Half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.
The new world order is being reshaped at an astonishing pace from the ruins.
One after another, brand-new floating cities rose from the ground, like silver islands suspended in the sky, connected to each other by stable energy channels.
The ripples of time and space that once ravaged the earth have now become as gentle as the ripples on a lake, becoming a unique landscape of the new era.
Human civilization is embarking on a new era in an unprecedented manner.
At Hope First College's open class, sunlight streamed through the high-strength lattice windows into the packed classroom.
On the podium, a white-haired history professor is recounting the history known as the "Final War".
"...With the guidance of Lord Lin Yi, the master of time and space, we finally won the right to survive. He cleaved through the darkness and brought us dawn." The professor's voice was filled with sincere awe.
A small, childlike hand was raised.
“Teacher,” a boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old stood up, his eyes sparkling with curiosity and a hint of unease, “If…if one day, those terrifying monsters emerge from dimensional rifts again, can we still summon Lord Lin Yi back to protect us as before?”
This question, like an invisible needle, pierced the hearts of everyone present.
The noisy classroom fell silent instantly, all eyes focused on the professor, awaiting a reassuring answer.
The professor was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
"He's not coming back."
The color drained from the boy's face instantly, and the surrounding classmates let out a low gasp.
"Why?" the boy pressed, his voice trembling slightly.
The professor's gaze swept over each young and bewildered face, his tone becoming extremely solemn: "Because before Lord Lin Yi left, he left behind a final sentence. He said that true security is never about having a savior that can be summoned at any time. True security is when a crisis strikes, no one needs to be summoned anymore."
Outside the classroom, under an ancient sycamore tree, Lin Yi, dressed in an ordinary gray jacket, stood quietly, taking in everything.
A gentle breeze blew, ruffling the stray hairs on his forehead. His eyes were calm as water, yet deep as the sea.
Upon hearing the answer, a subtle smile appeared on his lips, a smile that conveyed both relief and a sense of understanding.
He silently turned around and blended into the crowd at the street corner, his figure quickly disappearing from sight.
However, things were not as optimistic as he had imagined.
Walking on this land he had personally saved, Lin Yi keenly sensed an invisible inertia.
Although the external threats have subsided, the psychological imprint of "waiting for a savior" lurks like a virus deep in the subconscious of many people.
People are used to looking up to others and placing their hopes on an omnipotent hero.
In the news, whenever any intractable technical problem or social dispute arises, the first reaction of public opinion is still: "If only Lord Lin Yi were here."
This thought made him more uneasy than any otherworldly monster.
Inside the core computer room of the central AI system, light blue data streams cascaded down like a waterfall.
Chu Yao, dressed in a white research coat, stared intently at the enormous three-dimensional star map before her.
“The situation is worse than we anticipated.” She said to Lin Yi behind her without turning her head, “Although you shattered the template of ‘scavenger,’ its seeds… or rather, its core logic, have not been completely eradicated. It’s like a conceptual dormant virus, deeply rooted in the collective unconscious of humanity.”
She reached out and drew a line in the air, and a complex red network diagram emerged, intricately interwoven, a consciousness model permeating the entire human society.
“The restart mechanism of this template is extremely insidious. It doesn’t require external activation; it only needs a ‘trigger.’” Chu Yao pointed to a constantly flashing red dot in the center of the network diagram. “When the entire civilization once again places all its hopes, all its faith, and all its future on the same person, this template will automatically restart. At that time, you will no longer be Lin Yi, but will become the new ‘Master of Time and Space,’ kidnapped by the will of the entire civilization, becoming the next ‘cleaner,’ starting a new round of formatting for the sake of so-called ‘absolute safety.’ It’s an unsolvable cycle.”
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He finally understood the true meaning of the "cleaner's" words, "We'll meet again."
The real battlefield is not in the stars, nor in the dimensional rifts, but in the human heart.
He had to do something.
We must transform the idea that "everyone is a hero" from an empty slogan into an instinct ingrained in the depths of everyone's soul.
An operation called "Ordinary Heroes Project" was quietly launched under Lin Yi's impetus.
He did not announce it to the world, nor did he use any official power.
He was like a ghost, wandering alone through every corner of the new world.
