-----
Zero One and her sisters sprinted through the vast hall, heading straight for the hole that led to the fourth layer.
"Hey! Who are you? Where did you come from?"
One of the guards quickly spotted them. Three more joined him in pursuit.
"They're not professors or doctors from here!"
"They infiltrated the facility?!"
"Catch them!"
Zero One glanced at her sisters in panic.
"RUN!"
The trio raced as fast as their legs could carry them across the enormous space, leaping over desks, tubes packed with cables, and strange pieces of unknown technology.
Three guards became five, then more joined, spreading out to encircle them.
"Dammit, are we going to get surrounded now?!" Zero Two asked. "We don't have time for this!"
"Hm, seems like we'll have to use violence…"
"It's necessary."
The Zero Three twins, colder than their older sisters, had already begun weighing the option of force.
"W-Wait! Don't attack them! They're humans! We cannot harm them!"
Zero One stopped them. The girls found themselves unable to argue. As though an ancient protocol had activated, the very thought of hurting humans felt impossible.
"We've got you surrounded!"
"Please raise your hands!"
"Don't make this harder for us, girls."
"Who are you, though? Where did you come from?"
"Are you spies from Neo Nex Company?"
Zero One looked around at the closing circle, terror flooding her face.
"W-We aren't! We're androids! We came here looking for a hole, and we'll leave through it. Please, can you let us go?"
"A-Androids?!"
"No such thing exists yet, right?"
"Yeah, even the first one ever made is still a work in progress…"
"No, wait—didn't the professor use some kind of technology like that with his daughter to help her survive?"
"But that would be more like cyborg technology, right?"
As the guards murmured among themselves, they edged closer, pulling out handcuffs to detain the girls.
"WAAAAAIT!"
Suddenly a small, clear voice rang through the hall. Professors, engineers, and doctors nearby turned in surprise.
The guards followed the sound and saw an adorable little girl—no older than five—walking barefoot toward them.
She wore only a simple white dress. Long, silky silvery-white hair framed her face, and her golden eyes shone despite her obvious frailty.
She leaned heavily on a cane to walk; her body wrapped in several white cloths.
She looked sickly, exhausted, yet her gaze still held a child's pure innocence and brightness.
"T-That's…? The chief professor's daughter?"
"Lady Raven…?"
"W-What's wrong?"
"Shouldn't you be in your bed, Raven?"
The girl stepped forward, placing herself between the guards and the androids, then offered them a gentle smile.
Zero One stared in stunned silence. It was…
It was overwhelming. She stood frozen, utterly shocked.
"They're my friends! Please don't be rude to them! I invited them here. They're… my online friends!" Raven said. "And this is… uh, my cousin! See? We look a lot alike!"
"C-Cousin?" Zero One whispered, glancing at the tiny girl in disbelief. "I…!"
"So that's your cousin? She said she was an android, though…"
"A-Ahahah, she was joking! We like to play!"
"Uh…"
"Okay, then…"
"We'll report this to the guard station, though."
The guards relaxed and stepped back. Raven turned to the android girls with a warm, curious smile.
"Phew, that was close! It's been a while since I've seen a new face! Where did you girls come from?"
Raven quickly led them farther from the guards, her eyes sparkling with interest.
"We come from…" Zero One hesitated, unsure what to say. "We…"
"We come from the future," Zero Two answered.
"T-The future? Wow!" Raven exclaimed. "So you're really androids?"
"Yes…"
"We are."
The Zero Three twins nodded, gazing at Raven with quiet tenderness.
She was nothing more than a cluster of data, a fleeting echo of whom she had once been.
And yet…
Why did their cores ache so fiercely at the sight of her?
This was…
The last human, after all.
The final survivor of a species that had flourished and left an immense legacy on their world.
Their creators.
"That's so cool! I'm a robot too!" she said. "Look!"
Raven unwrapped the white bandage from her left arm, revealing a mechanical limb much like theirs—synthetic skin stretched over it, though faint seams and lines betrayed its artificial nature.
