Story Reader / Main Story / 30 Stars Ensnared / Story
30-1 The Finale
>Lucia once told Luna a story about imprisoned stars when she was little.
—Long, long ago, humanity had not yet learned how to venture into the starry sky.
The vast starry sky holds endless mysteries, and shooting stars are seen as blessings from heaven. Make a wish before they land, and that wish shall come true.
But shooting stars are fleeting. How do you hold the intangible heavens in your hands like a divinity sculpture?
At that, the old man raises a mirror to the sky.
The vast starlit sky is cut and becomes trapped within the mirror's edges.
"At last, we can touch the stars!" the people begin cheering, holding their mirrors high.
The moment the shooting star streaks across the mirror, the old man presses his hand against it.
Now we've captured the star!
Quick, make a wish!
Luna shudders involuntarily at these words.
The moment Gestalt's data wall opens, the hall plunges into darkness. Only crimson warning lights frantically flash across the screen.
The entire Babylonia begins to shake in sync with Gestalt's tremors.
Violent crimson lightning crackles under the alloy shell as the Punishing virus seeps out.
The Punishing contracts inward, condensing into a pitch-black sphere that's no larger than a human eyeball.
It looks like a dark star that can devour even light.
It was always going to come to this, wasn't it?
In the darkness, a woman gazes toward the source of the chaos, where humanity is racing against time before disaster strikes.
The emergency power isn't working. ****, follow me!
What in the world...
The repairs will take time. Let's head to Gestalt! We need a backup plan.
I'll explain on the way!
Gray Raven and Asimov rush past the blaring alarms and disappear into the darkness.
Behind the heavily fortified gates, the dark, star-like sphere "watches" over its time in confinement.
"This loop" began on December 20th, 2160... We are just five days away from December 20th of this year.
When the Punishing arrived on Earth, it first targeted the cornerstone of human civilization—information itself.
So it infiltrated the largest information hub of that time—Gestalt.
With its memetic contamination trait, the Punishing could have spread through electromagnetic transmission.
Given enough time, its contamination would have infiltrated all text and language, ending Earth's civilization forever, except Gestalt stopped it.
But when the virus broke out on December 20th, it was without this crucial trait. Only an "empty shell" remained, and that is the Punishing Virus humanity knows now.
Over time, this "empty shell" infected countless Constructs, machines, and humans, and it was gradually filled with information belonging to Earth.
Bit by bit, it became Earth's own "specialty"—a network, Ascension-Network.
...
She is here only because of this anomaly, this new possibility of survival.
In the endless flow of time, she has watched humanity rebuild their homeland time and again, face disaster after disaster, and slowly uncover the network hidden within Punishing.
It all began when a Construct squad noticed that the infected machines weren't as chaotic as they seemed.
You think these Corrupted are somehow connected to each other?
Yes. The Corrupted that got here later knew exactly how to avoid our traps.
No matter where we relocated the traps or upgraded our tactics, these Corrupted can detect them.
The Corrupted must be sharing information between themselves, just as machines did when they were still connected to the network.
But the network disconnected long ago, and the infected mechanoids were nothing but mindless aggressors.
What if...
Color drained from her face as the realization hit.
We need to report this immediately.
Once humans discovered the network within the Punishing, they began desperately searching for ways to access the Ascension-Network once again.
Unfortunately... We can never replicate that miracle again.
Collins sighed as his gaze fell upon the outdated document—a record of a miracle that occurred only once.
Installing an Inver-Device in a Construct was extremely risky with the technology of the time. The smallest mistake could create a Corrupted, and it would go completely haywire in a few short hours.
Collins' subordinates had only seen one other special child before Luna. That child and her mother received modifications together, but neither survived.
When the strike team was about to take them out, the fully infected mother suddenly shielded her daughter. And that made the child the only Construct who remained uninfected after a failed procedure.
It really is unfortunate.
He repeated the words.
Had she lived a few more days... humanity could have figured out whether it was a true miracle or mere coincidence.
Now... All we know is that it was driven by both the fear of death and the power of love.
They sought to recreate this miracle.
Should we proceed with this plan?
Of course, we should. We need more Constructs anyway, and... we might have the chance to see that again...
They wanted to seize this miracle.
According to our tests, your bodies show exceptional compatibility with the Tantalum-193 copolymer.
This means you have the potential to become Constructs.
Con... structs?
They sacrificed countless lives for this.
We will take care of these children from now on.
If our plan succeeds, they will keep everyone safe as the defenders of this region.
Humanity must look through a mirror to glimpse the shadows of the Ascension-Network.
Now's my turn to protect you.
Goodbye... Lucia...
—She found the Ascension-Network.
She replaced the "dark star" hiding within Gestalt, and assumed command over the Punishing, and the power to influence it.
Even if this was just a coincidence, even if this person might not be Luna...
...In this sea of corpses, someone would eventually find their way to the Ascension-Network.
This masterless calamity yearned for logical commands, like a noose awaiting its master.
The masterless virus should have evolved alongside those who could control it and resume the mission it was assigned at its birth.
But how could an ordinary girl comprehend the grand conflict between civilizations?
All she could feel at that time was hatred, regret, and the heart she had yet to reclaim.
Yet, the Punishing gradually changed through countless subtle interventions, whether she liked it or not.
...Until this moment.
Just as the "dark star" gazes upon Ishmael, she is also staring at the "dark star" that has been imprisoned for over thirty years.
