The cold will turned into iron law and swept the entire Scarlet Eye Tower in an instant.
"Codename Overwrite Plan, start immediately."
The voice of Uchiha Xuan is accurately poured into the brains of every core member of the empire through the nerve conduction interface.
There was no discussion, no explanation, just an unquestionable order.
The next second after the order was issued, Scarlet Eye Tower's data center, the huge server array located on the 33rd floor underground, erupted with an unprecedented buzz.
An invisible storm of instructions, like a precise scalpel, began to cut into the empire's database.
Twelve thousand three hundred and seventy-six real names, along with the hometowns, relatives, and past behind them... everything was completely deleted by the system in less than three seconds, converted into irreversible garbled characters, and then put into the data furnace and turned into pure energy.
From this moment on, there are no more Zhang San Li Si, no more parents and children in Scarlet Eye Tower.
Some are just cold code names engraved deep in the soul.
The top members, headed by "Z", represent the "zero point" and are the origin of the new order.
Ordinary Executors belongs to the "X" sequence, which represents an unknown number. Its value and existence are only given by the empire.
All internal communications, file records, and even the upcoming dream review system will be forced to use code names.
Anyone who mentions, writes, or even recalls the old name in shallow consciousness on any occasion will be systematically labeled as a "high-risk individual for mental pollution" and will face the most severe scrutiny and purification.
This is a project to erase "people" from the roots and reshape living individuals into absolutely obedient parts.
And Chiyo Saori became the first top-level person to accept "full-dimensional codeization".
Her number: Z0.
She was transported to the Medical and Rehabilitation Center.
The robotic arm passed coldly across the back of her neck, took out the biochip that contained all her personal information, and threw it into the furnace.
A new chip was implanted and the internal protocols were rewritten. When the system completed writing, all her personal files, from birthplace to blood type, from mission resume to psychological evaluation, were all cleared, leaving only two pale characters: Z0.
Even on the monitor on her wrist, which was used to monitor vital signs in real time, the name jumping on the screen changed from "Chiyo Saori" to "Z0".
When she walked out of the transformation room, she looked like a brand-new puppet that had just left the factory, her eyes as calm as a pool of stagnant water.
Her first task was to preside over the first completely code-named trial.
The location is Dream Tribunal.
A captured Kumogakure ninja was judged to be an "emotionally redundant high-risk individual" because he repeatedly called his wife's name during interrogation.
He was Chiyo Saori's informant who instigated rebellion in a certain mission, so he can be regarded as an old acquaintance.
The man knelt on the cold metal ground and looked at the masked woman with a strong breath in front of him, "Master Saori... Please, I can do anything. I will tell you everything about Hidden Cloud Village... I just beg you, at least let me remember who I am..."
He begged, trying to awaken the little remaining past.
Chiyo Saori, or Z0, looked at him quietly, as if looking at a noisy part.
She spoke slowly, her voice coming out through the mask's voice changer without any human emotion.
"You are X4817."
"Number means existence."
The moment the words fell, the light in X4817's eyes was completely extinguished.
He no longer cried or begged, but just repeated foolishly, "X4817... I am... X4817..."
At the end of the trial, Z0 turned and left without any disturbance in his steps.
She executed the order perfectly and became the sharpest and most obedient knife in Uchiha Xuan's hands.
However, just when the empire's top officials thought that the "name" virus had been completely eradicated, an even weirder and more secretive "infection" quietly surfaced three days later.
Several X Sequence ninjas belonging to different departments all described the same dream when submitting routine dream reports in the early morning.
They dreamed that they were walking on an endless road paved with bones, and at the end of the road, a "faceless woman" was facing away from them, silently leading them towards a magnificent black stone temple.
The dream review system initially labeled these reports as "random stress manifestations," but when a seventeenth report appeared with almost identical content, the alarm was triggered.
"A woman without a face?" Uchiha Xuan sat on the throne, looking at the compiled data, "
When the interrogators asked them to describe the woman's figure, gait, and even some subconscious movements, an eerie commonality emerged.
Everyone's descriptions, whether it is the habit of leaning slightly to the left when walking, or the rhythm of the right index finger unconsciously tapping the thigh when occasionally stopping, are completely consistent with Z0--Chiyo Saori!
What's even weirder is that all the ninjas who had this kind of dream have had spatial intersections with Z0 in the past forty-eight hours.
She either inspected their work area or passed by the corridor where they were stationed.
