The night wind swept past his ears, carrying fragments of metal from the launch site ruins. Lin Yi's knuckles were stretched white on the hilt of the meteorite iron sword.
The echo of that mechanical voice still reverberated in his mind, and the five words "Experimental Subject 001" burned a patch of scorched earth deep in his memory like a red-hot iron.
The sound of Long Wu's Tang sword sheathing startled him, causing his eyelashes to tremble slightly. Only then did he realize that he had unknowingly clenched the fragment of his soul against his chest—that once cool fragment was now beating against his heart, each beat like Morse code.
"Long Wu," he suddenly spoke, his voice deeper than the night, "Go and expand the outer perimeter by another five hundred meters." He tossed over the communicator, the flashing red warning light on the screen causing Long Wu's pupils to shrink slightly. "That spatial fluctuation just now wasn't a test; it was positioning."
Long Wu paused as he took the communicator, the dragon scale pattern on the hilt of his sword brushing against his palm.
He gazed at the pale golden light surging in Lin Yi's eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he ultimately didn't ask, "What did you encounter?" He simply nodded vigorously: "Set up a triple array within half an hour." As he turned, the hem of his robe stirred a gust of wind, causing the bronze token of the gray-robed old man not far away to jingle—the old man had long been rendered mute by Long Wu's acupoint strike, and was now staring at Lin Yi's golden pupils with terrified eyes.
Lin Yi slowly closed his eyes only after Long Wu's figure disappeared around the corner of the ruins.
The faint scar on the back of his neck suddenly began to burn, as if a thin needle was running under his skin. Fragments of memories surged up with the stinging pain: the same burning pain he felt when he was being chased in the alley on the night of his twelfth birthday; the same burning pain he felt three years ago when he overheard "Subject 001" in the laboratory on the eve of the release of "Infinite".
"Who are you?" he roared into the void, his voice carrying the hum of a lightning-patterned sword. "Why did you create the Destiny System?"
The wind suddenly stopped.
The star trails above the launch site twisted into a vortex in a strange way, and something denser than a vacuum seeped out from the void, like an invisible hand stroking Lin Yi's forehead.
This time, the mechanical voice was less cold, and more like a sigh at the end: "We are the guardians of the 'Realm of Truth,' responsible for selecting civilizations capable of withstanding the laws of multidimensionality."
Lin Yi's breath hitched suddenly.
He could sense something breaking through the barriers of his consciousness, and those deliberately forgotten fragments began to awaken: the whispers of the lab lab coats, the "Awakening rate of the Time-Space Dominator 0.0001%" flashing on the instrument screen, and the pocket watch his mother had placed in his palm before her death—that old pocket watch engraved with the word "Eternity," which was now lying in the drawer of his real-world apartment.
"Screening?" He clenched the fragment of soul, the surface of which showed the same pattern as the pocket watch. "So 'Infinity' is your sieve?"
Am I the chosen test subject?
"No." A slight fluctuation appeared in the mechanical voice. "You are the key."
When the entropy increase in all dimensions reaches a critical point, only those who can control the laws of spacetime can open up new possibilities for the continuation of civilization.
The communication bracelet vibrated on Chu Yao's wrist, signaling an emergency call.
As soon as Lin Yi connected, the holographic projection burst forth from the bracelet—it was a real-time projection of his sea of consciousness, surging like boiling magma, with golden and red light streams intertwining to form a complex star map.
"High-dimensional contact frequency detected." Chu Yao's virtual image stood before the consciousness star map, her fingertip tracing a golden band of light. Data streams pulsed in her pupils. "Your mental power fluctuations exceed the mythical-level threshold by 37%. Continued contact may trigger..."
"What will this trigger?" Lin Yi stared at the silver light spot that was gathering in the projection—the embodiment of the observer's will.
"Memory overload." Chu Yao's voice wavered for the first time, and her virtual hair suddenly glowed blue. "The neural interface at the back of your neck is activating, that's..."
"That was left by my mother." Lin Yi interrupted her, reaching out to touch the silver spot of light in the projection. The moment his fingertip touched the ball of light, the air in the entire launch site suddenly became as thick as glue.
He heard the sound of shattering glass coming from afar, coming from the direction of the safe house where Ivan was.
Sure enough, the next second, Ivan's figure stumbled out from behind the ruins.
His shirt collar was torn open, revealing the pale blue lines that had appeared on his chest—the new life form that had been born within him after he merged with the core of the mother nest.
At this moment, the patterns were emitting a faint glow, climbing up his arm like living vines.
"Don't disconnect!" Ivan stopped three steps away from Lin Yi, his palm on the ground. "I've constructed a resonance tower to stabilize the frequency difference between you and higher-dimensional beings." Suddenly, blue ripples appeared on the ground, spreading outward from him. The originally viscous air instantly became clear and crisp, and the star map in Lin Yi's sea of consciousness stopped churning and began to rotate in an orderly fashion.
