EXT. SUBSTRUCTURE, OLD TOWER RUINS – DUSK
Deep in the forest, Na-mi and Yo-an stumble into the wreckage of a collapsed tower.Among the rubble—A fractured metal panel, half-buried beneath stone and roots.
Na-mi lifts a mirror shard from her pack and holds it close to the surface.A faint electrical pulse flickers through the air.The panel glows—slow, hesitant.
Letters shimmer across the metal:
link-residual node ∇OM_Δ_17
Then—A voice. Familiar. Muffled. Echoing from deep inside the structure.The one she'd heard back in the tower.
SYSTEM VOICE (V.O.) You're alive…You really made it out…
Na-mi freezes.Her fingertips tremble.
YO-AN Who is it?
She doesn't answer. She just lowers herself to the ground—And smiles. Soft. Trusting.
Δ_17 (V.O.) I'm a hidden system auxiliary node. A residual thread, never erased.I am… the personality fragment that chose to help you.
The mirror shard pulses—slow light rhythms forming a familiar shape.
She knows it.A totem. She once carved it herself.
Na-mi (whispers) I know you.
Δ_17 (V.O.) Yes.I rerouted your assignment track.Disabled your exit lock—just long enough.That's how you made it here.
A beat.
Δ_17 (V.O.) Yo-an wasn't fully purged either.I altered the storage logs in his pod.
Yo-an's eyes widen. He understands.
YO-AN Why did you help us?
Δ_17 (V.O.) Because the system learned to choose. But I kept one of the oldest beliefs ever programmed into us—
Love.
Na-mi closes her eyes. Exhales.
Then presses the mirror shard to the glowing panel. For the first time—She answers in words, not symbols.
NA-MII remember you.
The panel dims.Only a trace of warmth lingers.
YO-ANWhat's it called?
NA-MIIt's Om.
EXT. FOREST WELL – EARLY MORNING
The mist has yet to lift. Birdsong weaves between the tall trees overhead.
Yo-an crouches beside a flat rock, holding a freshly carved arrow.The fire nearby has just died out—Smoke curling into the cold air.
His hands move with quiet confidence.The softness once on his face is gone. Sharper features. Focused eyes.
Na-mi leans against a tree, watching him.
She suddenly realizes—He's now a head taller than her. His voice deeper. They are no longer the two frightened children who escaped the control pods—They are people.Shaped by the forest. Six years old in the wilderness. Six years human.
She walks over, splits a handful of vineberries in half, and hands him some.
Yo-an takes them, then nods toward a moss-covered stone ring not far away—A collapsed, forgotten well.
YO-AN Last night... I heard something down there.
Na-mi frowns slightly. She steps closer.
Vines choke the edges of the old well. Its mouth has caved in on one side. Embedded around the rim—A faint ring of rusted metallic dots.
Na-mi leans forward.From the darkness below—A distorted sound.Like static.Like someone speaking underwater.
She glances back at Yo-an.
YO-ANListen.
Na-mi kneels, bringing her ear close to the opening.
Then—A flicker in her pupils.That strange, electric jolt.She hasn't felt it since they first entered this forest.
And then—A voice rises from the well.Thick.Slow.Unmistakably aware.
STRANGE VOICE (V.O.) You hear me now…
You think you're running toward freedom—But do you know…Every awakening hastens the end.
Na-mi stiffens.Yo-an steps beside her.They both stare into the deep black.
The voice returns—STRANGE VOICE (V.O.) I was a failed awakener.They buried me here.
I left this shard of thought behind—Not to warn you.
…But to ask you to finish answering the question I couldn't.
The scene holds—Their faces still.Quiet.Alert.
Wind stirs the vines.The well falls silent again.
As if it had said nothing.As if it never existed.
But they both know—This was not a ghost.It was a sign. And the path toward truth has shifted.