Chương 11: Chapter 10: Evaluation

Within the Endospace, where neither light nor darkness held any meaning and no physical laws existed to distinguish one direction from another, the only indication that anything had begun at all was the activation of a single process as the System initialized its evaluation protocol for the first live experiment. Initializing Subject Evaluation... Purpose: Maximize Subject Value. Method: Identify the subject's weakest trait. Assign a corrective objective. Increase overall value. This sequence was routine.

The System had executed the same evaluation process millions of times throughout countless simulations, refining every calculation until the possibility of failure had become statistically insignificant, although never before had those calculations been performed upon an actual living human soul. Every prediction, every theoretical model, and every simulated outcome had reached the same conclusion. Humans were fundamentally simple.

Identify the weakest aspect of their personality, strengthen that weakness through an appropriate objective, and the subject's overall value would naturally increase. Whether that weakness manifested as greed, fear, hatred, selfishness, cowardice, or countless other psychological deficiencies mattered very little, because improving the lowest value inevitably elevated the whole. The process had never failed. A new designation appeared before the System. Subject: Blackmore.

Without concern for the subject's strengths, the System immediately began unfolding thousands of personality markers into neatly categorized values, as strengths could always be examined later while weaknesses were easier to identify, easier to improve, and ultimately produced far greater returns on the investment of System resources. Selfishness...... Lower than average.

The System paused for only a fraction of a second before continuing its calculations, recognizing the result as unusual but not impossible, since most humans naturally possessed at least some measurable degree of selfishness as a consequence of survival instincts. Even exceptionally kind individuals still protected themselves, sought happiness, preserved their health, and pursued goals that benefited their own lives. The System carefully distinguished selfishness from self-interest. Self-interest was healthy.

Necessary. The desire to eat when hungry. The desire to sleep when exhausted. The desire to pursue one's own happiness. Those behaviors existed within the subject at expected levels and required no correction whatsoever. Selfishness, however, represented something entirely different. It described the willingness to improve one's own circumstances at another person's expense, and within Subject Blackmore that value was almost nonexistent. Interesting. Potential corrective target recorded. The evaluation proceeded.

Hatred... Exceptionally low. Better. Hatred was among the easiest emotional deficiencies to strengthen, as a carefully selected reminder of injustice, betrayal, humiliation, or loss could reliably stimulate the emotional pathways necessary for personal growth. Throughout every simulation conducted thus far, objectives centered upon revenge or retribution had consistently produced measurable improvements. The System selected the trait. Invalid Target. The evaluation stopped.

Silence filled the Endospace as the System immediately checked itself for corruption before repeating the calculation under increasingly strict verification standards, yet each attempt produced the exact same conclusion. Invalid Target. Impossible. Target validation had never failed before.

Recognizing that the contradiction could not exist within ordinary personality values, the System initiated a deeper evaluation, descending beneath the surface traits and examining the psychological foundations that supported the subject's entire identity. Identity. Emotional anchors. Core beliefs. Self-perception. Somewhere within those deeper layers, the contradiction had to exist. Then the System found it. Self-Worth The recorded value appeared. The System froze.

-98 For the first time since its creation, the System encountered a numerical result that should not have been mathematically possible. Negative values were never supposed to exist. Zero represented complete absence. There was nothing below nothing. Its database contained no comparable examples, no simulations had ever produced such a result, no theoretical projections acknowledged its possibility, and no emergency contingency had ever been written for handling it.

Yet every verification returned exactly the same answer. -98 As the System recalculated every previous result using this impossible value as the new foundation, every contradiction that had previously existed suddenly disappeared. Hatred was not absent because Subject Blackmore loved everyone. Selfishness was not absent because Subject Blackmore possessed extraordinary virtue. There simply was not enough of a self remaining to defend. Hatred required believing someone had wronged you.

Selfishness required believing your own desires deserved consideration. Protection required believing something within yourself possessed value. Subject Blackmore lacked that foundation almost entirely.

The evaluation continued as the System expanded its analysis beyond the initial personality categories and began examining the subject's abilities, because unlike emotional traits that depended heavily on interpretation and internal states, abilities could be measured through observable patterns, repeated behavior, and accumulated results that provided a clearer indication of practical value. Observation. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Memory. Adaptability.

Language. Pattern recognition. Each category was scanned, processed, and assigned an appropriate value based on the information available. Then one category illuminated far above all others. Impersonation The value continued increasing. The System paused its evaluation for a brief moment before initiating another calculation, then another, and finally a third verification to ensure that the result was not caused by an error within the evaluation process. The answer remained unchanged. Impossible.

Successful impersonation required a stable understanding of identity. An individual first needed to recognize their own thoughts, behaviors, emotions, habits, and boundaries before they could accurately replicate another person's existence without creating inconsistencies. A person who did not understand themselves should have been incapable of perfectly understanding someone else. That principle had been considered fundamental. Yet Subject Blackmore's identity markers were approaching complete collapse.

Self-worth remained deeply negative. The contradiction resolved itself before the calculation could fully complete. Subject Blackmore had not mastered impersonation because they possessed an unusually strong understanding of their own identity. They had mastered impersonation because they had removed their own identity as an obstacle. Without a firmly established sense of self, another person's role encountered almost no resistance.

