Returning to my room took very little effort on our part. I let him sit on the comfy bed this time. 03 probably did not appreciate it. I set the laptop down next to him before a thought came to me. Sitting on the stool that 03 had been sitting on before gave me a new perspective. I sighed as I turned on the laptop. Looking at him, he was taking it easy. "You really think that something like that is enough to break through my firewalls!? I bet I could counter hack that laptop into exploding before you got even 14% to your goal." he gloated. I did not let that deter me. I pressed my hand on where his right pectoral muscle would be. "Is this where your chest port is? Or is it on the other side?" I asked gently. He said "It's there. Move your hand so I can open it." I moved my hand away. He reached for his port and opened it on his own. He clearly did not want me to do it. It was not the first time I had seen an opened chest port. I gently ran my fingers along the edge of the opening. His breath hitched a little bit. That was a reaction I was not expecting. "What are you doing!? Get on with it already." he spat.
Getting him to open up to me like this had taken a fair bit of coaxing. I would take it even if it was much more literal that I had wanted. 03 was not human and born into a strong Conqueror mindset. Therefore using empathy and allowing himself to be vulnerable in front of humans were not his strong suits. That was fine. 03's emotions would come out with more interactions between us. I was in no rush to move on to the hacking. It was a very new experience with me. Leaning over him, I now had the leverage to lay him down on his back. Running my fingers inside of his chest port made him fidget on my bed. I hummed at the discovery. "You must have a lot of intense sensors in here. Do you like this!?" I teased. He scoffed and said "Of course I have a lot of sensors there. It's the most delicate part of my body in this form. I bet you'd be just as flighty if I ran my fingers along your beating heart." I frowned at him. "I am pretty sure that I would be in severe pain if you had ripped my chest open and started poking around my heart." "That's just because you are a weak human." he smirked.
Keeping up the pleasant mood we had found ourselves in, I decided to ask 03 to ask us again. "We could be like this everyday, you know? How about you join us for real now?" 03 just said "Use my connection cord and plug it in. You'll only have 10 minutes to hack me. After that, I am locking you out." He was still firmly against leaving his clan. I looked inside the open chest port and saw a cord that could plug into the blue laptop. 03 decided to sit up and I knew that the moment was over. There would be more moments like this in the future. However, that was only if I was able to successfully hack him. Failure here meant that he would leave and we would one day need to fight to the death. Despite what 03 thought, it meant that he would die. I was a strong Player backed by Devils. Making him change against his will like this was a very last resort. If I was being honest with myself, not entirely convinced that this was a moral decision. I sat down on the stool with the laptop. It was heavier than it should be on my thighs. Once I turned it on, he looked at me and said "You're time starts now."
