Showdown

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Sui Meng hovered before the magnificent Matrix at the planet's core, his eyes sharp as he studied the creation beyond his understanding.

Its architectural style was utterly unlike that of any carbon-based civilization he knew—

Unlike the varied styles of humanity, the flowing elegance of the Elves, or even the Dwarves' blend of ruggedness and precision.

It had a quality all its own.

It was profoundly abstract, logical, even "digital," as though an immensely complex program or data structure had been given physical form.

"Sir." The War Maiden's voice came over the encrypted channel, graver than he had ever heard it. "I'm detecting highly complex logical fields and entangled information throughout this environment.

Its physical structure has less than a 0.12% match with any known architectural pattern in my database.

I strongly recommend raising your Psychic Power field to maximum strength and preparing for possible information-based attacks or logical traps. Your safety is our highest priority."

Her tone betrayed concern for Sui Meng himself, beyond mere tactical analysis.

Almost at the same time, Cortana offered a different perspective. "An astonishing structure.

The War Maiden's concerns are justified, but from an information science perspective, the near-perfect geometric repetition and orderly distribution of energy nodes suggest something else.

The physical framework of an immense 'memory bank' or 'computing Matrix' based on quantum storage principles.

Its energy fluctuations bear some resemblance to the hardware-load patterns I produce when processing extremely dense information streams, though its scale and technological level are beyond my current understanding."

Halsey had been studying the shared feed. After hearing the two AIs' contrasting but complementary analyses, she drew a deep breath and spoke to Sui Meng with absolute certainty:

"Kid, I think we've found them."

"Found what?"

Sui Meng's voice was low. His gaze remained fixed on the