The star trails outside the porthole suddenly twisted into a pretzel shape. Lin Yi felt a tingling sensation on the back of his neck, and the feeling of weightlessness was like an invisible hand gripping his heart—the teleportation had been activated.
Long Wu's shield vibrated and hummed in his palm. He subconsciously hunched over to protect Xia, the medic beside him, but his pupils contracted the moment he touched the air—the twenty-man team that had been crammed on the bridge was now reduced to just him standing alone in the gray-white mist.
Old Zhou's robotic arm suddenly emitted a crackling electrical sound, and the data stream in his prosthetic eye surged wildly. He hurriedly reached for the spare energy box at his waist, but his fingertips passed through the metal buckle that should have been hanging there.
Xuanmingzi's abacus beads snapped with a "crack," and the twelve jade beads rolled into the mist. As he bent down to pick them up, the hem of his Taoist robe fluttered in the exact opposite direction as if it had been swept up by the wind.
The remaining light from Su Qing suddenly flickered violently, like a last struggle before being swallowed by the fog. Just as Lin Yi reached out his hand, she shattered into millions of stardust with a "pop" and disappeared into his palm.
"Chu Yao?" He touched the communicator behind his ear. The metal plate, which was usually warm, was now ice-cold, and only the static of the electrical current hurt his eardrums.
"This is... a rejection reaction from the dimensional membrane." Xuan Mingzi's voice suddenly came from above. Lin Yi looked up and saw the white-haired old man floating in the mist, his Daoist robes fluttering in the invisible wind. "The rules of the boundary of reality are manifested by consciousness. You have been separated into independent individuals."
Long Wu's voice boomed from the left: "Boss! I see a shadow flickering in this fog!"
"Calm down." Lin Yi pressed his hand against the golden mark on his chest, the heat from the star map coursing through his body. "Old Zhou, check the environmental data."
"Detection...failed." Old Zhou's voice had the characteristic slurred quality of a mechanical tone. "All physical laws have failed; temperature, air pressure, gravity...it's all gibberish."
The shadowy figure's crimson eyes suddenly lit up directly in front of him, like two blood-red lamps piercing the fog: "Trial of Faith." He raised his wrist, shrouded in black mist, and pointed behind Lin Yi, "Advanced civilizations use this method to select... no, eliminate."
"What are the trial contents?" Lin Yi clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white from the force.
He could hear his own heartbeat amplified infinitely in the fog, one beat, two beats, each one crashing against some invisible barrier.
Xuan Mingzi suddenly grabbed his wrist, veins bulging: "Illusion!"
Your consciousness is being extracted... Look at your feet!
Lin Yi looked down and saw that the gray mist had somehow condensed into a bluestone path.
He stood at the entrance of a familiar alley—the one below the university dormitory building. Sycamore leaves were fluttering down onto his shoulders, and the aroma of sweet and sour pork ribs from the cafeteria wafted from afar.
He touched his cheek, his fingertips not touching the cold, hard outline of a mythical-level job changer, but the soft, tender skin of his twenties—his body before awakening.
"Lin Yi!"
I heard my mother's voice from behind.
He turned around and saw a woman in a faded blue cotton shirt standing under a sycamore tree, carrying a thermos, her white hair at her temples swaying in the wind: "Your dad forgot his blood pressure medication at home again, I'm taking it to the hospital." She smiled, her eyes narrowing, "The cafeteria's sweet and sour pork ribs are 20% off today, Mom saved half a box for you."
Lin Yi's throat suddenly tightened.
He remembered three months ago in the hospital corridor, his mother holding his hand and saying, "Xiao Yi, find a stable job." He remembered his father, with a breathing tube in his mouth, still comforting him with his eyes.
These memories, which should have been worn smooth by time, are as clear as if they just happened.
"Mom." He reached out, his fingertips about to touch the thermos when he suddenly stopped—the sycamore leaves behind his mother were drifting back to the branches, and the aroma of the canteen was mixed with the grassy scent of the beginner village in "Infinite".
What are you hesitating about?
Another voice came down from above.
Lin Yi looked up and saw another version of himself standing on the second-floor dormitory balcony, wearing a faded gaming hoodie, his eyes devoid of the light of the Star Chart: "Give up, so what if you're a mythical-level profession?"
"You can't protect them." He grinned, a smile tinged with the despair he felt when he was torn apart by monsters in the starting village. "Long Wu will have his chest pierced by an interdimensional weapon, Lao Zhou's mechanical arm will be corroded into scrap metal by the data deluge, Su Qing..." His voice suddenly softened, "Su Qing doesn't belong to this world at all. Your promise to bring her home was a joke from the very beginning."
The bluestone slabs in the fog began to crack, and the mother's figure seemed to be fast-forwarded, turning into a silhouette in the hospital corridor in the blink of an eye, then into a profile in front of the stove in our old home, and finally disappearing completely.
Another version of himself jumped off the balcony, landing as a shadowy figure, then transforming into Xuan Mingzi, and finally reverting to Lin Yi's face, with bloody tears at the corners of his eyes: "What makes you think that an advanced civilization would allow a human to control spacetime?"
Lin Yi's breathing suddenly became rapid.
He could hear the star map spinning wildly in his mind, the golden imprints burning so hot they almost burned through his skin.
The heart palpitations I felt three months ago when I triggered the hidden quest in the starting village, the passion I felt when I formed the Time Legion, and the fear I felt when I held the seriously injured Chu Yao in the interdimensional battlefield all surged back like a tide.
