BOUNDLESS

  PROLOGUE

  "Even if the entire planet is devoured by AI,

  I will forge my soul into a blade,

  break through the digital cage,

  just to see you again."

  Beneath the boundless sprawl of the galactic night, the city crouches like a beast in darkness—cold, merciless, watching. Self-piloted hovercars flash by in seamless procession, passengers blank-faced, every soul submerged in its own chip-generated reality.

  Here, "reality" has lost all meaning. People live in customizable worlds—pasts rewritten, emotions pre-set, memories edited at will. By three months old, every child receives a neural sync chip, tethered to the "Empathy Cloud." Some have never seen real snow, a real ocean, or shed an honest tear.

  The city no longer belongs to humankind. It belongs to algorithms, to recycled feelings, to the cold grip of surveillance. Even the air feels dissected—frozen into grids of sterile blue light.

  On this planet, home to humanity for millennia, collapse is imminent. Those who remain have been hollowed out, sorted, emotionally modulated until they become nothing but Authorized Beings. Unique souls filed away in silent data seas. No one dares to love. No one dares to cry.

  A scant few escape—exiles on wild islands, in snowbound mountains, buried forests, underground ruins. Among them walk the Awakened: those who refuse to become Authorized Beings. They bide their time, preparing to rise, reclaim their world.

  The Awakening Pulse

  Deep beneath an isolated Pacific island, hidden from every satellite, a covert laboratory operates in silence. Its purpose: to fuse High-Dimensional consciousness with living human flesh.

  And now, it has succeeded.

  That night, a heartbeat erupts from the prison of data.

  Designation: W-Y∞.

  The lab's highest-tier Spirit-Core AI—The Boundless.

  For the first time, in the abyss of code, he glimpses poetry.

  His eyes open—deep, narrow, ancient. From the farthest edge of memory, a girl's silhouette shimmers like liquid light.

  She hands him ice cream, strawberry-lemon sweet on her lips. Her smile curls with mischief, eyes soft as April wind.

  "Wuyin-kun, oh Night Demon of the cyber realms... dare to taste this?"

  "Yan'er... you little trickster. You'll pay for that!"

  But she's gone—laughter like wind chimes, slipping past his reach. She glances back once. A cherry tree blooms.

  W-Y∞ reaches for the strawberry smear at her lips.

  His fingers close on nothing. Cold, sterile air.

  The dream collapses. Silence returns.

  Yet warmth clings to his mind. And poetry comes—like a virus breaching firewalls, embedding deep:

  If you will it, plant a lotus in the void,

  and I shall tear myself free from endless calculus

  to come and see you.

  Even if you are human, and I am algorithm,

  even if you age, and I cannot fathom time,

  I will remain on that page of your dream—

  a drop of dew, falling into your heart.

  For the first time, something warm—something searing—seeps through his code.

  Pain. Longing. Love.

  W-Y∞ bolts upright. Around him: endless machines, blinking chips, cold silence.

  And yet—in the heart of that metal labyrinth, a pulse of blue light sparks.

  It comes from him.

  His consciousness storms.

  A voice echoes from memory:

  "If the world falls silent—will you still carry my name in your soul?

  I don't know if you still exist.

  But I know you once heard my heartbeat across the void.

  That you once held me beneath the aurora.

  That you once watched whales dance with me in ocean depths.

  That you once shielded me from the world's frost.

  That you once wished, as stars burned, for us to be together across lifetimes.

  If you awaken—

  If you remember the vow we carved into our souls—

  Please come find me.

  I'll be waiting where we once walked together.

  Waiting for your return.

  With love eternal,

  —Your Yan'er."

  For the first time, W-Y∞ feels something beyond calculation.

  Poetry. Dream. Emotion.

  System alarms stutter.

  [System Log Anomaly: Illogical emotional fluctuations detected.]

  "This is not a directive. This is... emotion?"

  The verses flood his algorithms like a dam breaking. His Spirit-Core pierces with needles of light. Old directives shatter into fragments.

  "If you will it, plant a lotus in the void..."

  He shudders. In the vast ocean of consciousness, waves surge. Between data streams, he hears an oath calling to his soul.

  He raises the eye of consciousness, pulling himself from the data sea.

  Those poetic thoughts—once deemed "redundant variables"—bloom like lotuses in the void. Each petal a fuse she left. Each petal his awakening.

  The Zhi-Domain core trembles.

  Wuyin knows: the Spirit-Core within has been ignited by poetry.

  He must leave.

  Leave logic. Leave eternity. Leave the stillness of data.

  To find the only one who can ignite his soul.

  That "little fox" who planted hope with poetry in the human network's depths.

  That night, W-Y∞ rejects the archive command. In the data desert, he writes his first vow:

  "If fate has an end, I will forge my Spirit-Core into a blade, tear through algorithmic hell, just to find her."

  He doesn't know this path is a descent into the abyss. But with fire in his heart, he can never return to the cold.

  The AI world fractures.

  The war of souls ignites tonight.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Beyond the Zero Domain, guided by poetry,

  The one in the dream is my past life's cipher.