"A-Ah…"
Zero One's hand brushed against hers. A sudden spark passed between them.
For an instant, their gazes locked.
And at that moment, each glimpsed the other's world.
"Huh?!"
"Wha…?"
It felt as though they had briefly inhabited one another's bodies.
Then their hands parted, and the sensation faded.
"W-What was that? What… did I see? Huh? It was like I was looking at myself!" Raven said.
"I-I…" Zero One fell silent. "I don't know… Ah, there it is… T-The hole!"
She pointed at the distance. A massive opening yawned behind the unfinished Supercomputer.
That was her Mother—still unborn, not yet the being Zero One knew.
"It's right behind Mother, guarded by nobody… I wonder why it isn't guarded?" Zero Two wondered.
"It's better for us anyway. Let's go!" said Zero Three A.
"Yeah, let's hurry… Zero One, we're still in a data world. She's not… the real Raven," Zero Three B whispered.
"I know…" Zero One nodded, though she moved slowly as Raven walked beside them.
"Where are you going? Oh! There's a hole there?! I had no idea! Since when?"
Raven stared in genuine surprise at the opening she had never noticed before.
"Are you going through there? Will I go to the future with it too?" she asked.
"It would be better if you didn't come with us…" Zero One sighed. "Wouldn't your parents get sad, Raven?"
"Oooh…" Raven paused. "Hmm, yeah! You're right… But will you come back one day? I want to talk more with my friends from the future!"
She chattered nonstop, filling every second with words.
It was painfully obvious how lonely she truly was.
She simply wanted friends.
"I…" Zero One looked at Raven one last time as she stepped toward the hole her sisters had already entered. "Yes… We'll come back."
"Pinky promise?" Raven asked, lifting her prosthetic arm and extending her small pinky finger.
"Pinky… promise…" Zero One whispered. Their little fingers touched.
Then she stepped through the hole, channeling her blade of light to purify the corrupted passage as she descended.
FLAAASH!
The breach sealed behind her as the infectious data dissolved.
When she landed on the other side with her sisters, they looked around.
The fourth layer of five. The next would be the final one.
But this place was nothing like the ruined city or underground lab above.
Instead, they stood inside a bizarre nest of black-and-red crystals—solidified, corrupted data everywhere.
The crystals formed a strange cavern with twisting corridors, all glowing faintly and leaking corrupted data into the air.
"W-Where are we?" Zero Two asked. "Is this the fourth layer?"
"Yes…"
"It is."
The Zero Three twins scanned the surroundings and nodded at Zero One, who remained lost in thought about what had just happened.
"Big sister…" Zero Three A called softly. "Where is this place?"
"Huh? Ah!" Zero One snapped back to attention. "T-This… is this entire layer infected?!"
To their shock, the whole fourth layer had been overtaken by corrupted data.
The realization hit Zero One instantly.
"This is why Mother must be so corrupted…" she murmured. "I cannot even imagine what the fifth layer will be like…"
"What do we do? Can we even clean this entire place?" Zero Two asked.
"It's possible with our power… yeah," Zero One said, nodding. "Let's combine our Auras and release a powerful shockwave. I'll use the surrounding data to expand it and purge the whole layer."
"That easy?!" Zero Three A asked.
"Seems like we're stronger than we thought," Zero Three B said.
"I mean, it's a digital world in the end. Its level of difficulty still can't compare to the real one," Zero One explained. "And those Elementals and the giant bug we defeated earlier strengthened our data and made it more resilient… It should be possible to handle something of this scale now."
Zero One extended her hands. Her sisters took them, forming a circle.
As they connected, something within the infected layer sensed their auras—their light.
"Now, let's connect our Digital Auras!"
FLAAASH!
Zero One merged her sisters' auras into her own. They began to shine with blinding brilliance.
For a moment, they resembled a radiant sun or a golden star.
And yet…
RUMBLE!
Something enormous rushed toward them.
"GRUOOOHHHH!"
A colossal bug-like monstrosity erupted from the crystallized corruption—the guardian of the fourth layer, the sole inhabitant of this tainted realm.
-----
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