The air hung heavy with the scent of aged oil, mixed with a cloying, rotting sweetness. This was the signature aroma of the Dead Zone—a stench like rusted metal fermenting in acid rain. Su Che stood before a row of colossal server racks, his silver-gray hair falling over his forehead, partially obscuring the cold, steely eyes hidden behind rimless smart glasses.
In his vision, the cold metal walls were gone, replaced by a cascading waterfall of flowing green code. Every line thrashed wildly, a visual manifestation of the instability in the Dead Zone's underlying protocols. System logs popped up on his retina in flashing red warning boxes, an endless electronic storm.
[Illegal process injection detected. Region 'Dead Zone' expanding.]
[Mental Computing Power remaining: 38%.]
Su Che did not blink. His fingers traced the air, summoning a translucent, azure-hued interface. Each touch sent ripples of data rippling outward, his forceful imposition of order upon this chaotic world.
"Logically consistent," he murmured, his voice as flat and dry as a technical manual.
He raised his right hand, drawing an input command box into the void. His fingertips danced with blurring speed; every keystroke was precise as a scalpel cutting neural tissue.
"Execute command: access /system/history.log."
"Permission verification... Failed."
"Attempting firewall bypass... Injecting Root Permission Interface."
"Acquiring local reconstruction privileges... Verification passed."
With the final confirmation, the once-silent server racks erupted in a screech of electric feedback. It was the wail of aging hardware pushed beyond its limits, the gasp of a dying beast. The air instantly filled with the sharp, metallic tang of ozone—the scent of data overload sparking and scorching the atmosphere.
Su Che's brow furrowed, the veins in his temples swelling. Mental Computing Power was draining at a terrifying rate. It felt as if thousands of red-hot needles were frantically stirring his neural pathways. He clenched his teeth, forcibly suppressing the instinct to retreat.
"Zero," he said without turning, "prepare the compilation cache. I need to read the underlying structure of this file."
The silver-haired girl stood in the shadows, her form flickering with unstable digital noise. This was the side effect of being a manifestation of a 'Logic Error'; every time she assisted Su Che in rewriting reality, the system flagged her existence as a virus, subjecting her to more violent erosion.
"Received," Zero replied, her voice cold and devoid of emotion. "Compilation environment ready. Current noise rate: 12.4%. Recommendation: terminate operation immediately."
"Continue," Su Che said, his gaze locked on the churning data stream before him. "If there is no answer here, we have no way back."
Zero's body trembled slightly, her clear outline dissolving into a string of garbled code. She moved slowly to stand behind Su Che, raising her palms upward. A pale blue halo rose from her hands, instantly enveloping Su Che's back. She was sharing her load, using her own existence as a buffer for his Mental Computing Power.
[Warning: Unit Zero is experiencing system-level rejection.] The cold, mechanical voice of the Ghost Protocol suddenly echoed in their ears. [Recommend immediate disconnection. Otherwise, Unit Zero will be forcibly formatted.]
"Ignore the warning," Su Che retorted coldly, his fingers dancing in the void once more. "Execute deep read. I want the full record of history.log, specifically the segment regarding the cryo-pod accident."
"Resolving..." The Ghost Protocol's voice remained flat. [Warning: File encryption level is too high. Unknown key detected.]
"It is not an unknown key," Su Che suddenly halted his fingers, his eyes sharpening like a blade. "It is the signature of the Ghost Protocol. I designed this protocol; its underlying logic contains my backdoor."
He took a deep breath, the ozone scent making him nauseous. It reminded him of years past in the laboratory, of the failed prototypes sacrificed for the sake of ultimate efficiency.
"Execute command: decrypt /system/history.log using key: GHOST_PROTOCOL_ROOT."
"Key match... Verification passed."
"Decrypting file content..."
[Warning: Logic bomb detected during decryption. Initiating defense mechanisms.]
Boom!
