[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 was a flickering annotation:
[Last valid command received: ████████ cycles ago. Command source: Archivist—Core. Content: maintain minimum monitoring, record all abnormal data fluctuations, await the next purification command.]
Purification command...
Lin Ye's gaze sharpened.
Suddenly, the Mirror Core sent an urgent pulse:
"Abnormal information flow detected! Direction—behind the third data waterfall directly ahead! Its flow pattern has suddenly become active, inconsistent with the decaying background environment! There is faint but distinct 'logical activity'!"
There was something else inside the Relay Station?
Lin Ye instantly raised his concealment synchronization rate to its limit. The Mirror Core's sensory tendrils probed behind the third data waterfall.
Beyond the waterfall lay an open area, its ground fused with dim "information sedimentary rock."
At its center, a faint "light" flickered endlessly—a fist-sized, unstable polyhedral phantom. Inside it, fragmented data streams circulated with difficulty, carrying a faint sense of "struggle" and an intent toward "self-repair."
"A highly damaged remnant of an 'autonomous logic unit' is suspected," the Logic Doppelganger analyzed. "Its Core Protocol architecture is thirty percent similar to the Relay Station's basic protocol, but the remaining seventy percent is more complex and dynamic, containing extensive residual code from 'adaptive learning' modules. It may not be native, but an external implant or the result of anomalous evolution."
At that moment, the damaged phantom emitted an unconscious "echo." The fluctuations were fragmented, but the Mirror Core and Logic Doppelganger barely pieced together the fragments:
``` [...failure... mission... ███ coordinates... seed activity... beyond expectations...]
[...protocol conflict... recommendation... purification... rejected... observation... data... contradiction...]
[...Archivists... silent... commands... chaotic... waiting...]
[...I... am... who... monitoring node...