How did John Searle reply to the systems response to the Chinese room argument?

The "systems response" to the Chinese room argument posits that while the individual inside the room does not understand Chinese, the system as a whole—comprising the person, the manual, and the instructions—does possess understanding.

John Searle replied to this by arguing that the other components of the system are unnecessary for the core issue of understanding. He proposed a thought experiment where the person in the room memorizes the entire manual and all the instructions, effectively internalizing the entire system. Searle argued that even in this scenario, where the person performs the symbol manipulation entirely on their own without external aids, they still would not possess any genuine understanding of the meaning behind the Chinese characters.12