He vanished-or rather, made a run for it.
He disappeared just like that, right after the girl finished "exchanging" information.
Mr. Jonas, who had absolutely no integrity to speak of, seemed to have thought of this trick before their supposed exchange of information even began.
His whole game was getting something for nothing.
He exploited the imbalance in their information and ran off as soon as the other party had demonstrated her "sincerity."
Jonas was always extremely cautious when choosing partners. Barring circumstances beyond his control, he usually chose people he knew inside and out, people he could be certain of, for transactions and cooperation.
But an entity like the "Predecessor Civilization," lurking in the shadows with unclear motives, obviously plotting something major, and openly hostile toward him? Jonas generally steered clear.
Apparently never having anticipated this, the girl named Zero froze for two seconds before reacting.
She looked at the Superbrain beside her. Its metallic texture and smooth surface gave it a stately, refined appearance. Its contours rose and fell like mountains and rivers, while countless computing units formed interconnected, interdependent networks of intelligence. Like soldiers within a castle, these units performed all manner of complex mathematical calculations swiftly and accurately.
Normally, the Superbrain's calculations would not be wrong... which meant the current situation could only have resulted from an error in the decision-maker's judgment.
Zero looked at the numbers on the nearby monitor. The calculated probability had dropped from 97.335% to 15.45%. This was the probability of establishing a basis for their discussion, as well as the Central AI's calculated likelihood that Jonas would be kept here, only allowed to leave with the linker's permission once the transaction was complete.
As mentioned before, the party with the stronger "mind" in a Dream Link could forcibly retain the other