The morning of the thirty-eighth day.
He sat cross-legged, keeping his consciousness at the center of the Fruit's inner ring as he observed every structural node of the tree pattern on the warm golden Crystal's surface.
At the junction between the roots and the trunk, he sensed a detail he had never noticed before.
Over the past several hours, the patterns at that point had stopped merely receiving pulses passively and begun actively sending an entirely new kind of signal to the surrounding patterns of the Fruit.
That signal was more concentrated than the high-frequency pulses, and the layers of information carried in its waveform were more complex.
He focused his consciousness on that signal and traced its path.
It originated at the root node on the Crystal's surface and spread outward along the Fruit's patterns in every direction. Upon reaching the base of the trunk, it was automatically broken down, absorbed, and integrated.
After its integration, the patterns at the base of the trunk brightened noticeably, as though the continuously injected energy had formed a new structure there.
He observed it through inner vision for a while, confirmed that the signal's propagation was stable and continuous, then withdrew from inner vision and opened his eyes.
He stood, pushed open the door, and went outside. When he sat on the tree stump, Zero Seven brought over a cup of tea and set it on the stump's cut surface.
He lifted the cup and took a sip, sensing the Crystal inside the Fruit that was continuously emitting signals, and the complete tree pattern on its surface.
He sat on the stump for a while, finished his tea, set the cup back on the cut surface, then stood and returned to the Core Residence's hall. As he sat at the console, Zero