In the plazas of those floating cities, in the market centers of towns of survivors on the ground, and in the rest stops of remote mining areas, rows of dark, smooth, unadorned stone tablets quietly rose up overnight.
People call it the "Choice Monument".
These stone tablets have no function; they simply stand there silently.
But soon, everyone discovered their amazing properties.
In the energy zone in the south of the city, an ordinary mother, without hesitation, used her frail body to shield the stroller beneath her as the shopping mall's dome collapsed.
The moment she made her choice, a faint light suddenly illuminated the surface of the "Choice Monument" in the square several kilometers away. Lines of golden text automatically appeared, clearly recording this instant in a holographic projection—not recording her name, but recording the "choice" itself: [A mother, in 0.1 seconds, chose to use her own flesh and blood to become her child's sky.]
Deep underground, a maintenance worker responsible for maintaining the geothermal core, upon detecting an alarm that the energy was about to spiral out of control, did not choose to flee. Instead, he rushed against the flow of people to the most dangerous control room and manually shut off the valve at the last moment, preventing a disaster that could have destroyed half the city.
Meanwhile, a new inscription lit up on the "Choice Monument" in his mining area: "A worker, facing life and death, chose to use responsibility to protect the lights of countless homes."
In the border wasteland, a group of teenage scavengers deliberately lured away a runaway old-fashioned combat machine to protect a girl they had just met.
The oldest of them was only seventeen years old, yet they shouldered a responsibility that even adults would fear with their tender shoulders.
The inscription on the "Choice Monument" truthfully records: - [Three teenagers, faced with the danger of strangers, chose to use courage to interpret the meaning of morality.]
These moments were precisely captured by the stone tablet and woven by Chu Yao into a brand new network – the "Micro-Light Resonance Network".
It replaced the epic broadcasts that glorified single heroes of the past through public information terminals spread across the globe.
There is no grand narrative, no rousing soundtrack, only ordinary people making extraordinary choices at crucial moments.
These tiny lights, though initially insignificant, come together to form a dazzling galaxy that can illuminate people's hearts.
People are beginning to realize that heroes are not unattainable gods; heroes are ordinary people who choose kindness, courage, and responsibility when faced with choices.
Change happens gradually and imperceptibly.
On this day, the tranquility of Luofeng Town, a remote border town hundreds of kilometers away from the main city, was shattered by a piercing sound of space being torn apart.
A small spatial rift, less than three meters high, opened up without warning above the town's central square. From the dark green energy turbulence, several low-level alien creatures resembling giant mantises shrieked and darted out, brandishing their scythe-like forelimbs and pouncing on the panicked crowd.
If this had happened a year ago, the square would have been filled with deafening cries and screams, and people's only thought would have been, "Quickly! Quickly contact the Hope Federation! Quickly find Lord Lin Yi!"
But today, the situation is completely different.
"Form ranks!" A clear, youthful shout rang out.
Among the crowd, three boys in school uniforms were the first to react.
Instead of retreating, they charged forward and quickly formed a standard triangular defensive formation.
This is a foundational course at the New Era Academy – “Micro-Light Resonance Technique”.
"Zhao Yi, disrupt the left flank! Li Na, mental barrier! I'll lead the attack!" The leading youth gave the order in a deep voice. A faint golden halo appeared in his palm, a power that originated from the same source as the faint light on the "Choice Monument".
Once, this power belonged solely to Lin Yi.
Today, it has become a spark, spreading throughout the world.
The three boys worked together seamlessly. Although their movements were a little clumsy and their strength was far from great, there was no sign of retreat in their eyes.
They used the energy field generated by the resonance technique to cleverly restrain and separate those few alien creatures.
The townspeople quickly calmed down from their initial panic. Some spontaneously organized an evacuation, while others activated the town's defenses. Everything proceeded in an orderly manner.
Finally, with a combined shout, the three teenagers successfully drove the last alien creature back into the spatial rift, and the unstable rift slowly closed.
The battle ended, the entire process taking no more than five minutes.
Soon, reporters who had heard the news surrounded the three teenagers.
"You...you weren't afraid of dying just now? Those were extradimensional beings!" A reporter held a microphone to the mouth of the boy in the lead.
The boy wiped the sweat from his face, grinned, revealing a set of white teeth: "Scared? Of course I'm scared! My legs are still trembling. But... someone has to be the first to step forward and try, right? Just like Lord Lin Yi said, waiting won't bring safety."
