On the conceptual level, time flowed at a different density.
Lin Ye took an imprint of that glimmer of "disintegration-existence" radiance, his consciousness brushing across what felt like cold stardust. The chaos star vortex within Prototype accelerated slightly, absorbing and analyzing that faint rhythm of contradiction integration.
He did not linger. His figure became a streak of faint light as he sped toward the "Logic Silence Zone" Harmonic Leaping Note had reported.
After he passed through several regions filled with the "ashes" of rules, the scene ahead changed.
The space measured several dozen conceptual units on each side. Its lines of rules had frozen into deep blue, like amber at absolute zero. Time stood still here.
Yet at the center of that deathly blue stillness, a fist-sized, flickering ball of silver-white light was repeating a cycle at dizzying speed: "self-replication → structural expansion → contact with the boundary → instantaneous deletion → replication again."
This was the "paradox code" Harmonic Leaping Note had discovered.
Within absolute stasis, it maintained an infinitely dynamic internal cycle.
Prototype's light reached out again, attempting a subtle "resonance."
Just as Prototype's power was about to touch the ball of light-
An icy system alarm erupted directly on the informational level!
[Warning: unauthorized high-level conceptual interaction attempt detected. Source: unknown conceptual entity. Logical correlation with previous rule-conflict incident: 79.3%. Assessment: increased activity from potential contamination source. Threat level raised. Protocol execution: accelerate descent of the Blueprint Baseline Calibration Anchor. Estimated arrival time revised: fifty-seven seconds.]
"We've been detected!" Order's Dawn cried over the link. "The Proofreading Anchor is arriving early!"
Fifty-seven seconds!
"Everyone, converge on the designated evacuation coordinates immediately!" Lin Ye ordered decisively.
At the same time, he made a bold decision-Prototype's power became a supple "conceptual tendril" and plunged into the ball