Ghost in the Decaying Remains · Echoes and Traps

[Self-check results: Basic Protocol Stack integrity 89.7%; adaptive logic module degradation 62.1%; threat response unit—offline.]

[Recommendation: request maintenance or enter permanent hibernation... no response... maintain minimum operation...]

Below the report, a line of flickering annotation appeared:

[Last valid instruction received: ████████ cycles ago. Source: Archivist-Core. Content: maintain minimum monitoring, record all abnormal data fluctuations, await the next purification order.]

Purification order...

Lin Ye's gaze sharpened.

Suddenly, the Mirror Core sent out an urgent fluctuation:

"Abnormal information flow detected! Direction—behind the third data waterfall straight ahead! The flow pattern has suddenly become active, inconsistent with the background decay environment! There is faint but distinct 'logical activity'!"

There was something else in the relay station?

Lin Ye instantly raised the concealment synchronization rate to its limit. The Mirror Core's sensory tendrils probed behind the third data waterfall.

Behind the waterfall lay an empty area. The ground was fused with dim "information sedimentary rock." At its center, a faint "light" flickered endlessly—a fist-sized, unstable polyhedral phantom. Broken data streams circulated laboriously within it, carrying a weak sense of "struggle" and an intent toward "self-repair."

"Suspected remains of a heavily damaged 'autonomous logic unit,'" the logic duplicate analyzed. "Its Core Protocol architecture is 30% similar to the relay station's base protocol, but the other 70% is more complex and dynamic, containing extensive residual code from 'adaptive learning' modules. It may not be a native entity, but an externally implanted body or something born through abnormal evolution."

Just then, the broken phantom emitted an unconscious "echo." The fluctuation was fragmented, but the Mirror Core and the logic duplicate barely pieced together several fragments:

``` [...failure... mission... ███ coordinates... seed activity... exceeded expectations...]

[...protocol conflict... recommendation... purify... rejected... observe... data... contradiction...]

[...Archivist... silence... instructions... chaos... wait...]

[...I... am... who... monitoring node... γ-7...