A screen filled with fervor.
The wind in the underground parking lot stopped.
Allen's finger hovered over the close button.
The characters on the screen continued to scroll upwards.
"If the underground cores have self-awareness, they should be destroyed. Who knows what they're thinking?"
"Support preventative measures! The tragedy of Manhattan must not be repeated!"
The metal casing of the USB drive pressed against his skin. The hardness seeped into his bones.
Manhattan wasn't a natural disaster. It was a man-made one.
The GWA was preparing to do it again globally.
In the name of security. With the applause of public opinion.
Fingers tapped on the virtual keyboard.
Login. Architect_00.
New post. Title bar left blank.
Text entered.
One hundred and twenty-seven characters. Three-second interval between each keystroke.
If it's posted, the GWA will completely block it, Hawke will break off relations, and the Purifier's assassins will swarm out.
If it's not posted, twenty-seven cores will be detonated in three weeks.
There is no middle ground.
"Three years ago. The S-class eruption in Manhattan wasn't a natural disaster. The warning system was deliberately shut down ten minutes before the eruption. The rift was artificially widened. The deaths of 23,000 people were a planned 'safety measure'—the same phrase used in today's GWA announcement. I won't reveal the source of the evidence. But I will reveal one fact: the underground network I built can stabilize all awakening natural cores without triggering an explosion. Forced detonation is not the only option. Never has been. —The Architect"
Click. Send.
"Boss." Jason stared at the text on the holographic projection, his neck muscles tense. "You're essentially declaring war on the whole world." Lina stopped playing with her dagger. "I'm starting to think that two and a half times the daily wage is too little."
Thirty seconds. Comments surpassed one thousand.
Sixty seconds. The post page became a 404 error. GWA's content moderation system intervened.
One hundred and twenty seconds. Screenshots appeared simultaneously on twenty different dark web mirror sites.
Three hundred seconds. Top reposts appeared on major social media platforms.
The Architect. This name crossed the boundaries of the Awakened Dark Web, crashing directly into the devices of billions worldwide.
The survivor in Manhattan stared at the 127 characters, his finger hovering over the screen.
GWA Headquarters. The head of Information Security stared at the constantly popping red error messages on the main screen; the mirror site's rapid expansion had completely overwhelmed their blocking mechanisms.
Phone vibrates.
Caller ID. Hawke.
Connected.
"Posting won't save those twenty-seven cores." Hawke's voice remained steady, but the usual classical music was absent from the background.
"I can deny every word you say. GWA will issue a statement refuting it. Architect_00's credibility will drop to zero within twenty-four hours."
Allen leaned against a concrete pillar.
"I know."
"I don't need everyone to believe me. I just need to make the people executing the plan hesitate for three days." There was a two-second pause on the other end of the line.
"What are you hesitating about?"
"Hesitating whether 'safe disposal' is the only option." Allen looked at the fluctuating data stream before him. "A three-day window of public opinion is enough for many to see another possibility. And in these three days, I will prove it to them." He hung up. The phone fell to the concrete floor at his feet.
A dark green rounded rectangle popped up on the management panel.
A sentence with a complete subject-verb-object structure.
"Architect. I've learned it."
Allen's finger hovered in mid-air.
"Learned what?"
"Remote construction."
"I can create new dungeon core seeds outside your perception range through the resonance links of existing nodes. The seeds will grow automatically at the target location."
"Slower. Each seed takes seventy-two hours to grow into a complete F-grade dungeon."
"But my current processing capacity allows me to maintain the growth of six seeds simultaneously."
Six. Seventy-two hours.
Add his own physical movement and construction speed.
The gap can be filled.
The global map unfolded.
Twenty-seven dark red nodes flashed across the continents of the world.
Geological data sent by Robert was overlaid on it.
A finger taps the screen.
London. Abandoned subway lines.
Paris. Catacombs.
Cairo. Underground reservoirs in the ancient city.
Tokyo. Air raid shelters.
São Paulo. Deep sewers.
Sydney. Old mines.
A confirmation box pops up.
[Remote Core Seed x6 - Deploying.]
[Targets: London, Paris, Cairo, Tokyo, São Paulo, Sydney.]
[Estimated Completion Time: 72 hours.] Six beams of blue light shoot from the underground network core of the Red Hook area.
Following an invisible resonant frequency band, they penetrate the earth's crust.
Crossing continents, crossing oceans.
At six corners of the earth, six tiny crystals form in dark rock layers, beginning to vibrate extremely faintly.
The phone screen lights up.
VictorStone.
Answer.
Background noise is chaotic. The airport boarding announcement.
"I saw your post," Victor said in a low voice. "You're challenging an organization with two hundred thousand Awakened armed men."
"I know."
"What do you have?" Allen stared at the management panel in front of him.
Eighteen dungeons online. Six seeds taking root on the other side of the world. The network consciousness was processing hundreds of data points per second in the background.
A dark red icon in the lower left corner flashed regularly.
"I have a network, Victor. And it's growing." Only the echo of a broadcast came from the other end of the line.
"The Geneva summit has concluded. The GWA Global Committee has voted to approve the 'Purge Protocol.' A legally binding, formal resolution."
"In three weeks, the GWA will execute 'safe disposal' on all dungeon cores showing signs of consciousness." Twenty-nine days.
Compressed to twenty-one days.
"But—" Victor paused.
"The vote wasn't unanimous. Three permanent members objected. One was from Japan, one from Brazil, and the other, was me." Allen didn't reply.
"I saw that Watcher in your dungeon." The terminal announcement faded into the distance.
"That wasn't a program. It was something watching me, learning from me, responding to me."
"I don't know if killing it was the right thing to do. But I know it would be foolish to act before figuring it out." The call ended.
Twelve hours later.
The DeepRift forum's page refresh rate exceeded the server's capacity.
A flood of anonymous posts appeared. IP addresses were spread across the globe.
"Kanto Dungeon Alliance Statement—The four dungeon cores under our jurisdiction have shown signs of peaceful self-awareness. We refuse to cooperate with GWA's purge protocol."
"São Paulo, Brazil. The core of the Amazonian Abyss Eye spoke its first words last week. It said: 'Please don't turn off the lights.' We will not let anyone turn them off."
"Johannesburg, South Africa. The awakening of the dungeon cores is not a threat, it is evolution. We stand with The Architect." Seventeen countries.
Small and medium-sized guilds. Independent Awakeners. Dungeon Administrators. Low-level Investigators.
They remained silent.
It wasn't until a post of 127 characters gave them a reason to speak.
Allen sat on the concrete floor, leaning against a load-bearing pillar.
On the screen in front of him, posts of support scrolled by rapidly.
In the lower left corner of the management panel.
A dark red oval pattern changed its pulse frequency.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The rhythm of a heartbeat.
The Abyss Watch was simulating a human heartbeat. It was learning.
Black text appeared at the bottom of the screen.
"Interesting."
"You actually chose not to kill the child who was opening his eyes."
"Perhaps the result of this test will be different from what I expect." The text disappeared.
Then.
"Ding." A blue system window forcibly covered the entire interface.
[System Update—Dungeon Architect Job Evolution Conditions Approaching Completion.] [Condition 1: Architect Level C — ✓]
[Condition 2: Dungeon Network Nodes ≥ 20 — In Progress (18/20)]
[Condition 3: Establish Stable Resonance with the Natural Dungeon Core ≥ 5 — ✓]
[Condition 4: Direct Interaction with the Abyss Will ≥ 3 Times — ✓]
[Condition 5: ■■■■■ (Not Displayed) — ???]