The setting sun dyed the broken wall blood red. Lin Yi knelt on one knee in the pile of rubble, his knuckles digging deep into the charred tiles.
His newly regenerated right leg was still throbbing, as if countless ants were gnawing at his bone marrow—this was the price of being a mortal, yet he looked down at the bleeding wound and smiled.
"Pain means I'm alive," he murmured to the air, his Adam's apple bobbing as the hot cocoa cup on his chest swayed gently.
That was the last thing Su Qing gave him; the charred edges were more real than any data, and now it was pressed against his beating heart, as if it were continuing to tell him, "Live well," on behalf of that girl.
\"Owner.\"
A sweet female voice drifted over, enveloped in a fine mist of light.
Chu Yao's data stream was no longer a mechanical blue, but a warm, pale pink, like clouds tinged with the warmth of everyday life.
Her luminous mist gently cradled Lin Yi's elbow, the touch softer than before. "The aftershocks of the Faith Resonance have been detected dissipating; the spiritual connection between all global job changers is about to be severed."
Lin Yi looked up, following the light and mist.
In the distance, on the ruins, some people cheered while holding up electronic screens that had been lit up again, some girls in school uniforms cried while hugging their lost dolls, and even the sycamore trees that had been corroded to ashes sprouted new buds.
These sounds, mixed with the smell of cooking smoke, flooded his nostrils, but he didn't feel as relaxed as he had imagined.
"What do we do next?" Chu Yao's light mist condensed into a semi-transparent outline of a girl, with scorch marks from the battle still clinging to the ends of her hair—she always said she wanted to preserve these "human-like mementos."
Lin Yi wiped his face, his palms stained with blood and ash.
He gazed at his newly grown right hand, his fingertips gently stroking the edge of the coaster: "Wait."
"What are you waiting for?"
"Wait for what's meant to come." His voice was soft, yet like the tapping of bronze. "That fluctuation of consciousness just now...it wasn't accidental."
Before the words were even finished, ripples suddenly appeared in the air.
The shadowy figure seeped out from the distorted space, this time not shrouded in oppressive black mist, but rather like a crumpled shadow.
His voice held an unusual hesitation, as if he were carefully choosing each word: "You thought it was over?"
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
The Anchor of Time burned in his palm, yet the golden-red light did not erupt—this was the tacit understanding he and the shadowy figure had reached. "Explain yourself."
The shadowy figure raised a hand, his fingertips piercing the glass of the observation window, tracing a silver line across the starry sky. "The first veil has been lifted," his voice deepened, "but behind the veil... there are still eyes."
Lin Yi looked in the direction of the silver line.
The twilight sky should have been dotted with a few early stars, but now there was a patch of ink slowly writhing, like a clump of thick ink blown away by the wind, or like some living thing stretching its body.
"A higher dimension." He heard his own voice hoarse.
"Three dimensions higher than the previous intruders." The shadowy figure's shadow suddenly trembled violently. "They're looking for something."
And this planet, which has just risen from the ashes of war…” His fingertip paused on the Earth projection, “is very likely the key.”
Buzz—
His sea of consciousness was suddenly pierced.
This time the pain was more intense than before, like someone was drawing circles in his brain with an ice pick.
Lin Yi staggered and grabbed the control panel, his fingernails scraping against the metal surface with a harsh sound.
He saw Chu Yao's data stream instantly swell to dark purple, and the light mist condensed into sharp spikes; he saw the shadow of the black figure suddenly solidify, revealing the lower half of a face that was pale and cold—a face that did not belong to humanity at all, with star-like patterns flowing beneath the skin.
"Master!" Chu Yao's light enveloped his temples, and a cool energy surged in. "The intensity of his consciousness fluctuations increased by 37%!"
Source...in the direction of the Orion spiral arm!
Lin Yi gritted his teeth and straightened up.
The light of the Anchor of Time surged, and gold and black intertwined in his eyes.
He could clearly sense the "emotion" within that fluctuation—not hostility, not curiosity, but more like... searching.
It's like someone squatting on the street rummaging through old things, occasionally knocking over a jar, but not caring at all whether it will wake up the ants inside.
"What is it looking for?" He stared at the inky blackness of the starry sky, his voice laced with icy coldness.
The shadowy figure began to fade, clearly indicating that this appearance had taken a heavy toll. "Perhaps it's a 'spark of civilization,' perhaps a 'loophole in the rules'..." His voice grew weaker, "But whatever it is... are you prepared to endure it again with your mortal body?"
"I'll carry it." Lin Yi touched the coaster on his chest. "Su Qing risked her life for the restart, Long Wu protected the fireworks with his military license plate, the Time Air Force Corps fought for order with their blood..." He looked up, his eyes shining like tempered knives. "These things are worth carrying ten thousand more times."
Before the shadow completely vanished, it left behind its last words: "Remember, the real enemy... has only just opened its eyes."
The wind swept ash past the observation window.
The cheers in the distance had stopped at some point, leaving only a few children chasing after the newly sprouted sycamore buds, their laughter crashing against the broken wall and shattering into a clear, resounding sound.
"Chu Yao." Lin Yi turned and walked towards the control panel, the light of the Anchor of Time flickering at his fingertips. "Connect to the mainframe and try to track that fluctuation."
"Connecting...Main brain access 99% open..." Chu Yao's data stream suddenly showed strange silver patterns. "Strange...the source of the fluctuation seems to be avoiding scanning. It...it's not a physical entity?"