The observer's mechanical voice sounded again: "Subject 001, your companion is exhibiting adaptability beyond expectations."
"They are not experimental subjects." Lin Yi's voice flared with anger. "Long Wu, Chu Yao, Ivan... they are my family."
"Therefore, we need even stronger versions of you." The mechanical voice's fluctuations became more pronounced. "When you break through to the ninth star of mythology, the gate to the Realm of Truth will be fully opened."
Now, I'm granting you partial access to my memory.
A silver streak of light pierced Lin Yi's brow, and countless images flashed before his eyes: his mother placing a pocket watch into his hand in the laboratory, saying, "This is the key to the spacetime rift"; his twelve-year-old self being chased in an alley when the pocket watch suddenly cracked, a blue light pulling him into an alternate dimension; the eve of the arrival of "Infinite," when he overheard his supervisor in the laboratory saying, "Subject 001's spacetime talent has finally awakened"...
"Enough!" Lin Yi covered his forehead and staggered backward, crashing into the rusty launch pad.
The sealed memories flooded in like a tidal wave, making his temples feel like they were about to explode. "I need time to process all of this."
"Memory access has been increased by 30%." The mechanical voice began to fade. "The next observation will be initiated when you break through to the Mythical Nine Stars."
The vortex of star trails slowly subsided, and Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly flickered. A red warning popped up in her virtual image: "Abnormal spatial fluctuations detected in the East Third Alert Zone where Long Wu is located!"
Lin Yi looked up abruptly and saw Long Wu's communicator vibrating wildly on the ground—the communicator he had just thrown to Long Wu was now lying in the ruins five steps away from him.
"Long Wu!" He grabbed the communicator. The location on the screen was flashing wildly in the East Third Alert Zone, finally settling on an ever-expanding black vortex icon.
The night wind suddenly turned cold, and a harsh metallic scraping sound came from afar, as if some huge machine was tearing space apart.
Lin Yi gripped the Starfall Iron Sword tightly, and the lightning patterns on the sword's blade crackled into blue arcs of electricity.
He gazed toward the direction of the East Third Warning Zone, where the night sky was turning an unnatural purplish-black, as if a giant hand had torn a hole in it.
"Chu Yao, locate Long Wu's vital signs." His voice was as steady as if it had been tempered by ice. "Ivan, prepare the stabilization device for the spacetime rift."
A green life signal appeared in Chu Yao's projection; although faint, it was still pulsating.
A cyan light cluster had already formed in Ivan's palm; that was the core energy of the Resonance Tower.
Lin Yi took a deep breath; the scar on the back of his neck was so hot that he almost gritted his teeth.
He gazed at the purplish-black night sky over the East Third Guard Zone, his Starfall Iron Sword pointing in that direction, and said softly, "Whatever comes... will have to get past me first."
Meanwhile, in the East Third Guard Zone, which he couldn't see, Long Wu's Tang sword was held against the neck of a humanoid creature covered in silver scales.
The creature's pupils were vertical slits, like some kind of reptile. It grinned, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth, and spoke in broken human language: "Guardian of the Time-Space Ruler...delicious."
Long Wu's tiger's mouth was cut by scales and bleeding, but his hand holding the knife was as steady as a rock.
He gazed at the purple light gradually brightening in the distance and chuckled softly: "My blade hasn't tasted the blood of alien monsters yet."
Under the moonlight, seven more dark figures emerged from the spatial rift behind the silver-scaled creature.
Long Wu's Tang sword drew a silver arc in the moonlight. As the blade grazed the throat of the third scaly creature, he heard the communicator vibrate in his tactical belt—it was Lin Yi's emergency call.
"East Third Alert Zone, the spatial rift is expanding." He gritted his teeth, dodging the claws that attacked from the left. Sparks flew as the back of his blade struck the scales. "The energy fluctuations of these monsters... overlap with the source energy of the Fate System." Before he finished speaking, the scaly creature on his right suddenly let out a sharp screech. A crack appeared in the silver scales on its chest, revealing a core that shimmered with a ghostly blue light—clearly the refined form of "Starfall Ore" from the game "Infinite."
Lin Yi's rapid breathing came through the communicator: "Long Wu, hold on."
Chu Yao is locating the rift coordinates; Ivan's Resonance Tower will be activated in three minutes.
"Hold on?!" Long Wu grinned, his Tang sword effortlessly deflecting the left monster's forepaw. Blood splattered on his face, the metallic stench of rust filling his nostrils. "I can hold out until sunrise." He suddenly spun around, his scabbard slamming into the fourth monster that had attacked from behind. The metallic clang was accompanied by a sickening cracking sound as the monster's spine snapped. "But you'd better hurry, they seem... to be stalling for time."
