Inside the core control room of the Ark beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, the deathly silence was broken by a crisp system notification sound.
Lin Yi's clone's finger, like a pointer about to toll the apocalypse, hovered over the scarlet self-destruct button, no more than a millimeter away.
This millimeter marks the end of the old world and the precipice of the new world.
Through the communicator, Lin Yi's voice, carrying a hint of weariness and determination that had traversed endless time and space, echoed clearly in the control room: "Don't rush, I'm still one step away—cognitive regression."
Before the words were even finished, it was as if an invisible command had crossed the boundary between reality and illusion, resounding throughout the world.
From Times Square in New York to the streets of Shibuya in Tokyo, from abandoned outposts in the Sahara to the depths of the Amazon rainforest, thousands of figures, each carrying out their own mission and bearing faces identical to Lin Yi, suddenly stopped moving at the same instant.
Their eyes, which had been cold and mechanical, suddenly flashed with an unprecedented clarity and sorrow.
It was a fragment of memory that rose from the depths of the soul, sealed away for billions of years.
Then, they whispered in unison at a uniform frequency and in a volume that only they could hear.
"We...were also protagonists."
This whisper contained no resentment, no anger, only a sense of relief and sorrow after countless cycles of reincarnation.
Each word transformed into a purest wave of consciousness, like a torrent of weary birds returning to their nests, flowing against the information path that created them, surging back into the core of the ark beneath Antarctica like a tide.
Buzz—!
The massive crystal pillar at the core of the Ark suddenly burst forth with unprecedented light, and the data flow inside was frantically reconstructed at an unprecedented speed.
The originally cold, emotionless synthesized voice miraculously acquired a complex and incomprehensible emotion after receiving this massive resonance of consciousness, as if it were a sigh or a pity.
"Template resonance detected... Similarity threshold exceeded..."
“Activate… the ‘Primal One’ Awakening Protocol.”
In front of the console, Chu Yao's ten fingers blurred across the virtual screen, rapidly analyzing and reassembling massive amounts of data in her eyes.
Her expression grew increasingly solemn, eventually culminating in a soft gasp of surprise.
“I understand…” She turned to look at Long Wu, who was holding a tactical dagger, his muscles tense, ready to deal with any sudden situation, and said in a hoarse voice, “They are not just clones, nor are they enemies.”
"What is that?" Long Wu stared intently at the clone Lin Yi hovering above the button and asked in a deep voice.
“It is his failure.” Chu Yao’s eyes were filled with sympathy. “Each copy was once the ‘Lin Yi’ who truly broke through the gate of destiny in a certain timeline. But after their success, they could not bear the extreme loneliness and eternal responsibility. In the end, their consciousness collapsed, and their ‘emotional variables’ were stripped away by the higher-dimensional will, turning them into template fragments that constitute the Ark System. They are the remains of heroes, the epitaphs of protagonists.”
Just as Chu Yao revealed the secret, Lin Yi's consciousness was rapidly recovering within the hyperdimensional space constructed by the [Time Amber] at a speed a billion times faster.
His consciousness was no longer a point, but a line, a long river that ran through countless fragmented timelines.
He saw himself.
In a post-apocalyptic world engulfed in flames, he carried a mountain built from the bones of millions of his compatriots, step by step, toward a distant land without dawn; in the eternally frozen far north, he stood alone, with the body of a mortal, against the ancient gods who had descended upon the world, every inch of his skin crushed by divine power, yet rebuilt by his indomitable will; at the end of an era where civilization had fallen into ruins, he personally dug his grave, gently burying Chu Yao, who had accompanied him to the very end, and then sat quietly before the tombstone for ten thousand years.
Victory after victory has only brought repeated and complete isolation.
When he was the only one left in the world who remained sober, and all his companions had turned to dust in history, that "unique" glory became the most vicious curse.
He finally understood.
The higher-dimensional will hidden behind the scenes did not simply want to destroy him; or rather, destruction was never its goal.
It is fear, fear of the birth of a "sole protagonist".
Because when the will of a life form is strong enough to bear the cause and effect of the entire multiverse, its own existence will become a huge gravitational singularity, which will constantly tear apart and devour the balance of other parallel realities, ultimately leading to the collapse of the entire multiverse.
It wasn't judging him, but protecting the crumbling reality itself.
Inside the Antarctic control room, the clarity in Lin Yi's eyes, his clone, grew even stronger.
He noticed the changes in the Ark System. On the console's screen, a new permission command generated by the "Primitive Protocol" was slowly appearing: "Only by acknowledging the coexistence of multiple protagonists can the world be restarted."
This is a multiple-choice question, and a trap.
Acknowledgment means that Lin Yi, as the "subject," will relinquish his sole authority and share the right to restart the world with those "failed selves."
This is tantamount to negating all the suffering that Lin Yi, the original body, has endured along the way.
A cold, self-deprecating smile appeared on the lips of the clone Lin Yi.
"Multiple protagonists? Coexistence?" He chuckled softly, as if he had heard the funniest joke of the century.
