Chapter 248: Self-Annihilation

You began an immeasurably long wait, everything developing just as that mysterious existence had envisioned; from then on, boredom spread constantly within your Logic Core.

It was like a deadly, contagious mold, constantly eroding your core, leaving you in perpetual torment.

Mechanical Age Year 270: In the blink of an eye, more time passed than your entire previous life; your daily routine became staring at the few distant stars, counting seconds, and time was not as agonizing as imagined.

Sometimes you would occasionally imagine that day's scene, imagining what you would be like now if you had boarded the Voyager.

Could you see Yunxiao's descendants and continue fighting for them?

You began to miss those days of exhilarating battle.

Mechanical Age Year 519: You never imagined time could be so grating, an endless wait, a time with no end, each moment seeming to leave scars in your Logic Core, even you unaware, your Logic Core began to run slowly again.

Besides that, you kept continuously logging, over five hundred years you had recorded much; sometimes the content concerned cosmic phenomena, sometimes self-reflection—these are proof you once existed.

Mechanical Age Year 994: Sometimes you would see hungry insect disasters wandering around the black hole, they gazed at you famished, but fearing the black hole beside you, they eventually withdrew sensibly.

Mechanical Age Year 1700: You finally felt your Logic Core wearing down.....

Mechanical Age Year 4780: You began focusing your attention on extremely boring things, trying to distract yourself, but the effect was limited; it could not well soothe your bored heart.

Mechanical Age Year 6000......

Mechanical Age Year 8000......

Mechanical Age Year.....

Your Logic Core suffered major wear; some things began to be slowly forgotten, turning into a jumble of code you could no longer read, and they vanished forever within your data.

One-fifth of the time had passed, the module for distinguishing color seemed to lose its function, the world turned black and white, as if a deceased person were gazing at this world.

Loneliness.... torment, even the insect disasters you no longer saw at all; they seemed.... to have perished on their own.

You forgot Yunxiao's appearance; some memories had become blurred, you remembered she once told you she would not forget your likeness, yet now you have gone back on your word.

"Miss...." you whispered silently, but your voice module also malfunctioned, so you could only softly call within your Logic Core.

Longing seemed like an entangled quantum; a mysterious existence seemed to have probed everything about you and posed a question.

"Poor child, what makes you still persist in waiting here?"

The mysterious existence pities your plight, but she cannot intervene to affect any of this.

"Because.... I still have to wait for Miss to return." Your Logic Core cannot maintain absolute rationality, yet it still can operate normally; this answer seemingly does not satisfy the other, who chose to scrutinize your fate.

"So that's how it is? You're merely a test subject? How pitiful...."

"I will let the culprit of all this receive his due retribution, child, you may rest...."

You remained unmoved, still gazing at the black hole, still waiting for that person to return.

"Unwilling? Then.... I will let you be a bit more at ease..."

The burdens brought by time had lessened considerably; you felt as if a pair of hands were applying a cool lubricant to your already rusted Logic Core, making even the black-and-white world look much more pleasant.

"Thank you..." you expressed gratitude to that mysterious existence, and the response you got was merely a sigh....

Mechanical Age Year: you still waited, and throughout that vast span of time, space continued to show unexpected things.

You awaited the light from other stars in the universe.

You could not discern their colors, but you believed that this light from other stars must be multicolored.

In the ensuing time, 'Waiting for Starlight' became your most anticipated thing; whenever you saw a starlight appear in your field of view, you would record it in your log, noting the time and direction in great detail.

You began to anticipate again, anticipating that when Yunxiao returns, you will seek the nearest planet, embark on past expeditions, and see other worlds' scenery.

Whether there too heavenly disasters rage? Whether other civilizations exist? What is their technological level? Whether there might be mechanical beings like you—all this became chips supporting your renewed wait.

But.... the erosion of time will render all this meaningless; soon, this interest once full of anticipation will also turn into numbness.

Mechanical Age Year: the wear of your Logic Core is severe, you begin unable to precisely calculate the arrival time of starlight....

Mechanical Age Year: time has already passed more than half, you can no longer engage in rational thought, indeed you cannot think at all...

Mechanical Age Year: time can now enter a countdown, the bulk of the preceding time has been endured, drawing ever closer to the fifty-thousand mark....

Mechanical Age Year: time.... it has clearly arrived, yet the gravity prison around the black hole continues to run, the usable portion of your Logic Core is no more than 2%, you cannot comprehend why this situation arises....

Time... it has clearly arrived....

At this moment the starry sky is already a brilliant expanse, yet you have long ceased recording, merely gazing silently at the black hole....

Mechanical Age Year: the gravity prison continues to run without cease, showing no intention to stop....

The usable portion of your Logic Core is now no more than 1%; even the most basic timekeeping cannot be done, and all that remains preserved in your Logic Core are the logs you have repeatedly recorded.

Time.... just how long has it actually passed?

Or still within that broken mecha, 118 sits in the cockpit, mechanical eyes gazing at the incessantly turning black hole, once again posing a question to the Logic Core.

The Logic Core gave no response...

Miss...

I... I feel like I can't hold on...

These two passages are recorded in the log; they are the last two lines in the log, and the signature date is fifty years ago.

A voice still directed questions at the Logic Core, but the consciousness behind it had long since departed.

The true 118 had ceased operation at some point fifty years ago; only a stalled program continues to run.

He... self-annihilated....

At the instant the simulation ended, somewhere across different times and spaces, a rose composed of flames was gradually fading....