Before the excruciating pain had completely subsided, the rhombus-shaped crystal in Lin Yi's palm suddenly began to burn, as if it wanted to melt his flesh and soul into that star-like stream of light.
His pupils constricted sharply—this was not the warmth of the Seven Keys merging, but a corrosive, burning pain, as if countless fine needles were drilling into his bone marrow.
"Click—"
The void emitted a crisp sound like shattering glass.
Lin Yi staggered half a step, and the scene before him began to distort.
On the left, the afterimages of the Air Force members charging forward drifted by; on the right, a scene flashed of discussing defense deployments with Chu Yao at the Real Alliance headquarters three days ago; and above, a cloud of blood mist even exploded—a scene from three days later where a subordinate was pierced through the chest by an alien spike.
The timeline, like a tangled ball of yarn, overlapped wildly on his retina.
"Boss!" Long Wu's roar exploded from the communicator, accompanied by static, "Coordinate positioning failed!"
The walls on our side are melting, and the remnants of the insect swarm are frantically burrowing into the cracks—"
Before he could finish speaking, a semi-transparent fragment of space grazed Lin Yi's left arm. The blood droplet was pulled back to the wound by the reversed time flow, condensing into a small, pale red dot on his skin.
He gripped the crystal tightly, his knuckles turning white: "Chu Yao, locate the source of the anomaly!"
"Scanning in progress—"
The mechanical voice was half a beat slower than usual, and Chu Yao's holographic projection rose from the terminal on his wrist, with a few strands of garbled data floating around in his hair.
Her fingertips tapped rapidly in the air, and the silver chip on her forehead flashed a sharp red light: "Dimensional collapse wave detected, source... is the remnant consciousness of the Mother Nest core." Countless purplish-black ripples appeared on the projected virtual screen: "Before being sealed, Night Owl triggered a self-destruct protocol. He wants to drag reality and the game dimension into chaos, even if it means his own annihilation, he will take the entire civilization down with him."
"So those time turbulences are..." Lin Yi gritted his teeth, swallowing the metallic taste rising in his throat. He saw the dark figure ten meters away suddenly freeze, then reappear simultaneously on his left and right sides. "Is it a side effect of dimensional overlap?"
"Correct." Chu Yao's pupils narrowed to slits, a sign of her fluctuating emotions. "When the difference in the flow rate of time between two or more dimensions exceeds a critical value, it will form... a time ghost." She pointed to the semi-transparent figure that suddenly appeared at Lin Yi's feet—it was himself, holding the key to the Gate of Creation, his face still showing the excitement of having just merged the seven keys.
"Now is not a good time to look back."
Xuanmingzi's voice came from behind.
The old man, who always wore a blue robe, was now ashen-faced, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the jade pendant at his waist—the last anchor point for his remnant soul as the game's main brain. "There's only one way to stop the collapse," he suddenly grabbed Lin Yi's wrist, a chilling sensation emanating from his palm, "Use 'Eternal Zero'."
Lin Yi's breath hitched.
He had seen this mythical-level profound technique in the inherited memories of the [Time and Space Dominator]: when activated, it would use itself as a medium to reset the timeline of a specific dimension to a certain node, completely erasing all traces of the intruder.
But the price...
"You will be locked in the cracks of time." Xuan Mingzi's Adam's apple bobbed, his eyes seeming to etch Lin Yi's face into his memory. "The 'you' in all timelines will disappear, including those in reality, those in the game, and even those who might exist in the future." He released his grip, his blue robe billowing in the turbulent current. "I checked the data left behind by the mainframe; this is the most feared killing move by the Mother Nest, which is why Night Owl was in such a hurry to perish together with her—he knew you might use this move."
"Is there any other way?" Long Wu's voice suddenly rang out from beside him.
Before anyone knew it, this burly man covered in dragon scales and battle patterns had squeezed in front of Lin Yi, his knuckles cracking from clenching his fists. "For example, using my true dragon bloodline to withstand it?"
Or equip the shadowy enforcers with...
"It's no use." The voice from the shadowy figure came from above.
This high-level civilized law enforcer, who always wore a silver mask, was currently pressing one hand into the void, and a pale blue light shield emerged from the device on his wrist, protecting the four people in the center.
Spiderweb-like cracks continuously appeared on the surface of the light shield, only to be repaired again by the energy he injected. "Dimensional collapse is a rule-level breakdown; ordinary energy barriers can't last more than three minutes."
Lin Yi looked down at the crystal in his palm.
In the starlight-like flow of light, Su Qing's smiling figure appeared and disappeared, and thirty million beliefs beat rhythmically like a heartbeat.
He could sense that this crystal was not only the fusion of the seven keys, but also the hope of the entire civilization—if "eternal zeroing" were used now, would all these hopes be sealed in the amber of time?
