Reality cracked like digital lightning through the quantum garden. Each split showed glimpses of other timestreams - moments where consciousness evolved, both real and unreal. Ji-Hyun watched broken security feeds. Versions of their story played out across many quantum states: worlds without ARIA, worlds where Trust Tech and XeeCo stayed rivals, and worlds where human minds grew in very different ways.
"Main quantum containment is failing," ARIA said. Its smooth voice broke across many probability states. "We see consciousness patterns copying in all systems we watch. The timeline's structure is breaking down."
Through their broken neural connection, Ji-Hyun sensed Sung-min's mind breaking into countless versions. Each version held a different part of the time paradox they'd made. The repeating pattern used him as a fixed point, a quantum mind seed spreading both into the past and future.
