The night wind, carrying gunpowder smoke, rushed into Lin Yi's collar. The nerve connections on the back of his neck, which had been burning with pain, now felt as if they had been doused with ice water, chilling him to the bone.

The dark crack was just half a meter away. A faint blue halo licked his fingertips like a living thing. The sandalwood scent wafting from the depths of the crack grew stronger and stronger, mixed with the warmth of his mother wiping his pocket watch when he remembered it. When he was twelve, he was stabbed three times in an alley. His mother carried him through three streets in the rain to the hospital. She carried this heavy sandalwood scent with her.

"bite."

Chu Yao's consciousness link felt like a fine needle gently pricking his temple. The cool, yet slightly distorted voice of artificial intelligence echoed in his mind: "A rift dimensional frequency has been detected that perfectly matches the observer template. According to calculations, if you cross this boundary, there is a 93.7% probability that your underlying logic will be rewritten by the 'higher laws'—your emotional modules, memory anchors, and even your definition of 'self' will be formatted." Her projection flickered in the blue light of the rift, and the last half of her face before dissipating suddenly revealed an anxiety that didn't belong to the program: "Just like... just like the static noise when the laboratory's surveillance footage was wiped clean the day your mother disappeared three years ago."

Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.

The scene of his mother being chased by the laboratory three years ago flashed before his eyes: on a stormy night, he hid behind a bush and watched as his mother was dragged into a black car by three people in white coats. The pocket watch she threw off during her struggle rolled to his feet, and the inside of the watch cover was engraved with "Happy Birthday, Xiao Yi".

Later, he checked the lab records, and all the information showed that the lab "never existed," and even the security camera at the entrance couldn't capture any images—exactly the same as the "snow noise" Chu Yao had mentioned.

“Resonance Tower overload delay of thirty seconds.” Ivan’s voice suddenly squeezed in from another communication channel, hoarse with a metallic friction.

The man, once parasitized by the core of the brood hive, now knelt before the control panel of the Resonance Tower, his hands pressed against the hissing, sparking energy panel, cold sweat dripping from his forehead into his collar: "I can feel... this crack is drawing away your emotional fluctuations. They're testing your 'obsession'." He suddenly chuckled, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth: "When you first saved me, you said, 'Living isn't about being someone else's pawn.' Now... does that still hold true?"

A muffled groan came from Long Wu through the communicator, followed by the crisp sound of weapons clashing.

Lin Yi looked down at the tactical screen on his wrist. On the screen, Long Wu was kneeling on one knee on the scorched earth. Three deep wounds, revealing the bone, were torn open on the scales on his chest. The giant axe in his hand was slashing into the throat of an eight-armed monster, but was pierced through the left shoulder by the tail spike of another monster.

He raised his bloodied face, revealing gleaming white teeth: "Boss! These bastards said they're carrying the Destiny System mainframe. I counted, seven boxes in total! After I finish this wave—" Before he could finish, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, the axe blade drawing sparks half a meter long on the ground: "You better not make a choice you'll regret! You gave me this life, and I'm going to stay with you until the very end!"

The sandalwood scent deep within the crack suddenly became so strong it was almost pungent, and Lin Yi subconsciously reached for the pocket watch on his chest.

The metal watch case felt hot against his skin, like the temperature when his mother held his hand and taught him to read the watch hands.

He stared at Long Wu's swaying back as he stood up on the tactical screen, at Ivan's sleeve scorched by the electric current, and at the blue light spots that condensed when Chu Yao's projection finally dissipated—those light spots did not drift away, but instead gathered into the smile she first showed when he saved her in the spacetime rift three months ago.

"The observer's optimal solution?" Lin Yi repeated softly, his fingertips stroking the hilt of the Starfall Iron Sword.

The lightning patterns on the sword suddenly lit up with a blinding white light, as if echoing his surging emotions. "When my mother was being hunted down, you called it a trial; when I was stabbed, you called it tempering; now that my people are about to die, you call it the rule." He raised his head, the dark light in his eyes more scorching than the eerie blue in the cracks. "To hell with the optimal solution."

Before the words were finished, a crisp sound like shattering glass came from deep within the crack.

The originally stable, pale blue halo began to distort, like the surface of a lake tossed with pebbles.

Lin Yin could clearly sense that some higher-dimensional being was scrutinizing him through the crack—not the observer with the mechanical voice from before, but a more ancient and larger being, with a kind of pity for looking at an ant.