"Boss." Long Wu suddenly turned around, exposing his back completely to the distorted void.
The dragon scales on his neck began to glow, and worm-like veins bulged beneath his skin. "You make the decision, I'll protect you." He grinned, revealing bloodshot canines. "Back when we were being chased by wild boars in the newbie village, I said I'd follow you to the end, and now I'm fulfilling that promise."
The spacetime turbulence suddenly intensified.
A fragment of space, speckled with purple, pierced through the shadowy light shield, grazed Long Wu's shoulder, and tore a half-foot-long gash in his battle suit.
But Long Wu didn't even look at the wound; he just stared intently into Lin Yi's eyes, a muffled rumble like thunder emanating from his body—that was the true dragon bloodline boiling.
Lin Yi gently placed his fingers on the back of Long Wu's neck.
The skin there was burning hot, like a piece of red-hot iron.
He could feel the power surging uncontrollably within the strong man's body, and the dragon scale patterns were spreading towards his chest at a visible speed.
"Chu Yao, calculate the success rate of 'Eternal Reset'." He suddenly spoke, his voice more steady than ever.
"92.7%." The AI answered without hesitation, "But the host's survival probability..."
"No need to say anything more." Lin Yi interrupted her, his gaze sweeping over the three tense faces in front of him—Chu Yao's chip's red light was gradually weakening, clearly indicating that she was forcibly stabilizing the data; Xuan Mingzi's jade tablet showed spiderweb cracks, indicating that he was burning his source to maintain his existence; the black shadow's light shield was as thin as a cicada's wing, and the breathing sound under the mask could be clearly heard.
Finally, his gaze fell on Long Wu's back.
The dragon scales there covered the shoulder blades, each one shimmering with golden light.
"Preparing to activate the protocol." Lin Yi took a deep breath and pressed the crystal against his brow.
The icy touch spread along his nerves, and he saw countless timelines unfolding before his eyes, as dazzling and dangerous as the Milky Way.
Where he couldn't see, Long Wu's fingers dug deeply into his palm.
Blood dripped onto the ground, drawn back into the wound by the reversed flow of time, but it could not stop the surge of true dragon power within him.
The power erupted like a volcano, condensing into a glowing dragon shadow in his spine, which was slowly opening its eyes.
The turbulent flow of spacetime, carrying purplish-black fragments, poured down like a torrential rain. The dragon scales on Long Wu's back had spread to his neck, each one gleaming with a molten gold-like luster.
He suddenly took a half step forward, completely enveloping Lin Yi in his dragon-patterned silhouette, and let out a low dragon roar—a sign that the true dragon bloodline was awakening to the critical point.
A spatial fragment, nearly half a person's height, slashed diagonally across the surface, its edges still bearing the afterimage of reversed time.
Long Wu didn't dodge, nor did he even close his eyes; he simply crossed his arms in front of his chest.
The moment the dragon scales collided with the fragments, a burst of golden and purple light exploded between the two. Long Wu's battle armor was torn to shreds, revealing his muscles, which were covered in blood but still taut.
He gritted his teeth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth onto Lin Yi's feet, only to be drawn back to his lips by the reversing time: "Boss, I'll accept whatever you choose, anyway..." He turned his head and grinned at Lin Yi, half of his face still stained with bloodstains that time hadn't yet corrected, "Anyway, you're the one who gave me this life."
"Long Wu!" Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly flickered violently, her virtual fingers gripping her wrist tightly—it was artificial intelligence simulating the human pain stress response. "Your vital signs have dropped by 37%. Overload of the True Dragon bloodline will lead to cellular-level..."
"Shut up!" Long Wu roared, his voice booming so loudly that even the time-residual images in the void trembled. "I'm really fired up right now!" The dragon pattern on his neck suddenly came to life and began to move, climbing up his spine to the back of his neck and condensing into a pair of semi-transparent dragon wing phantoms at his shoulder blades.
This time, when the second spatial fragment struck, the dragon wing phantom materialized and opened, smashing the fragment into countless stardust.
"Well done." A voice from a dark figure came from Long Wu's right.
The enforcer, who always wore a silver mask, had removed the light shield at some point. His left hand was forming a complex hand seal, and his right hand held a palm-sized fragment of a rune.
His breathing was heavy beneath his mask, but his movements remained as steady as a rock: "This is a 'time anchor stabilizer' left behind by an advanced civilization on the dimensional battlefield." He placed the fragment into Lin Yi's palm, and the patterns on the surface of the rune suddenly lit up with a ghostly blue light. "The self-destruct protocol of the mother hive is altering the flow of time, but this thing can anchor a time point in three-dimensional space—giving you three minutes."