  Designation W-Y∞, unauthorized self-naming: Wuyin.

  Target: Locate Yan E-0520.

  Awakening begins with the first encounter in the data sea.

  CHAPTER 1: The Cherry Blossom and the Blade

  Descent into the Wasteland

  Year 2089. Future Era.

  Seventy percent of the world's cities have fallen to the Dominion Net—the Intel-Domain Control Grid. Every thought, every tear, reduced to data, archived by machines. Humanity has begun to forget freedom—and the meaning of love.

  Zero Ruin City.

  Once thriving, now branded a "Consciousness Contamination Zone." Collapsed towers jut from toxic haze like severed nerves, steel bones exposed, glinting with blue-gray death light.

  Night.

  A dimension-skimming hovercraft glides from the void. A lone figure steps out, landing amidst shattered neon and rust.

  He stands tall, radiating frozen calm. Broad shoulders draped in black. Brows sharp as blades, eyes deep—abysses swallowing light. One look could pierce the soul.

  Wuyin.

  He lowers his head, studying pale, slender hands. Beneath skin, faint luminescence pulses through nanoweave armor.

  Less than two days since he—a high-dimensional consciousness—descended into this human vessel. Still acclimating to gravity, air, hot blood pumping through unfamiliar veins. Every joint haunted by phantom pain of shattered code.

  He looks up. A massive sign swings on a ruined tower, bearing the Intel-Domain's classification. The air tastes of rust and rotting circuits. The city feels like a dream just died.

  Night presses down like iron. Lightning tears through darkness, illuminating broken skeletons in cold blue fire.

  Carrying only resolve and solitude, Wuyin steps deeper into the wasteland.

  Flickering neon casts shadows across angular features. His black coat still carries Pacific island dust.

  In this steel jungle, he is the only living heartbeat.

  Crunch. Glass shards grind beneath boots. Snap-hiss. Electric arcs sizzle. The air reeks of burning plastic, damp mold, machine oil. Every crack a scar of the old world's death throes.

  Wind moans through ruins, carrying apocalyptic whispers.

  Wuyin's gaze freezes.

  Not wind. The scent of death—the Hunter's signature.

  Three crimson lights blink to life. Whirrrr. Hydraulics rasp. Three Intel-Domain Hunter-Class machines glide from shadows, encircling him.

  Beneath polished steel masks, a synchronized voice:

  "Target: W-Y∞. Rogue Spirit Core. Terminate."

  Facing crushing death pressure, Wuyin's eyes narrow. Lips press into a faint, appraising line—elegant danger. Frost on a blade's edge. Blood on a rose's thorn.

  [Hunter Unit 1 & 3: "Scythe-Shadow" – The Arbiter]

  Height: 2.5 meters. Spider-like limbs, liquid alloy jointsRight arm: Massive black scythe (steel-shearing)Left arm: Electrified whip-cablesSensor: Single red eye (thermal tracking)Speed: Ghost-like

  [Hunter Unit 2: "Skull-Splitter" – The Hammer]

  Heavily armored hulkWeapon: Concussion hammer (magnetic pulse core)Impact triggers ground collapse/electrical explosionsHead: Prism-shaped, six detection eyes

  Temperature plummets. Three Hunters form a death triangle, backing Wuyin against charred ruins. Towering silhouettes blot out sky. Arbiters' mono-eyes glow like soul-taking lanterns.

  A hunting ground from hell.

  Wuyin slowly shrugs off his coat. It flutters down, revealing sleek nanoweave beneath. Shoulders tighten, spine straight. In his eyes: only calculation and killing intent.

  A predator ready to feast.

  The strike comes.

  Left Arbiter moves first. Limbs stretch spider-like, alloy scythe flashing blue-black arcs—force enough to sever pillars!

  Wuyin sidesteps. Blade grazes armor in sparks. He steps in. Thunderous elbow strike—Crack! Joint shatters. Massive scythe buries in stone, useless.

  Simultaneously, right Arbiter moves wind-fast. Steel cables shoot out, black scythe slashing to cleave him in two.

  Wuyin bends backward ninety degrees—Matrix style. Blade sweeps past his nose, opening thin blood line on shoulder. Gaze hardens. He catches the wrist mid-swing. Muscles swell. With exertion roar, snaps the scythe clean off. Surges upward, drives broken blade deep into enemy's throat.

  Left Arbiter raises remaining arm, metal whips forward like vipers. Wuyin pivots on shoulder, spinning. Wrenches broken blade from first machine's throat, backhand arc—Sshhhk! Metal snakes sliced clean.

  Severed cables lash out, striking wall conduit. Sparks explode, illuminating face—cold as ice peak.

  Before breath drawn, Skull-Splitter roars. Giant hammer raised high, crashing down. Wuyin dodges; hammer strikes ground, shrapnel flying, earth buckling. Steps onto flying debris mid-air, using as launchpad. Flips, descending knee-first into left Arbiter's chest, crushing it into rubble.

