know me? Am I being hacked right now?" He was freaking out but another message popped up.

"I am not hacking anything personal, do not worry about that. I am just here to clarify our invitation and maybe we can talk about what you need," It said. Naguguluhan man ay pilit inisip ni Rui kung ano ang nangyayari.

"What is this?" The curiosity made him respond.

Dr. Zero: Aphrodite W is an organization that offers services in the dark market. We produce the most advanced AI Humanoids that are almost 99% human. We carefully select the people that we invite to try our services.

He was even more curious now that he entertained the chat.

Mr. Andrews: What do you mean by that? What Humanoids?

Dr. Zero: We create humanoids which we call as an Aphrodite Woman who we can program in the way that you need them to be. You can order them now with the specific characteristics or give specific role for them that you want them to fill. We need one year to program them and they will come to you in a natural way.

Rui slightly laughed. He was thinking of how extra this scam is.

Dr. Zero: You are the 1st person that got the invitation this year. If for some reason you are not interested, please do not tell anyone about this. We do not want things to be unpleasant between us. Plus our clients would really hate it if this leaks out.

What a psycho Rui thought while looking at the little smiley they left after the message that was lowkey threatening him. But for some reason he couldn't really tell if this is even possible. It is 2020, and yes everything is really advanced nowadays but is it really possible?

Mr. Andrews: How much?

Dr. Zero: It depends on your requests but for reference, we have girls who are at the lower end which lacks advance skills and can only do simple tasks who could be sold for as low as a hundred thousand pesos but on the list of our top Aphrodite Women, we got ten right now that are ready to be programmed. These are the top ten of the list range at around five to ten million dollars.

Kung iisipin, para kay Rui hindi ganoon kataas ang presyo na binabanggit nitong si Dr. Zero at talagang nakakaakit ang mga pinagsasabi niya. Naaliw naman si Rui kahit papaano. Pero alam niya pa rin na isa itong malaking scam. Kaya naman nagsimula na siyang magtype ng magalang niyang pag ayaw.

Dr. Zero: We are not scammers and just to show you our capabilities and the things that you can have through us, here is a little gift for you.

Rui stopped midway as three files were sent to him. The first file is a pdf that made him stand up as soon as he opened it. The file was filled with information on how the department head of his accounting office is secretly making ghost projects which were never even reviewed. They all have his signature even if he never signed any of those. For the past three years, almost a total ten million pesos was taken little by little.

This was a huge slap in the face for him. With all the evidences on the file, there is no question. These are real and he never once suspected that employee. The next file he opened was a powerpoint presentation of all of his business partners that have been selling out information to other entertainment agencies. Some of them even making the celebrities under Phoenix to sign to others. He knew that these people couldn't be trusted. Hindi nila mahintay na bumagsak ang Phoenix o kahit bumaba man lang ng kaunti ang presyo ng stocks para makapag imbak pa sila. Balak nila na mas mapadami ang ipon nilang stocks para mapalitan nila si Rui bilang CEO nito.

This just gave him a reason to force these people out of the company and take their stocks for breaching the contract since they have shared critical information to the competitors. He couldn't believe it. This Dr. Zero has saved his company and gave him something that he would be struggling to acquire.

For the last file, it was a CCTV footage of what happened to him at the bar earlier. He struggled to watch the whole video but he noticed two buttons appear from the bottom of the screen. "Download" and "Delete from all sources"

For a second he weighed out what he wanted to do and chose to delete the video. He felt chills down his spine as he realized what just happened.

Mr. Andrews: How did you gather all of this?

Dr. Zero: Its is nothing, we just do a complete background check on the people that we invite. And these came up minutes in to knowing more about you, it's easy for our advanced search engine and as you may have noticed, hacking. Don't worry, we keep everything in secret as long as you don't expose our organization...

He's doing it again. Ending a threat with a smiley.

Mr. Andrews: I want to know how advanced your humanoids are

Dr. Zero: Each one of our humanoids have a characteristic of a real human. They are almost a hundred percent human but instead of a brain, they have microchips that we can program based on what your order would be. You can order someone that is amazing in managing, you can order your company's next best actress. If you want you can order someone that may be your protector. But most of the time the people that we invited orders for a girl of their dreams.

Panandaliang napahinto si Rui. Something inside of him is making him want to try this. But a part of him is thinking, what if it was a very smart scam? It will a hundred percent break him because it's too unreal, who would fall for this?

He let out a deep sigh.

Mr. Andrews: I don't know if you could cater to mine

Dr. Zero: What is it that you want?

Mr. Andrews: I need a wife that could help me build a home. I don't think any humanoid could give that to me.

Dr. Zero: These AI Aphrodite Women can be more humane than most of the people in the society. I don't know about you but I think that counts. And yes, we do have someone that could be that girl. Our Aphrodite 100. She is currently the top one that we have, she's at a state that she's now 22 years old.

Lalong naintriga si Rui dahil sa tama naman ang sinabi nitong si Dr.Zero. Hindi nga naman lahat ng tao ay asal tao. Ang isa pa na ikinagulat niya ay ang edad ng humanoid.

Mr. Andrews: Do you mean that humanoids age?

Dr. Zero: Yes, these girls as I've said are almost humans aside from their chip. They function as human beings, they eat digest and uses the bathroom. They have emotions and feelings, they are as real as it gets but they are programmed to be someone that you want them to be. You may be wondering why it takes one year before an Aphrodite can be delivered.

It is because we take the year to polish the programming to suit your needs and we don't just deliver them to you. For a very understandable reason, these humanoids are made without giving them the knowledge that they are not real humans. For all they know, they are humans that just exists in the world. This is because if they learned the truth, it is very easy to take their own lives since they have real flesh as a human would. It that was genetically modified through stem cells.

Mr. Andrews: You mean to say, after a year you would send a girl that will be my wife without telling me who that is? How would I know?

Dr. Zero: Exactly! You wouldn't need to do anything and just live your life as normal. The Aphrodite will be doing her part to be that someone that you need them to be.

You may later on catch up on some clues and maybe you could tell that she's there already but please do not tell her the truth. After the arrival of your Aphrodite, your life will still continue as normal but a bit better. We would not bother you and your Aphrodite will be your responsibility and you will not need us anymore.

Mr. Andrews: You can send a girl that I could trust?

Dr. Zero: Absolutely

Mr. Andrews: How do I pay

Dr. Zero: Aphrodite 40 is the one that I suggest for you. She is very smart, reasonable, responsible, kind and loving. She is also good with children and the people around her. She is very positive and insightful. As of now her price is at ten million dollars.