Over time, the once "empty" virus has absorbed Earth-specific information, displacing its memetic contamination characteristics.
But if an individual with agent privileges yields their space to the virus, it will be able to merge with the Ascension-Network, and the world will be doomed.
...
Luna cannot resist, because she has not been accepted by the re-filtering process. To the Ascension-Network, she is just a timely replacement...
...Agent Zero.
With Babylonia's current technology, once "it" is released and lands on the surface, no one will be able to stop what follows.
Once "it" merges with the Ascension-Network, it will begin to propagate once more, corrupt the ways civilization spreads, and destroy the future.
The most ideal approach is to destroy it before it's released, which means also destroying its prison—the corresponding sector of Gestalt.
But how could anyone bring themselves to pay such a steep price?
There is no time.
It's already too late to face death in the imminent explosion or to avoid total annihilation.
At this rate, even the possibilities hidden deep within Chaos will disappear, leaving only the "return ticket" function.
...
The tremors grow more violent. The cage borrowed from the future has been depleted. Soon, the sphere will shake the mighty Babylonia at its core.
She heads toward the gathering crowd, hoping to see the final act up close. That's when she spots a children's picture book lying in a corner.
The mirror that caught stars in the story now has a void on it, ripped open by the stampeding crowd.
Through the void of the "mirror", Ishmael sees an approaching shadow.
Could that be... the final variable?
The moment Gestalt's sealed gates open, a concentrated ball of Punishing Virus bursts from within.
You grab Asimov's collar and fall backward, using your weight to forcefully yank him away from Gestalt.
At that moment, the sphere shoots past where Asimov was standing, and the device Asimov dropped in the mayhem shatters amid red electrical currents.
Watch out!
Lucia reacts first as she is closest to the gate. She rushes over to shield the others with her body.
Liv was farther away, but she reacted just as fast because of her sharp sensing module's timely feedback.
As Liv rushes over, she readies her Levi-Gun, but the Hetero-Core is moving too fast for the cannon.
...
Lee calmly takes aim with his high-power sniper rifle. His frame's computing power is reaching its limits, and to him, time seems to slow down at this moment.
The Hetero-Core is spherical, with a diameter of approximately 2.4 cm. It contains unstable energy that overflows as electrical arcs. Direct hits risk detonation. He can avoid destruction and alter its trajectory through precise shots to drive it away from everyone...
Scan, aim, fire!
Bang!
The bullet passes cleanly through a gap in the electrical currents and strikes the spherical Hetero-Core at its center.
The impact knocks the Hetero-Core off its course, only for it to violently snap back to its original path.
Is it self-adjusting?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Lee continues firing. With each bullet, the Hetero-Core shifts direction—only to immediately correct its course.
This adaptive behavior suggests the Hetero-Core possesses its own consciousness.
?!
The Control Court Officer is standing directly in the spherical Hetero-Core's path.
The reaction speed of humans is no match to that of Constructs. By the time the Control Court Officer realizes the danger, the red Hetero-Core has gotten too close for her to dodge it.
Look out!
The soldier lunges forward to shove her out of harm's way.
Crash—
The soldier pulls his hand back immediately, but the red electrical discharge has already scathed his palm and forearm.
The group left the alloy doors to the Computing Power Center open just in case. When the spherical Hetero-Core emerges from Gestalt, it immediately makes a beeline for the exit.
Liv! Treat the wounded! I'll protect the commandant. Lee!
Copy that.
Lee leaps down and gives chase.
Lucia takes up a defensive position and scans the surroundings, while Liv rushes to check on the soldier.
The soldier already tore off his damaged protective suit before Liv gets there. His palm and forearm show burn marks and corrosive damage from the virus. The corruption spreads rapidly and is already reaching his shoulder.
The soldier draws his handgun and aims it at his own infected shoulder. The modified large-caliber round tears through flesh and bones in the next moment.
There was no hesitation.
I'll administer the Serum!
The Omega Weapons!
The spherical Hetero-Core carries an extremely concentrated Punishing Virus. The virus would have spread throughout the room via the red electrical arcs if the Omega Weapons hadn't absorbed it by drawing the arcs.
Blood gushes from his wound, but the soldier doesn't seem to notice. He goes on to order the Construct squad to check the state of the Omega Weapons in the room.
What's the Punishing density in here?
The levels are down to safe limits and continue to decrease.
Please stay still while I dress your wound.
What about Gestalt?
What about Gestalt? Has it been infected?
The current has stopped writhing around Gestalt, but it is heavily damaged and is falling apart. Its crimson glow has faded to an ethereal blue—a weak, flickering light that is growing dimmer.
The glow looks like the labored breaths of someone on their deathbed.
Asimov scrambles to his feet and rushes back to Gestalt, even though there might be a second wave of dangers.
The original connection equipment was destroyed by the lightning, so he quickly connects the backup diagnostic equipment.
The signal comes through but is incomprehensible.
Data disruption... Punishing? No... no, these aren't the symptoms of an infection...
I'm not sure, but I think it's infected with a virus that's not the Punishing, but it's still going to be difficult to deal with.
I'll partition Gestalt's data first, before running a backup program to save any core data that hasn't been infected.
Right now, Gestalt desperately needs hardware maintenance. Can someone—
Before Asimov can finish, the floor begins to shake, which nearly throws him off balance.
The tremors grow stronger, and everyone quickly realizes the entire room is shaking.
The entire Babylonia is shaking!