The last few words were practically squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Long Wu's right leg suddenly sank, and when he looked down, he saw that the fifth monster's tail spike had pierced through his calf, and dark purple venom was seeping into his blood vessels through the wound.
He grabbed the tail spike with his backhand, his muscular arm bulging with veins, and with a "crack," he broke the half-meter-long bone spike in two.
"Delay?" Chu Yao's electronic voice came through the communicator, "The energy concentration in the East Third Region is detected to be rising exponentially."
Lin Yi, your mental connection strength is decreasing—those monsters are interfering with higher-dimensional communication!
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He could clearly feel the silver light spots in his sea of consciousness fading, and the fluctuations of the observer's will becoming blurred.
The burning pain at the nerve junction in the back of my neck intensified, as if a ball of fire was shooting up my spine.
He gripped the Starfall Iron Sword tightly, and the lightning patterns on the sword instantly swelled into a half-meter-long arc of electricity. "Chu Yao, force the connection!"
Ivan, push the resonance tower to its maximum power!
"Tried." A noticeable double image appeared on Chu Yao's projection. "But the frequency of the interference source... is completely consistent with the neural interface at the back of your neck."
These words struck Lin Yi like a heavy hammer blow to the heart.
Fragments of memory suddenly surged forth—when he was twelve, the person chasing him had similar silver markings on their neck; three years ago in the lab, the supervisor sneered at his medical report: "Number 001's neural interface has finally matured."
"You knew there would be interference all along." He roared at the void, the silver light spot in his sea of consciousness re-condensing, "So you used Long Wu as bait?"
Should Ivan be used as a stabilizer?
The observer's mechanical voice held a hint of obscurity: "We merely offer possibilities; the choice is yours."
"Possibility?" Lin Yi's knuckles turned white on the sword hilt. "Long Wu has a poisoned thorn in his leg, Ivan's resonance tower could overload at any moment, and Chu Yao's projection is collapsing—is this what you call possibility?"
The communicator suddenly rang out, and Long Wu groaned.
Lin Yi looked down at the screen. Long Wu's vital signs bar was jumping wildly, plummeting from 92% to 67%.
He heard Long Wu grind his teeth: "Boss, these monsters' weapons... are a fusion of the Destiny System and extradimensional technology."
Their core contains...
"It contains my neural interface code," Lin Yi interrupted him, his voice suddenly becoming unusually calm.
He finally saw the outline of the silver spot in his sea of consciousness—it was an hourglass made up of countless data streams, each grain of sand repeating the pattern of the neural interface at the back of his neck.
The observer paused for a moment, then a hint of helplessness crept into the mechanical voice: "Every world has its own trial participants, and you... are the most special one."
"Special?" Lin Yi's gaze swept over Long Wu's blood-stained profile in the communicator, over the cold sweat beading on Ivan's forehead, and over the fading blue light at the edge of Chu Yao's projection. "So I'm not the first person to 'break the template'?"
The hourglass's data stream suddenly became disordered.
The observer's voice lowered: "You're not the first, but you're the first to choose not to accept the new template."
"A template?" Lin Yi's temples throbbed. "You've given every trial participant in every world a 'perfect script,' making them become 'saviors' according to your rules?"
"That's the optimal solution for the survival of civilization."
"Optimal solution?" Lin Yi's laughter was icy. "When my mother was being chased by people from the lab three years ago, where was your optimal solution?"
"When I was twelve and stabbed three times in an alley, where was your optimal solution?" He swung his sword fiercely into the void, lightning arcs tearing a half-meter-long spatial rift. "Now Long Wu is about to collapse, Ivan's resonance tower is emitting smoke, and Chu Yao's core program is crashing—is this your optimal solution?"
The space suddenly shook violently.
The previously calmed star trail vortex twisted again, and a pitch-black crack split open in front of Lin Yi, with a faint blue light emanating from its depths, like an open eye.
The observer's mechanical voice became ethereal: "Since you don't accept our arrangements... then you must take the next step yourself."
As Lin Yi stared at the crack, the burning pain in the back of his neck suddenly disappeared.
He heard Long Wu shout into the communicator: "Boss!"
The rift has expanded to a diameter of ten meters, and these monsters are moving things into it... Damn!
It is the core host of the Destiny System!
He heard Ivan's panting: "Resonance Tower overload countdown, three, two..."
He heard Chu Yao's projection say before it dissipated: "Detected the other side of the crack... the coordinates of the laboratory where your mother disappeared."
The night wind lifted the hem of his clothes, and the Starfall Iron Sword burned in his palm.
A familiar sandalwood scent wafted from the crack—the same scent as the pocket watch his mother had left behind.
Lin Yi stared at the crack, his heart churning. He knew that as long as he crossed it...
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