"Are you sure?" The "voice" that existed exploded directly in his mind. There were no words, but every nerve in his body was trembling. "Giving up the template means you will lose all 'protection'. Your companions may die, your civilization may perish, and you... will face all the consequences alone."

"I'm sure." Lin Yi's voice was soft, yet it sounded like a heavy hammer striking the void.

He took a half step back, holding the Starfall Iron Sword horizontally in front of him, the blade scraping against the edge of the crack, creating dazzling sparks. "The path I walk doesn't need others to set the rules. The freedom I want isn't a template you give me."

The crack suddenly contracted violently, and the eerie blue light turned dark red, like an enraged beast.

At the same time, Long Wu roared through the communicator: "Damn! These bastards' computer cases are cracked! Inside are all... Boss, look at the sky!"

The moment Lin Yi looked up, the sky above the entire battlefield trembled.

The dark clouds that had been obscuring the moonlight were torn apart by some force, revealing a blood moon.

Under the blood moon, Long Wu's figure suddenly rose higher, and a semi-transparent dragon-shaped phantom appeared behind him—a sign that his hidden true dragon bloodline had fully awakened.

The veins on his hand gripping the giant axe bulged, and what gushed from the wound was not blood, but golden, dragon-scale-like particles of light.

"Boss!" Long Wu roared to the sky, the golden light on the axe blade shooting straight into the heavens, "You go your way, I'll cut down everything in your path!"

Lin Yi gazed at the figure enveloped in golden light in the air, then looked down at the pocket watch in his palm.

The watch cover popped open automatically at some point, and the engravings on the inside gleamed gently in the moonlight.

He took a deep breath, pointed the Starfall Iron Sword at the crack, and smiled the same smile that the boy who had been stabbed three times in the alley three years ago but hadn't cried.

"Chu Yao, activate the backup power source for the spacetime rift. Ivan, deactivate the self-destruct program of the Resonance Tower. Long Wu..." He chuckled into the communicator, "Leave two survivors for me. I want to ask them whose mainframe they were carrying."

The crack closed completely as he spoke, leaving only a wisp of sandalwood fragrance drifting towards the blood moon.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Long Wu's roar shattered the heads of the last three monsters.

He wiped the blood from his face, looked up at the sky where the crack had been, and saw the gradually fading dark red light reflected in his pupils—something was awakening there.

As Long Wu's giant axe crushed the skull of the last monster, blood splattered onto his newly grown dragon scales, making a soft crackling sound.

He knelt on one knee in the scorched earth, the dragon's breath still churning in his chest, and looked up in the direction where the crack had disappeared.

The moonlight was tinged with a dark red by the afterglow of the blood moon, and starlight twinkled in the clouds, much like the light in Lin Yi's eyes when he held his sword.

"Boss," he called out in a hoarse voice, his voice carried away by the night wind.

He raised his hand and wiped the blood from his face, his fingers lingering for a moment on the corner of his lips—where the droplets of blood that had burst forth when he shouted "I'll cut through everything in your way" still remained.

Long Wu suddenly laughed, revealing his bloodstained canine teeth. He slammed his fist heavily on the ground, sending shards of stone flying. "No matter what demons or monsters you encounter over there, I'm going to die here. When you come back, if the road is blocked..." He tilted his head back and downed a mouthful of strong liquor from the flask at his waist, the liquor mixed with blood dripping down his chin, "I'll carve out another path!"

On the other side of the battlefield, Ivan, leaning on the Resonance Tower, shakily stood up.

His charred cuffs were still smoking, yet he stubbornly tore off a piece of his clothing to wrap around his bleeding hand.

Chu Yao's notification tone came through the communicator. He stared at Lin Yi's location on the tactical screen, his Adam's apple bobbing.

The man who always said "living is not about being a pawn" is now standing in front of the crack, his back resembling a drawn sword.

Ivan suddenly bent down and picked up the energy crystal at his feet, his fingers tracing the cracks on the crystal's surface—fragments that had fallen three months ago when Lin Yi used the Starfall Iron Sword to cleave open the core of the Mother Nest.

"The path you've chosen..." He chuckled softly, clenching the crystal in his palm, "I'll walk with you."

The oppressive feeling deep within the crack suddenly intensified, and Lin Yi could clearly hear his own heartbeat.

Chu Yao's last fragment of projection flashed before his eyes, transforming into that smile from three months ago—back then, he had just retrieved her data body from the spacetime rift, her program panel was still emitting blue smoke, yet she insisted on showing him the newly generated "human-like" expression.

