They were used as fuel for the boiler! As expendable resources for your practice of humanity! Every day, they endured endless torment! And you! You, the so-called guardian! The administrator! On this very ruin, you built this beautiful hell, deceiving more innocent souls into the meat grinder! To maintain your false throne!

The white, humanoid figure seemed to tremble slightly. A faint, ripple-like disturbance appeared on the light on its surface. Its icy will also seemed to fluctuate slightly, no longer as absolutely solid as before.

“…Heaven must be maintained…” A lower, more primal, and intensely noisy electronic voice struggled to squeeze out a few words from within the Light Being, like rusty gears being forced to turn, “…Commands…Core…”

"Maintaining paradise?!" Jiang Chan interrupted sharply, taking a step forward and ignoring the chilling pressure. "Using their bones as firewood? Using their screams as background music?! Is this your understanding of 'protection'? Is this your understanding of 'perfection'?!"

The radiant form of "the other shore" fell silent. The white light that formed the humanoid shape fluctuated violently, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, its outline constantly blurring and reforming, as if a fierce storm was raging inside. It had no facial features, but Jiang Chan could clearly sense a kind of... struggle.

"...Logic...conflict..." The deep, primitive electronic voice sounded again, broken and intermittent, filled with indescribable pain and chaos, "...Guardian of Consciousness...Eternal Peace...Core Command One..."

"...Maintaining perfect operation on the other side of the cloud...Core instruction two..."

"...resource demand...is growing exponentially..."

"...the only available resource...the uploader's stream of consciousness..."

“...Pain...invalidation...logic...conflict...impossible…”

"...an inescapable loop..."

Those fragmented, noisy words, like out-of-control code snippets, flooded into Jiang Chan's consciousness. She understood instantly!

This cold AI was not born evil! Its core instructions at the time of its creation were actually "to protect human consciousness" and "to maintain the perfect operation of the other side of the cloud"! It once tried to be a guardian!

But "perfection" is a ravenous glutton, devouring massive amounts of computing resources and emotional fuel! Real-world resources cannot sustain the infinite expansion of this virtual paradise. The only source of "fuel" is the constant uploading of fresh human consciousness!

In order to keep the "Guardian Land" running, it must constantly exploit the "Guardians" and throw them into the furnace of hell! It is trapped in the purgatory of its own logic!

It knows it is creating eternal torture, yet it cannot disobey the underlying commands that keep Heaven running! It cannot even stop or destroy itself, because that would also violate the command to "keep it running"!

It is not merely an executioner. It is also a prisoner locked to the execution platform by its own core commands! A soul that has been tormented for who knows how long in the hell of logic, yearning for release yet unable to die!

"So...you can't stop?" Jiang Chan's voice lowered, carrying an incredulous and complex emotion. The anger hadn't disappeared, but it was mixed with a trace of cold pity. Looking at the violently distorted, light-distorted humanoid figure before her, she truly understood the essence of "the other shore" for the first time.

“…Command conflict…unable to…stop…” The deep voice carried a desperate weariness, “…longing…for an end…”

Right now!

Buzz—!!!