As soon as my hand touched the surface of the crystal, the skin on my entire arm began to turn translucent.
Chen Hao abruptly pulled his hand back and looked down. His arm looked like it had been soaked in water; the edges were blurry, and even the veins were indistinct. He subconsciously touched his face. Fortunately, his features were still there, but the sensation from his fingertips was somewhat ethereal, like squeezing a warm wisp of mist.
"Am I about to die?" he asked.
Nana had already brought up the scanning interface, her finger swiping across the data stream floating in the air, her brow furrowing slightly. "Your material stability is declining, and the frequency and mineral source synchronization rate are over 95%. One more step forward, and there might be no turning back."
So now it's the last day of the return period?
"almost."
"If I suddenly turn into a beam of light, would that be considered a work-related injury?"
Nana didn't reply, but simply waved her hand in front of his eyes to confirm that his pupils were still responding. Then she activated the motion-anchoring program, and a thin energy line, as fine as a hair, extended from her fingertip and gently touched Chen Hao's wrist. A faint current flowed up his veins, and his heartbeat was gradually brought back on track.
“Don’t move,” she said. “If you take a step now, you might step into another timeline.”
"So, if I stand here, does that count as cross-dimensional employment?"
The ground suddenly shook, not like an earthquake with its up-and-down jolting, but more like being pushed from the side. Chen Hao staggered two steps, almost falling over, but when he looked up, he found something strange about the sky—three hundred meters above his head, the air looked like the bottom of a glass had cracked, the edges slightly distorted, and the light passing through it curved in an eerie arc.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing to the crack.
“Spatial folds.” Nana stared at the data stream. “Anomalies in the gravity gradient and drastic changes in local spacetime density. This may be a side effect caused by the resonance between the crystals and the mineral source within your body.”
"So I'm a walking cosmic accident?"
"At present, yes."
Another wave of energy surged, this time even making Nana sway. Her electronic eyes flashed blue light a few times, the system briefly froze, and after restarting, immediately issued an alarm: "Multidimensional projection signal detected, about to materialize."
"What do you mean?"
"Someone is about to come out."
Before the words were finished, the crack suddenly expanded, like a torn piece of cloth, and black mist poured out. Then, a figure slowly emerged—wearing a tattered coat, with a stubble-covered face and cloudy eyes, staring intently at Chen Hao.
Chen Hao opened his mouth: "Who is this? My funeral photo after I gained ten pounds?"
The man didn't speak, but simply raised his hand and extended it towards him.
Nana instantly stepped in front of him, a laser blade unfolding in her palm. "Don't touch him! Contact will cause your consciousness to synchronize, and once synchronized, your existence will be diluted."
"So he really is me?"
"At least for you under certain choices."
A second figure emerged, impeccably dressed in a suit, wearing a diamond-encrusted mechanical watch on his wrist, a cold smile playing on his lips. Without even glancing at Chen Hao in reality, he walked directly toward the mineral crystal.
"Is this the version of me who made my fortune and then successfully ran away?"
"Energy profile matches 86 percent," Nana quickly analyzed. "The mental model shows extreme selfishness; removal is recommended."
"Wait a minute!" Chen Hao's eyes widened. "You're saying this is me from a parallel universe? Does that mean he also thinks he's the real me?"
“Each observer sees themselves as the center,” Nana said calmly, “but they cannot coexist.”
The third and fourth appeared one after another. Some were kneeling on the ground trembling, some were holding homemade weapons and laughing wildly, and one simply sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and meditated, as if waiting to ascend to heaven.
The most outrageous version was one where the person was so thin they looked unrecognizable. They were carrying a half-empty bottle of chili sauce and yelled at Chen Hao, "Where the hell have you been?! I've been starving for three days just to wait for you to come back and have a hot meal!"
"This...this is too tragic." Chen Hao shrank his neck.
“The emotional trauma index is too high,” Nana whispered. “This version has experienced prolonged resource scarcity and social isolation.”
"It sounds even less reliable than me."
The crack widened, and more and more figures emerged, each with different movements and expressions, yet all carrying a certain obsession. Some shouted at Chen Hao, "You chose the wrong path!", some lunged directly at the ore source, and others stood still, watching everything indifferently, as if watching a farce.
A hand suddenly reached out from the ground and wrapped around Chen Hao's ankle; it was cold and real. He looked down and saw that the hand was exactly like his, with dirt under its fingernails.
"Let go!" He swung his leg forcefully.
Nana slashed with her laser, severing the arm instantly. It lay on the ground, still twitching. There was no blood at the cut, only a flowing silver light that evaporated after a few seconds.
