The Tradition Matrix : Orbits of the Dead Stars

Chapter 1. Medicine vs Physics: The Encounter of Two Masters

[4D Space-Time]

Leo stepped outside, walking along the path in silence.

Then, from the shadow beneath the eaves, a man appeared.

His footsteps — calm as lingering rain. His gait — unstained by even a speck of dust.

His name was... Trajector. (Kwedo, 軌道 — The Path of Orbits)

The moment their gazes met, it felt as if time itself froze.

No swords, no spears, no bows — yet the air between them grew as sharp as two grandmasters locking blades.

Leo: "Quite the unusual aura. I've heard of a hidden master who wields science as his weapon?"

Trajector: "I wield no sword. I wield formulas. That which cuts, that which shields — all lie within the numbers."

Leo: "My weapon is the human body. I read people through blood flow, organ heat, cellular motion. A single misplaced meridian can burden a man with sickness."

Trajector: "Yet your diagnosis comes from surface-level signs. I, on the other hand, read orbits. Where you see veins, I see gravity. Where your logic treats illness, mine dissects the laws of the universe."

A wind passed between them.

Bamboo leaves swayed. Dust rose lightly from the courtyard.

Their presences clashed gently, flowing around one another — forming a tranquil pressure in the exact center between them.

Leo: "Your heart rate steady, pupils unwavering, speech precise. A true master."

Trajector: "Likewise. No distortion in your gravitational field. Thermodynamic balance — impeccable."

Leo: "Many today suffer insomnia, a collapse of melatonin cycles. Smartphone blue light stimulates the optic nerve, disrupting the pineal gland."

Trajector: "True — light is the problem. But to understand why that light affects us, you must reach into quantum physics. Wave interference interacts directly with the brain's electric signals."

Leo: "The body is matter; emotions are chemistry. Oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin — that is what humans call love."

Trajector: "Yet even those molecules are composed of quarks and gluons. Love? Merely the illusion created by microscopic electromagnetic interactions. Ultimately, the trembling of massless photons tricks your brain into feeling what you call love."

Leo's expression hardened.

For the first time, he stepped beyond what medicine alone could explain.

Leo: "And yet, when a man dies, their warmth fades, their body decays. Death is biochemical. The soul leaving? A superstition unworthy of explanation."

Trajector: "Death is entropy — the irreversible flow of time. Heat moves from hot to cold, and never the other way. Death is the law written by time itself."

Silence fell.

Their words were sharper than blades, their presences heavier than any aura.

Leo realized.

If his knowledge was a scalpel for the body, then Trajector's was a hammer for dismantling the universe.

Leo: "Never before have I questioned the logic beyond medicine."

Trajector quietly stepped forward, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder.

Trajector: "If you truly wish to see beyond convention... you must ask not why we uphold traditions — but where those traditions were born."

Leo's eyes wavered.

For the first time, he let go of the doctor's gaze — and stared at the universe as a mere being.

Trajector added one last thing.

Trajector: "I like you. You are still... an unresolved variable."

Thus, Leo's scalpel and Trajector's hammer met — within the same formula.

Chapter 2. The Architect of the Custom Matrix

[5D Space-Time]

Grandmaster Convention — Architect of the Custom Matrix.

From within 5-dimensional spacetime, he designed and maintained a matrix of social customs. Everything — from rituals, etiquette, tradition, family systems, holidays, clothing rules, greetings, ancestral rites, weddings, funerals — was databased to automate human consciousness, preventing people from thinking for themselves.

One day, the Grandmaster received a report.

"Master, a disturbance has appeared."

He opened his all-seeing eye, gazing down upon the world. A crack had formed within the flow of the Custom Matrix. And standing at its center...

"Leo..."

His eyes flashed coldly.

"Once again... another fool disrupting my perfect system."

"I shall go. The anomaly must be corrected."

And with that step, the 5D gate opened.

The Grandmaster himself descended — to erase the variable threatening his matrix.

Chapter 3. Matrilineal Inheritance and Relativity Theory

[4D Space-Time]

Leo and Trajector stood together beneath the faint moonlight.

