As the alarm pierced the air, Lin Yi's fingertips were still on the last line of the document: "Reshaping our understanding of the world."
The metallic red light of the alarm pulsed in his pupils, staining the ink characters a glaring crimson.
He could hear his own heartbeat, each beat heavier than the last, as if someone were hammering his ribs—it turned out that from the day he awakened as the [Master of Time and Space], he thought he had grasped the reins of fate, but now it seemed that he had merely been placed into a meticulously designed chessboard.
"Boss?" Long Wu's heavy sword hummed as it was drawn from its sheath, the dragon pattern on the blade gleaming with an eerie light, making the veins on his neck throb.
This burly man, now awakened with the bloodline of a true dragon, resembled a wild beast poised to pounce, his feet grinding a half-groove into the cold, hard metal floor. "The mutated beings are still three hundred meters from the entrance. The space-elemental kid said they carry distorted, hidden energy fluctuations, like their perception has been altered..."
"Chu Yao." Lin Yi suddenly spoke, his voice half an octave lower than usual, but with a sharp edge at the end, "Retrieve the base database and check the final stage of the 'Faithful One No. 0' project."
"Analyzing." A mechanical voice sounded from behind his ear. Chu Yao's projection unfolded on the holographic screen. In the pale blue torrent of data, a line of scarlet title suddenly jumped out—[Cognitive Reconstruction Project: When 70% of human consciousness recognizes a certain "reality", that reality will override the physical rules and become absolute truth].
Lin Yi paused in breathing.
He recalled the alien invaders in the core of the mother nest who were screaming "cognitive pollution," he recalled the "world destruction" mentioned by the white-coated doctors in Zhou Zheng's memory, and he recalled the sentence in Professor Lin Qing's diary that "the timeline is as clean as a blank sheet of paper."
It turns out that the so-called "mythical hidden profession" and the so-called "sole master of time and space" are nothing more than someone wanting to draw the world they want on this blank sheet of paper.
“So I am not the chosen one.” He turned to look at Xuanmingzi, who was standing in the shadows.
The avatar of the original game's mastermind was staring at the holographic screen, his fingers unconsciously clenching and unclenching beneath his Taoist robe. "It's a template."
Xuanmingzi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He could see the divine mark between Lin Yi's brows faintly burning, a sign of the surging power of the [Time and Space Dominator].
“To be more precise—” his voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded, “you are the first vessel capable of containing ‘cognitive reconstruction.’ They need an entity that can manipulate spacetime to stabilize the impact of the flood of consciousness.”
"Stable impact?" Long Wu twirled his heavy sword in his palm, the wind from the blade lifting pages of documents on the table. "So those old fogies were using the boss like a battery?"
“It’s not just the battery.” Chu Yao’s projection suddenly flickered. “According to the deep archives, ‘cognitive reconstruction’ requires an ‘anchor point’—someone trusted by the vast majority of people. Your mythical profession, your battle record, the time-space legion you established… are all accumulating ‘credibility’ for this anchor point.”
The temperature in the archives room seemed to drop ten degrees.
Lin Yi reached for the spacetime rift key at his waist, the cool metal seeping into his veins through his palm.
He recalled the star trails he saw when he first awakened, the light in Chu Yao's eyes when he used [Time Rewind] to save her, and the blood that Long Wu spat on his face when he took a fatal blow for him in the interdimensional battlefield—were these vivid, burning, and real memories just scripts written by someone else?
"bite--"
A new notification suddenly popped up on the holographic screen.
Chu Yao's projection solidified, her fingertip pointing at a string of fluctuating data: "Residual signals of 'cognitive pollution' have been detected in the alien population, which are of the same origin as the 'faith factor' leaked from the laboratory three years ago."
“Interesting.” Lin Yi suddenly laughed, a laugh colder than the red alarm light. “They used my abilities as an anchor, the mutants as tools, and even the pollution was self-inflicted—” His finger pressed heavily on the words “cognitive reconstruction,” “What do they want everyone to believe? The end of the world? A savior? Or…”
"Boss!" The space team member's voice suddenly cracked, "The mutated creatures have broken in! Their forms are changing! Some... some look like the researchers from the base!"