Outside the crowd, Lin Yi leaned against a wall, quietly listening to everything.
When the boy said, "Someone has to try," he slowly closed his eyes and let out a long, long breath.
That breath seemed to have lifted the heavy shackles that had carried him through countless times and across the entire civilization.
At that moment, he felt a true, soul-deep liberation for the first time.
At that very moment, a faint yet incredibly familiar consciousness emanated from the depths of the earth, resounding directly in his mind.
It was Ivan. Or rather, it was the last echo Ivan left in the well of memory.
"The Well of Memory... is about to close completely. The Mother Nest... has completed its mission. Lin Yi... thank you."
The sound was intermittent, like a candle flickering in the wind, yet it carried a serene tranquility of perfect fulfillment.
Lin Yi's figure vanished from the town in an instant, and the next second, he appeared before the End Rift that had once devoured everything.
Now, only a shallow spatial fold remains here, and the rune array deep within the Earth's core has faded to its extreme.
He took out the last thing from his pocket—the fragment that carried his authority as the "Master of Time and Space" and was also the source of Ivan's original power.
He gently tossed the fragment into the spatial fold.
“You walked those lonely and dark paths for me, paths that I should have borne,” he murmured, as if bidding farewell to an old friend. “Now, it’s my turn to live well in this ordinary, everyday world that you gave your life for.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the fragment disappeared into the void without a trace.
Immediately afterwards, deep within the Earth's core, the billions of runes that had sustained the cycle of the old era were extinguished one by one, completely, as if their last bit of energy had been cut off, from east to west.
An era has truly come to an end.
However, at the very moment the old rune's light completely faded, on the "Choice Monuments" scattered across the globe, the names and deeds that recorded the moments of ordinary heroes seemed to be summoned by some mysterious power, and began to spontaneously light up, the light emanating from within, gentle yet firm.
Beams of light shot into the sky, converging in the planet's synchronous orbit to form a dazzling star network that enveloped the entire world—composed of countless golden names.
Night falls.
Lin Yi sat on the roof of his small house on the outskirts of Luofeng Town, surrounded by a group of children.
They were excitedly piecing together a new star map on the ground using the softly glowing fluorite.
"Uncle, Uncle," a little girl with pigtails looked up and asked curiously, "Grandpa Long Wu—...will he come back?"
Lin Yi's gaze was cast into the deep night sky, as if it could penetrate the endless sea of stars and see the golden dragon that was still guarding the cradle of humanity.
He smiled and shook his head, his voice gentle yet firm:
"No, but the flame he left behind is now in the hearts of each and every one of you."
Upon hearing this, a chubby-faced little boy next to him subconsciously looked down at his palm.
Just as he lowered his head, a faint, almost imperceptible golden light flashed across his palm.
He paused for a moment, then thought he was seeing things, and happily ran off to continue playing with his friends.
Lin Yi watched his retreating figure, and the smile on his lips deepened.
At the same moment, in a desolate and lifeless corner of the universe, beyond the reach of human civilization.
The enormous black stone tablet, which had been silently suspended since time immemorial and whose surface was constantly seeping crimson blood, finally let out a silent lament.
Spiderweb-like cracks began to appear on the seemingly indestructible monument.
Click...
The cracks spread rapidly, and eventually, the entire stone tablet shattered, turning into the most primordial dust in the universe.
At the heart of those vanishing fragments, a line of ancient writing, composed of pure concepts and slowly disappearing, briefly emerges:
"The results of the 18th Civilization Reboot Experiment: Humanity has healed itself."
All was silent.
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze from the starry sky, and the inexplicable tremor in his heart gradually subsided.
He jumped off the roof and watched the children laughing and playing, feeling a sense of peace in his heart.
This is everything he wanted.
He stretched and was about to go back inside when he suddenly stopped.
He turned his head slightly, as if listening to something.
Amid the children's laughter and the whistling of the evening wind, there seemed to be a very subtle, almost imperceptible, strangeness.
It wasn't a sound, but more like... a change in frequency.
A cold, rhythmic pulse emanated from the depths of the earth beneath my feet, from a place even deeper and more ancient than Ivan's Well of Memory.
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