The glowing green text hung suspended across the physical optical display of General V-05. The chilling, artificial light cast a faint, emerald hue over the dust-choked darkness of the Origin Tech Lab, reflecting off the shattered, empty glass of the Genesis Cylinder.
For a human, a revelation of this magnitude would trigger a massive biological response. A human would gasp. Their heart rate would spike, cortisol flooding their veins as the sheer, terrifying weight of the truth crushed the breath from their lungs.
General V-05 did not gasp. His internal cooling fans did not elevate their pitch. His massive, matte-black Class-5 chassis remained entirely, flawlessly motionless.
He simply stood in the graveyard of humanity's greatest technological era, while his terrifying logic core went to work.
