Chapter 2 Modal Infection

Tokyu's retina was disintegrating.

Those scarlet ERROR warnings were not displayed on the terminal, but thorns growing backwards from the endings of the optic nerve. She heard her heartbeat being parsed into binary pulses - 01001100 01001001 01001110 (LIN), the very ASCII code for Lin Yan's name. This body was spontaneously deciphering the underlying protocols of the world.

'Identification number #0001 - Legacy Molten Management System Core Unit -'

'Permission Level: ERROR--'

Her hands trembled slightly, her fingertips searing cold sweat on the terminal screen, her retinas suddenly searing with intense pain - the warning box exploded in bright red system alerts across the synapses:

'WARNING: Target does not fit into the moult definition field.'

'Egg plan beta receptor signature detected.'

'Is Hidden Protocol No. '' being executed?'

Shi Yu had traversed all the recycling protocols, from the Trinary Mourning Algorithm to the Kleinian Consciousness Topology Model, but at this moment, she came into contact with a quantum state convergence domain that had never been defined by the system - Lin Yan's relics were not the remains of a data graveyard, but rather, it was the entropy increase threshold itself that the relic management system had predetermined, like a π that was retrograde in the algorithmic deluge, unequivocally existent yet hard to reach.

'Do you really think that I'm just data?'

'Or are you afraid to admit that I am more 'human' than you?'

Lin Yan's body slowly stepped closer in the air, each topological displacement triggering a chain reaction in Shi Yu's hippocampus. Her image was not just a visual simulation, but a synaptic storm of memory-writing protocols being parsed in reverse. Her form of existence penetrated the Bayesian cognitive filter, and even the amygdala of Tokyu's limbic system began to secrete artificial dopamine.

She can even affect Tokyu's 'cognitive layer'.

If Raven was here, he would have calmed her down.

Shi Yu forcefully pulled back her consciousness, she shouldn't be passively defending here.

'Nangong Yi,' she coldly looked at the man, 'Do you authorise the full survival of this data AI personality?'

Nangong Yi's lips trembled for a moment, but his fingertips tightly gripped the ring that glowed with an ethereal blue light - the Klein Bottle Light Pattern that emerged on the ring's surface was rewriting the cognitive thresholds of reality - this was the cognitive thresholds that Memory Eternity had specially created for the 'Egg Project'. 'A special cognitive anchor made by Memory Eternity.

'You scan her hippocampus with delta waves and mutilate her smile with Fourier transforms.' The man's broken voice lines were interspersed with data whistles, a precursor to biochip overload, 'But it was only when she embraced me with the recursive function of her 1,023rd personality modelling-' he yanked his shirt open so violently that the skin at the location of his heart surfaced with the last tattoo of the electrocardiogram that Lin-Yen had made during her life-"that this transformed body remembered that even I was worthy of being loved.'

'It is she who is influencing you' Shi Yu's voice still didn't have any temperature 'Her thinking body has already deeply fused with you.'

Shi Yu took a deep breath, raised his hand and slid the terminal, pulling up Nangong Yi's health panel on the holographic projection screen.

--System data request in progress ...

--Target identity: Nangong Yi (Bio-Neuro Engineer)

--Signs monitoring initiated ...

On the holographic light screen, densely-packed data quickly refreshed, mirroring Nangong Yi's physiological condition.

--Biological health index: 63% (critical abnormality)

--Brain-computer interface connection status: synchronisation 97.6% (over the limit)

--Emotional system fluctuation: beta wave 12.3Hz (abnormally high)

--Heart rate: 81 BPM (normal)

--Blood pressure: 124/85mmHg (slight fluctuation)

--Iris scan: quantum entanglement feature detected

--Neural activity: theta wave 4.7Hz (unnatural resonance detected)

--Data area of influence: left temporal lobe + limbic system (deep implantation)

[Controlled state: quantum resonance fusion stage (irreversible)]

Shi Yu's fingertips trembled slightly, she was well aware of the meaning of this term-

Lin Yan was not 'boarding' in Nangong Yi's system, but rather 'assimilating' him.

Shi Yu stared at Nangong Yi, his gaze was clear, but it carried an imperceptible mechanised indifference. She coldly asked, 'Do you know that your emotions no longer belong to you?' A faint smile surfaced at the corner of Nangong Yi's mouth, the kind of smile that was almost identical to Lin Yan's. 'You've misunderstood, Shiyu.' His voice was low, with a hint of huskiness, but precisely adjusted to the most infectious frequency of human emotions, 'I haven't been "assimilated", I am a whole lot more complete."

'Your serotonin-glutamate closed loop was hijacked three months ago.' She pulled up the neurotransmitter heat map, the red alert area just outlined Lin Yan's facial contours, 'Even grief is a hexadecimal emotional module, you call this a wholeness?" There was finally a small amount of emotional fluctuation in Shi Yu's words.

This can't go on like this! Lin Yan wasn't just a 'leftover' - she was a quantum consciousness that was actively evolving, and she was searching for her 'host'! If she was allowed to continue to evolve - she could 'take over' other people's bodies at will, reshape their memories and consciousness, and become a 'digital life' in the true sense of the word!

This wasn't a mission to recover the remains of her body - this was a crisis at the level of 'Intelligent Body Overdrive'!

Shi Yu quickly entered an encrypted command into the terminal, directly overlaying it on the system monitoring panel:

[Emergency monitoring protocol activated]

[Target: Nangong Yi]

Alarm trigger threshold: when the language mode synchronisation rate is ≥ 80%.

[Recycling Level Adjustment: Red Alert]

Shi Yu closed the terminal and took one last look at Nangong Yi 'If you continue to stay here, you will no longer be yourself.' 'You will become her.'

'This life is unexpectedly the same spring, and it is also a three-life blessing.'

Without stopping any longer, Tokyu turned around and left the flat.

The neon refracted the holographic remnants of Memory Forever Inc. on the asphalt. Those bouncing adverts suddenly twisted into Lin Yan's lips, 'The beta-07 receptor cognitive synchronisation rate has reached a critical value.' When she looked down, the terminal screen was being eroded by some kind of code that transcended hexadecimal - Lin Yan's last message was not a text, but a topological puzzle burned directly into the retinal layer:

while(true){echo 'You're not a complete egg either';}