the way things happened in the novel was that he set up in a cafe, not some warehouse with a closed network. not that something like that could’ve stopped vx anyways but lol. anyways he goes on thinking that black is a separate entity for a while actually, there’s a whole scene where black says goodbye to him so they can go to the side of someone who’s been waiting for them (aka, him) and then after they get together & he sees vx in action he realizes it (and has a little internal breakdown bc he knows he’s the one who pushed vx into doing this while also at the same time feeling his respect & admiration grow bc this means vx really is just that capable)
yo he wasn’t supposed figure out black = vx until much later but oh well I guess