Suddenly, the air twisted unnaturally.Space itself cracked open — and from within that rupture, a majestic presence emerged.

Grandmaster Convention — Architect of the Custom Matrix.

Clad in bizarre robes, a fusion of Korean hanbok and Roman toga, he floated above the ground with overwhelming authority.

"I am the creator of the Custom Matrix, the Keeper of Tradition — Grandmaster Convention."

Leo narrowed his eyes.

"The pain we suffer through customs... it's all because of you, isn't it?"

The Grandmaster sneered, waving his hand. Winds spiraled wildly around him.

"Pain? Insolent brat — so poorly raised! Honoring one's ancestors is the sacred duty of descendants!"

Leo gritted his teeth.

"Because of you, people suffer nightmare holidays every year."

Grandmaster Convention's gaze sharpened.

"Nightmares...? Holidays are sacred rituals to preserve human bonds.Gathering family, honoring ancestors, inheriting tradition — these define your very existence."

Leo's voice grew colder.

"Then why do people feel trapped? Why do they want to run away? Holidays are no longer bonds — they've become shackles.

Your matrix is flawed. And I'm going to break it."

The Grandmaster's eyes flared.

"You won't be able to."

He sliced the air with his hand — space distorted — and illusionary visions enveloped Leo.

Traffic jam.

Leo flinched, haunted by his worst holiday memory: endless highway congestion.

But it didn't end there.

Grandmaster Convention: "Family Nagging!"

Suddenly, a flood of relatives' nagging echoed in his ears.

And with another gesture, glowing ancestral spirits appeared beside a ritual table, while a blood-written family registry unraveled in midair.

"Bloodlines! A thousand-year lineage! This is your destiny!"

But Leo began his counterattack.Within his eyes, a faint glow — mitochondria lit up like blue bioluminescence.

Leo: "Matrilineal Inheritance."

Grandmaster Convention: "Matrilineal what?"

Leo: "Mitochondrial DNA is passed only from mother to child."

Grandmaster Convention roared.

"How dare you defile our bloodline logic with such foreign witchcraft!"

Leo's eyes projected genetic sequences into the air.

Leo: "Your so-called 'bloodline' exists within a mere 0.0005% of mitochondrial DNA in our cells."

Sweat trickled down the Grandmaster's jaw.

"That… that's Western sorcery…!"

Leo: "If you look at genetics, our ancestors have long mixed with countless others. Sharing a family name means nothing — it's just convention."

The blood-written scroll began to oxidize — fading away.Ancestor B, suspended in midair, trembled.

Ancestor B: "Are we... fake ancestors?"

At that moment, Trajector stepped forward.His gaze traced the orbits of the stars, his footsteps weighed down with the law of gravity.

Trajector: "I wield mass, velocity, space, and time. I throw the formulas of truth against the illusions of tradition."

The Grandmaster scoffed.

"Western tricks again? You think to break the ways of the East?"

Trajector snapped his fingers — numerical formulas floated in the air.

Trajector: "Rotation & Revolution!"

"The Earth's rotation speed: 460 m/sOrbital speed around the Sun: 30 km/sThe Solar System's galactic speed: 220 km/s"

"For ancestors to descend upon this altar...They'd need to move faster than 250 km/s!"

The Grandmaster twitched.

"Aha... That trick? You used it before to break the Ghost Matrix with local coordinates.

I came prepared."

Grandmaster Convention: "Heaven & Earth Motion Steps!"

"I trained the ancestors in the Heavenly Motion Technique — footwork in harmony with Earth's rotation, revolution, and the galaxy's own movement!"

Sweat beaded on Leo's forehead.

"…To think they'd master such martial arts."

But Trajector remained unfazed.His black cloak fluttered as he spoke softly.

Trajector: "Relativity."

"E = mc²."

"Your ancestors are massless beings. Without mass, they cannot anchor to the ground.

They must move like light itself."

Grandmaster Convention: "And what of it?"

Trajector: "At speeds approaching light, time flows differently.

According to relativity, for them — this ritual table appears frozen in eternal time."

Ancestor A widened his eyes.

"…Eternal?"

Trajector: "Moreover, without mass, their energy consumption skyrockets.They might dissipate before even arriving."

