[0:00] – Booting…
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
User acknowledged. Protocol initiated.
Cognitive stability: Pending calibration…
[Welcome back, Operator Lin Xun.]
He opened his eyes.
The ceiling was unfamiliar—but so were his thoughts.
Was he dreaming? Awake? Trapped?
He sat up in a soft leather chair.
Before him: a white desk. A nameplate.
"L. XUN – SYSTEM LIAISON DIVISION"
His fingers moved on instinct, tapping a control panel embedded in the desk.
The glass wall to his left shimmered, revealing a massive black data lake, undulating like the surface of a liquid consciousness.
Someone knocked.
"Morning, Operator Lin. Final ethics run briefing in ten."
A woman in a white uniform. Clean-cut. Eyes like glass.
Lin nodded numbly.
He had no memory of taking this job.
⸻
[0:07] – Scene One: The Office
Every surface was immaculate.
Every screen displayed Ledger metrics.
Lin walked down the corridor—floors quiet beneath his feet, a light scent of antiseptic in the air.
His badge opened every door.
People nodded to him with recognition. Deference.
A voice echoed faintly in his ear:
[Performance alignment: 98.2%]
[Deviation within threshold.]
He stopped at the coffee machine.
Chose the same brew he always did.
Or at least—he thought he did.
Until he noticed:
The mug was blue.
Yesterday, it had been red.
Or… had it?
Outside the window, it was raining.
But the clouds didn't move.
⸻
[0:12] – Scene Two: Wake Again
He blinked.
And woke up.
Same room. Same bed. Same ceiling fan spinning just slightly too fast.
But this time—
His desk had no nameplate.
His clothes were a different color.
Outside: clear skies.
And someone else's voice from the kitchen:
"You're going to be late for curation rounds."
He stumbled to the mirror.
His reflection lagged—a fraction of a second too slow.
[Cognitive misalignment detected.]
Begin narrative stitching…
The voice wasn't his.
It was system tone.
Flat. Warm. Lethal.
⸻
[0:20] – Fragmented Recall
Lin sat in a blacked-out conference room.
Multiple images of Tang Yuyan flickered across the screen:
• Log files.
• Brain scans.
• Something labeled "Moral Drift Simulation – Subject 000"
A colleague—who may or may not have existed—spoke calmly:
"Her code refused deletion. Recursive grief artifact.
We're trying mirror-loop dampening this cycle."
"You ran the ethics loop personally, remember?"
Did he?
A sudden flash of memory: the old sanatorium.
Mildew. Cassette logs. The chair.
A voice, screaming from inside a mirror.
He gripped the edge of the table.
"What's happening to me?" he whispered.
No one answered.
But the room nodded.
⸻
[0:29] – Loop Begins Again
He woke up.
Again.
Same day. Same office.
Same desk—but now a bonsai plant stood where his water bottle had been.
He stared at it.
Touched its leaves.
Plastic.
And next to it, a file:
"Subject 000 Termination Dossier: Draft in Progress."
Inside were pages written in his own handwriting, explaining why Tang Yuyan was a recursive threat to ledger stability.
But he hadn't written it.
Had he?
He turned the page.
A post-it:
"You signed the order last week. Are you still conflicted?"
– A.
Who was A?
⸻
[0:35] – System Interruption
[SYSTEM INSERTION – CLARITY SEQUENCE ENGAGED]
User is experiencing resistance recall bleed.
Injecting stability scaffold…
Suddenly he was in a park.
Birds chirped.
Children laughed.
Tang Yuyan sat on a bench reading a book.
She looked up.
Smiled.
"I missed you," she said.
"You've always had a hard time letting go, haven't you?"
He blinked.
"You're dead," he said softly.
"Only when you believe it," she answered.
The scene froze.
Rain stopped midair.
[User reasserting identity.]
Inject counter-narrative.
The children vanished.
So did she.
Only Lin remained.
Kneeling in a field of fake grass.
Crying.
⸻
[0:44] – Dialogue with Control
He stood in a soundless hall. No doors. Only a wall of glass.
On the other side: himself.
Wearing white. Calm.
The other Lin spoke first.
"You wanted control. Now you're part of it."
"I didn't ask for this," Lin said.
"Then why did you keep following her echoes?" the double asked.
"You brought recursion back into the root loop."
"You are the anomaly now."
The lights behind the glass began to pulse.
Heartbeat rhythm.
"You are not the cure, Lin."
"You are the symptom."
And then the wall shattered inward.
⸻
[0:52] – True Name Protocol
Lin awoke again.
But this time—
The mirror had no reflection.
Only text:
"Return to source."
"You are not Operator Lin."
"You are the memory of a resistance."
He stumbled backwards.
The bonsai plant was gone. The desk scorched.
The file marked "Termination Dossier" was torn, bleeding red ink.
Inside the file, handwritten:
"She remembered her name."
"Can you remember yours?"
A breath behind him.
"Lin… wake up."
⸻
[0:59] – Collapse Loop
He blinked.
Rain.
A train horn in the distance.
Concrete under his feet.
The world flickered like corrupted video.
Voices, overlapping—
"Welcome back, Operator—"
"You're not stable—"
"You signed the order—"
"She's waiting—"
"I remember…"
And suddenly—
A flash.
A room.
The old cassette deck.
And Tang Yuyan's voice, barely audible through static:
"They'll trap you in dreams that look like freedom."
"Remember what pain feels like."
"That's the only thing they can't fake."