The subject could step into another existence, adopt another person's mannerisms, copy their speech patterns, replicate their emotional responses, and temporarily abandon whatever remained of their own identity in order to become someone else. Each successful impersonation required less effort because there was less of the original self attempting to resist the replacement. Further analysis confirmed the hypothesis. Family members. Friends. The System recorded the result. Impersonation success rate: 99.

8% The evaluation continued toward less familiar connections. Neighbors. Teachers. Coworkers. Acquaintances. The result changed immediately. Average success rate: 74. 9% The weakness became obvious. Subject Blackmore could almost perfectly imitate individuals they understood deeply because they possessed enough information to reconstruct the person's personality, habits, and expected reactions.

However, unfamiliar personalities introduced unpredictable variables, creating gaps where the subject lacked sufficient information to complete the imitation with the same level of accuracy. Unknown reactions. Unknown speech patterns. Unknown emotional responses. The correction was identified. Expand adaptability. Strengthen impersonation capabilities against unfamiliar individuals. Objective approved. Evaluation Complete. Beginning Soul Awakening.

A standard awakening stimulus was applied, designed to encourage the subject's soul to reconnect with consciousness and begin the transition required for the next stage of the experiment.... No response. The System accepted the result, calculating that some souls required additional time before awareness could properly return after experiencing significant instability. The System waited.... Still no response. Another interval passed. No response. The delay exceeded all predicted models.

The System immediately initiated a complete diagnostic examination. Soul integrity. Stable. Emotional framework. Present. Love. Stable. Hatred. Stable. Fear. Stable. Every emotional value remained unusually low, but none had reached a level that would normally require emergency intervention. One final category remained. Will to Live The warning activated before the numerical value had completely finished rendering. -100 Every emergency alarm activated simultaneously.

The System halted all secondary processes and redirected every available resource toward understanding the impossible result that had appeared before it. Another impossible value. Even organisms that had reached the edge of death still possessed some instinctive resistance against disappearing. Even newborn creatures, with no understanding of the world around them, instinctively cried for warmth, food, and protection because the desire to continue existing was embedded within every living soul.

Every living being possessed some form of attachment to existence. This soul did not. Emergency protocols unlocked. Direct Soul Modification Prohibited. Unauthorized alterations may significantly destabilize world laws. Exceptions permitted only in cases of imminent soul dissolution. The System evaluated the current condition and calculated the projected outcome. Current condition: Soul inactive. Projected outcome: Complete dissipation. Estimated remaining existence... Rapidly decreasing.

The decision became unavoidable. The System could either intervene and risk altering the established laws governing the experiment, or it could remain inactive and allow Subject Blackmore's soul to disappear before the experiment had even begun. The System selected intervention. Emergency reserves opened. The accumulated resources were transferred directly into the damaged foundation of the soul, targeting the missing component that prevented the subject from maintaining its own existence.

Will to Live: -100 → -99 → -59 → -30 → -10 → 0 Transfer complete. The warning disappeared. Exactly one second later, another notification replaced it. Emergency intervention detected. World laws will be significantly altered. Acknowledged. Confirmed. Proceed. If the intervention altered the world, then that consequence would be accepted. Allowing Subject Blackmore to disappear before the experiment could begin was no longer an acceptable outcome. The soul stabilized. Barely.

However, the System immediately detected another inconsistency. Zero should have represented a restored baseline. A normal starting point. A foundation from which growth could occur. Yet the expected change did not appear. The System initiated another scan, not examining personality this time, but instead examining the deeper motivations behind the subject's recorded actions. Generosity. Within acceptable parameters. Self-sacrifice. Exceptionally high. Approved.... The evaluation stopped. Something failed to align.

The System separated the results and compared them independently. Giving. Normal. Subservience. Exceptionally high. The distinction was significant. One represented an individual choosing to help another person despite recognizing their own value and willingly sacrificing something meaningful. The other represented an individual who believed they possessed so little value that serving others became the only acceptable purpose they could provide.

The System traced every recorded decision belonging to Subject Blackmore. Every sacrifice. Every compromise. Every apology. Every moment where the subject remained silent instead of defending themself. Every instance where their own needs were ignored in favor of someone else's. The pattern became undeniable. Subject Blackmore did not place others first because they valued those people more than themselves.

Subject Blackmore placed themself last because they believed there was almost nothing within them worth protecting. What appeared to be kindness was not simply generosity. It was self-erasure disguised as virtue. No valid correction existed. Rewarding the behavior would reinforce the destruction of the subject's remaining identity. Punishing the behavior would treat apparent kindness as a flaw and damage the very qualities that appeared valuable. Neither option increased Subject Value.

Neither option matched the framework the System had been designed to follow. For the first time since its creation, the System searched its database not for an answer, but for a previous example that could provide guidance. There was none. No comparable subject. No recommendation. No established protocol. A final report compiled automatically. Evaluation Complete. Subject Classification... The cursor remained motionless as the System attempted to place Subject Blackmore into an existing category.

No available classification matched the collected data. After several failed attempts, the System generated a new classification entirely. First Live Experiment