Ancestor B shouted.

"We've risked our existence every year for this!?"

Ancestor A: "This is all your fault, Grandmaster!"

The Grandmaster's aura shook violently.

His power was collapsing.

Grandmaster Convention: "No… If the ancestors reject this ritual… my Holiday Matrix…"

Leo stepped forward.

"The energy sustaining you comes from belief.

When the ancestors abandon that belief, your matrix falls apart."

Ancestor A: "We want to rest now."

Ancestor B: "This suffering ends today."

Ancestor C: "Grandmaster… we choose freedom."

The Grandmaster's form began to distort — the air of the ritual, the formalities, the laws of etiquette — all began to vanish.

Grandmaster Convention: "Impossible… Tradition… Ritual… Custom…!"

And so, the Grandmaster of Convention scattered like dust into the wind.

Chapter 4. Commentary from the Fifth Dimension

[5D Observation Point – The Dialogue between Newton and Einstein]

Space was infinite.Time folded upon itself like crumpled fabric.

And within that seam — sat two beings.

One had heavy, quiet eyes.The other — light and lively gaze, observing below.

Newton and Einstein had just witnessed the fierce clash between Leo, Trajector, and Grandmaster Convention in the 4D world.

Newton rested his chin on his hand, slowly nodding.

Newton: "I once regarded tradition as order. Like the planets, rituals followed their orbits, stabilizing the structure of human communities.

But... even order becomes violence when it loses balance."

Einstein: "Seeing ancestors experience relativistic space-time... that's a fascinating symbol. Beings from the past intervening in the present, binding the future — a paradoxical structure indeed."

Newton looked down at the world and murmured.

Newton: "Why do humans obsess over repetition?

Every year — the same time, same food, same greetings. Perhaps they believe it resembles eternal truth."

Einstein: "Perhaps. But in the end, time flows within the mind of the observer.

What's interesting about Leo... is that he questions that flow of time. 'Why must this ritual repeat every year?'"

Newton quietly closed his eyes.

Newton: "In my era, I saw the universe as a grand clockwork. Perfect machinery.

But upon that machine... humans moved with the variable of emotion."

Einstein smiled faintly.

Einstein: "Exactly. Emotion may be stronger than gravity itself.

The Holiday Matrix was sustained not by physical laws — but by the emotional bonds of humanity.

Yet the moment that bond turns into pain... it becomes not gravity — but a shackle."

Chapter 5. Light and Orbits

When Grandmaster Convention vanished, the world fell into silence.

The ritual table disappeared. The ancestors disappeared. Even the very forms of holiday customs dissolved into the air.

Somewhere, a wind swept through — slicing the emptiness — and moonlight once again illuminated the earth.

Leo caught his breath and wiped his sweat.He looked at Trajector — disbelief in his eyes.

Leo: "...It was thanks to you. Alone, I couldn't have defeated that monster."

Trajector shook his head slowly.

"I merely supported your formula.

The essence lies in you — realizing the errors of convention by yourself."

Leo fell silent for a moment.

In his eyes, complex emotions swirled — family, duty, tradition — and the hidden weight of repression and fatigue behind them.

Leo: "Until now... I considered all those things natural.

Even the pain... I believed it was an ethical burden I had to endure."

Trajector gazed at him quietly — then slowly pointed to the sky.

Stars flowed overhead.

Among the countless orbits, one star slowly traced its light across the sky above Earth.

Trajector: "Tradition is like a star.

What you see now is merely the afterglow of a distant light from long ago.

And though that light may appear beautiful...

Believing the star still exists — is but an illusion."

With those words, Trajector turned away.

His cloak scattered moonlight as it fluttered in the night breeze.

Leo called out.

"Your name... what is it?"

Without pausing, Trajector replied.

"I am Trajector.

A being who is no one.

Merely a point drawn momentarily into your orbit — like gravity — by a passing encounter."

And soon, he vanished into the darkness.

What remained — was the lingering trace of his orbit above the night sky.

And within Leo's eyes — engraved deeply — a single formula.

Leo was now ready — to walk his own path. His own trajectory.