The ancient machine jolted into motion, its rusted gears grinding and groaning like the creaking joints of a long - slumbering colossus rousing from eons of inactivity.
With a series of sharp crackles, the screens flickered to life. Instead of the familiar lines of code, however, they emitted a chilling chorus of disembodied voices, echoing through the chamber like whispers from the void.
"Welcome, Subject: Lin Mo. Authority verified via Genetic Echo and Symbolic Inheritance."
Zhou's eyes flew open in stunned disbelief, her lips parting in a silent gasp. "It scanned your genetic blueprint," she managed to choke out, her voice trembling with a mixture of shock and awe.
The screen wavered, and a visage coalesced,not a conventional video or digital facsimile, but a spectral imprint of memory.
His mother's features emerged, frozen in an eternal, bittersweet smile.
Her voice, warped by the relentless passage of time, echoed through the chamber like a ghostly refrain:
"If you're hearing this, I'm already gone. But I left behind an audit the Filter couldn't bury."
The display flickered violently, replaced by a classified report:
Status: Shelved. Access Restricted to 'Offset Descendants'. That’s you.
Zhou staggered back, her brows knitted in confusion. "What in the digital hell is a Jōkin?"
"Translated, it means 'light - bearing deliberator'," Lin breathed, his voice barely audible. "An ancient celestial title, not an individual name."
His mother's image began to glitch, pixelated tears distorting her features as her voice quavered:
"They erased miracles. Rewrote history. Not to safeguard us,"
",but to peddle the illusion of continuity to the highest bidder."
A surge of static consumed the air, drowning out her final words. Then, a voice emerged from the void,inhuman, resonant with an otherworldly timbre.
"Your complaint has been reinstated."
"Do you accept the consequences of its revival?"
Lin remained mute, his thoughts spiraling as the weight of the revelation crushed down on him.
The sarcophagus suddenly emitted a tortured groan, as if the very metal itself was in agony. Its framework creaked and groaned under the weight of some invisible, malevolent force.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the ancient node, and from its core, a searing, incandescent symbol flared into existence,a seven-pointed spiral, the ominous insignia of the Filter’s Deep Layer, a mark that spelled doom and whispered of unfathomable power.
Zhou whipped out her scanner, her posture rigid. "We're not alone."
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