Lin Yi's fingers paused on the control panel.
He gazed at the faint, indistinct dark mass in the star map, and heard his heart pounding like a drum.
"Keep tracking it," he said, his voice so soft it was as if afraid to wake something. "Whatever it is... I need to know its purpose."
The code flow in the console suddenly surged violently.
For a fleeting moment, Lin Yi seemed to see a pair of eyes emerge from the darkness—eyes without pupils, without emotion, simply "gazing".
In the far reaches of space, the wave, shrouded in an eerie darkness, finally touched the edge of Earth.
The blue light on the console suddenly twisted into a spiral shape, and Chu Yao's data stream exploded into stardust on the screen. When it reassembled into the girl's form, the light pink at the ends of her hair was dyed gray-white.
Her fingertips hovered above the virtual keyboard, and the pupils of the holographic projection narrowed to slits: "An anomaly detected in the nature of the fluctuation source... It lacks mass, energy, or dimensional coordinates."
Lin Yi's Time Anchor was burning hot in his palm, and golden-red light climbed up his wrist along his veins.
He could clearly sense the "sense of rules" within that fluctuation—like crumpled paper of laws, with ink stains at the edges that didn't belong to this universe. "What exactly is it?"
"It's a concept." Chu Yao's voice, for the first time, overlapped with a mechanical tone and a human intonation. "Similar to 'entropy increase' and 'causality,' but more...primitive." Her data stream suddenly rippled with silver streaks, an overload reaction during deep analysis. "It's reading our civilization's code, using...using rules as a scalpel."
A barely audible murmur came from the depths of his consciousness.
Lin Yi's temples throbbed, but it wasn't pain; instead, it was a familiar warmth.
He closed his eyes, and fragments of Su Qing's memories crept up his mind—the hot cocoa she forced into his hand during the rainstorm, the soft laugh she gave him when she shielded him from a fatal attack in the dungeon, and the coaster she placed on his heart before the data disappeared.
"No matter what lies ahead, I believe you can keep going." The voice was as light as a snowflake, yet it landed precisely in the cracks of his heart.
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and his fingertips lightly touched the coaster on his chest.
The charred edges dug into his skin, and he suddenly smiled, a gentle, helpless smile playing on his lips: "You always have such a knack for...picking the right moment."
The alarm on the control panel suddenly went off.
Chu Yao's data stream instantly turned dark purple, and her entire human form began to flicker: "Fluid source analysis progress has exceeded 70%!"
It's locating...locating the core area of civilization!
Lin Yi turned around abruptly, the light of the Anchor of Time illuminating the reddened corners of his eyes.
He leaped onto the observation deck atop the control panel, the wind whipping his hair as he gazed down at the densely packed group of job changers below—a street performer with a guitar bandaging the wounded, mech warriors repairing communication towers, and even under the previously corroded sycamore tree, several children were drawing crooked suns in the ashes with twigs.
"A new enemy has arrived!" His voice, resonating with the Anchor of Time, was like thunder splitting through the dark clouds.
All movement stopped.
The street performer's bandages slipped to the ground, the mecha warrior's mechanical arm hung in mid-air, and the child painting the sun raised his dusty face.
Lin Yi's fingers pressed against the coaster on his chest, where Su Qing's last warmth still lingered: "It's not a monster, not an army, it's a rule more dangerous than any enemy before." He looked at the girl in the crowd holding a rag doll, its eye missing, yet carefully tied with a red string, "But what moves is the smoke from the chimneys we risked our lives to protect, the sun the children drew, and the hot cocoa coaster Su Qing gave me."
Someone in the crowd raised a weapon.
It was a boy in a tracksuit, his right arm still wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage, yet he held the longsword ramrod straight: "If Brother Lin says to fight, I'll fight!"
"Fire!" The mecha warrior pounded his chest, the joints of his mechanical arm roaring.
"Hit!" The street performer grabbed his guitar as a shield, the sound of snapping strings accompanied by a carefree laugh.
"Hit!" The children threw away the branches, picked up broken bricks as weapons, and their dusty little faces gleamed.
The power of faith surged in from all directions.
Golden patterns appeared beneath Lin Yi's skin, a manifestation of a million beliefs, more intense than any mythical skill.
He gazed at the inky blackness in the starry sky, where the golden-red light of the Anchor of Time mingled with the power of faith, burning two flames in his pupils: "Chu Yao, locate the contact point of the fluctuation source."
"Coordinates locked... Eastern Hemisphere of Blue Star, 30 degrees North latitude, 120 degrees East longitude." Chu Yao's data stream returned to warm pink, and the gray at the ends of her hair faded into the luster of mother-of-pearl. "It's...it's where Su Qing's data disappeared."
Lin Yi's breath caught in his throat.
He gazed at the twinkling red dot on the star map and suddenly remembered Su Qing's last words: "If I'm gone one day, please see for me whether flowers can still grow in this world."
The wind swept ash across the observation deck.
The dark shadow finally touched the Earth's atmosphere, spreading slowly like a drop of ink falling into clear water.
Deeper still in the ruins, a charred chip rolled out from under the rubble.
From the cracks on the chip's surface, a few strands of eerie blue light seeped out—those were fragments of Night Owl's remaining consciousness, swimming along the underground cable toward the mainframe server.
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