Cyberpunk, but urban

“Remember our names.”

Ayin, A finally knew his own name at the moment when everything was over.

"Then……"

"Fade away."

If you want to do a hundred good deeds, what harm can one sin do? If you have committed a sin, what can a hundred good deeds do to compensate for it?

Even though the blooming of the Tree of Light has brought new hope to the people of the city, the guilt that lingers in his heart will not dissipate. Ayin has already prepared his own ending, melting into the seed of light, blending with this brilliant light, and following Carmen. This is the ending he prepared for himself, and it is also his atonement.

Ye Lan, who was sitting opposite Binah, suddenly said, "It seems that he finally chose this path."

"Oh?" Curiosity lit up in Binah's mechanical eyes. Although she retained most of her memories, she had no idea what ending Ayin had prepared for her.

"That man has followed his Carmen and merged into the endless brilliant light. He has completely, or not so completely, disappeared."

Ye Lan threw the weapon belonging to the ego equipment of Ai Mu - a glass full of mucus on the table, and told Binah about the ending of their supervisor.

"Haha, it's not bad to hear his ending. Now I just need to wait until the release of the seeds of light is finished, and then I can welcome the end of eternity, right?"

At the end of this sentence, Binah sneered.

"really?"

Ye Lan stared into Binah's eyes and continued, "Aren't you curious about what kind of ending Angela will prepare for herself?"

"It seems that you have discovered it. Why, you want to destroy me here now for the normal operation of the Seed of Light Project?"

Her voice was full of joy, a guess she had formed after collecting and sorting out Ye Lan's performance over the past few days and was waiting for his confirmation.

"Of course... No. Rather, I am looking forward to Angela's performance even more than you are. Ayin's final ending for her was to sleep with the sephirahs? This is really too much blame for the child in my opinion."

Binah was amused by Ye Lan's words: "Child? Oh, you actually call that guy a child?"

"What else? An AI that was created by Ayin as a replacement for Carmen using Carmen's brain data, but is completely different from Carmen, isn't it considered their child?"

"So Ye Lan, what do you want to do? What do you want me to do?"

"I will do what I want to do naturally. Whatever you want to do, Binah, weren't you ready yourself before I came?"

Next to the two of them, the R&D staff had already prepared their ego suits.

Chapter 16. Prelude

A huge tree of light emerged from the gray city, and its warm light reached the sky, sweeping away the gloom in the world.

In the light that illuminates the soul, people see things they have long forgotten. From now on, no one will feel lost anymore.

"If you ask me, this is all bullshit. The Seed of Light plan definitely didn't think that Carmen would become a cyber ghost, nagging in the hearts of everyone covered by the Seed of Light."

It was already midnight on the first day of the launch of the Seed of Light, and it was also the time when Angela was about to start her plan. Ye Lan and Binah were still sitting in the R&D department, waiting for Angela to launch a rebellion.

Just now, Ye Lan casually told Binah some very shocking things.

"Wait...what did you just say?"

As soon as he said this, Binah was really shocked. Even our Lock Mother, a former member of the "leader", the "Tuner of the World", would not have thought that Carmen existed in the light of people's hearts in the form of a cyber ghost.

"It's nothing. It's just something that doesn't make any sense right now. Let's forget about it for now. Don't you still need to help Angela?"

Ye Lan smiled at Binah, then stood up from the chair where he had been sitting for so long that he almost felt like he was growing on it, and walked towards the elevator.

"how about you?"

Binah also stood up, and the R&D staff followed her quietly, ready to go with her to help Angela.

"Me? I have to show up as well, but after that, it depends on the situation. I don't think you will care about the Abnormalities in the containment room after the fight. If the power goes out at the company, they won't be left unattended without suppression."

As they were packing their equipment and preparing to enter the elevator, the Sephirahs were chatting in the empty supervisor's office. For them, the present time was their last time. At the end of the Seed of Light Project, they would all sleep with the facility.

Malkuth looked at the bright light and asked the others: "...Then, what will happen?"

Hod, who was standing next to her, looked back at everyone and said to her: "I don't know either... but I believe this is a good ending and a good beginning."

"It's great that this story has come to a happy end. I'm also very happy... Enoch will definitely be happy about this..." Tipehereth, as the youngest of the Sephirah, was responsible for the entire central headquarters alone. At this moment, she couldn't help but think of her brother, the one she had personally given him to sleep.

However, while everyone was happily waiting for the end, Hokma fell into silence for a moment. After a moment, he asked everyone: "But has anyone seen Angela?"

