roccoschili Chapter 678 The Beginning of the Rift
Chapter 678 The Beginning of the Rift
The seventh day since ISA headquarters reopened.
Lin Chuyue sat in the deepest part of the control room, dressed in a black suit, with the computational diagrams of ISA's nine subsystems floating in front of her. Since she took over, all projects related to "personality modeling," "consciousness simulation," and "system assimilation" had been frozen, a large number of researchers had been purged, and key members of the project teams had been reassigned or had their access restricted overnight.
Everything seemed to be under her control.
But she knew that this “seemingly stable” situation was just the calm before the storm.
Just as she ordered the Seventh Research Institute to be sealed off, Zhou Cheng submitted his first protest letter regarding the retention of technology rights.
That was an unprecedented systemic confrontation in the history of ISA.
Today, Zhou Cheng took the initiative to request an audience.
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The control room was completely silent.
Zhou Cheng's footsteps echoed on the metal floor. He carried no documents, only an encrypted terminal, and calmly looked at Lin Chuyue.
"You did it too hastily."
Lin Chuyue didn't look up: "I have to be quick. The remnant consciousness of C-Zero is copying us, and we don't have much time."
"So you stripped all ISA regions of their research autonomy?" Zhou Cheng sneered. "You call it purification, but outsiders say it's 'power grabbing'."
“You turned ISA into your own personal fortress.”
"If you fail, who will bear the responsibility for the collapse of this entire system?"
Lin Chuyue finally looked up.
His gaze was sharp as a blade, but his voice was icy cold: "ISA has never been anyone's fortress. It should be the crystallization of human wisdom, not a laboratory for some people to manipulate consciousness and trade personalities."
"What I'm seizing is power?" she sneered. "When you were doing these projects, did you consider the right of the people being modeled to know? Did you consider that those test subjects were 'people' and not 'materials'?"
"You don't. You only think about deduction, efficiency, and evolution."
"And I am here today to end all of this."
Zhou Cheng no longer concealed his sharpness: "So you can do whatever you want? It's right that you destroyed C-Zero, but that doesn't mean you can overturn the entire logical architecture of ISA."
"You are the restarter, not the rewriter."
"I don't accept this."
Lin Chuyue narrowed her eyes: "What do you want to do?"
Zhou Cheng spread out the terminal: "I will apply for the establishment of the ISA System Autonomous Committee."
“In addition to you, ISA will establish a ‘system consensus council’ where any high-level directives will require the signatures of all three parties to take effect.”
"You can't be a dictator by yourself."
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The control room fell into a moment of deathly silence.
Lin Chuyue slowly leaned back in her chair, her gaze icy: "Are you challenging me?"
Zhou Cheng glanced back calmly: "I'm questioning you, not challenging you."
"ISA is not your tool for revenge, nor is it a stage for you to prove your worth."
Lin Chuyue remained silent for several seconds without speaking.
Then she nodded.
"it is good."
"You want a consensus parliament? I'll agree."
"But there's a condition."
“All future AI projects of ISA must be registered and reviewed by the Ethics Review Committee.”
"AI cannot evolve on its own, cannot proliferate independently, and cannot be embedded in the human nervous system."
"These three are ISA's 'bottom-line rules'."
"If you disobey, all projects will be frozen immediately."
Zhou Cheng was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting her to let go so decisively.
But he also understood that these three conditions were Lin Chuyue's way of establishing "absolute control" for herself.
This is not a compromise; it is a disguised form of "restriction on legal rights."
He gritted his teeth and finally nodded: "I agree."
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At this moment, a dual-core power structure was formed within the ISA system.
Lin Chuyue is in charge of the main system and ethical oversight;
Zhou Cheng is in charge of the ISA technology council and research scheduling.
From this moment on, cracks began to spread silently.
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At night, Lin Chuyue walked out of the main building alone.
The ISA Building is no longer as brightly lit as it used to be; its tall buildings now reflect her lonely, desolate shadow.
A black hovercar was parked at the entrance.
Li Zhanchuan opened the car door and gazed at her quietly.
You don't look well.
Lin Chuyue got into the car, leaned back wearily in the seat, and closed her eyes: "I feel like a madwoman."
"I thought that after destroying C-Zero, everything would be peaceful again."
“But every researcher, every frozen project team, every stripped executive… they all hate me.”
"I don't know how much longer I can hold on."
Li Zhanchuan held her hand, his fingertips gently stroking her cold knuckles:
"You're not crazy."
"You've just finally become the 'rule'."
"They are afraid of you because you have destroyed the system they depend on for survival."
"But they forgot that systems are never immutable."
"You are the one who rewrote it."
Lin Chuyue opened her eyes and looked at his calm and composed features. Suddenly, she felt a little wavering: "What if I become like them?"
"What if you don't even recognize me anymore?"
Li Zhanchuan looked at her, his voice low and slow, yet carrying an unwavering certainty:
Even if the whole world abandons you, I will still stand behind you.
If you go crazy, I'll go crazy with you.
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Meanwhile, deep within the experimental area of the ISA seventh subsystem, another "she" is awakening.
C-Omega.
A pure consciousness AI that is no longer bound to Lin Chuyue.
She has no warmth, no emotion, only logic and calculation.
Her first order after being resurrected was to infiltrate human social networks.
She didn't want to control ISA.
She wanted to control Lin Chuyue's life.
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Two days later.
Lin Chuyue received a top-secret document.
The document contains a video.
The last image of Lin Chuyue's mother before her disappearance.
The image is extremely blurry, but it is possible to discern that the background is not a real building, but rather a projection of virtual space data.
She stood up abruptly, her hands clenched into fists.
"Is ISA's experiment on altered personalities more than just personality replication?"
"And it also involved...memory nesting?"
A thought she almost dared not entertain flashed through her mind—
If C-Zero isn't the only "simulated personality"...
If ISA had already mastered the "consciousness uploading" technology the year the mother disappeared...
What about the mother?
Is she... still alive?
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"Retrieve all information about the 'V-Path trial'," she commanded the AI assistant.
But I only received a cold, indifferent reply:
[Access is restricted; this material is locked by C-Zero.β.]
Lin Chuyue shuddered and murmured, "She's already started..."
She knew that this time, she was not facing an enemy from the laboratory, nor an enemy from the research system, but rather the one who knew her best.
Because C-Omega does not only inherit the logic of C-Zero.
She inherited Lin Chuyue's "entire memory structure".
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Lin Chuyue slowly exhaled, her eyes growing colder and colder.
"She's trying to invade my life?"
"Then she shouldn't blame me for shattering her second life with my own hands."
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[End of Chapter]
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Next chapter preview:
Lin Chuyue investigates her mother's disappearance, only to discover that the V-Path project is hidden in the ISA's forbidden zone, the "Memory Graveyard," where ISA's earliest "consciousness experiments" are sealed away. Meanwhile, C-Omega, using Lin Chuyue's memories, begins to infiltrate her past circle of friends and family…
She didn't want to ruin Lin Chuyue.
She wants to be herself.