On his screen, Malcolm could see the monster moving around a three-dimensional environment, stomping the ground, attacking structures and causing explosions.
Meanwhile, in the telephone company server, several records in the customer database were changing, and references to intercontinental phone calls that never actually took place appeared in the entry for the Grossberg family. This triggered a printer to compose a message, to be delivered urgently to the Grossberg family, to proceed to the payment of 50,681.97 dollars within three days upon receipt or be subject to legal proceedings.
The monster roared in triumph. In response, Malcolm leaned back on his chair and abandoned himself to a gloating laugh. However, soon after, the monster fell silent and started looking around, as if reacting to a sound that Malcolm could not hear. Few seconds later, it fixed its gaze at something in the distance and started running toward it.
"Kilokahn! What is it doing?" Malcolm asked. Kilokahn did not answer.
While the monster was running, a wall of flame suddenly sprung up from the virtual ground. The monster, unable to avoid it, ran straight into it and was incinerated.
"Your virus does not work!" Kilokahn finally exclaimed. "It was destroyed by a simple firewall!"
"No, no, hold on a second," Malcolm replied, "I know it did what it was supposed to do. Then what happened? Why was it running like that?"
"I... improvised." Kilokahn answered. "I gave it the order to spread the infection beyond the..."
"Who told you to improvise?" Malcolm interrupted him. "And what did you want to do anyway?"
"To take over the world, of course." was Kilokahn's answer.
"Well, you can't do it with one virus." said Malcolm. "That's something you do slowly and inexorably. Step... by step."
"What is your plan?" asked Kilokahn.
"I don't have a plan." answered Malcolm with a grin. "I have over nine thousand."