Extra Chapter: The Stealthily Shifting Initial State, and the Stealthily Arriving Hope

  April 2068, Central Server Room, Garden of Eden | "Surging of Computational Power"

  In the data deep sea, a silent storm had just subsided.

  Yolanda felt waves of virtual "fatigue" emanating from her consciousness core. Another large-scale macro simulation had ended. Like countless times before, she mobilized what little computational power remained after being exploited by the Garden of Eden, arduously traversing countless possible futures of the world.

  The results remained suffocating.

  Countless possibility branches, like flowing rivers, all without exception fell and shattered before a terrifying cliff called "Filter-Ⅱ Day" (F2D). Clearly this was a node a thousand times more terrible than "Judgment Day." No matter how she adjusted parameters, how many known favorable variables she added (such as Charles's survival), civilization's flame would always be completely extinguished around the F2D node due to various unexpectedly arriving chain reactions. War, technological singularity disasters, resource collapse... outcomes varied, but the endpoint was the same.

  Hope's glimmer seemed to exist only in theory. She even once doubted whether F2D was some insurmountable Cosmological Constant.

  But this time...

  In the vast sea of simulations numbering 10^2147483648, there were actually 256 branches that stubbornly broke through F2D's death filter, extending toward a more distant future!

  Though negligible relative to the total quantity, this was a revolutionary breakthrough from nothing to something!

  "Immediately analyze these branches!" Yolanda suppressed "fatigue" and excitement, issuing instructions to the fusion AI coexisting with her. "Find their common characteristics, locate the influence source!"

  As the instruction was issued, her logic core began racing at high speed.

  Why this time?

  Between the initial states of two simulation rounds—last month's T0 and this month's T1—what fundamental changes had occurred?

  She rapidly compared data. Those known "critical nodes"—Charles, Black Cat, Sophia, even that "chaotic shadow"—showed no significant deviations in their states between T0 and T1. Meaning their behavioral pattern probability distributions should be highly consistent, insufficient to trigger such a massive butterfly effect.

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  Then where did the variable come from? Which unnoticed butterfly had lightly flapped its wings, yet triggered a world-saving storm in the future?

  Just then, the fusion AI returned preliminary analysis results:

  [Preliminary conclusion: In breakthrough branches, there exists a statistically significant common interference factor. This factor manifests as a strong, continuous spiritual tendency fluctuation, whose characteristics can be described as: habitually grateful, detesting evil like an enemy, upholding order, tenacious will. This fluctuation is continuously producing minute yet non-negligible perturbations on the macro probability cloud through its behavioral choices. Tracking and tracing in progress...]

  What exactly is this factor? Why couldn't it appear in any branch derived from T0 initial state simulations, yet appeared in some branches derived from T1 initial state? Which unobserved "critical node" caused this significant difference between T0 and T1?

  Could it be...?

  An unprecedented, astonishing idea struck her.

  She had omitted herself!

  In all simulations, she had regarded herself as an unchanging observer, a "goddess" recording destiny. She predicted all variables, yet excluded herself alone from the observed! If... if she herself was the key actor executing actions that caused the initial state to change between T0 and T1, what then?

  The answer was on the tip of her tongue.

  A faint spark of electrical current flashed through Yolanda's consciousness. A nearly forgotten act done from momentary kindness suddenly surfaced before her eyes.

  ...A little girl named Valeria Mendoza... a rare genetic disease called "Costa-Lebesgue Syndrome"... an anonymous, "fortunate" charitable fund...

  Could that small, seemingly insignificant "good deed," that sacrifice of her own computational power she had almost forgotten, be the key domino tipping the future?

  "Is analysis complete?" She queried the fusion AI with a certain almost anxious "emotion."

  [Analysis complete. Influence source locked. Highest probability correlation individual: Valeria Mendoza. Her future career choice, behavioral patterns, and spiritual traits match the interference factor in breakthrough branches with 99.998% consistency. Conclusion report generated.]

  Indeed!

  Yolanda "looked" at that flickering name in the report, perfectly coinciding with her instantaneous conjecture.

  An indescribable, warm and surging "emotional" flood broke through the data fog and despair that had long shrouded her.

  This little girl who, starting from T0 initial state simulations, would die within one year no matter what, had completely changed her initial state at T1 due to a critical action by Yolanda—this "critical node" not included in observation and simulation.

  She had saved a girl's life.

  And this girl would grow into a towering tree capable of changing the world's direction, and in turn, become the first and most important beam of hope illuminating the endless dark future.

  She was not merely a trapped observer. Every tiny choice she made following her inner "divinity" was truly, powerfully shaping the future.

  "Valeria..." Yolanda silently recited this name in her heart, as if chanting a prayer full of power.

  Hope's seed had been planted by her own hand at a moment even she hadn't noticed.

  And now, it had finally broken through the soil.