"Warning in effect." Nana withdrew her hand. "Contact equals synchronization, synchronization equals splitting. Every time you accept the existence of 'another you,' you lose a part of your right to define yourself."
So I'm now a limited edition?
"You are the only original sample that has not been contaminated."
Chen Hao took a breath and looked at the chaotic group of people in front of him, suddenly feeling absurd. "I said... can we sit down and talk? After all, we're all DNA people who understand each other perfectly."
Nobody paid him any attention.
The man in the suit was almost touching the mineral crystal. The moment his fingertips touched the surface, his entire body began to glow, as if he wanted to merge into it.
"No," Chen Hao gritted his teeth. "No one can make this decision for me."
He bent down, picked up a sharp rock, weighed it in his hand, and hurled it at the nearest version of himself.
The stone flew through the shadows, missing its target but creating a ripple in the air, as if it had crashed into water. For a moment, everyone froze.
Immediately afterwards, the crack exploded open, and countless Chen Haos turned to look at him in unison, their eyes unchanging and devoid of emotion.
"Oh no." He swallowed hard. "I think I've angered everyone."
Nana quickly took a half step back, unfolding the electromagnetic cannon's charging array in her palm. "Prepare to take cover."
"Hide my ass! They all have my face, where can I hide?"
The first one to rush over was the starving version, yelling "food!" with bloodshot eyes. Chen Hao kicked him, and the two collided and rolled on the ground. He smelled a sour odor on the other person, unable to tell if it was sweat or the smell of despair pickled for too long.
Another version, dressed in a leather jacket, pulled out a rusty knife and headed straight for the mine.
Nana locked onto the target, and the electromagnetic cannon fired its high-frequency shockwave instantly. With a bang, the leather-clad man and the three phantoms behind him disintegrated, turning into fragments of light and dissipating.
"Don't kill them!" Chen Hao shouted, "They are...it's me."
“If you don’t kill them, they will devour you,” Nana said calmly. “Every choice will create a new universe, but only one of you can stay here.”
Another wave surged forward, this time the group that had been silently observing. They neither attacked nor approached; they simply stood there, looking at him with the same eyes, as if judging him.
Chen Hao felt a burning sensation in his nose, and when he wiped it, his hand was covered in bright red blood. He wiped the blood from his nose onto his pants and laughed: "You think that's all I'm capable of? Fat, lazy, can't even cheat on exams? But I'm standing here now, not running away, not kneeling, and not becoming any of you."
He pointed to the crack, "You are all shadows of the past, but I am still alive and making choices."
Taking the opportunity, Nana adjusted the muzzle angle and aimed at the core of the fissure. "Final charge."
"Wait a minute." Chen Hao stood up, facing the group of people he knew. "I want to try something else."
He grabbed another rock, not to smash it, but to slam it to the ground. Shards flew everywhere, one of them grazing his palm, drawing blood that dripped onto the rock.
The moment the blood touched the ground, all the phantoms' movements faltered for half a second.
“I see,” he murmured. “You have no wounds, right? You are all the result, only I am still going through the process.”
Nana understood; the electromagnetic cannon's charging had been converted into directional pulses. "You want to prove you're alive through pain?"
"Otherwise what? I can't write code or solve quantum equations."
She nodded. "Launch in three seconds, avoiding your area."
"Thanks, partner."
As the countdown began, the phantoms started to stir. Some reached out to pull, some opened their mouths to roar, and some simply closed their eyes to wait for the fusion.
The electromagnetic cannon roared to life, its high-frequency shockwave piercing through the void and striking the very center of the rift. A deafening explosion, like shattering glass, erupted, causing the entire space to tremble violently. All the projections, like images with a broken signal, crackled and vanished.
The black mist dissipated, the crack slowly closed, and the last ripple twisted a few times in the air before returning to calm.
Chen Hao plopped down on the ground, his nose still bleeding, and the wound on his hand burning painfully. He looked up at the sky; the clouds had closed again, and the sunlight slanted down, unbelievably warm.
“So…” he gasped, “I’m not the strongest, nor the smartest, but I’m here, the one who’s really bleeding from the nose.”
Nana walked to his side and placed her hand on his shoulder. The temperature wasn't high, but it was steady.
“You are not the key, nor the battery,” she said. “You are the choice itself.”
A gust of wind blew across the rocky plain, stirring up a few grains of sand and gravel. The outline of the base was clearly visible in the distance, and the mineral spheres floated quietly in place, their honeycomb-like holes no longer flickering, as if they were asleep.
Chen Hao stared at the crystal and suddenly grinned: "You know... if I ran over and smashed it now, wouldn't some other version of myself jump out and curse me?"
Nana didn't answer, but gently held his wrist to check his pulse.
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