Uchiha Xuan immediately retrieved the entire surveillance video of Z0 for the past seventy-two hours.
In the massive data flow, he quickly locked onto a picture.
Z0 briefly stopped while passing through a corridor leading to the weapons depot on the seventh underground floor.
During the surveillance, she seemed to be just sorting her boots, but Uchiha Xuan's Eternal Mangekyō captured an overlooked detail.
The toe of her shoe unconsciously drew an imperceptible arc on the cold metal floor.
That arc is exactly the same as the last stroke of the "Gate-Opening Rite" ritual passed down secretly by the rebels!
She didn't seem to even notice it herself.
Uchiha Xuan's mouth curved into a cold arc.
Interesting.
He did not expose it on the spot, let alone question Z0.
Doing that would only serve to alert the enemy.
He wanted to see what tricks these rats hiding in the gutter wanted to play.
Instead, he issued a new order without Z0's complete knowledge.
He ordered the system to extract all Z0's behavioral data during the past seventy-two hours, including the unconscious scratch, and inject it into a newly developed spell core.
This core was named "Shadow-Following Type Substrate" by him.
His external claim is that this substrate can imitate the behavior pattern of high-order Executors and greatly enhance the combat coordination and control stability of low-order Executors.
No one knows that Uchiha Xuan is forging Z0 herself and the strange "pollution source" on her body into a new weapon.
That night, Z0 finished his patrol for the day and went to the ninth floor underground alone.
Here, all the ashes marked "Nameless Matrix" that were burned by high entropy are stored.
The sealed cabin containing the remains of her three teachers was inside.
In the cold cabin, gray-white powder lay quietly, like dust in the universe.
Z0 slowly placed his palm without any warmth on the cold special glass.
Under the mask, her lips moved slightly, and in a voice that only she could hear, she seemed to be saying to the ashes, and to herself:
"I'm not her anymore."
This is a farewell and a vow.
However, the moment she finished speaking, a sudden change occurred!
In the sealed cabin, the pile of dead ashes shook violently like iron powder attracted by a magnet!
Immediately afterwards, countless ash particles began to arrange and combine on their own, and three twisted Chinese characters were pieced together with difficulty at the bottom of the bilge:
"You are us."
Z0's body stiffened suddenly, and his pupils suddenly shrank!
She retracted her hand like an electric shock and stepped back, her eyes showing a hint of unbelievable horror for the first time.
But before she could make any reaction, a sharp and piercing top-level alarm instantly rang through the entire Scarlet Eye Tower!
It's not an external intrusion, but an internal data anomaly!
On the huge light screen in front of Uchiha Xuan, red alarm logs filled the screen crazily.
Three hundred and seventy-two X Sequence ninjas in the entire tower submitted exactly the same dream log at the same moment!
The content of the log is only one sentence:
"Z0 takes us home."
In the main control room, Uchiha Xuan quietly looked at the red ocean composed of data. In the depths of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, there was no anger, only a coldness that understood everything.
He finally understood.
Erasing names and destroying memories is all in vain.
The enemy has evolved.
They no longer need the name "Ghost Cleaver" as a spiritual anchor, and they no longer rely on those relics that carry the past.
They are doing it through imitation.
By imitating every unconscious movement and habitual gesture of Z0, she turned her into a new "door" and a new spiritual totem without her knowing it!
They are using Z0's body in a collective unconscious manner to rebuild a secret path to awakening.
They don't need Z0 to remember who they are, they just need Z0 to "be" herself.
Uchiha Xuan slowly stood up from the throne, overlooking the huge empire made of steel beneath his feet, like a god overlooking a chessboard.
"Since you like to play hide-and-seek, I'll flip the entire chessboard over."
His cold voice echoed in the main control room, and instructions were instantly transmitted to every corner of the empire through his will.
"Prepare 'Shadow-Level Purge: Batch Three'."
"Target: Five Great Nations, currently a core member of the Kage Level advisory group."
This time, he not only wants to devour their power, but also wants to test a new kind of mental surgery.
"I want them to wake up," Uchiha Xuan's eyes flashed with the light of creation and destruction, "And they won't even be able to remember who they are."
Outside the window, the night is like ink.
Rows of brand-new heavy-duty transport fleets are quietly driving out of Scarlet Eye Tower's underground base.
These vehicles are all pitch black, without any redundant markings. They are only painted with scarlet paint and spray-painted with a line of cold and dazzling code names:
D7.