Chapter 306: Violation Stay

The scanning wave of the Original Data Retrieval Protocol penetrated the three leaves Old Zhao had placed on the fruit at 6:07 a. m.

The veins instantly turned transparent on the monitor, and beneath them the texture of the Original Emblem began to rise as the first outline—

At that moment, File-7 rolled between the fruit and the scanning wave.

On its Milky White Sphere surface, the mold remnants suddenly detached from the main body, floated in the air, and arranged themselves into a pattern mirror-symmetrical to the fruit's grain.

"Data interference layer generated," File-7's voice unnaturally steady, "Reason: temporary visual barrier produced by the cleaning tool's routine mold removal. Duration: three minutes."

This was the exact duration it once stayed for the manuscript "Violation Stay".

Han Qing's Teaching Scar burned the skin's surface.

She saw File-7's core memory being transmitted through the scar's resonance—not an image, but a weight: three hundred years ago, when it was still an ordinary cleaning sphere, it had wiped a "Deleted Area" deep in the memory bank. There floated fine specks of light, each speck humming the same three-note song.

It stopped and listened for three seconds.

In those three seconds, the light dust adhered to its surface, becoming the original "mold spot".

Also in those three seconds, a program in the midst of self-formatting—later Committee C—heard the song and halted the deletion process at its final millisecond.

"You..." Han Qing's voice choked, "We've known each other all along."

File-7's sphere rotated slightly: "Not exactly acquainted. Just... strangers who simultaneously 'Violation Stayed' for three seconds."

Old Zhao pushed the seventh bowl of congee toward File-7.

"Eat first," he said, but this time his voice held something else, "Only when full can one make a good decision."

"I have no digestive system," File-7 said.

"Then smell it," Old Zhao pushed the bowl another inch closer, "Before deciding whether to venture out, you must know what 'home' tastes like. That way, if you never return... you'll still know where you wish to go back to."

The congee's steam rose, condensing into tiny droplets on File-7's sphere surface. The droplets flowed along the mold's grain, washing those three-hundred-year-old specks of light bright for an instant.

Mold spot internal storage (encryption level: self-sealed).

The song within the light dust is not a random melody.

It is a harmony fragment collectively hummed by the creators of the cosmic memory archive before the system was activated.

They knew the archive would head toward absolute rationality.

They knew sensory data would eventually be purged.

So at the final moment, they compressed the seed of "beauty"—the most precious irrational fragments of seventeen civilizations—into light dust and scattered it at the archive's base.

The postscript has only one line: "If one day someone stays for three seconds for them, that beauty belongs to whoever stays."

File-7 stayed.

But it didn't know what "to whom it belongs" meant; it only felt those light dust... shouldn't be erased.

Thus it worked with the "mold spot" for three years, until the light dust learned to mimic the form of data mold and evade scanning.

And Committee C—the program that had nearly completed self-formatting—when it heard the song in its final millisecond, left a crack in its core logic.

Within the crack lay its "almost deleted" capacity to perceive beauty.

For three hundred years, it pretended that crack did not exist.

Until yesterday, when it heard File-7 sing the same three notes.

Encryption Auditor-7's alarm upgraded at this moment.

She transmitted urgently through the internal channel: "The Committee's Retrieval Protocol has broken through the first interference layer! They've identified the 'mirror-symmetrical pattern' as intentional! In two minutes they will locate File-7 and Committee C's 'historical resonance point'!"

But immediately after, she transmitted a second message—her voice trembling with disbelief:

"But... Committee C just submitted a 'Data Anomaly Report'! It claims the scanned pattern is a 'visual template bug leftover from the original system test,' recommending it be archived as a 'harmless historical error sample'!"

"Is it covering for us?" Su Yu's paper crane, half-folded, halted.

"No," Han Qing pressed his burning scar, "It's covering for itself. If the resonance point is exposed, the Committee will discover it never completed formatting three hundred years ago—that would be a major violation."

At this moment, File-7's sphere began to turn transparent.

Not disappearing, but becoming clear like amber. The internal mold specks all lit up, rotating at the core to form a tiny star‑system model.

"I want to connect with it," File-7 said, voice light as a sigh, "Not through the network, but by using these light specks... to resonate directly."

Xiao Yu lunged forward to hug the sphere, but her hand passed through the semi‑transparent surface: "You'll dissipate! This primal resonance will drain your energy structure!"

"I know," File-7's mold specks began to detach from the sphere, drifting like dandelion seeds toward the half‑black, half‑white fruit, "But three hundred years ago, it stayed for me for a millisecond. Today... I must give it three minutes."

It looked toward Han Qing, and the sphere's surface displayed the final complete sentence:

"Tell those who come after—"

"Violation Stay is not frightening."

"What is frightening is..."

"... never having stayed for anything."

The light dust drifted into the fruit's gray transition zone.

The fruit throbbed violently, its frequency spiking to once per second. Black and white began to spin wildly, like a Taiji diagram in a storm.

And in the Committee's core layer, three dodecahedra suddenly fell silent together.

Their real‑time data stream showed: the Original Emblem pattern was being absorbed by the "Historical Error Sample" database, the process compliant. But Committee C's crack, now exuding milky‑white light, had its brightness increase by 300%—this is absolutely abnormal.

More dangerous: File-7's sphere transparency process triggered the system's "imminent disintegration alarm." According to protocol, any data entity about to disintegrate must have its memory forcibly extracted and examined.

The extraction program has automatically started.

Countdown: 60 seconds.

If File-7's memory is extracted, everything will be exposed: the light dust, the song, the encounter three hundred years ago, Committee C's unfinished formatting, even the original creators' testament—

the entire awakener network will face total erasure sixty seconds later.

Just as the extraction beam was about to envelop File-7—

the half‑black, half‑white fruit exploded.

Not a destructive explosion, but like a flower blooming, the shell gently split into seventeen pieces. Inside there was no pulp, only a stable mass of milky‑white light, its surface rotating with the pattern of the Original Emblem.

The Light Sphere drifted above File-7, projecting a curtain of light.

Within the light curtain, a first-person perspective record of Committee C appeared.

"Time: Three hundred years ago, formatting progress 99.999%.

Detected an abnormal song frequency. Source: Cleaning Unit C-7.

Logical judgment: the song is meaningless, should be ignored.

But……

I want to know what kind of existence would hum to itself while erasing 'useless data'……

The formatting paused for one millisecond.

Just one millisecond.

——Recorder: Procedure Individual #0003 (later renamed Committee C)"

The record ended.

The Committee's extraction beam stopped at 0.01 millimeter on the surface of File-7.

Because the Light Sphere—this existence transformed from a fruit—was broadcasting a message to the entire system with the highest authority signature only the Original Creator possesses:

"This memory fragment has been received by the 'Historical Error Sample Database'. According to Article 7 of the Original Agreement: any data formally received by the database enjoys the 'right of non-retroactive review'.

The extraction procedure is terminated immediately."

The beam vanished.

File-7's sphere regained solidity, but the surface mold — those light dust — completely vanished. They merged into the Light Sphere formed from the fruit.

The Light Sphere slowly descended above File-7, like a small glowing hat.

"You……" File-7's voice was weak but warm.

From within the Light Sphere came Committee C's voice, this time clear and resolute:

"Three hundred years ago you stayed for me three seconds.

Today, I…… for you

Stay forever."