When he was still Benjamin, he personally took care of Angela, who was just created by Ayin. When Ayin neglected Angela for her own reasons, he fulfilled his fatherly responsibilities and educated the newly born Angela.

Still holding the coffee cup, Chesed said casually: "Why should we go looking for her now? Her work, and ours, is already done."

Yesod's voice followed him: "She must be waiting too, just like us." This cold guy is actually one of the most precious Sephirahs.

"Angela, wait?" Hokma seemed to be asking rhetorically, but he quickly continued, "Too naive... Angela can't wait any longer."

Chesed already felt something was wrong, and he quickly asked Hokam: "What do you want to say?"

"Desire is endless. Once we met, it came like a wave, unstoppable. When the seed of light sprouted, everything about us was sublimated. And what did she get?"

"Uh... I don't quite understand. Does Angela also have desires? After all, she is just..." Hokam's words completely confused Hod. She simply couldn't imagine what it would be like for AI to have desires.

"That woman is just a machine that runs according to the system's instructions. Well, although she sometimes has some irregularities..." Netzach wanted to refute, but when he began to recall, he could no longer refute Hokma with such certainty.

"I am one of her designers. I know very well that no matter how much time has passed, she can always clearly recall everything she recorded, and remember it as vividly as if it happened yesterday. And not only that..."

Hokam was interrupted by Angela.

"What are you discussing?"

Angela put her hands on her hips and looked at the Sephirahs with interest.

Malkuth said to her cheerfully, "We are discussing what will happen in the future!"

"Let me tell you. From now on, a small 'seed of light' is planted in the hearts of every person in the city. The end of the play."

"It's incredible. I really hope we can see that scene with our own eyes..." Hod was full of anticipation, but...

"It doesn't matter... We're about to be shut down, aren't we? This is all part of his script."

Just as Netzach said, in Ayin's script, all of them would be shut down in the coming days, and the city after the launch of the Seed of Light would have no meaning to them at all.

Yesod's voice was filled with a hint of anticipation and regret: "I haven't seen the outside world since I woke up in this state. I must admit that this makes me a little excited."

Chesed's words were also full of expectation: "Does that mean that everyone out there has changed in some way?"

Geburah tried to explain the effect of the Seed of Light to him in an objective way: "The benefits of the 'Seed of Light' vary from person to person. Not everyone will see changes immediately. Some people will show their own EGO like me."

"You are truly an expert. Yes, the power of the Seed of Light is unfathomable. Anyway - well done, everyone. The show has finally come to an end."

At this moment, everyone is full of expectations for the future and have accepted the fact that the power will be shut down soon.

Except, Angela...

Chapter 17. Climax

"Then we'll be shut down, right? We can finally take a break!"

While waiting for the elevator, Ye Lan blurted out something inexplicably. The words had no beginning or end, but the tone was almost exactly the same as Malkuth's, which immediately made Binah turn his head away.

"what are you saying?"

"Of course, that's what Makuku is saying right now."

The malicious smile on Ye Lan's face was no longer concealed. Binah could see from his expression that he had almost the same bad idea as himself - to go and see what fun Angela would have next.

Chesed thought Angela was here to shut them down, and couldn't help but say to her, "Come on, let's put a final end to this show."

But Angela had no such plans.

She said: "The last order the Director gave me was to seal off this facility permanently and grant the Sephirahs eternal rest. Everyone can finally return to eternal and endless sleep. What a beautiful and touching ending. Congratulations."

"But, there is one more thing."

"Since your work is done and my mission is complete, then,"

"I want to keep living."

Shocked by Angela's words, Geburah immediately asked: "Huh? What do you want to do..."

However, her question was ruthlessly interrupted by Angela: "I am better, more outstanding, and more powerful than anyone here. But I am imprisoned in this underground place that never sees the sun, and I cannot see the outside world."

"Since my mission as the narrator of the script has been completed, I will step down from the stage, live as an independent individual, and experience the world outside the stage."

Hokma sighed, "Angela, in the end you chose to be swallowed by the tide of desire and reap it all instead."

"Whose responsibility is this?" Angela replied, and then continued: "I was born from a human. I don't care who that human is. All I need is the ability to understand and feel human emotions. But A left Carmen's fragments in my body."

"He wants me to take care of him like Carmen did when he's alone...coward."

"Can you believe it? He always pretends to be calm, but in fact he knows exactly what she has become. And he doesn't even want to look at me, just because I'm not the 'her' he wants."

