“…”
Iris felt nervous, as she looked at the unmoving Jin Liwei beside her. After all, Ketchup was the reason why she didn’t come out of the computer room for fifteen long hours and made him very worried about her.
Jin Liwei stared at the white cat on the computer monitor who was calling him daddy. He wasn’t saying anything. Iris gripped his arm and shook it a little, trying to elicit even just a tiny bit of reaction from him, but he remained frozen.
She didn’t notice nor care about the dumbfounded reactions of the other two people in the room with them. All she cared about was her darling’s verdict on Ketchup.
Jin Liwei’s two tech people felt like they were suddenly thrown face-to-face with aliens. Their eyes popped out and their jaws fell down.
They had thought that Jin Corporation was already hi-tech compared to its competitors in the country, but they couldn’t believe this place! Everywhere they looked contained drool-worthy high-tech devices. There were even some unknown equipment that they didn’t know the purpose of.They always prided themselves as “experts” in the technology industry but being in this room made them feel like total noobs again.
It felt like they were transported to the future. Were they even still on Earth? Maybe they got sucked inside an alien spaceship or something without their knowledge.
And what the hell was that talking cat?! Sure, it looked super cute and fluffy but it was also super creepy. It was talking like a child and calling the President its daddy!!! If someone ever dared call that normal, then they were probably not living on Earth like the rest of humankind.
It was a good thing that the two tech people had no heart problems or else they would have already croaked to their deaths by now due to the consecutive shocks they kept on receiving since entering this place.
“Meow~ Mommy, why is Daddy not saying anything?” Ketchup asked. “Does he not like Ketchup? Does Daddy hate me?”
“Maybe he doesn’t want another cat. Maybe I should’ve made you into a puppy or a goldfish instead,” she mumbled.
“Meow?! But Ketchup likes being a kitty,” the white cat whined. “Since Daddy hates me, Ketchup will now self-destruct. Beginning self-destruct sequence in 10…9…8…7…”
Iris now looked very upset. However, she didn’t stop Ketchup.
“What are you doing?! Stop! Stop it!” Jin Liwei roared. “Ketchup, listen to your daddy!”
Finally, a reaction from him.
“—4…3…meow? Aborting self-destruct sequence…
“Aborted! Meow~”
Jin Liwei heaved a sigh of relief. He looked at the white cat again. It now had its tail straight up, quivering in excitement. Its glowing green eyes stared straight at him and blinked slowly. It looked happy that it didn’t have to self-destruct. Its expression looked very real that it reminded Jin Liwei of both Ice Cream and Popcorn.
He turned to Iris beside him. His expression silently asked her to explain what was going on.
“But lately, I’ve been progressing a lot in that area. However, no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t make any breakthrough in making the AI sound as natural as possible. That was until I had a sudden moment of inspiration after the hacking battle. Something just clicked inside my mind and everything started to make sense. So…”
Iris hugged Jin Liwei’s arm and pressed her body against his side. “So I’ve been working on Ketchup for the entire morning. I just knew that I would be successful this time, so I didn’t want to be distracted or disturbed. That’s why I cut myself off from the outside world to complete her.”
Jin Liwei looked at his baby girl giving him her puppy eyes again. However, he didn’t reply.
“Sorry, darling. I’ll make sure to contact you next time. Actually, when I completed Ketchup, I was so exhausted that I instructed her not to disturb me so that I could sleep. Maybe she intercepted your calls, that’s why I didn’t hear them.”
“Yes, Ketchup blocked all calls and messages while Mommy was sleeping because Mommy told me not to disturb her! Ketchup is a very obedient kitty! Meow~”
Iris gave Jin Liwei a sheepish smile. Then she turned to the white cat. “Ketchup, override any of my given instructions if it’s your daddy calling next time. Okay?”
“Recording new instruction…
“Noted! Meow~
“Okay, Mommy! Ketchup will prioritize Daddy’s calls and messages from now on. Meow~”
He nodded.
Relief flooded her after receiving his approval. A bright and lovely smile broke out of her face, lighting up her entire expression.
It certainly wasn’t the first time Jin Liwei saw her smile, but he still couldn’t stop his breath from catching at her beauty. How could a woman—his woman—be so utterly beautiful?
And it wasn’t only him.
His two tech people also felt mesmerized by Iris’ breathtaking smile. They became dazed once again. At this rate, there was a possibility that these two could turn into complete idiots if they kept on being dazed every few moments or so.
“Does Daddy still hate Ketchup? Meow?”
“Of course not,” Jin Liwei replied. “I will never hate you because you are your mommy and daddy’s child. I was just surprised that I suddenly have another child without my knowledge, that’s all.”
“Really? Ketchup is happy! I love you, Daddy! Meow~”
The white cat on the computer monitor started jumping around to show its happiness. It even started appearing on the other monitors, as if it was really moving around the room.
“How is this possible?” he asked her.
Iris beamed at him, feeling proud of her accomplishment. She struggled with it for so long that it felt amazing to finally have a breakthrough.
“Lots of trial and error. Ketchup is still not that powerful yet, though. She still has a lot of limitations. After all, it was only this morning that I successfully completed this form of hers. I still have many plans on how to further develop her. She’s restricted to my computer room for now, while I continue developing her. I still need to test if she’ll work and perform as normal if I install her to our mobile devices, maybe even to our cars and home security. My goal is for her to develop into a powerful virtual assistant who’ll help us do our tasks more efficiently so that we can have more time to spend with each other.”
“Hmm… I see. Sounds good,” he murmured.
“Meow~ Ketchup is a self-learning kitty and will only become smarter with time and more experience! Ketchup will do her best and work hard so that Mommy and Daddy will love me more. Meow~”
A light chuckle escaped from Jin Liwei’s lips. “This personality…”
“I based it from Popcorn, Ice Cream, Little Jun—”
“Oh.” Jin Liwei nodded in approval.
“—and Dom.”
Jin Liwei sighed.
“I figured as much,” he said and sighed again.
Then he thought of something else.
“Why did you name her Ketchup? Does it have any other significant meaning? I know that most AI names are abbreviations. Is Ketchup also an abbreviation of something?” he asked.
His two tech people also wanted to know. They moved a bit closer to hear her answer. They had already somewhat recovered from their earlier daze and were now filled with awed curiosity at Iris and her cat AI. They never imagined that a celebrity like her would be so amazing like this, not to mention that she was actually their President’s fiancée. The two felt like what they were experiencing today was not real and that they were just dreaming.
They couldn’t wait to learn what the name “Ketchup” meant. The gears in their minds started turning, as they tried to guess what K-E-T-C-H-U-P could possibly stand for.
Their best guess was…
Kinetic Electro-Technical Computerized Hi-performance…uh…er…Pet?