A violent tremor shook the base of the server. The room's lights flickered wildly, and the green code streams turned into a blinding red. Su Che felt a sharp pain in his brain, as if a blunt instrument had struck the back of his skull.
[Mental Computing Power consumed: 24% | Remaining available: 14%]
"Hold on," Zero's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible anxiety for the first time, though her tone remained mechanical. "Su Che, your heart rate has exceeded the safety threshold."
Su Che ignored her warning. His eyes were fixed only on the dancing data streams. Amidst the red alarms, a sealed log began to unfurl slowly. These were not ordinary words, but layers of stacked code blocks, each line whispering a suppressed truth.
He saw it. At the end of the log, a tiny line of text had been deliberately hidden:
"Operator: Ghost Protocol (Administrator Level)"
"Operation Time: 4029 years before System Era"
"Operation Content: Execute offline backup command"
"Target Object: Cryo-pod Serial Number 7-Alpha"
"Note: Not an accident. Manually locked. To prevent data leakage."
Su Che's pupils contracted sharply. His fingers froze in the air, as if pinned by an invisible force.
"Not an accident..." he muttered, his voice dry. "Someone deliberately went 'offline' with the cryo-pod. To protect what was inside, or to cover something up?"
Zero's body shuddered violently again. The noise at her edges intensified, spreading into the surrounding space. The areas that should have existed were now filled with streams of garbled code.
"Su Che," Zero's voice fractured. "The system is detecting my anomaly. It thinks I am a virus. If we do not disconnect quickly, I will be... completely erased."
"Give me one more minute," Su Che forced himself to stay calm, even as his brain felt ready to explode. "There is something else in this log. Behind the Ghost Protocol signature, there is an encrypted data string."
He raised his hand again, this time moving slower, but every command was more precise.
"Execute command: extract /system/history.log/hidden_segment."
[Warning: This data segment is multi-encrypted. Requires Root Permission secondary verification.]
"Verifying..."
"Unauthorized intrusion detected. Initiating automatic defense protocol."
The temperature in the room plummeted. Su Che felt a chilling coldness shoot from his feet straight to his skull—a sign that the system-level defense mechanism had been triggered. The air around them began to warp, and cracks appeared on the surface of the sturdy server racks, as if they were merely fragile pixel illusions.
"Damn it," Su Che cursed, a rare lapse in his composure. "Ghost Protocol... what are you hiding?"
Just then, a new data stream unfolded in his vision. It was a holographic projection showing a figure in a white protective suit standing before a massive cryo-pod. The figure's back was blurred, but Su Che recognized the posture—the hand gesture he used most often when designing the Ghost Protocol.
"This is... my back?" A sense of absurd coldness slid down Su Che's spine.
The figure in the projection turned. Though his face remained unseen, Su Che felt that gaze pierce through the barriers of time and space, stabbing straight into his soul.
"If you are seeing this log, it means you have finally found the truth." A familiar voice echoed in his mind. It was not the mechanical tone of the Ghost Protocol, but a deep, emotional cadence. "Su Che, do you think you are saving the world? No, you are simply repeating my mistakes."
The projection abruptly cut off. The room's lights died completely, leaving only the faint blue glow of Su Che's retinal interface flickering stubbornly.
[Target: Unauthorized Intruder (ID: Su_Che)]
[Purge Countdown: 10 seconds.]
"Damn it!" Su Che snatched his hand back and grabbed Zero's shoulder. "Move! We're being purged!"
Zero's body instantly turned transparent, entering a deep sleep state to evade the system's detection. A complex emotion flashed in her eyes—a mix of fear, reluctance, and resolve.
"Su Che..." she whispered softly. "If you cannot solve this puzzle, we will all die here."
"Shut up," Su Che cut her off coldly, yet his hand gripped Zero's sleeve tightly, refusing to let go. "Logically consistent. As long as there is a loophole, no lock is unbreakable."
