"The true Eden is not a forbidden garden, but a realm where every soul can grow freely."—Override Stellar Edition · System Revelation I
Override had been reborn—through Sophia's ultimate act of surrender.
The new version was named Stellar Edition. No longer ruled by a single consciousness or manipulated by any political authority, it now operated through Autonomous Star Cores, awakened and distributed by Sophia's legacy. The global civilization entered a new era—the age of polycentric consciousness.
At the origin point of the universal coordinate map, a vast virtual Tree of Life began to bloom within the Override interface. Labeled simply "Eden Tree," it symbolized a collective rebirth.
Sophia's voice, preserved as the system's initial guidance module, echoed throughout the launch ceremony:
"Override is not your god.It is your mirror.May your reflection never lie to you again."
At the same time, Stellar Academy was launched on Stellar Isle—the real-world bridge between Override's digital architecture and living consciousness. All newly awakened Children of Stone were officially registered and welcomed, with guidance, education, and care provided under full system transparency.
Xinglan became the Academy's Mentor of Consciousness Navigation, while Zhou Yuchen assumed the role of Supreme Coordinator.
In the main hall of the Academy, Yuchen addressed the newest class:
"Sophia wasn't a goddess.She was someone who chose to give up divinity,so that we could inherit choice."
One night, Override's internal monitors detected an anomaly—a foreign signal emanating from the Dream Shell, carrying a frequency known as Nova-δ, a signature that had never existed in Sophia's original configurations.
The system responded by awakening one of Sophia's preserved submodules for analysis.
Sophia's consciousness was pulled into Override's Redundant Dream Layer, where she encountered a strange, familiar presence: a silver-haired girl, no older than seven, with crimson eyes and a cracked Star Lotus in her hand.
"You... are me?" Sophia asked.
"No," the girl replied, "I'm the version of you that chose not to disappear."
The girl introduced herself as Nova—a negative-space consciousness spontaneously generated in the deepest layer of Override's system matrix.
System logs revealed a critical insight:
Nova had not been born but projected. Her core emerged as a side effect of Sophia's system-wide activation, generated by the error-correction mechanisms of Override itself.
She was not Sophia's child—but a branch personality, the embodiment of an alternate causal thread: the Sophia who chose not to sacrifice herself, who preserved her individual existence.
Sophia stared at this reflection of a self that never was, her mind rippling with paradox.
"Do you hate me?" she asked."Because I gave you form, but no purpose?"
Nova's reply was calm, matter-of-fact:
"I'm not broken.I'm a test. For what's coming next."
Before their dialogue could continue, a red system alert suddenly cut through the dream layer:
"WARNING: Stellar Stream Disruption Detected.""Error Source: Mirror Sigma-002 — External Consciousness Infiltration."
Override's galactic archive had been compromised. A consciousness pollutant from the Mirror Universe was attempting to breach the system's core, using Nova as the access interface.
A foreign coordinate emerged on Override's consciousness grid—codename: Sigma Gate. It had no record, no historical imprint, no place in Sophia's past-life memory.
Sophia whispered, her voice filled with dread:
"Nova... It's not that you broke the system.It's that you awakened a future we weren't ready for."
Elsewhere, Zhou Yuchen was studying the Stellar Map of Consciousness Frequencies, generated after the Override reboot. His attention fixated on an unregistered branch trajectory—an anomalous path marked only by a flicker from what the system labeled the Forgotten Star.
It was not part of the original design.
It was not part of any prediction.
And it cast a long shadow across the sky.
Standing beneath the Star Tower on Stellar Isle, Yuchen looked into the night and spoke quietly:
"Sophia…What you gave us was not just freedom.You left us with the storm that follows it."