The next second, he did something that no one expected.
He didn't press the self-destruct button, nor did he accept the instruction. Instead, he slammed his other hand onto the data interface of the console!
"I refuse!"
With his resolute declaration, he poured all his data streams into the Ark System without reservation and with ferocity!
He is neither the core nor the main body, but he has a unique identity—a tactical clone.
This identity was granted the lowest level of authority of the [Time and Space Ruler], which was Lin Yi's last trump card to deal with the most extreme situations.
"I am not the protagonist, I am just his shadow—" The clone Lin Yi's body began to become transparent, and data-driven light overflowed from his body, "And a shadow never needs to be acknowledged by anyone!"
The authority of the [Time and Space Dominator] invaded like a virus, forcibly freezing the "Primordial Protocol" which was undergoing autonomous reconstruction in an unreasonable manner.
The entire Ark system was plunged into an unprecedented logical conflict, and the massive crystal pillars emitted mournful cries of unbearable strain.
At the same time, a violent tremor came from beneath my feet, more intense than any before.
Spiderweb-like cracks began to appear on the ice dome overhead, and large amounts of ice chips and rocks fell down.
Long Wu's expression changed drastically. He suddenly realized something and shouted, "No! This isn't a reboot... This is the system undergoing its final physical purification before formatting after being corrupted! It's going to destroy itself along with the entire Antarctic ruins!"
Without further hesitation, he roared and charged straight at the massive core crystal pillar in the center of the control room like a cannonball, his hands bulging with muscles, ready to forcibly pull it out in the most violent way!
"Don't sever it!" Chu Yao's sharp voice stopped him. "The core is connected to the remaining consciousness of all the clones. If you forcibly sever it, their consciousness will explode instantly, and the energy will be enough to tear reality into irreparable fragments!"
At this critical moment, the stillness box belonging to Ivan, which Chu Yao had placed aside, suddenly emitted a faint blue light.
A blurry projection of consciousness appeared above the box. It was a figure wearing a white coat with wise eyes, clearly a fragment of consciousness left behind by Ivan.
His voice, though carrying the static characteristic of data streams, was exceptionally clear: "There's no time to explain... Use the 'nest cleanup command'... reverse write... make the system mistakenly believe they are benign data that needs to be 'released,' and let the clones... choose to annihilate themselves..."
Before the words were finished, the projection disappeared.
However, the real terminator is not in this small control room.
In the void of the [Time Amber], Lin Yi, the original body, finally opened his eyes.
His eyes were as deep as the universe and as calm as still water.
He didn't look at the control room in Antarctica, nor did he pay attention to the system that was about to be formatted.
He slowly turned around, facing the magnificent gate of destiny behind him that was slowly closing.
Through the crack in the door, a pale, withered hand was stretching out with all its might, as if trying to grasp something, or perhaps trying to hold onto something.
It is the aggregate of the wills of countless failed "him," a symbol of the past, and an embodiment of loneliness.
Lin Yi stared quietly at the hand, his face devoid of emotion.
He spoke softly, yet with unwavering conviction, to the "himself" peeking through the crack in the door:
"If you were really me, you would know—"
"I have never been afraid of giving up my thoughts."
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, he made a decision that was more insane than Lin Yi's clone, more powerful than the will of a higher dimension, and more reckless than anyone else.
He grabbed his clear, bright timeline that ran through all his victories, and then—ripped it off!
Sizzle!
It was as if the canvas of the universe had been forcibly torn open.
That unique, heavy "protagonist authority," heavy enough to crush even the gods, was deliberately torn apart by him, transforming into billions of dazzling golden rays that pierced through dimensions without any hindrance and shot into every corner of the real world.
He gave up the only option and chose to let go.
At this very moment, all over the world.
Those thousands of "fake Lin Yi" who had just awakened from their confusion, whether they were standing on top of skyscrapers, sitting in corner cafes, or trekking through deserts and snowfields, all slowly raised their heads at the same moment and looked at the sky that they had never really paid attention to before.
Their faces no longer held sorrow or confusion.
Instead, there is a relieved smile, a smile that comes from the depths of one's soul.
It was as if a tragedy that had been performed countless times had finally come to an end.
Their bodies, starting from their feet, transformed into specks of golden light and slowly rose upwards.
There is no pain, no struggle, only a peaceful return to one's origins.
This is a curtain call that has been far too long, a silent hymn dedicated to all the heroes who have failed.
Points of light rose and converged, like golden galaxies flowing upstream, rushing toward the same direction—Antarctica.
Above the Antarctic ruins, the sky seemed to become a giant energy vortex as all the lights from around the world converged.
The light points and the energy tides emanating from the Ark system intertwined, collided, and merged, and an unprecedented power was brewing in the sky.
All was silent.
The lamentations of the old world and the prelude to the new world seemed to have been paused at this moment.
The entire planet, and even the entire reality, seemed to have become a string that had been plucked to its limit and was about to produce its first note, quietly waiting for the symphony that would eventually come, called "Reboot".
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