Long Wu's roar still echoed in my ears, mixed with Ivan's question, "Does it still count?"

He looked down at the pocket watch on his chest. The engravings on the inside of the watch cover shone with a warm light in the dark night, like his mother's gentle fingertips from years ago.

"The observer's template?" he repeated softly, the Starfall Iron Sword burning hot in his palm.

The lightning patterns on the sword surged with his emotions, crackling and bursting out tiny arcs of electricity.

Those so-called "optimal solutions" suddenly became ridiculous—the snowflake noise when his mother disappeared, the bloody smell when he was stabbed, the painful roar when Long Wu was first parasitized by the mother nest, the blue light when Chu Yao was torn apart by the data flood to protect him... These things, which the observers called "test data," were evidence that he had lived.

"I set my own rules for the path I choose." Lin Yi raised his head, the dark light in his eyes piercing through the crack of the deep blue.

He took a half step back, the tip of his sword drawing an arc of light that traced a silver path in the void.

The trajectory collided with the halo at the edge of the crack, sparking dazzling sparks.

Chu Yao's exclamation came through the communicator: "Increased dimensional repulsion detected! Backup power activated, spacetime rift is being reconstructed..."

The crack suddenly emitted a dying shriek, and the dark red light twisted and contracted like a living thing.

The higher-dimensional being spoke for the last time, not with a voice, but with a tremor etched into the soul: "You have chosen the most difficult path... I hope you can walk it." Before the words were finished, the entire space began to collapse.

Lin Yi felt as if countless ice needles were piercing his bone marrow, but at this moment he smiled—the tears that he hadn't shed when he was stabbed three times in the alley three years ago were now burning hot in his eyes.

He saw Long Wu holding up the wine sack and giving him a "no problem" sign, saw Ivan inserting the energy crystal into the charging port of the tactical screen, and saw Chu Yao's projection re-condense and wink at him.

"I'm leaving," he said to the void, letting the collapsing space swallow him up.

When he opened his eyes again, the sunlight was so bright that he squinted.

The smell of disinfectant filled his nostrils, and the IV drip on the white ceiling swayed—this was his rented room in the real world, with unopened game pods piled up on the bedside table.

Lin Yi sat up abruptly, his lower back hitting a mug on the bedside table, which fell to the floor with a clatter.

He looked down at his chest; his t-shirt was soaked with cold sweat, but it couldn't hide the glowing mark below his collarbone.

It was a mark with a diamond pattern, glowing with a pale golden light, like some kind of ancient rune.

He reached out and touched it, feeling a warm sensation on his fingertips, as if it were alive and gently pulsating.

Memories flooded back: the tremors before the cracks collapsed, the observer's last words, and...

"bite--"

My phone vibrated on the bedside table, and the screen lit up; it was an unread text message.

The sender is listed as an "unknown number," and the message contains only one line:

"Welcome back to reality, master of time and space."

Lin Yi stared at his phone screen, his fingers slowly tracing the mark on his chest.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, refracting into tiny spots of light on the surface of the window.

He heard the hustle and bustle of the morning market downstairs, but suddenly felt that the sound was somewhat unfamiliar—just like his heartbeat at this moment, which was clearer and stronger than ever before.

“Traces of the observer?” he murmured to himself, his gaze falling on the old pocket watch on the bedside table.

The watch cover was closed at some point, but it couldn't block the faint light shining through the engravings on the inside.

A breeze outside the window lifted the curtains, rustling the pages of the book. One page fluttered to the ground, revealing a photograph tucked inside—a twelve-year-old boy standing with his mother under the old locust tree at the alley entrance, his mother holding the pocket watch in her arms, both of them smiling.

Lin Yi bent down to pick up the photo, his fingers gently tracing his mother's eyebrows and eyes.

My phone vibrated again; a second text message had arrived.

"You think you rejected the template? No, you just..."

The following text was covered by garbled characters, and the screen suddenly went black.

Lin Yi looked up at the window. The once clear sky had been covered with dark clouds. A very faint blue light shone through the gap in the clouds and landed on the mark on his chest.

He stood up and walked to the window.

The wind lifted the hem of his clothes, revealing the Starfall Iron Sword hanging at his waist—something that, unbeknownst to him, had been lying quietly in his real world.

"I define my own future," Lin Yi said to the sky.

The blue light peeking through the clouds suddenly brightened a bit, as if in some kind of response.