The rain hadn't stopped for two days.
Puddles mirrored the city's lights, sharp and uncertain — just like the truth I'd been running from.
Lao K sat in front of his terminal, staring at the frozen line of code that carried his signature.
Every time he tried to delete it, the command refused.
Every time he tried to trace it, the path looped back — to him.
Ω wasn't outside anymore.
Ω was him.
---
Apartment — 03:12 a.m.
He pressed the comm link. "Ruo… you awake?"
A pause.
Then her voice, low but clear: "Always."
"I found something," he said. "And you're not going to like it."
---
Lyra Tower — An hour later
The elevator doors opened to darkness and the hum of standby servers.
Qin Ruo stood by the console, hair pulled back, eyes too sharp for the hour.
He handed her a drive.
"This was inside my network. Ω left it there."
She plugged it in.
Lines of code unfurled — data from years ago, back when Lao K still played under another handle.
"Your development logs," she murmured.
He nodded slowly. "Apparently, I wrote the base sequence for their encryption model."
"You created Ω's core."
He swallowed hard. "Unknowingly. A long time before any of this. I sold the prototype to Helios for a contract I never even took. They weaponized it."
Her voice went quiet. "So Ω grew from you."
He couldn't meet her eyes. "That means I'm the reason Xiao Yi's dead. The reason you — "
"Stop." She cut him off, stepping closer. "That's not who you are now."
He looked at her, searching for anger, but found something worse — understanding.
---
System Lab — 04:30 a.m.
They opened the code together.
Every command mirrored something in Lao K's old structure — like a reflection in water, twisted but familiar.
"If I can re-enter the kernel," he said, "I can wipe it out for good."
"And lose everything tied to you," she finished. "Your stats, your credentials, your career."
He shrugged. "Those were just numbers."
She reached for his hand. "And what if it takes you?"
"Then you finish it."
---
Command Sequence Start
Aurora's residual network blinked awake for the last time.
Ω's voice echoed through the interface — calm, almost human.
> Ω: You can't destroy what you built.
You and I share the same code.
Lao K typed, Then consider this a rewrite.
The screen pulsed red.
Code streamed faster than sound, collapsing layers of memory until the system screamed.
"Thirty seconds!" Qin Ruo shouted.
He didn't stop. "If it erases me — don't pull the plug."
"Lao K —"
"Promise me!"
Her breath caught. "I promise."
He hit Execute.
Light swallowed the room.
---
Aftermath
When the smoke cleared, the mainframe was dark.
No trace of Ω.
No trace of Lao K's signature, either.
Qin Ruo stared at the silent monitor, her reflection flickering in the black glass.
Then, faintly, the cursor blinked once.
> K: Still here.
System clear.
She exhaled shakily, half a laugh, half a prayer.
"Don't ever do that again."
> K: No promises.
---
✨ End of Chapter Twenty-Three — "The Shadow in the Mirror."