The data petals on the baby girl's fingertips pierced into the earth, and the surface of the mechanical universe suddenly softened. The metal under Chu Yun's feet turned into a bloody swamp, devouring the remains of the mechanical giant hand. The countless mechanical pupils in the air contracted into pinpoints, and silver threads shot out from the depths of each pupil, yanking Chu Yun high into the air.
"Don't resist," the silhouette of the baby girl flickered in the silk threads, "This is the necessary path for code assimilation." Chu Yun's retina was forced into a high-dimensional network, and the horrifying truth flashed through the massive stream of information-every "Chu Yun" that pruned the universe was uploading data to a certain core that was none other than the old age's own brain.
When Chu Yun fell into the core brain domain, billions of suspended synapses emerged around him. Each synapse was connected to a Magnolia tree species, with silhouettes of different universes hanging from its crown. The baby girl's voice came from the synapse gap, "Find the initial memory node or you will be assimilated into a data puppet."
Chu Yun dodged the wandering cleanup programs (in the shape of mechanical spiders) and noticed that certain tree species were marked with anomalies - ruffling the leaves, clones of successive generations of Xiao Man were frozen inside. When he touched the nearest ice coffin, the cleanup program suddenly stormed off, shooting out Dr. Lin's silhouette in his compound eyes, "You have no right to touch the original samples!"
Chu Yun snapped the mechanical spider's knuckle limbs, and the black blood spray revealed a crack in the canopy. Outside the crack was a projection of a pure white room: the elderly Chu Yun was implanting a virus chip into the back of a baby's neck, and that baby's face - after all - was identical to that of the baby girl, Xiao Man.
"You're the original source of contamination!" Dr. Lin's silhouette whistled shrilly and detonated the ice coffin. All the clones of Xiao Man opened their eyes at the same time, and their pupils shot out data chains to bind Chu Yun. The baby girl's silhouette suddenly materialized and pierced her own chest with a black shoot, "Dad, eat my core ..."
Chu Yun swallowed the core that emitted blue light, and the brain maze collapsed. Neural circuits appeared on his skin, and his field of vision suddenly split into billions of perspectives - every "Chu Yun" pruning the universe stopped and collectively looked into the void.
The Magnolia species coalesced in a tremor, forming a pillar of light that reached to the sky. A blood-colored warning appeared on the surface of the pillar: the master protocol is interrupted, administrator rights are being transferred ...
The remnants of the baby girl's body reorganized at the top of the pillar of light, and the newborn body that mingled machinery and flesh and blood opened its silver pupils, "Now, do you see the true enemy?"
Chu Yun followed her gaze-
At the end of the pillar of light sat his infant self, burying the first Magnolia Seed into Dr. Lin's skull.
The countdown refreshes between the synapses:
Master protocol reboot remaining: 23:59:59
The remains of the mechanical spider suddenly coalesce, spelling out Zero's face, "Father, you have finally come to take over ..."