As the metal door of the interrogation room slammed shut behind Long Wu, the warmth of the clone's brow still lingered on Lin Yi's fingertips.
The temperature was exactly the same as his own body temperature, and even the frequency of the blood vessels under his skin was exactly the same—like touching a breathing mirror.
“Boss, this thing…” Long Wu’s dragon claws were still gripping the back of the clone’s neck, and the blood beads seeping from the gaps in the scales condensed into tiny starlight on the ground. “The way it looked at you just now was exactly the same as when you looked at the Time Air Force Medal.”
The clone suddenly laughed, its laughter carrying a clear, familiar quality that Lin Yi knew all too well: "Long Wu, when you blocked the ice spikes for me in the polar dungeon last year, wasn't the third dragon scale on your left side cracked?"
Long Wu's pupils suddenly contracted.
That was a secret known only to the two of them—the moment the ice spike pierced the dragon's scales, Lin Yi used the spacetime barrier to protect his heart, but left a half-inch deep wound on Long Wu's left rib.
The location the clone spoke of at that moment was exactly the same as the scale number that Long Wu secretly counted each time he changed his bandages.
Chu Yao's holographic projection rose on the interrogation table, blue data surging beneath her eyes: "Brainwave scan complete. Target memory bank overlaps with host's 97.3%, containing details of the host breaking their left arm at age 17 while saving a stray cat, and the location of the scorch mark from when they were electrocuted while debugging a spacetime rift in the lab at age 23..." Her voice suddenly paused for 0.3 seconds, "Abnormal signal detected. Interference waves with a frequency of 137.4 MHz are mixed in with the memory fragments, originating from the residual radiation from the collapse of the Destiny System three months ago."
Lin Yi pressed his knuckles against the interrogation table, leaving a white mark on his fingertips.
Three months ago, when he personally destroyed the main brain of the Destiny System, the last words that silver ball of light uttered before exploding were, "You will come back for the answer." At this moment, those words suddenly exploded in his temples, and an itch shot up his neck along his nerves.
"Forcibly read it using a mental link." Xuanmingzi's voice came from the observation room.
The old man, the original incarnation of the game's mastermind, stood with his hands behind his back, but his wrists under his blue robe trembled slightly—he had never seen this level of mental pollution since the collapse of the Destiny System.
Lin Yi shook his head, his gaze fixed on the starlight flickering in the replica's eyes: "If I were it, I would fill my memories with traps." He unbuttoned the top button of his collar, revealing a pale gold spacetime emblem below his collarbone. "I'll go in myself."
"Boss!" Long Wu slammed his dragon tail on the ground, causing the metal floor to crack in a spiderweb-like pattern. "Last time you used your spiritual world to fight a mythical-level boss, you were unconscious for three days and three nights!"
“This time is different.” Lin Yi raised his hand and pressed down on Long Wu’s horn, the texture of the scales coming through his palm. “Chu Yao will monitor my brainwaves in real time, Ivan…” He turned to look at the blond man standing in the corner of the observation room, who was covering his temples, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Ivan suddenly let out a muffled roar like a wild beast, and the purplish-black vortex unique to the core of the Mother Nest appeared in his pupils: "Stop! These memories... they're not yours, nor mine... they're 'theirs'!" He staggered and crashed into the glass, his fingertips carving five deep scratches into the wall of the observation room. "I can feel the residual consciousness of the Mother Nest trembling, just like when we were implanted with the memory matrix by the advanced civilization..."
Lin Yi's breathing suddenly became rapid.
Three years ago, when he rescued Ivan, the man parasitized by the core of the Mother Nest, said that the invaders used memory implantation technology to transform warriors into war machines.
At this moment, the interference wave in the clone's memory perfectly matches the frequency of the "memory matrix" described by Ivan.
"Chu Yao, activate the memory corridor." Lin Yi ripped the nerve connection from his wrist, and red electricity coursed across his skin. "Long Wu, keep an eye on Ivan. Senior Xuanmingzi, please monitor the energy fluctuations in your mental world."
The moment his consciousness sank into darkness, he heard Chu Yao's voice pierce through layers of barriers: "The Memory Corridor has been opened. The current timeline is locked to July 15, 2035, 19:42:17. The host must return within 12 minutes, otherwise..."
The second half of the sentence was torn apart by the sound of the wind.
Lin Yi stood in a long corridor made up of fragments of memories.