Long Wu's heavy blade instantly appeared in front of Lin Yi.
This burly man, who had always believed only in his fists, now had his pupils shrink to pinpoints as he stared at the swaying figures on the surveillance screen—the necks of those "researchers" in white lab coats were twisted at bizarre angles, their eyes gleaming with a murky gray, and the one in front even had half a human skin mask hanging on it, revealing wriggling black tentacles underneath.
“Cognitive pollution.” Xuanmingzi’s Taoist robe fluttered without wind. “They are mimicking human appearances, trying to lower our guard with ‘familiarity’.”
Lin Yi's fingertips traced the lines between his brows.
The power of spacetime surged within him, allowing him to clearly perceive the locations of the thirty mutated beings and the faint "faith factor" within them—like the threads on a puppet, while the one pulling the threads remained hidden deeper within.
"Long Wu, guard the left passage." His voice suddenly became unusually calm, even carrying a hint of cold laughter. "Xuan Mingzi, use your illusion to interfere with their perception. Chu Yao, locate the coordinates of the pollution source."
Long Wu nodded heavily, his heavy sword accompanied by a dragon's roar; Xuan Mingzi raised his hand to form a seal, and a pale blue mist filled the corridor; Chu Yao's projection transformed into a data stream, rapidly spreading along the base's network.
Lin Yi stood there, staring at the title "Cognitive Reconstruction" on the holographic screen, and suddenly reached out and pressed his hand to his chest.
There, is the wound from three years ago when he was pierced by extradimensional energy while saving Chu Yao; a faint scar still remains.
"Want me to be your anchor?" he said softly to the air, as if declaring war on a chess player hiding in the shadows. "You'll have to ask me first if I agree."
The alarm is still going off.
Long Wu glanced back at him and saw that the silver-blue light patterns surging in the boy's eyes were more intense than ever before.
The brother who had been with him for three years suddenly realized that those behind the scenes had probably forgotten that the "template" they chose was never a blank sheet of paper to be sculpted.
"Boss," he said in a low voice, twirling the heavy sword in his palm, "Don't let them lead you by the nose." Long Wu's heavy sword left shallow white finger marks in his palm. He looked at Lin Yi's taut jawline, his Adam's apple bobbing.
This burly man, who had always believed only in his fists, now had a fire burning in his eyes that was even more intense than the battlefield of another dimension: "Don't let them lead you by the nose." He lowered his voice, the last syllable torn to shreds by the alarm, "Whether you are an anchor or a template, the brothers of our Time Legion—" He glanced at the team members fighting the mutants on the monitor, "and the old guys from the Reality Alliance, and those traitors who followed us in the other dimension, they're all on your side."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
Long Wu's voice was like a heavy hammer, shattering the cold fog in his heart.
Looking at this brother who always said "Boss, you go first," he suddenly remembered three years ago in the newbie village when Long Wu blocked the claws of a mutated wolf for him, and said with red eyes, "Your life is precious."
A warm sensation rose in his throat. He reached out and patted Long Wu's shoulder, his palm able to feel the taut muscles beneath the other's armor: "I know."
But that initial enthusiasm was quickly cooled by a new voice.
"If their goal is to change perceptions..."
Ivan's voice was like a block of ice, rolling from the shadows into the crowd.
The original core host of the mother nest was staring at the words "Cognitive Reconstruction" flashing on the holographic screen, his pale fingertips unconsciously stroking the silver pendant on his chest—the first "human souvenir" given to him by Lin Yi after he regained his humanity.
"Is everything we're seeing now also being manipulated?" He looked up, his gray-blue eyes misty. "Like the 'familiarity' of these mutants, like the base's alarms, even..." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the old scar on Lin Yi's chest, "like certain key memories?"
The air suddenly froze.
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe fluttered without wind, and the half-finished hand seal he was forming stopped in mid-air, his brows furrowed into two deep, knife-like lines.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly rippled with pale purple light, a manifestation of the artificial intelligence's emotional fluctuations—her data chain rapidly moved around Lin Yi's side, as if searching for some trace of tampering.
Long Wu's heavy sword slammed onto the ground with a clang, making the metal floor vibrate. He stared wide-eyed: "Old Yi, what do you mean? Are you saying that all those three years of risking our lives together were just for show?"
