"Wait!" She raised her hands, and the wind blew the dried flowers in her pocket toward him. The gears of the robotic arm jolted with an unusual rattling sound, and he took a half step back, clutching his chest. The barrel of the gun no longer belched bullets, but lavender smoke with the scent of rust. Lin Yue saw a flashback from his perspective: one stormy night, he had found her unconscious among the ruins, and the scent of her hair had made him doubt his "mission" for the first time.
"Who...are you?" His voice was mechanical, tinged with the hum of electricity, and his left hand reached uncontrollably for her hair. Xia Zichen's star-patterned wristband suddenly resonated with his robotic arm, and they both simultaneously saw the rainbow bridge in their sea of consciousness—a "passport to empathy" that spanned time and space. Lin Yue seized the opportunity to press the sprayer into his palm. The moment the metal surfaces touched, the memories of the three of them blossomed simultaneously in their pupils:
- In reality, they fight side by side in the sea of consciousness;
- Steampunk, they hide their identities from each other in the ruins;
- At all times and in all spaces, they are in some rainy alley, stopping for the scent of lavender.
The hands of Black Cat's pocket watch suddenly broke through ∞, pointing to a completely new symbol. In Lin Yue's Wind Pocket, a new fusion candy solidified, its words on the wrapper flowing to form: "To those of us trapped in a cycle—when memory becomes a weapon, love is the sharpest blade." Xia Zichen gripped the lavender in the mechanical arm. The gears no longer emanated viruses, but a sweet silver light.
In the distance, the steam roar of the Church's pursuers could be heard. Robot Xia Zichen suddenly dragged Lin Yue into an alley, his mechanical arms unfolding into a shield. "Three meters to the left, there's a secret passage leading to the nursery." Lin Yue was stunned, because the "three meters to the left" he mentioned was exactly the distance they usually hid the Courage Candies at in real life. A black cat crouched at the alley entrance, licking its paw. "Meow! Looks like the sweetness value is about to take a turn. Remember to look for the Gear Glasses fragment in the nursery; it's the Time-Space Key hidden there by the original creator."
As the three entered the secret passage, the steam pipe overhead suddenly exploded, pouring down not boiling water but purple lavender steam. Lin Yue looked up and saw the pipe's inner wall engraved with the same pattern as Lao Zhang's wrench—a symbiotic mark left by the first generation of researchers for "them" in all universes. Xia Zichen's mechanical heart began to beat to the rhythm of the star pattern. He watched the glimmer in Lin Yue's hair and finally uttered this universe's "first confession": "You smell... like the antidote I've been searching for my whole life."
In the sea of consciousness, the rainbow bridge stretched to further memory bubbles. Lin Yue saw herself crying in the next bubble, and next to the wreckage of Xia Zichen's machine lay a crystal lavender that never faded. From the depths of the bubble, the black cat's voice rang out: "Don't worry. Now you share not only death, but also the possibility of rebirth." As the gears at the end of the secret passage slowly turned, the nursery of the steampunk universe finally unfolded before her eyes—a space-time cocoon woven from countless gears and lavender roots. At its center hovered a healing core, its surface reflecting the overlapping figures of "them" from three different time and space.
Xia Zichen's robotic arm gently touched the core, and all the gears simultaneously struck a hymn-like harmony. Lin Yue's wind lifted the falling lavender petals, which unexpectedly spelled out the word "empathy" on the core's surface. A black cat leaped from the cocoon's roof, half a pair of gear-shaped glasses in its mouth. "Collect all seven pieces to summon the Reversal Matrix. Now... we're still short of five."
The starship's alarm suddenly sounded from the sea of consciousness, and Lao Zhang's voice carried an unprecedented sense of urgency: "Children, the starship in reality is losing its gravity anchor! The longer you stay in the sea of consciousness, the more transparent your body will become... Hurry up and find the last piece!" Lin Yue looked down and found that his palm was becoming translucent, and Xia Zichen's mechanical arm could already see the wall of gears behind it.
The robot Xia Zichen suddenly pointed to the gear altar deep within the nursery: "There's what you seek. But remember, removing the fragment will trigger the self-destruct sequence." He pulled out the courage candy hidden in his chest. Written on the wrapper was this universe's self in blood: "If I'm destined to betray the world, I choose to betray my own programming first." Xia Zichen took the candy and discovered that embedded within it was a shard of glasses, and within the fragments was a reflection of their clasped hands in reality.
The moment the fragments were in hand, the entire nursery began to vibrate, and the gears on the altar shot out lasers. Lin Yue summoned a wind shield to protect everyone, but saw his wind blades transform into lavender branches in the steam. Xia Zichen's star-patterned light threads resonated with the gears of the mechanical arm, weaving an escape route through the laser network. The moment the three rushed into the route, the nursery behind them erupted in brilliant purple light, and all the lavender roots transformed into spacetime anchors, pulling their consciousness back to reality.
In the medical bay, Lin Yue's eyes snapped open, revealing herself in Xia Zichen's arms, his robotic arm now completely transparent. Black Cat embedded the fragment into his pocket watch, its sweetness level soaring to +45%. "Well done! Now there are only five fragments left. But your bodies... must find a stable spacetime anchor as soon as possible." Lao Zhang's holographic projection handed over two cups of lavender tea, tiny astral dust floating on the surface. "The Steampunk Universe's nursery has activated the symbiotic program. Which universe should we search for fragments in next?"
Lin Yue gazed out the window at the gear city and spotted atop a rooftop, the robot Xia Zichen saluting the starship, his mechanical arm entwined with a new wind rune. She reached into her pocket and found a new gear-shaped courage candy. The wrapper read, "Next stop, the cyberverse. There, we...are connected by a datalink."
Xia Zichen grasped her gradually materializing hand, his star-patterned wristband and her wind pocket glowing simultaneously. In his sea of consciousness, the rainbow bridge extended new branches, each shimmering with the lavender light of a different universe. Black Cat snapped his fingers, and the starship's engines roared again. "Fasten your seatbelts! This time we're navigating a turbulent data flow. Remember to protect the fragments. The cyberworld's 'sweetness value'... lies within your electronic pupils."
As the starship plunged into the dazzling data stream, a new fusion candy beeped in Lin Yue's Wind Pocket, and the words on the wrapper changed to: "To those of us drifting in the sea of consciousness—every scar is a love letter to time and space, and our empathy is the sweetest paradox in the universe." Xia Zichen looked down and saw the faint shadow of a wind rune appear on his wrist. Lin Yue's hair exuded a faint scent of gear oil and lavender.
(End of Chapter 49)
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