On the left wall was the desk lamp from the night before the college entrance exam, its warm yellow light illuminating his profile as he bit his pen; on the right wall was a picture of the founding day of the Time Air Force, where Chu Yao showed his first human-like smile; above them floated countless crystal balls, each containing a version of him—
He was there, wearing a white lab coat, adjusting equipment in the lab; he was there, wielding a longsword, fighting monsters from another dimension; he was there, kneeling before the ruins of a time-space legion, clutching a blood-stained medal; and...
"puff."
A crystal ball suddenly shattered.
In the fragments, he saw himself standing in front of the orb of light of the Destiny System's main brain. The other party's voice had a mechanical resonance: "Lin Yi, you will witness the trial of civilization as an 'observer'. Your memories will be sealed until the moment when you need to awaken."
"Impossible." Lin Yi reached out to grab the ball of light, but his fingertips passed right through the image. "I clearly only awakened on the day the game began..."
Another crystal ball shattered.
This time, he saw himself wearing a hospital gown, with the electronic screen above his bed displaying "March 12, 2028"—seven years before the game's arrival.
The man in the white coat inserted a silver probe into the back of his neck: "The genetic lock of the Time-Space Dominator needs to be activated in advance, otherwise you will not be able to withstand the power of a mythical profession."
"This is fake." Lin Yi took a half step back, shattering the memory fragments at his feet.
In the fragments, he saw his mother cooking noodles in the kitchen, looking up at him with a smile: "Xiao Yi, don't be nervous about the exam tomorrow." But the next second, his mother's face twisted into a ball of light from the main brain of the destiny system, "You think these warm memories are real? They are nothing more than cages we tailored for you."
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
Lin Yi then realized that the edges of all the memory fragments shimmered with the same silver light as the blood of the clone—they were not his memories at all, but a carefully woven script.
When he finally found the darkest crystal ball at the end of the corridor, the spacetime emblem on the back of his hand suddenly burned.
The scene in the crystal ball made his blood freeze: the core code of the Destiny System floated in the center of the laboratory, and he himself was standing in front of the control panel, inputting a piece of code into the mainframe: "When the Civilization Trial ends, activate the 'Eternal Reset' protocol."
"No..." Lin Yi's voice echoed in the corridor, "I can't..."
"Of course you could."
Mechanical reverberation surged in from all directions.
Lin Yi turned around and saw countless versions of himself emerge from the fragments of his memory. Their eyes shone with the same starlight as their clones. One of them walked up to him and placed his hand on his forehead: "You are the key we chose, the perfect closed loop of the destiny plan. Now, it's time to go home."
The corridor of memories begins to crumble.
Lin Yi saw Chu Yao's voice flashing wildly in his consciousness: "30 seconds remaining! Host's brainwaves are abnormal!" He desperately grabbed the last complete fragment of memory—it was what Chu Yao said when he first used the spacetime rift: "There is a galaxy flowing in your pupils, light that does not belong to this dimension."
Just as darkness was about to engulf him, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang in his ears: "Welcome back, Lin Yi. We've been waiting for you for a long time."
"Boss! Wake up!"
Long Wu's roar pierced through the chaos.
Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the medical table in the interrogation room. Chu Yao's holographic projection was flashing green words "vital signs normal" in front of him.
He touched the back of his neck, where there was a coin-sized scar—a scar he had never noticed before.
Cold light from the corridor shone through the cracks in the glass of the observation room caused by Ivan's impact.
Lin Yi stared at his palm, where the tactile sensation of the core code of the Destiny System from the Memory Corridor still lingered.
“Chu Yao.” His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, “Retrieve all my surveillance footage from March 12, 2028.”
Chu Yao's data stream suddenly paused for 0.5 seconds: "No record. All hospital and street surveillance footage from that day shows..." For the first time, a hint of human hesitation appeared in her voice, "...showing that you were studying for the college entrance exam at home and never went to any laboratory."
Lin Yi stood up, his steps unsteady as if he were walking on cotton.
He walked toward the observation room and looked through the crack at the replica—the other person was sitting quietly in the interrogation chair, looking up at him and smiling, the smile carrying the same warmth as the "self" at the end of the memory corridor.
"Boss?" Long Wu gently placed his dragon claw on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"
Lin Yi did not answer.
He gazed at the starlight in the replica's eyes and suddenly remembered what the man in the white coat had said: "The moment the key realizes that it is the key is the moment the door opens."
The red light at the end of the corridor suddenly went out.
As darkness fell, the clone's lips moved.
Lin Yi understood the silent lip movements.
"It's time to wake up."
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