Story Reader / Main Story / 30 Stars Ensnared / Story
In that instant, your gaze plunges into hell itself.
Her silhouette melts into the sea of crimson.
Only through my eyes will you understand this place.
You stabilize the Mind Beacon once more, synchronizing your vision with Luna.
Those once abstract and incomprehensible contaminated data now takes a tangible form through Luna's eyes.
Thankfully, due to Lamia's intervention, these corpses have ceased moving, frozen in place like puppets.
Asimov once said that to search for M.I.N.D. shards in corrupted data, you need to find familiar clues first—similar to how Constructs use Mind Beacons to calibrate their M.I.N.D.s.
But the current situation seems different from what happened to Liv...
Sensing the hesitation, Luna turns back, her crimson form unchanged.
...You don't need to do anything. Just stay here and be my beacon.
This isn't my first time searching for my M.I.N.D. shards in Punishing Virus' corrupted data.
Yes.
No, it only happened three times. The first was shortly after I became an agent.
Punishing isn't merely a tool for agents. It's like fire—one small mistake and it will tear its user apart.
At first, I just felt my mind filled with thoughts that weren't my own.
Later... it was like being trapped in a dream I couldn't wake from. A fragment of my consciousness drifted into someone else's world, and I slowly forgot who I was.
When you weren't around, before things became irreversible, it was usually my sister who would wake me up.
But this time we face the Red Tide, and the level of corruption... Even she agreed that I should seek you out.
You exchange wordless glances and follow Luna deeper into the unknown.
After trudging through an endless expanse of crimson, when your vision becomes weary and strained, the girl finally kneels before a corpse.
Found it...
So this time, it's here...
She gently takes the corpse's hand in hers.
In an instant, a deafening shriek explodes in your ears.
It is the lamentation of an entire era—the cries of those who struggled through the apocalypse.
Now, death has dissolved all their desperate cries and memories, storing them within the "vessel" of the Punishing.
Before finishing the sentence, Luna shakes her head.
It's not just me... Everyone who died here met the same fate.
Only Ascendants who passed the filtering can manifest themselves fully before others.
She remains silent amid the lamentations for a long time, never letting go of her grip until she finds her own shard among them.
Is Lamia helping outside?
...Without her support, they would have been far more aggressive.
This is how the deepest layer of the Ascension-Network looks—a fragment of its so-called... will.
What do you think an agent truly is?
What if we were to compare agents to false deities created by an emerging religion? What do you think?
Luna's lips curl into a slight smile, but her eyes betray complex, unreadable emotions.
I too once misunderstood these noises...
During my imprisonment within the Punishing, I've been exploring the true nature of the Ascension-Network and the noises... Of course, my current findings wouldn't be possible without the help and information provided by many others.
Indeed, and there's also Vonnegut.
This is a long story—too long to tell right now. If fate allows us to meet again someday... I'll tell you everything then.
Now... we don't have the time. In every sense of the word, there's no time to tell you everything that happened during that journey.
Don't worry. I will still share the findings of this exploration with you as essential intelligence.
Because I don't want this to be our final collaboration.
That's not all.
She rises to her feet and proceeds toward her next destination.
You've been exposed to the corrupted data from the Corrupted before, haven't you?
Instead of answering, she poses her question.
Were you able to understand that corrupted data back then?
It was the same for me. Back then, I wielded the power granted by the Ascension-Network, yet I could not comprehend its true nature.
She gazes at the crimson path before her, falling silent for a moment.
The will of the Ascension Network generates noise—at its essence, it is nothing more than the yearnings of the masses. Fractured, incomplete desires.
The masses' desires... have never been in harmony.
Some carry hatred within them—these are the voices that first resonated with me.
Others are driven by love—voices of attachment and protection. After I gradually lost my hatred, they granted me a second chance, enabling me to leave the moon.
As I said before, apart from that thing you unleashed from Gestalt, the remaining agents are nothing but false gods created by an emerging cult.
No matter the form, as long as the emotion is strong enough, there will always be a will within the Ascension-Network that aligns with an agent.
She halts at the edge of the abyss, dipping her hands into the deep, silent darkness.
Immediately, that piercing sound strikes you once again.
This time, however, the cries are mostly filled with remorse.
Voices of those who lost their loved ones, voices crying endlessly over their negligence, voices lamenting something important gone missing...
Luna remains silent until she embraces her own shard.
In that moment, you seem to hear a faint voice of "her."
Even the canned food was taken from me... Why do I always end up being a burden to my sister...
Not just that—there are also parts warped by the very nature of Punishing itself. They still "live" within Punishing.
The devotees sacrifice to false gods to fulfill their wishes, and the masses' desires preserved within Punishing respond to agents who share their emotions.
She rises once more and proceeds toward her next destination.
After the information of the dead merges with Punishing, they believe they've passed through Filtering and survived in this form, calling out to their companions in solitude.
Punishing needs more information, whether from the living or the dead.
Besides... the masses' desires are always one-sided.
While some seek vengeance, others long to protect. With every new "god", collective hopes find yet another path to follow—don't you think?
Her origin is similar—a shadow I left behind in a cluster of hatred.
She has became what she is now... because most of the deceased whose information remains in the Ascension-Network... their final emotions were dominated by hatred.
She's like my M.I.N.D. Replica, causing problems similar to what my sister had back then. But I'm an agent—I can't sever my connection to the Ascension-Network like my sister did.
...In other words.
The will of the Ascension-Network is actually the information of the deceased. It's not unified—rather, it's more like a religious group, a congregation of those who shared similar wishes and emotions.
The Punishing that corresponds to information filled with hatred requires an agent willing to exact revenge upon others. And the Punishing that an agent can command is precisely composed of those "people" who are willing to follow her.
Perhaps this explains why agents' abilities are so limited—is this why they can't control all Punishing?
Your deduction is correct.
Therefore, to the "will of the Ascension-Network", the only true taboo is the absence of desire or emotion.
...You really won't let a single piece of intelligence slip by, will you?
I don't know much about Vonnegut either, it's just...
...
Within the voice resonating with him, there seems to be an indelible sense of regret.
I've answered enough of your questions. The rest can wait until our next collaboration.
Luna falls silent and strides into the depths.
Finding herself in voices of regret, she moves on toward those of desire.
Then comes... pride, rage... and love.
Finally, she comes to a halt before the voice of hatred.
This is the last "me."
...
If... I count myself among the humans I despise, then yes, I still hate humanity all the same.
...I just realized that I'm no different from these dead.
Because fate is ruthlessly indiscriminate—it never favors anyone for being more diligent or exceptional.
And I just happened to be the one who found the Ascension-Network.
...Did you also come through this way?
...
As she gazes down at the crimson tide surging through the abyss, Luna's lips curve into a smile.