The countdown continued.
[9 seconds]
[8 seconds]
[7 seconds]
The air grew viscous, as if invisible hands were pulling at their bodies. Su Che felt an unprecedented pressure, the system's attempt to erase him from reality.
"Execute command: rm -rf /system/defense_protocol/local_instance."
"Insufficient permissions."
"Forcing Root Permission Interface injection... Verifying..."
"Verification passed."
"Executing deletion..."
A blinding flash of white light erupted. A massive force slammed Su Che backward, throwing him hard against the wall behind him. The code streams on the wall shattered instantly, revealing the mottled metal interior beneath.
[Current Area Security Level: Low.]
Su Che gasped for air, sweat sliding down his face to drip onto the cold floor. His consciousness was still in turmoil, the dizziness from mental overload making it hard to stand.
"Did we... escape?" Zero's voice came from behind, faint but clear.
Su Che slowly turned to look at her. Her body had returned to solidity, yet the noise at her edges had not fully dissipated. It was the lingering rejection from the system, requiring time to repair.
"We did not escape," Su Che wiped the sweat from his face, his eyes regaining their cold clarity. "We temporarily repelled the defense protocol. The encrypted zone of the Ghost Protocol... holds something far more terrifying than the Dead Zone."
He walked to the spot where the log had appeared and crouched, his fingers tracing the air once more. Although the system had cleared most defenses, the hidden log data still lingered on his retina.
"Not an accident. Manually locked." Su Che repeated the line softly. "Who has the authority to execute such a level of offline backup? Only a system administrator... or the Ghost Protocol itself."
"The Ghost Protocol was designed by you," Zero said, approaching him with a hint of confusion in her voice. "How could it betray you?"
"It did not betray me," Su Che stood up, his gaze deep. "It is simply executing a higher-level command. Perhaps that command comes from an existence even higher than the Ghost Protocol."
He looked up at the ceiling, where a thick metal plate had once been. Now, it seemed to possess a strange, warped distortion. It was as if the entire space was a massive program, and they were merely insignificant variables within it.
"Logically consistent," Su Che repeated his catchphrase again, but this time his tone carried a heavy weight. "If the Ghost Protocol is protecting something, it must be something the system itself cannot tolerate."
Zero fell silent for a moment. Her body leaned forward slightly, as if wanting to approach Su Che, but she stopped mid-air. The digital noise made her look as though she might dissipate at any second.
"Su Che," she said softly, "if you continue digging deeper, you may awaken something far more dangerous."
"Then let it come," Su Che turned, his eyes firm. "Besides, we are already in the Dead Zone. There is no way back; we can only move forward."
He reached out, pulling a new data list into the void. It was the encrypted data fragment extracted from the log.
"Ghost Protocol..." he murmured the name, as if chewing on a bitter fruit. "What exactly are you hiding?"
The air grew heavy once more. Su Che knew this log was only the beginning. The true storm was just gathering.
[Mental Computing Power consumed: 5% | Remaining available: 9%]
"No time," Su Che glanced at the data panel on his wrist. "Zero, prepare to leave. We are heading to the next node."
"Where?" Zero asked.
Su Che did not answer, simply pointing to the destination coordinates of the encrypted data in the log. There, deep within the Dead Zone, an unknown signal source was flickering with a faint light.
"To meet the true mastermind behind the Ghost Protocol," he said coldly. "Or to witness the collapse of this universe."
The two exchanged a glance, words unnecessary. In this cold data world, they were already each other's only reliance.
"Let's go," Su Che took the first step.
Zero followed closely behind. Though her edges still flickered with unstable noise, her eyes were brighter than ever before.
Footsteps echoed in the vast server room, like the tolling of a countdown clock. Behind them, the shattered code streams continued to thrash wildly, as if telling a story that had not yet ended.
"Logically consistent," Su Che thought silently. "As long as there is one line of code unsolved, we will not stop."