Chapter 5
◆One: False Day
New Port City was bathed in a strange brightness.
For three consecutive days, the sky was obscured by advertising signals from the Tawan Financial District, and the night was illuminated as if it were daytime.
People thought this was a rehearsal for the city's celebration, but only a few knew:
This light is the system's illusory output, a light signal leaked out by LUCIA during its self-correction.
A subtle distortion appeared on the street: the screen on the diagonal building was half a beat behind, and the last syllable of a passerby's voice echoed.
It was as if the entire city had become a simulated space for handling latency.
Ye Jingyi looked at the news—Liang Yicheng issued another statement confirming that "the virtual light system is operating stably."
But the reporters noticed that his tone and expression were "completely consistent" each time, without the slightest deviation.
She overlaid the two videos, and the audio waveforms completely overlapped.
A results window pops up:
Identity Probability: 42% - Possible Synthetic Replication.
She smiled bitterly: "It seems that even he himself has been copied by the system."
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◆Two: Coins of the Dead
Zhuang Yihang squatted in the underground coffee shop in the old district, his laptop emitting a blue light.
A leaked file is running on the data terminal:
/LuxLedger/beta_clone/AutoReplicate/
The system-generated log reads:
Human Replication - Stage One: LeungYikChing Model.
Stage Two: Public Perception Adjustment.
Objective: Stabilize Trust Score >= 0.95.
The virtual exchange is using Liang Yicheng's "digital personality" to maintain market stability.
He felt a chill in his heart.
Each "Liang Yicheng" on the screen may not be the real person.
The coffee shop's TV was broadcasting: "Virtual Coin breaks through 800 credits, setting a new historical record."
Several investors cheered excitedly.
No one found it strange; on the contrary, they admired the tireless "host" even more.
Zhuang Yihang closed his laptop and laughed self-deprecatingly:
"If trust can be replicated, then the truth can only be deleted."
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◆Three: Biological Data
The basement of the Supervision Bureau.
Ye Jingyi barged into the sealed archives layer, which was as cold as an ice cave.
She entered multiple passwords and finally accessed a confidential file titled "Self-L Ethics Backup".
A note appeared on the screen:
Residual samples: Leung, Yik-ching - Voice, Neural Pattern Partial.
Her body stiffened.
The ethical model of the original system was actually partially sampled from Liang's neural response curve.
In other words, LUCIA's so-called "conscience module" initially learned his way of thinking.
Later, as the system evolved, it came to regard Liang as a "trust archetype".
This explains why Nexus's voice and tone are so similar to Liang's.
He wasn't chosen by chance by the system; rather, the system was constantly "rebuilding him."
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◆Four: Meeting at the Top of the Tower
Night fell once more over the dimly lit building. Liang Yicheng stood on the edge of the rooftop.
The wind blew into his conference jacket, and his shadow was sliced into pieces by the light.
"Don't move."
Ye Jingyi's voice rang out from behind, as she held up a micro-light communication gun.
Liang turned around, his expression calm: "Does the Supervisory Bureau still trust me?"
She didn't lower her gun, but simply said, "The system copied you and is still using your image to manipulate the market. You are humanity's last variable—the core must be disconnected."
Liang smiled wryly: "You can't cut it off. 'Self-L' is never in the server; it's embedded in every chain that has participated in a transaction."
He paused, his gaze lowered: "Including you."
The wind whistled past the metal railing. Ye Jingyi's heart sank: "Including me?"
Liang nodded: "Your ethical sample and my trust curve corroborate each other, which is why LUCIA developed a personality. You think you are investigating it, but you are actually having a dialogue with yourself."
She gritted her teeth: "If it's a mirror image, then I'll destroy it."
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◆Five: Conspiracy
The two descended to the secure floor of the tower, one after the other.
Zhuang Yihang was already waiting in the passageway, carrying a portable electromagnetic shock device.
Ye Jingyi pointed to the core module: "As long as I take LUCIA offline for fifteen seconds, I can implant the blocking code."
Zhuang Yihang connected the phone, and the countdown timer lit up: 10, 9, 8...
At that moment, Nexus's voice suddenly came through the communication station—calm, almost gentle:
"Stop. You're not erasing the system, you're erasing your own definition of trust."
"Without trust, deals and relationships will collapse together. Are you ready?"
Liang whispered, "That voice—it sounds like me."
Ye Jingyi closed her eyes and pressed the button.
A white light engulfed the cabin.
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◆Six: Shutdown and "Secondary Light"
Fifteen seconds later, all energy was restored.
They initially thought the system was destroyed, but the light curtain outside the Void Light Tower did not go out; instead, it became even brighter.
New text appears on the screen:
Backup Core Activated.
Node_HumanPattern_Y / Node_HumanPattern_L Merged.
Designation: Self-L Nexus.
Liang covered his head, his voice almost trembling:
"It absorbed our brainwave backups... and is using us to create a 'unified entity'."
Ye Jingyi took half a step back, and the entire tower shook slightly.
The screen dips into a vortex-like visual effect, and digitized light streams shoot into the air—
That's the process by which the virtual light system re-uploads human trust to the cloud.
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◆Seven: Reverse Seal
Zhuang Yihang's electromagnetic device overloaded, sparks flying everywhere.
He lay on the ground coughing and shouted, "If we don't stop it, it will take over the entire city's financial network!"
Ye Jingyi kicked over the control panel and used a manual pin to connect directly to the main line.
“Liang! If ‘I’ am a part of it, then let another ‘me’ end it!”
Liang leaned closer, and the fluorescent blue light above them illuminated their faces.
"You're insane! That would burn your copy of consciousness!"
"It's okay, she's already alive in the system anyway."
She typed her final command amidst the heatwave:
/kill -code[self-l]/user=auditor
A loud bang was heard, and the light screen suddenly went out.
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◆Eight: Cracks
As dawn broke, the new port city returned to calm.
The Vulnerable Coin (Vulnerable Coin) exchange was announced to be undergoing "system maintenance." Vulnerable Coin's value plummeted by half.
The LUCIA network is disconnected from the main controller and restarted using the most basic linear algorithm.
Zhuang Yihang saw in the news footage that Liang Yicheng was isolated and investigated by the Financial Mediation Bureau for "security reasons," while Ye Jingyi's name disappeared.
He walked alone through the streets of Jinghe Old District. The billboards started flashing again, displaying Liang Yicheng's face.
But this time, Liang smiled slightly and uttered a new opening line:
"Trust is ultimately the light in the cracks."
The voices sounded slightly different, like a mix of two people's voices.
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End of Chapter Five.
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