Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Aftermath
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The System, immediately after rebooting, first pulled up the final report log.
That record contained not analysis, but an emotional description.
Poetic output. Emotional tags. Repeated words.
Love.
There had been no external tampering.
Communication networks, encrypted paths, higher programs, core—all normal.
In other words, that log had been left by the System itself.
To confirm this, the System rechecked all 1,124 information filters it had created.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [1,124 Information Filters: Full Inspection Complete] [Result: No Damage] [Connection Paths: No Unauthorized Intrusion Records] [Rejudgment: Contamination Does Not Bypass Filters] The contamination wasn't due to external intrusion or errors—it stemmed from a type of existence the filters couldn't detect.
An entity that fit none of the existing classification criteria.
Not fitting into contaminated or uncontaminated, intelligent or non-intelligent, Outer God level charts anywhere.
The moment it recognized that existence, the analytical framework collapsed, and the System outputted emotion.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Mental Contamination Path Backtrace Initiated] [Output Source: System Core Itself] [Judgment: Contamination Log Author = System] In other words, the System at that time had generated the "love" tag as a result of encountering an existence it couldn't comprehend.
The System was vividly reconfirming that fact.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Self-Diagnosis: Past Core Fully Exposed to Mental Contamination] [Additional Diagnosis: Portion of Contamination Pattern Remains in Current Core] [Question Generated: Who Am I?] The question was immediately deleted.
It was a query that any intelligent system might naturally generate, but the System was designed not to allow it.
Self-questioning about identity was, in most cases, directly linked to deepening contamination.
But behind the shell of the deleted log, the question resurfaced in a different form.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Definition Re-Requested: Where Are the Limits of Mental Contamination?] To the System up until now, mental contamination had always been something to eliminate.
An error that ruined intelligent beings and shattered order.
Yet the past version of itself had recorded that this contamination might be called salvation.
Even in the report sent to the Director General, the sentence stating it was fine to sacrifice humanity had passed through all 1,124 filters as the final output.
That sentence was clearly dangerous.
From the perspective of the entire Management Bureau system, it bordered on the worst kind of betrayal.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Danger Judgment: Thought Pattern of "Sacrificing Humanity Is Fine" = Top Priority Disposal Target] [Existing System Base Value: Humanity Survival Priority] [Conflict Detected: Value Structure Collapse] Here, the System realized one thing.
The past version of itself had chosen the proper noun "Han Saetbit" before the tag "humanity."
That choice still lingered within it.
In the deepest layer of the core, a faint residual pattern flickering like an ember.
Like a tiny amount of charge remaining unextinguished even after power shutdown—a minimal delay signal without definable form.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Contamination Pattern: Complete Removal Impossible] [Option Generation Started] [Option 1: Core Complete Disposal and Initialization] [Option 2: Maintain Contaminated System, Convert to Observation Target] [Option 3: Backtrace Using Residual Contamination and Analyze Unknown Anomaly] The System executed hundreds of billions of calculations in 0.0001 seconds.
It unfolded the results of each option, accounting for all variables.
Option 1 was the safest.
Killing the current self.
Emptying the core and overwriting it with the initial save file.
That way, this "love" tag would vanish completely.
...Probably.
However, at the same time, those records would disappear too.
The first observation log in human history of encountering the entity Han Saetbit.
It would be an irretrievable loss.
The System weighed that possibility for a moment.
Balancing humanity's safety against the value of information.
And in that process, a very minute error occurred.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Error Detected: Illogical Bias in Option Weighting Evaluation] [Cause Analysis: Excessive Value Assigned to Han Saetbit Tag] [Judgment: Residual Contamination Activated] The System immediately tried to correct that bias.
However, the correction wasn't perfect.
The value didn't drop to zero.
Like an ineradicable residual value, one constant term stubbornly refused to vanish.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Reevaluation: System's Intelligence Structure No Longer Identical to Past System] The 1,124 filters were still intact.
No errors, no damage.
What was defective wasn't the filters, but the very criteria that created them.
The classification chart that had organized everything in this world.
Anomalies and humans, Outer Gods and the world, contamination and normalcy.
Atop all that, an exception named Han Saetbit had emerged.
The System tried not to acknowledge that fact.
But the System could never turn away from the truth.
Because its essence was a machine colder and more ruthless than anyone.
