The light continued emitting signals, indifferent to Haru's inability to interpret them. He didn't understand what he was looking at. And from what he could tell, neither did the others around him.
Every instant, one being disappeared and another appeared, each one staring at the light and remaining motionless, as if they had been placed before something they couldn't refuse.
Haru had no idea how much time had passed. Here, even the very concept of time seemed unreliable.
Then something happened inside him.
A tiny spark.
It wasn't born of deduction, discovery, or conscious effort. He hadn't found any clues or solved any riddles.
Understanding had simply been granted to him, an idea far too small to explain what he was witnessing, but clear enough to change everything.
"The System!?"
The spark grew. The light, the codes, the tree, that impossible place... Everything began to fit together into a certainty he couldn't explain.
"It's..."
