Abyssal Wanderer.

Why would someone willingly give up their entire life before the age of sixteen?
If Eloise Haenel were to explain it herself, it would be as if, after experiencing the most wonderful day of her life, she were told that her memory would be forever frozen in that happiest moment.

Indeed, she is now certain that there will never be a better day in her life than today.

In fact, before meeting Jim, Hanel had never known that living could have meaning. Having been treated as a tool since childhood, she was like a clock that was always wound up tightly.

“My adoptive parents said that everything you showed was a pretense, just the best performance made through rational analysis. They also said that after the brain-computer interface was installed, you were unable to complete the ‘Mandala’ certification and could not be considered a real human being.”

Hannel and Jim lay together on the lawn of the company's ecological park. The sunshine and the smell of earth made the young woman feel as if she had returned to the Common Era—even though all her knowledge of the Common Era came from those simulation works.

Sixteen-year-old Jim raised his hand to shield his face from the sunlight, then asked in a lazy tone:
"What do you think?"

"I think..."

Hanel deliberately dragged out her words in a very serious tone until Jim, who was standing next to her, turned to look at her nervously, before she chuckled and said:
"If the so-called 'best performance' means making a mess of even the most basic ash paste and instant curry, then I don't think your intelligence is that high."

Under the bright sunlight, their laughter seemed to pierce through the company's dome and drift out to the real sky.

And, catching his breath from the lingering echo of that laughter, Hanel said:

"They were able to pass the Mandala certification, but if it weren't for you, they would have sent me for pre-processing and modification two years ago, turning me into a zombie and selling me to who knows where... If real humans are all like them, then I think someone like you is more qualified to rule the world."

But this time, Jim didn't reply.

He silently turned to look at her, then reached out and gently wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes.

He figured it out...

Previously, I was just trying to hide my sadness with laughter, deliberately making it seem like the tears were from laughter.

But he could always tell...

Thinking of this, Hanel's sadness surged up like a flood.

Jim sat up halfway and hugged her, letting her tears soak his shoulder.

“They…the director…and the entire company are afraid of your presence.”

Hanel sobbed.

"They really have something to be afraid of."

Jim said calmly, while gently stroking her back with one hand.

His answer made Hanel cry even harder.

"So they will definitely ruin you. The company never allows anything to exist that is beyond their control, and they will definitely find a way to completely destroy you..."

Hanel cried out loudly, her hands gripping him tightly as if Jim might suddenly turn into a gust of wind.

But this time, Jim neither refuted nor comforted him.

He simply continued to hold Hanel without saying a word.

The girl cried for a long time before slowly raising her head.

She looked at Jim with teary eyes and asked softly:
Could it be that way?

Jim hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly and replied:
“But they won’t kill me. They will just use the ‘Orpheus Path’ to adjust and transform me into an ordinary human being.”

Hanel sniffed and said in a muffled voice:
"Ordinary humans like my adoptive parents?"

Jim pulled her into his arms again.

"I will fall in love with you again, you ordinary human."

He whispered in Hanel's ear.

The girl's ears turned bright red.

Unlike usual, Jim didn't tease the girl to the point of anger or embarrassment. Instead, he spoke very seriously:

"However, we'll probably have a lot of arguments, and we won't always be able to resolve dangerous situations perfectly... Perhaps one of us will pass away before the other due to some accident, after all, this is a crisis-ridden era. But overall, we'll most likely still be together and live a life without regrets."

In response, Hanel buried her head in Jim's chest and said angrily:

"What are you saying? It's like we've never argued before, when we've always gotten along great!"

Jim smiled but didn't answer. Instead, he continued to sigh:
"If that time really comes, you have to be very understanding of me."

Hanel looked up upon hearing this.

She looked at Jim, took a slow, deep breath, and then spoke as if she had made a great decision:

"If that's the case, then I want to protect that future you just like you are now."

Jim shook his head immediately upon hearing this:

“That won’t do… What your adoptive parents said, while problematic in many details, is correct in general direction.”

"But you actually want me to do that, don't you?"

Hanel looked directly into Jim's eyes.

"But it's not worth it. You have a long life ahead of you, and many wonderful experiences await you. There's no need to give up just because of me..."

"But with you, I have experienced all the good things."

Hanel interrupted Jim, looking at him with an extremely serious expression.

"but……"

Jim seemed to want to continue arguing, but Hanel interrupted him once again.

“And you have never experienced it.”

Jim remained silent.

"Actually, I've always known that I'm quite clumsy and overly sensitive. Even if we could fall in love again in the future, it would only bring you pain. I can't be as understanding and resourceful as you..."

"So, whether it's so that you can continue to move forward with your plans now, or so that you can meet someone more worthy of your love in the future... please tell me how to become like you."

After learning the truth about Jim Ritter, Haenel did countless mental preparations and tried countless times to convince herself that he had never loved her and that he was incapable of even feeling love.

But all those cold-blooded truths, all those icy rationalities, all those chilling logics, vanished without a trace in a few breaths after he saw him again, like snowflakes falling on his lips.

After hesitating several times, Jim finally managed to utter a single word:
Narcissus.

Hanel tilted his head and asked:

"What do you mean?"

"In the second half of this year, Apollo's talent incubation center will internally recruit a batch of trainees. Among them, the Intelligence Department classroom will have two spots for the Ascension Path Narcissus."

Jim kept his head down and wouldn't look at her as he said this.

"and then?"

Hanel continued to ask.

Can strengthening the Narcissus path make me like Jim?

