The alarm in the command center pierced Lin Yi's eardrums like steel needles, and his pupils suddenly contracted to thin slits.
Although the figure in the surveillance footage only flashed for 0.3 seconds—his perception of time was accurate to the millisecond—the crack on his shoulder armor that ran diagonally from his left shoulder to his right waist was exactly the same as the wound he had been slashed by the claws of a void beast in the interdimensional battlefield three days ago.
"Chu Yao, capture the thermal image of the shadowed area." His voice was as steady as a precision instrument, yet his fingertips left faint white marks on the edge of the control panel.
The blue light from the holographic projection flowed faster through Chu Yao's hair, and her pupil data bar abruptly turned from green to crimson: "Locked, residual thermal radiation value is completely consistent with yours." The AI assistant's virtual fingertip swept across the air, bringing up the base's energy distribution map: "At 00:17:23, a 0.01-second dark matter fluctuation appeared in the logistics warehouse area. The energy curve overlaps with the residual trajectory when you used [Spacetime Rift] by 97.3%."
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He did go to the logistics warehouse three days ago to test the newly forged dragon scale arm armor for Long Wu—at that time, he deliberately used [Time Stop] to block all surveillance, and no one except Chu Yao knew the exact time.
"Long Wu." He pressed the communication button, his voice trembling with a tension only his closest comrades could detect. "Take a team to patrol the logistics warehouse. Tell them you're checking the storage of the newly arrived meteorite iron."
The communicator crackled with the soft sound of dragon scales rubbing together, and Long Wu's tail swept a shallow mark across the ground: "Understood, arrive within five minutes." The burly man, standing two meters tall, slowed his pace, his dragon claws slightly clenched in his palms, his knuckles gleaming with a cold, jade-like light.
"Ivan." Lin Yi turned in another direction. "Review the biometric data of all personnel who entered the warehouse in the past twelve hours, focusing on comparing irises and brainwaves."
The blond youth adjusted his glasses, and a terminal projected countless data streams onto his wrist: "It's already underway." His voice carried a hint of amusement. "However, if it's a clone of you, these conventional methods might..."
"I know." Lin Yi interrupted him, his fingertips unconsciously tracing his neck—the jade pendant that had been hanging there was gone, but now it felt like a burning flame flickering beneath his skin. "So, unconventional methods are needed."
The monitor screen suddenly flickered twice, and Xuanmingzi's figure stepped out of the shadows.
The elderly man, always dressed in a blue robe, frowned slightly, his cuffs still stained with system code that hadn't completely dissipated: "Although the core of the Destiny System has collapsed, the 'observation anchor' it planted in your consciousness may still exist." His fingertip touched his temple. "A clone, perhaps the anchor absorbed fragments of your memory."
Lin Yi's gaze swept across Xuan Mingzi's eyes—there lay an undercurrent he had never seen before, like a turbulent current in the deep sea.
But he didn't press further, only looking down at his palm: "If he were me, he would definitely doubt whether I was real."
The base's lights were switched to energy-saving mode late at night, and the motion-sensor lights in the corridor turned on one by one in response to Lin Yi's footsteps.
He stood in front of the logistics warehouse door, pretending to check the access control system, but his fingertips were secretly pressing on the emergency switch on the side of the door—a deliberate slip-up he left.
The sound of fabric rubbing came from the shadows, softer than breathing.
Lin Yi's back broke out in a fine layer of cold sweat, a physiological reaction that rarely occurred to him after he became the master of time and space.
He didn't turn around, but continued tapping on the access control panel with his tools, his voice deliberately impatient: "This damn system, didn't Chu Yao say it was fixed...?"
The sound of the wind brushed past the back of my neck.
His sidestep was a beat slower than usual—this was intentional.
The clone's palm brushed against his collarbone, the calluses on its knuckles feeling exactly the same as his own, even the temperature was identical.
"Which timeline?" Lin Yi grabbed the other's wrist with his backhand, but his pupils contracted the moment he touched the skin—the clone's pulse rate was perfectly synchronized with his heartbeat at that moment.
The other person didn't answer, but his other hand was already pressed on his dantian.
The familiar energy fluctuations exploded, marking the beginning of [Space Folding].
The air around the two was like the surface of a lake where pebbles had been thrown in; ripple-like spatial cracks spread from the ground to the ceiling, and the nearest storage shelf collapsed with a "boom" into a fist-sized metal block.
"Separate cause and effect!" Lin Yi shouted, a pale golden spacetime emblem appearing on his forehead.
This is his trump card skill, specifically used to sever the causal connections between things.
The clone's movements suddenly froze, as if a pause button had been pressed, and a trace of panic flashed in its eyes—the panic belonging to "Lin Yi," carrying the helplessness of being exposed.
"Long Wu!"
The sharp sound of dragon scales tearing through the air rang out almost simultaneously.
Long Wu's dragon tail swept in with a fierce wind, precisely wrapping around the clone's waist.
This incredibly strong warrior was now controlling his strength, afraid of hurting "himself"—until the clone suddenly sprang up, its fingernails transforming into silver spacetime blades that pierced towards Long Wu's throat.
"Watch out!" Lin Yi's voice cracked.
Dragon Five's scales instantly covered his entire body. With a crisp clang from the scales colliding, he tilted his head to avoid a fatal blow, but his dragon claws mercilessly gripped the clone's nape: "Boss, got it!"
The clone was pinned to the ground, and looking up at Lin Yi, there was a stubbornness in his eyes that Lin Yi knew best—it was the same stubbornness he had shown when he was studying until 3 a.m. on the eve of the college entrance exam, and when his mother urged him to go to sleep, he insisted on reading two more pages of notes; it was the same stubbornness he had shown when he was wiped out by a boss in a game for the first time, and he gritted his teeth and said "Let's try again"; it was the same stubbornness he had shown when he stood in front of the ruins of the Time Legion and said to Chu Yao, "I will rebuild."
"You are not me." Lin Yi crouched down, pressing his fingertips against the clone's brow. "You are the final test from the Fate System."
The clone suddenly laughed, the curve of his mouth exactly the same as when he was drunk at the celebration party last month: "You think you've won?"
"The real me..." His voice suddenly became hoarse, as if two different tones were overlapping, "...not yet."
Long Wu's dragon claws tightened involuntarily, and blood seeped from the back of the clone's neck.
But the blood wasn't red; it was silver with starlight—the same color as the energy that overflowed when Lin Yi used his spacetime skill.
"Take him to the interrogation room." Lin Yi stood up, his back to the two men, his Adam's apple bobbing twice. "Chu Yao, activate the highest-level mental isolation pod."
"Do you need my help?" Xuan Mingzi appeared beside him at some point, his green robe fluttering in the turbulent air.
Lin Yi shook his head, his gaze falling on the figure of the clone being dragged away by Long Wu.
The figure suddenly turned his head at the corner, his gaze meeting Long Wu's through the crook of his arm—this time, he saw clearly what was in the other's eyes.
It wasn't panic, it wasn't anger.
It is expectation.
As the red light in the interrogation room illuminated at the end of the corridor, Lin Yi touched his temple.
There was an itch there that only he could feel, like a seed awakening.
Chu Yao's voice suddenly rang in my ears: "Abnormal energy consumption detected in the interrogation room's mental isolation chamber. Recommendation:..."
"I know." Lin Yi interrupted her, but didn't stop walking. "Prepare the brainwave synchronizer."
His silhouette as he walked toward the interrogation room was stretched long by the corridor lights, overlapping with the shadow of the clone from before.
At one point, even he himself couldn't tell which one was truly the one who should be interrogated.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com