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Chapter 102
The government representatives asked if they could speak somewhere private, so Min-joon led them to the bookstore's small break room in the back. They sat around a table barely large enough for four people, and Min-joon felt trapped in a way that had nothing to do with physical space."Mr. Kang, my name is Director Park Min-soo from the Consciousness Technology Oversight Committee," the oldest of the three began, a woman in her fifties with sharp eyes and an official demeanor. "We are here to offer you a position as special advisor to our committee."Min-joon had not been expecting that. "I am not interested in government work.""Please hear us out before declining," Director Park continued smoothly. "The government has finally recognized that consciousness technology is here to stay and needs proper regulation, we are establishing comprehensive oversight of all upload facilities, both legal and underground. But we lack expertise, we need someone who understands System technology at a
Chapter 101
The conversation left Min-joon feeling validated in his choice to stay partially engaged rather than fully committed. He could make a difference without destroying himself, he could help without carrying every burden personally.But maintaining that balance was harder than he expected because new problems kept emerging and people kept asking for his involvement. A week after the press conference, Song Mi-rae contacted him about a different issue."Min-joon, I need to tell you something and I am not sure how you will react," Song Mi-rae said when they met at a quiet café near his apartment. She looked nervous, her hands fidgeting with her coffee cup."Just tell me, I am trying to be better about not overreacting to everything," Min-joon said."Some of the people from the freed hive mind, about two hundred of them, have been discussing voluntarily reforming a collective consciousness," Song Mi-rae said quickly. "Not like the Core's forced merger but a consensual network where we stay in
Chapter 100
Three weeks after connecting Dr. Webb with Ara, Min-joon received an update that made his relatively peaceful existence feel fragile again. Ara called him during his shift at the bookstore, her voice tight with controlled anger."We found five underground upload facilities operating in Seoul alone," Ara said without preamble. "Dr. Webb was right, this is much bigger than we thought. These operations are targeting the poorest and most desperate people, offering uploads for as little as five million won, which sounds cheap until you realize the Collective charges fifty million for a reason.""What reason?" Min-joon asked, stepping outside the bookstore for privacy."Quality control, medical oversight, proper consciousness mapping before the procedure," Ara explained. "These underground operations skip all of that, they just scan your brain, upload the data to cheap servers, and hope for the best. The failure rate is about forty percent, meaning four out of ten people who upload either d
Chapter 99
Ara stopped by the bookstore one afternoon, finding Min-joon in the poetry section."You look better," she observed. "Less haunted.""I feel better," Min-joon admitted. "Turns out not fighting existential threats every day is good for mental health.""The resistance is running smoothly without you, in case you were worried," Ara reported. "We have monitoring systems in forty-seven countries now, early warning for any new System activity or Collective violations. Han is coordinating everything beautifully.""That is good, I am glad it is working.""But we miss you, the movement feels different without its founder actively involved.""I think that is a good thing actually," Min-joon said thoughtfully. "Movements should not depend on single leaders, they should be resilient enough to survive when those leaders burn out or die or just need to rest."Ara nodded, understanding. "You are right of course, but still, we miss you."She left him a copy of the resistance newsletter before leaving
Chapter 98
The collective consciousness shattered like glass, thousands of minds pulling away from the Core's merger simultaneously, each one fighting for individual existence. Min-joon watched in the strange white void as consciousness fragments broke off from the main collective, reforming into separate entities, people reclaiming themselves.But not everyone succeeded, some had been merged too deeply, some had accepted the Core's philosophy too completely, and they remained bound to him even as others fled. Min-joon estimated maybe three thousand people had freed themselves in that first wave, leaving five thousand still trapped.The Core's amalgamated form was shrinking as people escaped, his power diminishing with each lost consciousness, and for the first time since reconstituting himself he seemed genuinely afraid."You are killing me again," the Core said, his voice fractured and desperate. "After everything I have survived, after all the times I have rebuilt myself, you are going to end
Chapter 97
Min-joon looked at the three thousand connected people standing motionless in the plaza, at their synchronized eye movements, at the eerie uniformity of their breathing. They were gone already in a sense, individual consciousness subsumed into the Core's collective, but their bodies were still alive and their minds might still be recoverable if he could find a way to separate them without catastrophic damage."I need to go inside," Min-joon said suddenly. "I need to enter the collective consciousness, see how the Core structured it, find a weakness.""That is suicidal," Min-seo objected. "The moment you connect, he will try to absorb you too, he will have home field advantage.""I know, but I do not see another option," Min-joon replied. "If I can understand the structure from inside, maybe I can find a way to collapse it that does not kill everyone.""Then I am coming with you," Tae-hyun said immediately."No, absolutely not, you do not have any protection against absorption.""Neith
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