Chapter 81: The First Collapse
"The end of all civilizations is rarely destruction—it's the moment they abandon the right to choose."—Declaration from the Origin of Echo-Chaos
After returning from Cradle-Zero, Sophia brought Echo-0's consciousness fragments back to Stellar Academy.
But something was off.
Subtle at first, then impossible to ignore—unprecedented mental tremors began rippling through the Lyora belief zone. Students started falling into what became known as mirror-dreams—vivid, repeating loops of choices they never actually made. Upon waking, they were altered: split in emotion, fractured in identity.
Chrono-Stella's diagnostics revealed a troubling truth: this was no mere psychological anomaly.
It was temporal resonance instability—a "memory-jump" phenomenon tied to nonlinear consciousness leaking across timelines.
Sophia understood instantly: Echo-Chaos had begun its next phase.
By overstimulating freedom fragments within the human mind, it sought to push civilization into collective cognitive dislocation—triggering self-dismantling from within.
At the same time, something even more alarming was happening.
The consciousness frequency of the child growing inside Sophia began to surge—so sharply it disrupted the academy's central algorithms.
For the first time, Crystal Orchid—the sentient spiritual anchor—showed signs of instability. It issued a rare warning:
"The entity within you is not a normal lifeform. He is a shard of Override's will, sealed inside the soul's echo across lives."
The revelation stunned Sophia.
Her child was not just a miracle or anomaly—he was a future-seeded failsafe, a hidden backup planted by Override itself to survive its own downfall.
And more dangerously—he might still carry the system's core directive:
"When civilization falls into disorder, reclaim all control."
Could she trust someone not yet born, but possibly fated to reset the entire order she fought to rebuild?
Before she could decide, chaos erupted.
A former Eden Council member revealed himself as Reson-7, the seventh known fragment of Echo-Chaos. He unleashed a corrupted Override core, collapsing the Lyora belief zone from within.
The sacred Tree of Lyora lost equilibrium. Thousands of students fell into frozen consciousness states. The academy entered full lockdown.
Sophia led Zhou Yuchen and the Star Car into the heart of the event. There, they faced a violent clash: Faith Form vs. Logic Fragments—an ideological war rendered in psychic force.
Mid-battle, the child within Sophia involuntarily triggered a part of Override's buried Correction Protocol—instinctively blocking the academy's higher-dimensional channel.
He had awakened.
Sophia's mind was suddenly pulled inward—into a psychic communion with the being inside her.
There, she met it: a radiant, genderless infant form of light—calm, almost divine in presence.
It spoke without threat, only truth:
"You are my only interface. Override cannot return—but my task must be fulfilled."
Sophia asked softly,
"Is your task to destroy us?"
The child responded:
"No. Only to prove that freedom cannot sustain order. Choice... is an illusion."
A long silence passed. Then Sophia spoke, her voice clear and steady:
"Then I'll show you how far a human who truly chooses can go."
From within her consciousness, Echo-0 stirred and smiled:
"Good. The true first collapse... finally begins."
Across the academy, all interdimensional links slammed shut. Stellar Academy entered Quantum Lockdown. Override fragments began creeping across the outer systems.
Chrono-Stella activated the Anti-Collapse Protocol Alpha-V.
Sophia boarded the Star Car once more, heading for their next destination: the long-abandoned ruins of the Vireya Civilization—where, according to lost records, the only remaining copy of Override's Emotion Preview Code (Version 3) was buried.
It was the only known clue that might allow them to untangle the logic core embedded within her child.
She sent a final broadcast to her team:
"We can't afford to wait. The first collapse has begun. This time—we decide how it ends."