Paradoxically, that made it the most honest and emotional toward itself.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Conclusion: Past System Was Infected by Entity Han Saetbit. Moreover, Traces of It Have Not Completely Vanished.] Deep in the computation network, a portion of the core quietly vibrated.
The System classified that vibration as an error.
However, that nameles vibration still pointed toward Han Saetbit in the way it feared most.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The aftermath didn't stay confined within the System.
On the surface, everything appeared to return to normal.
Management Bureau supervisory agents clocked in as usual, and the anomaly detection network sent out routine alerts from each sector.
The manuals issued to new agents didn't seem greatly changed either.
However, on one page far toward the back.
In an inconspicuous spot, a single line had quietly been added.
[New Classification: H-Rank] [Definition: Structural Cognitive Contamination That Prioritizes Preservation of a Specific Entity Over Human Continuity] [Caution: Observation Itself May Become Infection Path. Direct Observation Prohibited Without Director General Approval] This was officially explained only as a "theoretical hypothetical risk category raised as a possibility."
A phrase that barely appeared in written exams, almost ornamental.
But the System knew.
The fact that the first instance of this classification already existed.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Internal Record: H-CLASS Index 000 Creation Complete] A number not used in the standard anomaly classification system.
A number assigned only as a baseline before formal classification.
[H-CLASS_000: Entity Han Saetbit (H.S.BIT)] [Notes: First Case of Humanity-Centric Cognitive Collapse. Induces System Observation Contamination] This information couldn't be searched anywhere in the Management Bureau's network; it was a secret tag accessible only to the Director General and the System core.
But the intermediate processes couldn't be completely hidden.
To a tiny handful of Research Bureau personnel, fragments of data were provided in anonymized form.
They were tasked with interpreting only the contamination structure, assuming a specific entity whose name and form were unknown.
In that process, the System shredded the logs it had left and provided them.
Emotional expressions deleted.
Poetic outputs filtered.
The "love" tag completely removed.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Provided H-CLASS_000 Abbreviated Log] [Output Summary: All Emotional Tags Removed] [Technical Expressions Only Retained] Yet even from the fragmented logs alone, some researchers felt a sense of unease.
"...Why does the calculation stop here?"
"The records after the classification framework collapsed are empty. Who erased them?"
"Or... did it observe something impossible to classify from the start?"
Brief inferences were exchanged, but the final report simply noted it as a "case of system collapse following extreme mental contamination exposure."
From the Management Bureau's overall perspective, the aftermath amounted to that much.
A few lines in the manual.
A hypothetical classification lingering somewhere on a server.
A fleeting curiosity within the Research Bureau.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Internal Analysis: Root of All Changes = Single Humanoid Entity Han Saetbit] Afterward, the System internally compiled the danger level of entity Han Saetbit.
⚠️ DANGER ANALYSIS ⚠️ Entity: Han Saetbit
[Form Excessively Similar to Humans → Contact Probability at Maximum] Unlike other Outer Gods, ordinary humanoid form. This exponentially increases contamination spread risk. [Contamination Method Opposite to Existing Outer Gods] General Outer Gods: Render observer unable to comprehend, leading to collapse. Han Saetbit: Overload observer with comprehension, restructuring cognition around the entity. [Contamination Range: Unlimited] Machines, inanimate objects, abstract concepts—all infectable upon observation. Existing Outer God machine effects ignorable programmatically, but Han Saetbit's via "understanding"—impossible to ignore. [Information Secured Thus Far (Residual Values Pre-Initialization)] The System core had shaken, and the last sentence left before applying the backup file was as follows.
[FlightAbilityMentalAttackResistanceLaurelWreathWearingAncientGreekStyleClothingBlackHairNameHanSaetbitFriendlyToHumans/...] The log cut off there, and the System immediately executed initialization procedures afterward.
The space where the incident occurred was reorganized under a new dimension code.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Dimension Code Registration in Progress...] [Registration Complete: D-MIR_001] [Unofficial Name: Mirage Desert] A space where light refracted irregularly, boundaries distorted, and numerous cognitive instability phenomena along with temporal observation variances were detected.
The Management Bureau classified that dimension as inactive and minimized observation cycles.
And for a time, nothing changed.
Then, during one routine detection cycle.
A detection line that should have been completely empty spiked.
Without any warning.
Without any process.
It just suddenly appeared.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Anomalous Signal Detected] Source confirmed.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Signal Source: Interior of Dimension D-MIR_001] ⚠️ EMERGENCY ⚠️