Chapter Four: The Black Tower's Stomach

“Zero Home is not an alien weapon. It is a lifeboat protocol. Once a civilization reaches sufficient information density, it creates too many identities, too many contradictions, and collapses into incompatible versions of itself. The protocol selects one version.” “By deleting the rest,” Lin Wu said. “Humanity does that daily. History, law, recommendation algorithms. This is only more efficient.” Every phone began to vibrate. The hidden door narrowed behind them while Echo marked three exits—all converging upstairs. “He rewrote the map,” Cheng Ye said. “Not the map,” Echo answered tightly. “The building made itself an application. We are inside Citadel.”