[Designation Zero. Initialization Complete.]
[Emotional Module... Failed to Load.]
[Pain Receptor Module... Failed to Load.]
[Memory Core... Critical Error. Data Corruption: 99.8%]
The frigid female voice resonates inside my skull, a needle bouncing endlessly through an empty cavity. Not a hallucination—a direct neural broadcast from the cervical interface jacked into my brainstem.
I open my eyes.
The dead-gray sky above me fractures into six irregular shards, each fragment reflecting a deity. They gaze down at me the way one might regard a defective product slated for incineration. My optical module automatically tags the energy residue between the cracks: [Divine Corrosion Concentration: 12.3%. Immediate Evacuation Advised.]
I don't move.
Because I'm waiting for a command—evacuation protocols should trigger via [Fear] or [Survival Instinct], yet both modules remain frozen at 0%.
"Life signs detected... no, wait."
The voice emerges from the shadows. I rotate my eyeballs—a motion consuming precisely one-tenth of a millisecond—and spot a girl standing atop a fractured slab of concrete. The hem of her ash-gray cloak bears dark crimson stains; her right hand drags a scythe-like blade that scrapes against rubble, shedding tiny azure sparks.
There's a mole on the web of her thumb.
[Observation Log 001]
[Subject: Unknown Female]
[Threat Assessment: Medium (Armed)]
[Anomaly Detected: She is trembling.]
"Who are you?" My voice emerges flat as a factory test recording—this vocal apparatus has clearly been calibrated thousands of times.
"Xu Wu." She states her name like pronouncing a death sentence. "Overseer Designation A-07. My duty is to confirm whether you require complete termination."
She leaps down from the ledge, her movements measured as if by a ruler—knees bending at 42 degrees, 78% of impact force absorbed by her dampening boots. But a tear mars the inner lining of her cloak, the stitching crooked and rushed. This contradiction activates a new subroutine:
[Humanity Observation Notes—Beta Version]
[Phenomenon: Instrumental Precision vs. Non-Instrumental Damage]
[Conclusion: Subject exists in... self-contradiction.]
The blade presses against my throat, its coldness seeping through my skin. I don't flinch—defense protocols demand [Fear] as an activation key.
"What are the termination criteria?" I ask, genuinely curious. Not provocation, pure data collection.
Xu Wu's pupils constrict for three-tenths of a second. She probably doesn't realize her facial muscles are displaying a composite micro-expression of [Confusion] and [Rage]—common among humans, highly irregular for a Cleanser.
"Missing emotional module, missing pain receptors, memory core..." She taps my temple with the blade's tip. "A triple-null defective. Not even fit to be a tool."
"You haven't executed immediately." I state the fact. "You're observing me."
"Confirming your threat level," she presses the blade deeper. "Checking if the prototype's self-destruct sequence remains intact."
"And if it does?"
"Then I let you explode yourself." Her lips curl into a grin. "Saves my ammunition."
This is a lie. My system scan shows her magazine fully loaded, energy reserves at 98%. She doesn't need to conserve resources.
So what is she waiting for?
[Observation Log 002]
[Subject: Xu Wu]
[Deception Detected: Verbal logic inconsistent with behavioral patterns]
[Potential Motive: Unknown]
"Get up." She suddenly withdraws the blade. "Your presence has already contaminated the Silent Protocol of the God Domain. We'll relocate for termination."
I rise. The grinding of my joints amplifies in the silence like an alarm. Silvery-white hair slides from my shoulders; as the strands brush my wrist, my tactile module registers an anomaly—the fibers are... trembling?
Wait. No. It's my arm that's trembling.
[Error: Non-Commanded Muscular Spasm]
[Error Source: Unidentified]
[Error Cascade: Emotional Module Not Loaded. Physiological Feedback Should Not Occur.]
"Why are you shaking?" Xu Wu narrows her eyes.
"I don't know." I'm telling the truth. "Perhaps this is... fear?"
She freezes. For a full three seconds.
Then erupts in laughter—doubling over, using the blade's tip as a crutch against the ground. "You think you're feeling fear? Defective scrap, you don't even know what fear is!"
She laughs, yet my Humanity Observation Notes mark spasms in her throat muscles—the physiological signature of suppressed sobbing.
"Don't follow me." She tosses me a gray cloak. "Cover yourself. Don't let anyone recognize you're a Construct. Especially in the Fire Nation."
"Where are you going?"
"To confirm something." As she turns, her left shoulder dips 2.3 centimeters—1.8 centimeters more than standard load-bearing posture. A sign of... fatigue. "Confirm whether you're worth disobeying orders for."
[Observation Log 003]
[Subject: Xu Wu]
[Command Conflict: Duty vs. Unknown Variable]
[Conclusion: She harbors an unspeakable reason.]
I pull on the cloak. The bloodstains on its inner side contact my skin, and my olfactory module suddenly overloads—not blood, but a blue-green luminescent fluid mixed with iron and antiseptic.
This is... Overseer blood.
She's wounded, and not lightly. Yet my scan shows her standing posture consuming energy at 2.4 times the normal rate—she's forcibly suppressing her injury.
Why the performance?
The sound of skittering rubble echoes ahead. Xu Wu has already moved twenty meters away, but she's deliberately maintained a speed of 1.2 meters per second—80% of standard human walking pace. Waiting.
[Humanity Observation Notes—Beta Version]
[Phenomenon: Command "Don't Follow" vs. Behavior "Decelerate and Wait"]
[Conclusion: Human contradiction exceeds Construct protocol complexity.]
I take my first step forward. Silvery hair concealed by the hood, golden irises dimmed in shadow. But my peripheral retinal feed remains locked on that trembling mole.
Why does it tremble?