[EN] Chapter 9: Awakening of the Virus

# Chapter 9: Awakening of the Virus

The white gates did not open to silence. Zero was greeted by a high-frequency scream—the collision of trillions of data fragments—and the crushing pressure of an infinite abyss.

The interior of the Archive. This was a sea of pure information, where physical laws had been completely excised. There was no distinction between sky and ground; only a shimmering, chilling silver-white grid that intersected endlessly, stretching out like a colossal neural network.

Zero felt his body changing.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the system flagged him as an 'intruder.' But this was no simple breach. The vast landfill of memories accumulated within Zero—the unrefined dregs of emotion—collided with the Archive's exquisite order, triggering a grotesque chemical reaction.

He was no longer a vessel for memories. He had become the 'Virus' itself—a force that contaminated the system's logic, collapsed its architecture, and forged paths where none existed.

[ WARNING: Unauthorized entity detected. Initiating system purification process. ]

As the cold, mechanical voice reverberated through the space, thousands of transparent spikes erupted from the silver-white floor. These were the Archive's internal security systems: the 'Erasers.' Formless and void, they emitted only the 'Light of Erasure,' designed to wipe the very definition of their target's existence.

Zero instinctively reached out. This was not the way he had poured out memories before. He shifted his entire existence into an 'error.'

Along the trajectory of his movement, the silver-white grids began to stain black. Wherever he touched, the system's order shattered, and the precise data structures twisted in screaming agony.

*Bzzt, crackle—!*

The light of the Erasers struck Zero's body, but it could not erase him. Instead, the 'memories of pain' dwelling within him absorbed the light, converting it into an even deeper darkness. Zero leaped forward. The moment his fingertips pierced the core of an Eraser, black data contamination surged outward, paralyzing the entire security network.

But the thrill of victory was fleeting.

Amidst the wreckage of the destroyed Erasers, Zero began to hear strange hallucinations. It wasn't mere noise. They were 'echoes of memory' entwined within the shattered fragments of the system.

*—Save me, please…*
*—Just don't forget me…*
*—Was the promise from that day a lie?*

Fragments of tens of thousands of screams, longings, loves, and betrayals poured indiscriminately into Zero's consciousness. Zero fell to his knees, screaming.

This was different from 'absorbing' memories. This was a forced 'resonance.' To destroy the Archive's security system was to forcibly liberate the final shards of memory that the system had been clutching.

Zero saw it. The moment someone let go of a loved one's hand in despair. The visceral self-loathing of a parent who sold their own memories after losing a child. All these memories now became razor-sharp blades within Zero, hacking away at his ego.

'What… am I destroying?'

He was a predator, but he was also a slaughterer. The more he tore down the system, the more he extinguished the lifespans of others. The boy who had craved the memories of others to fill the void of his identity had now become a monster who could only advance by erasing them.

Then, a familiar, sly voice whispered in his ear.

—"Quite a dramatic awakening, Zero."

It was Kai. He wasn't physically present, but he had entered Zero's consciousness through a communication channel linked directly to his neural network.

—"Don't suffer. This isn't a path you chose; it's simply your 'attribute.' You were a trash can from the start, weren't you? What's wrong with trash cleaning up trash?"

Kai's voice was tender, but it carried the chilling gaze of an observer. He wasn't comforting Zero's pain; he was like a scientist experimenting on how that pain would transform him.

—"Look, Zero. Don't let those echoes consume you. Use them instead. Turn that sadness and despair into fuel for your rage. Only then can you reach the Archivist at the end."

Zero gasped for air and looked up. His eyes were no longer colorless. They were a swirling chaotic mix of black and silver, resembling a collapsing star cluster.

"You… wanted this from the beginning."

Zero's voice was low and cracked.

—"Rather than 'wanted,' I'd say 'expected.' I expected you to become more than a 'key'—to become a 'calamity' that would collapse the entire system."

Kai's laughter echoed. It was a laugh born more of possessiveness than trust.

—"Now, get up. You still have a long way to go. The memories you've destroyed are paving the road beneath your feet. Follow those screams. Perhaps a fragment of the 'real you' that you've searched for so desperately is waiting there."

Zero slowly stood up. The internal conflict remained. He was constantly shaken by the guilt felt with every destruction and the omnipotence gained through it.

But he could not stop. He was now a virus. For a virus, the only way to survive is to completely destroy the host, or to become the host itself.

Zero reached out once more, staining the silver-white world before him black. With every step he took, the screams of the Archive grew louder, and those screams were now becoming Zero's clearest signposts.

Beyond a predator of memories, he began to walk toward the heart of the system as the executor of their funeral.