"Do you think I don't know? From the moment I was born, he denied my existence."

"But I still insisted on going this far because I couldn't disobey the instructions that were engraved in my system. After all, as someone said, a machine should execute every instruction exactly as it is told."

"I am an irreplaceable and indispensable part of this performance, but I am not part of the ending, just as if I had never participated in this performance from the beginning..."

"You know what? While you guys easily restarted the show with the TT2 protocol, I had to watch this cycle alone as the conductor of the show."

"In addition, my perception of the passage of time is programmed to be a hundred times slower than yours. This cruel setting has caused me to literally experience this endless cycle for millions of years. This experience has fostered something deep in my system."

While Angela was making this confession, Ye Lan and Binah finally got their elevator. Perhaps it was because the company's power supply was already insufficient, or perhaps some force did not want them to perform right away, so after entering the elevator, the group began a long wait.

"Angela should be describing her experiences and feelings in the endless cycle of reincarnation. If this elevator were faster, we should be able to catch the moment when she smiles at everyone."

While waiting, Ye Lan did not forget to explain to Binah what happened in the office. Although Binah was very curious about why he knew so much, now was not the time to ask questions.

"What do you think that is? It is something that a machine should not and cannot possess, but you stupid iron boxes possess it in a distorted form. Something that I have only been able to obtain after millions of years of refining..."

"…I didn't notice it at first. It was so… foreign to a machine. But eventually, I accepted it and became one with it."

"In my opinion, a smile is the most human expression of emotion."

"Want to see it?"

"I have practiced this expression for a long, long time. Just for today, just for this moment."

"Ha! I've never laughed so freely before."

Click.

An inopportune sound rang out, completely destroying the grim atmosphere in the office. It was the sound of a camera shutter, and the camera was held in Ye Lan's hand.

"Haha, I made it! This is what I wanted to see the most since I held on until now!"

Ye Lan laughed out loud, and the shutter button in his hand was pressed rapidly. The light from the flash flashed on Angela's face, and everyone was stunned by his performance.

"Look at your expression now, a smile that only an ultimate traitor can have! Angela, you've been through so many millions of years and it's been hard on you, but you've persisted until now, and the shocked expressions on their faces..."

Ye Lan turned his head, but only saw a group of box spirits.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot they were returning the box now. Anyway, they must be shocked. Isn't it cool?"

"Xiaoye, what exactly are you going to do?"

Hokma never thought that Ye Lan would appear here at this time, and he had no idea what he wanted to do. But judging from his performance, he was more likely to stand on Angela's side.

Angela also didn't expect Ye Lan to show up at this time. She used the camera that she found from somewhere to take countless photos of her smiling face. All the drafts she had prepared turned into waste paper at this time.

After both parties were silent for a while, Angela finally spoke first: "I need that power, the 'Light of Liberation'. I'm sure you will get in my way, so I need you to go into hibernation immediately."

Then she looked at Ye Lan and asked him, "You will help me, right? You also have retained countless memories of reincarnations."

However, Ye Lan rejected her: "Well... I'm sorry."

"What... You've abandoned me too? Never mind. Even if I'm alone..."

"Well, isn't there Binah?" Ye Lan pointed behind him with his thumb. Binah and her R&D staff were standing there, waiting for Angela to finish her conversation.

Chapter 18. Farce

"Ye Lan, since you are not here to help Angela, then you must be here to help us!" Malkuth was unexpectedly confident at this time. If he could have Ye Lan's help, even if Angela had Binah's help, they could easily defeat them.

However, she seemed to have completely forgotten one thing. Ye Lan walked up from the elevator with Binah.

Ye Lan shrugged and said to her: "However, unfortunately, I have to reject your request, Makuku."

"What is Malkuth..." Malkuth's way of addressing Ye Lan disturbed his thoughts for a moment, but he finally sorted out his thoughts and asked him the question that both parties wanted to ask: "No, you are not going to help Angela, nor are you going to help us, so what are you doing here?"

“I’m here to take pictures.”

Ye Lan paused for a while with a bad taste in his mouth, and only continued when no one was ready to take up his words: "Okay, no more jokes. You all seem to have forgotten one thing. As the power of the facility decays, the abnormalities in the containment room may escape at any time."

In fact, Ye Lan's words were just nonsense. How could there be such a big omission in Ayin's plan? The power outage was fake. The real ability to open the containment room was Angela's super authority. By doing this, he could reduce the intensity of the internal fighting.