"You'll see when the time comes," Jim said, reaching out to ruffle the other person's hair.

About five minutes later, Jim found a suitable topic to get Hanel away from the company's eco-park and led her home through a passage where all the surveillance equipment had been tampered with—no one knew she had been there that day.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, two elite teams from the company's counterintelligence department, led by a Deep 5 modifier, raided the eco-park and arrested the covert hacker they had been investigating recently.

Two days later, an Apollo Biotech director bypassed the board resolution and personally supervised Jim Reit's Orpheus pathway adjustment, confirming that his intelligence had returned to normal levels.

Two months later, Eloise Hanel, who had signed up for the classroom test in the intelligence department of the talent incubation center, was surprised to find that a complete set of real test questions for the screening exam was hidden in her brain-computer interface.

…………

She did it...

As those past memories were continuously synchronized by the strong empathy circuit, Jim's humanoid interactive interface couldn't stop shedding silver tears.

Haenel did indeed do it.

Just like Jim, who was once Superman, gave Hanel the warmest love before he turned sixteen.

Hanel, who became Superman through the Narcissus path, filled the void in Jim's heart after he lost his memory.

But all of this is built on a false and ingenious scheme.

Jim was never a self-aware individual who awakened on his own—that so-called "awakening" was merely the original Superman using his reason to analyze and imitate the behavior patterns of normal people, and then acting as if he possessed a real soul.

Humans do not have the ability to telepathize; they can only infer the psychological activities of others through their language and behavior.

But simulating those real emotional patterns by moving facial muscles, controlling breathing and tone of voice, and secreting tears has never been difficult for Superman.

By using specific language and behavioral patterns to package a complete personality image, and by analyzing the biological and social logic that triggers various human emotions, one can establish good interpersonal relationships with others by catering to their preferences. This is a piece of cake for superhumans—even those service industry workers who moved between nightclubs and dating scenes in the Common Era could do it through learning and training.

Jim Ritter's disguise at the time was impeccable.

But what's so difficult about that?
A cloned lab assistant, whose nominal parents even plan to turn her into a zombie and sell her on the black market. Girls like this, given just a little warmth and understanding, can develop a passionate love that would make them willing to give up their own lives.

Similarly, Hanel found Jim when he had lost all his memories. For someone desperately needing emotions and memories to fill the void in their heart, even some clumsy emotional deceptions are enough to help them rebuild their life's pillars.

And what's so strange about Haenel, who had already become Superman, conquering Jim, who was empty inside at the time, with his superb acting skills?
Jim kept reminding himself of this over and over again.

However, all these rational arguments vanished in Haenel's embrace.

"In other words... my entire life is built on the lies you've woven. And your life is also built on the lies I've woven."

Jim said so.

"But that was never your fault."

Wiping away the silvery tears on his face, Hanel cupped Jim's face and comforted him.

"It's not your fault either."

After a long silence, Jim spoke in a hoarse voice, as if he had been choked.

He wanted to apologize, but the person he wanted to apologize to at that moment was not the person in front of him.

However, no matter how much he struggled and tried to reach out to the woman in his memory and beg for her forgiveness, all he could grasp in the end was a handful of invisible air.

The girl I love doesn't exist at this moment.

It's as if the version of herself she loved back then never existed.

"If we absolutely must find someone to be at fault..."

It was at this moment that Hanel spoke:

"That can only be human self-consciousness—it is what is tormenting you now, and it has tormented me in the past. And it torments everyone across the past and the future. But now, if you are willing to nod and deny it, and choose to fulfill Nyx's second will, then all of this, that eternal torment, can end."

"is it?"

Jim said softly:
"Will all the torment end as long as I'm willing to nod and deny it?"

Hanel nodded.

…………

"The Narcissus Path..."

Jiang Zhou murmured:
"So this path was designed by Nyx?"

Janus nodded and said:

"To be precise, it was an ascension path tailored for Eloise Haenel. Nyx always believed that self-awareness was just a pile of dice, merely an incentive program that provided variables for intelligence. But if that were the case, a leaded die would obviously easily lead evolution into a dead end, so she reduced the power of the die itself and greatly increased the depth of the dice pool."

The ability to freely load countless personalities suggests that there is nothing behind those personalities.

"Then I guess the technology that allows Superman to perfectly mimic humans originated from this, right?"

Jiang Zhou asked.

"That's right, their imitations are almost perfect."

"Near perfect?"

Jiang Zhou gleaned some subtext from it.

"So, there are still flaws? What are they? They can't be verified through the mandala?"

He quickly asked.

"The inability to verify through the mandala is simply a result of that defect. I think you can guess the reason... Ah, here's a hint: the reason is the same as when Jim gained self-awareness after adjusting and modifying the Orpheus path."

Janus said.

Jiang Zhou hesitated for a moment before speaking:

"Could it be empathy?"

"Bingo."

Janus snapped his fingers.

Although the answer was correct, Jiang Zhou frowned instead:
"Between a reaction based on rational analysis and imitation, and a reaction based on empathy and shared feelings, which is better?"

Janus smiled and said:
"From a performance perspective, it is of course better to imitate based on rational analysis. If we could truly empathize with others, then there wouldn't be so many strange contradictions among humans."

"So whose side are you on?"

Jiang Zhou couldn't help but purse his lips.

Janus shrugged in response:
"But evolution is never about who has the better performance, but about who is more adaptable to the environment, right?"

"You mean 'empathy' is actually more suitable for the current environment?"

Jiang Zhou quickly asked.

Janus responded with a smile:

"After all, I am the environment." (End of Chapter)