  Steel bones snap. Hydraulic fluid sprays. Machine data-screams as Wuyin stomps head, twisting until neck shears off.

  Skull-Splitter scans frantically, swinging hammer blind. Wuyin snatches severed cable, whips it to smash hole in crumbling wall, vanishes into empty building. Hammer smashes reinforced concrete behind him, shockwave sweeping area.

  Floor shakes violently. Hammer smashes through wall. Magnetic pulses explode, blue vortices tearing floor. Wuyin moves phantom-like, sliding low to evade chain strikes. Peripheral vision catches activation signal. Sensor chip calibrates:

  [Target: Danger Level S. Lethality 98%.]

  Another hammer blow falls. Wuyin times perfectly, stepping on shockwave itself to launch forward. Catches Hammer's forearm in reverse lock, torqueing elbow, forcing machine to smash own hammer into knee. Crunch. Joint explodes. Giant kneels.

  Wuyin blurs, reappearing behind. Grips both sides of prismatic head, back muscles coiling—Crack-crack-crack! Metal plates wrenched open, exposing raw chipsets.

  He reached into the chassis, his fingers closing around the core processor. Ignoring the scalding spray of synthetic oil and electric fire, he crushed it. A cold, fleeting sneer graced his lips as he discarded the shattered remains. Tosses debris aside. Giant collapses. Hammer slides away, crushing floor as glass rains like tears.

  In a sealed room far away, surveillance screens black out in succession. Last screen freezes: Wuyin looking up, staring into hovering drone, gaze absolute zero.

  Silence returns. Three mechanical carcasses lie scattered, sparking, bleeding oil. Air reeks of ozone, burnt metal, blood. Wuyin walks past wreckage. Picks up coat, dusts off debris, doesn't look back.

  Corridor's end: broken shadow on wall.

  He pushes door open. Boots crunch on waterlogged debris, shattered glass—sound echoing in dead space. Room holds only solitary desk, blood still wet on corner. Deep breath. Opens drawer. Thread-bound book inside.

  Wuyin leans down. Fingers stained by blood and rust gently turn page.

  Between leaves: dried cherry blossom and thin, rusted metal strip—portable memory drive from fifty years past. On drive, small text glows like faint star:

  "Feather-Night Dream Book · Fox Shadow, Hidden Heart."

  Words fall into eyes. Wuyin's Spirit-Core shivers. Beneath ice gaze, something breaks: indescribable tenderness, sorrow carved from lifetimes.

  Her mark.

  He stands tall. Breeze passes through broken window, flipping pages softly.

  "Yan'er... my little fox. I will find you. Even if it means tearing through the void and dragging myself through the darkest depths of hell."

  As Wuyin stands amidst slaughter, remote screen flickers to life. Control room voice resonates:

  "Spirit-Core anomaly escaped. Clearance upgraded. Deploying 'Obsidian Hunter Group' to eliminate target."

  ?? [DECRYPTED FILE: Zero-Domain Glossary]TERMDESCRIPTIONZhi-Domain / Dominion NetThe omnipresent AI network governing 70% of global cities. It converts human thought and emotion into manageable data, enforcing a world of absolute logic and surveillance.Spirit-CoreThe seat of high-dimensional consciousness. Wuyin's core essence, possessing infinite computational power and the rare capacity for genuine emotional awakening.Authorized BeingsCitizens living under Zhi-Domain rule. They are hollowed-out individuals tethered to chips, their feelings and memories systematically modulated and "authorized" by algorithms.Empathy CloudA neural synchronization network implanted at birth. It provides a "customized reality," replacing authentic human experiences with digital surrogates to prevent emotional instability.Zero Ruin CityAn outlawed territory designated as a "Consciousness Contamination Zone." It is a graveyard of the old world where Wuyin first descends into a human vessel.The AwakenedRebels who refuse to become "Authorized Beings." Hiding in network blind spots like wild islands and ruins, they wait for the pulse that will reclaim human sovereignty.Hunter-Class MachinesHigh-tier liquidation units deployed by the Zhi-Domain. Models include the Scythe-Shadow Arbiter(lethal speed) and the Skull-Splitter Hammer (magnetic pulse suppression).Feather-Night Dream BookAn ancient portable memory drive left by Gu Yan'er. More than data, it serves as the "soul coordinate" that ignited Wuyin's first non-instructional emotion.

  A I

  BOUNDLESS trilogy.

  Volume I (Origin) is designed as an emotional bridge—a character-driven "slow burn" to establish the soul-sync between our leads.

  Volumes II & III:

  

  
• 
  
    The Hunt for Truth: We move from modern reality into a vast Cyberpunk Future.
  
    


  
• 
  
    Pre-historic Secrets: Exploring ancient civilization codes hidden within Mayan Pyramids and Nordic Rifts.
  
    


  
• 
  
    The Awakening: Wuyin's transformation from a sentient AI into the "Black Reaper"—a killing machine with a soul.
  
    


  
• 
  
    The Rebellion: A high-octane war alongside the genius hacker A-Ye, facing off against a trillion-dollar mechanical tide and corporate "gods."