“The probability is 73.2%.” Chu Yao’s voice suddenly became hoarse, a tone she rarely used. “Based on the characteristics of the Faith Factor, when the pollution concentration exceeds the threshold, humans will misjudge fictional memories as real. And the amount of pollution that leaked from the laboratory three years ago…” Her projection flickered, displaying a series of alarming curves, “enough to cover all consciousnesses within a radius of fifty kilometers.”
Lin Yi's fingertips dug deeply into his palm.
He could hear the throbbing in his temples, each throbbing a jolt against the surging memories: the warmth of Chu Yao's embrace when she first gained physical form; the burning heat of blood splattered on his face as Long Wu shielded him on the interdimensional battlefield; and the light in Ivan's eyes as he struggled to say "I want to be a person" in the core of the mother nest.
These memories were so vivid, so vivid, that he couldn't believe they were fake.
"Enough." He suddenly spoke, his voice like a sword tempered with ice. "Now is not the time to dwell on the past." He turned to look at the holographic screen, where the mutated creature in the surveillance footage had broken through the first line of defense, and the tentacles under the white coat were strangling the last guard.
"Chu Yao, locate the source of the pollution. Xuan Mingzi, prepare to seal off this level of space. Long Wu—" He grabbed the spacetime rift key from the table, "Come with me to meet those behind-the-scenes players."
The piercing alarm suddenly rose three notches.
Chu Yao's projector snapped to the left-hand monitor screen, and a crimson warning exploded in the pale blue data stream: "External armed intrusion detected! Coordinates b-7, c-3, d-9..." Her voice, for the first time, carried a hint of panic, "Not standard equipment from the Bureau! Tactical maneuvers... It's remnants of 'Obsidian'!"
"Obsidian?" Long Wu's heavy sword instantly returned to his palm, dragon patterns flaming with crimson flames on the blade. "Those terrorists whose hideout we wiped out three years ago? Weren't they blown to ash by the spacetime rift long ago?"
Xuan Mingzi finally completed his hand seals, and a pale blue barrier unfolded at the entrance. He stared at the figures on the monitor, his fingers trembling slightly beneath his Taoist robe: "The combat suits they're wearing... are a modified version of stealth energy shielding armor." He looked up at Lin Yi, "They're made of materials from another dimension."
Lin Yi's breath hitched.
He stared at the figures on the monitor—black combat uniforms embroidered with silver inverted triangles, the distinctive symbol of Obsidian.
The man in the lead removed his tactical helmet, revealing a hideous scar on his left cheek—it was Lei Yao, the former second-in-command of Obsidian, whose heart had been crushed by Lei Yao's [Time Freeze] technique on the interdimensional battlefield half a year ago.
“Impossible.” Chu Yao’s projection began to flicker. “According to the death record, Lei Yao’s vital signs completely disappeared at 14:23 on May 17, 2042.”
“Cognitive reconstruction.” Ivan suddenly chuckled, the laughter like shattered glass. “They use our memories as a canvas, and they can even bring the dead to life.”
Lin Yi's fingers slowly tightened around the spacetime rift key.
The star trail pattern on the key suddenly lit up with a silver-blue light, burning his palms red.
He stared at the particle gun Lei Yao was raising in the surveillance footage, the muzzle pointed directly at the core area of the base, and suddenly remembered another sentence from the "Cognitive Reconstruction Project"—"When the anchor point is strong enough, any physical rule can be rewritten."
"Boss?" Long Wu's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible tension. "What do we do?"
Lin Yi did not answer.
He stared at the black figures surging towards Lei Yao like a tide, and at the twisted smiles on the faces of those "old acquaintances" who should have been dead, and suddenly loosened his grip on the key.
Silver-blue light flowed through his fingers, condensing into a spatial rift at his feet.
"Prepare for battle." His voice was soft, yet it struck everyone like a hammer blow. "It seems there are others more eager than we are to open this door."
In the surveillance footage, Lei Yao's particle gun was fully charged.
The defensive fortifications surrounding the base crumbled like paper toys in the black torrent.
Behind the metal door in the core area, the combination lock marked "Door of Truth" was beeping softly as the alarm sounded—someone had entered the correct password.
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