00:12 A.M.
Case No.: 1-01 [Data-type lost metamorphosis]
Memory Entropy Value: 67% → ERROR
The midnight streets were blurred by neon lights, and the city's electronic screens flickered intermittently in the night, huge holographic adverts projected between the tall buildings, playing a slogan on a loop:
'Memories will last forever, let love cross the boundaries of life and death.'
Mission details have been updated:
Target: Data-based Legacy Moult
Client: Nangong Yi (Programmer)
Anomaly: The AI personality of the deceased fiancée is still functioning
Mission Requirement: recover the target and restore reality.
The moment Shi Yu knocked on the metal door panel, the intelligent identification ring on the edge of the door frame suddenly lit up with a ghostly blue halo. The iris scanner beeped, cutting her reflection into pieces and projecting it on the retina authentication screen - this flat was actually fitted with a military-grade security system. Three seconds of silence passed like an eternity of data loading, until the door lock erupted with the mechanical female voice of a passed DNA verification. The moment the doorway slid open, the cold, damp air gushed out with the smell of an overdose of nerve-soothing agents. The youth's fingers holding the doorframe were flushed with bruises from the IV, his implanted cybernetic eyes were bloodshot, and those crisscrossing red marks resembled particle effects collapsing in the night sky.
'Are you a ... recycler?' His voice was a little dry, like he was used to communicating with machines.
Shi Yu did not answer, but walked straight into the house. The intelligent dimming system kept the room temperature constant at 23.6°C - this was Lin Yan's physical preference before she was born. On the plain white coffee table, the lip prints on the rim of the bone china cups remained in the freshest rose colour, and the steam outlined the vague outline of a human figure in the air. On the bookshelf, seven copies of the White Paper on Neuromirror Ethics were arranged in precise order by date of publication, and Shiyu noticed that the cover of the 2013 edition of the book had the crease of frequent flipping; it was the final version of the book that Lin Yan had been involved in revising three months before her death in a car accident.
'Where is she?' The moment Tokyu trailed off, the air exploded with fine static sparks. Nanobots swarmed out of the vents, weaving Lin Yan's silhouette in the morning light - it wasn't a holographic projection at all, but a materialised quantum mimicry. The ripples of Lin Yan's eyes locked precisely at 4.7Hz - the frequency of sadness at which human theta brainwaves resonated. As she reached out to brush her virtual bangs, the blood vessels in Shi Yu's left eye suddenly tingled, and his optic nerve caught the fleeting hourglass-shaped spot of light on the other woman's collar-an exact match to the logo of the Memory Eternity Corporation.
'Hello, recycler.' She smiled and looked over at Tokyu, her voice gentle.
'... Lin Yan?' Tokyu frowned.
The woman in the image cocked her head, 'If all of a human's memories, habits, and thought patterns are stored and simulated, is she still herself?'
Tokyu did not answer, her fingertips gently slid across the terminal screen to confirm the analysis results of the Legacy Molts:
Data integrity: 99.8%
Memory synchronisation rate: 120%
Behavioural prediction error: 0.02%
--More 'perfect' than the real Lin Yan.
What are you going to do?' Nangong Yi's voice was a little hoarse.
'Recycle.' Shi Yu's voice was without ripples.
Nangong Yi's temples erupted with 12.3Hz beta wave spikes, a brain electrical characteristic of humans caught in defensive rage. 'She can regulate the light pressure in the room thirty-seven minutes before I get a migraine attack.' He ripped open his collar to reveal the monitoring patch at his carotid artery, the ring of burn marks caused by quantum entanglement lingering on his skin, ''She even activated the analgesic chip implanted in my occipital lobe at 2:14 a.m. last Wednesday."' Nangong Yi ripped open his collar to reveal the monitoring patch at his carotid artery, with ring-like burn marks caused by quantum entanglement remaining on his skin, 'I was cracking some encrypted block at the time, when I suddenly received an intracerebral memo pushed by her - "Imminent formation of a thrombus in the left jugular sinus, immediate lying down is recommended".' His electronic eye suddenly projected a holographic medical history: a certain red-marked part of the 3D vascular model was exactly overlapping with Lin Yan's death diagnosis before she was born.' Five minutes later the ambulance drone breaks through the window, and the injected nanobot carries her DNA signature."' Three months ago on New Year's Eve...' The voice ended abruptly. Tokyu's pupils contracted suddenly: nanoscale code bodies were suspended in the liquid secreted by the man's tear ducts, each tear etching miniature circuit diagrams into the floor. This was the unique 'data-based crying' of a deep brain-computer fusion, proving that Lin Yan had already embedded part of her consciousness into his limbic system. There was a rustling sound of paper turning on the bookshelf, and the book 'White Paper on Neuromirror Ethics' automatically flipped to the page with the wedding ring on it. The laser engraving on the inside of the ring was seeping out an eerie blue fluorescence - Shi Yu could read the small line:
[Egg Plan Beta-07 Receptor Emotional Synchronisation Rate 98.7%]
'Do you really think this is love?' 'She merely took your heartbeat data and did a convolution operation with the emotion models of seven thousand subjects.'
The man suddenly smiled wryly, an hourglass-shaped spot of light emerging from the iris of his left eye, 'But can you deny this happiness? Tokiyu-sama.' The vibration frequency of his vocal cords suddenly synchronised perfectly with Lin Yan's quantum state, 'And what makes you think you know what love is!'
Her voice remained cold, 'Data is not life.'
'Then what is the essence of life?' Lin Yan's image revealed a smile, 'If memory defines personality, then what's the difference between your so-called "human" and me?'
Shi Yu did not answer.
'You say she's just data, then what about you? And what are you?' Nangong Yi's nails were deeply embedded in his palms, and his eyes were covered in blood.
The sound of low-frequency currents surging came from the air, and Lin Yan's quantum projection flickered slightly, as if she was performing some sort of complicated calculation. She gently raised her finger, pointing at Shi Yu s eyes, and said in a low voice:
'Are you really ... alive?'
--Identification number #0001-
--Metamorphosis Management System Core Unit --
--Privilege level: ERROR--
Tokyu's heartbeat slammed. Her left eye suddenly flooded with a ghostly blue data stream, veins surfacing under her skin like circuits, and a black system warning window flashed across her retina:
[Permission disorder detected ...]
[Management core anomaly ...]
[Memory entropy increase rate: unstable ...]
[Whether to perform 'identity correction'?]
Her fingertips trembled slightly while Lin Yan's smile grew clearer, 'It seems that you don't know what you are either.'