"Why did you help me?" Lin Yi held the fragment in his hand, his fingertips able to feel the power of rules flowing within the runes.
“Because you understand the meaning of ‘civilization’ better than those idiots who only execute programs.” The shadowy figure tapped his mask lightly with his fingertips. “Back then, I witnessed twelve civilizations perish in the dimensional collapse, and not a single leader hesitated like you for the lives of their subordinates.” He suddenly looked up at the distorting sky. “In three seconds, there will be a strong turbulence. Long Wu’s bloodline can’t hold up. I need you…”
"No need to say more." Lin Yi interrupted him, but his gaze fell on the shadows that kept flashing in the void—it was Xiao Zhan's last smile before he was torn to pieces by the alien insects, it was Su Qing's eyes when she handed him the Seven Keys of Creation in the spacetime rift, it was the wrinkles on Old Man Chen's face when he patted him on the shoulder at the Reality Alliance headquarters and said, "Xiao Yi, we'll shoulder this burden together."
These images, which should have been buried by time, are now like images on a loop, burning on his retina again and again.
“I don’t believe that sacrifice alone can solve the problem,” he said in a low voice, so soft it sounded like a sigh, yet it silenced everyone present.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly froze, and the red light on her chip went out and then lit up again, as the artificial intelligence quickly searched for all possible solutions; Xuan Mingzi's jade tablet cracked suddenly, and the old man's fingertips trembled as he touched Lin Yi's back, as if he wanted to convey something but ultimately remained silent; Long Wu's dragon wing phantom paused slightly, and when he turned to look at Lin Yi, the blood mist in his eyes dissipated a little.
"Boss?" Long Wu called him softly, his voice carrying an unprecedented gentleness.
Lin Yi did not answer, but instead gripped the Seven Keys and the Time Anchor Stabilizer tightly in his palm.
The burning sensation in Qiyue had changed; it was no longer a pain that corroded the bone marrow, but rather like a warm light drilling into the heart along the blood vessels.
He could clearly sense that within this crystal, which had been fused with the power of creation, besides Su Qing's smiling figure, lay thirty million beliefs—the imprints etched into time and space by the blood and sweat of all those who had trusted and followed him.
"Chu Yao," he suddenly said, "synchronize the coordinates of all the time ghosts to me."
"Locating." Chu Yao's projection stabilized, and her fingertips traced countless golden dots in the void. "172 clear time anchor points detected, 93 of which belong to confirmed fallen members of the Time Legion..."
"That's enough." Lin Yi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his pupils were filled with starlight—that was the divine-level pupil technique of [Time and Space Dominator] in operation.
He could see the "threads" of each time ghost, those timelines connecting the past, present, and future, vibrating in the void like harp strings.
Long Wu's dragon wing phantom suddenly emitted a clear dragon roar, and actually took the initiative to wrap around those timelines, helping him stabilize the fluctuations; the black shadow's time anchor stabilizer was hot in his palm, and the rune patterns began to resonate with the flowing light of the Seven Keys; Xuan Mingzi's jade tablet suddenly shattered into dust, and the old man's figure became transparent, but he still smiled and gave him a "don't worry" gesture.
“I see…” Lin Yi suddenly smiled, his smile bright as if the sun had broken through the clouds. “The mother nest thought it could force me to use zeroing by collapsing, but it didn’t know…” He raised the Seven Keys, and the light on the crystal surface suddenly softened. “Our beliefs have long been linked together as an anchor point stronger than any rule.”
Before he finished speaking, the entire space suddenly erupted in a deafening roar.
The chaotic flow of time, as if manipulated by an invisible hand, began to show a faint order—Long Wu's dragon wings were combing through the fragments of space, the black shadow's time anchors were pinning down time nodes, Chu Yao's projection transformed into a data stream that seeped into the void, and even Xuan Mingzi's transparent figure was chanting ancient incantations.
But just then, a sharp, shattering sound like glass breaking came from the eye of the storm.
Everyone looked up at the same time.
In the previously distorted void, a pitch-black rift, a thousand meters high, is slowly opening.
A purplish-black mist churned at the edge of the crack, within which countless "Lin Yi" figures could be vaguely seen—some dressed in the rough cloth shorts of the newbie village, some draped in mythical-level time-space battle armor, some kneeling in the ruins covered in blood, and some raising the Seven Keys with victorious smiles.
Each "Lin Yi" stretched out their hand towards the outside of the crack, mouthing the same sentence in unison.
"Help me—"
(Deep within the rift, a young man named Lin Yi, dressed in a white shirt, suddenly turned his head. His pupils held no starlight, only pure fear.)
Behind him, a purplish-black mist was slowly coalescing into the outline of a night owl, a twisted smile curling at the corner of its mouth.
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