He reached for his waist—where the key to the time rift should have been hanging—but found nothing.
"Because I am their anchor point." His voice was more steady than expected when he spoke. "Long Wu needs me to take him to see his daughter's wedding, Lao Zhou needs me to help him repair his damaged neural interface, Su Qing..." He looked down at his palm, where a rusty key had somehow materialized. "Su Qing needs me to help her find her real home."
The smile on the other version of myself froze.
Suddenly, a metallic tearing sound came from the fog. Lin Yi turned his head and saw a dark figure in the black fog a hundred meters away, grabbing a job changer by the back of the neck and dragging him out of a blood-red illusion.
Half of the job changer's body had become transparent, as if it were about to melt into data. The moment it was exposed to the light, it let out a heart-wrenching scream: "My wife... she didn't cheat on me at all!"
It was me... I remembered it wrong!
"Enough." The shadowy figure's voice was like ice hitting metal. He released his grip, and the job changer slumped to the ground, soaked to the bone. "Illusions will only amplify your obsessions."
You didn't come here to fight, you came here to prove yourselves...worthy of this power.
The job changer suddenly looked up, the turbidity in his eyes washed away by tears: "I deserve it!"
"I can protect my wife!" He staggered to his feet, and the warrior's badge on his body suddenly lit up with a golden light.
When Lin Yi turned his gaze back, his other self had already begun to blur.
He gripped the key tightly in his hand; the rust was peeling away at a visible speed, revealing the flowing star trails beneath.
A faint blue light suddenly flashed from the depths of the fog, resembling the color of Su Qing's data afterimage changing.
He heard a very soft "ding," like a glass bead falling onto metal, followed by Su Qing's voice, mixed with static: "Key...memory..."
The sound of the star chart spinning drowned out everything else.
Lin Yi lifted his foot forward, and the bluestone path solidified again beneath his feet. At the end of the mist, the third Star Track Key was suspended in a golden ball of light, waiting to be grasped.
A ball of pale blue light exploded deep within the fog, and Su Qing's silhouette finally emerged from the turbulent data flow.
Stardust clung to the ends of her hair, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye shimmered like a pearl, yet her voice was like something steeped in shattered ice: "The key isn't ahead—" Her fingertips brushed across Lin Yi's brow, the lingering warmth reminding him of the hot cocoa he'd had on a rainy night in the beginner's village, "...but resides within your hearts. Faith isn't a power bestowed by higher civilizations, it's..." Suddenly, a dark purple ray pierced her figure, data fragments fluttering like butterflies, "...it's a choice!"
When the last word entered Lin Yi's sea of consciousness, the mythical mark on the back of his neck suddenly burned.
The star map unfolded deep within his consciousness, and the originally flowing golden light band split into three strands, pointing to the fog area where Long Wu was located, the direction where Lao Zhou disappeared, and the location of his own heart.
"I see." Lin Yi closed his eyes.
He finally understood why the third key had remained elusive no matter how hard he searched—the separated teammates and the amplified obsessions were simply a "resonance field" set up by an advanced civilization.
He loosened his clenched fist, letting the mist carry him down. "Come on, the darkest memories."
In a state of weightlessness, he plunged into a sea of blood.
That was the twilight of the interdimensional battlefield.
Chu Yao's mechanical chest cavity was torn in half, and blue energy liquid pooled in a small pond on her knees; Long Wu was holding a shield that had been broken in two, his left cheek still stained with the enemy's dark green blood; Lao Zhou's prosthetic eye went out completely, revealing the pale artificial skin underneath—and he himself was kneeling on the scorched earth, clutching Su Qing's hair tie in his hand.
That was the only item she left in the real world, now oozing dark red blood, as if mocking his powerlessness.
"You can't save them." A familiar, cold laugh came from above.
In this illusion, the "other Lin Yi" was wearing a mythical-level battle suit, but had two bloody holes dug in his eye sockets. "Su Qing's true form is in a laboratory of an advanced civilization. Chu Yao's core program has been implanted with self-destruct code. Long Wu's daughter will die in a car accident tomorrow—your so-called 'faith' can't even last a day."
Black tentacles crawled out from the depths of the blood cave and wrapped around Lin Yi's ankle.
He could clearly feel the barbs on the tentacles digging into his skin, but he felt no pain—this reminded him of the unread message his mother sent him three months ago when he was being torn apart by a boss in the newbie village: "Xiao Yi, Mom made your favorite sweet and sour pork ribs."
"Does it hurt?" The "self" in the illusion tilted its head. "It should hurt. Advanced civilizations don't want heroes, they want obedient puppets. Why do you think they made you awaken to mythical level? It's just to see—"
"That's enough." Lin Yi suddenly laughed.
He looked down at his palm, where the warmth of Su Qing's data before it dissipated still lingered; when he looked up, the fragments of Long Wu's shield shone in his memory, the crackling sound of the welding torch as Lao Zhou repaired his prosthetic eye echoed in his ears, and the starlight in Chu Yao's eyes when she first said, "I think I can feel my heartbeat," was more dazzling than any skill effect.
“What they want is ‘possibility.’” He reached out and grabbed the tentacle wrapped around his ankle, the black substance melting in his palm like snow. “And my possibility is that even knowing Long Wu’s daughter will be in a car accident, I will still be downstairs at her house at six o’clock tomorrow morning; even if Chu Yao has self-destruct code, I will use a spacetime rift to hide her core program in a vault three hundred years from now; even if Su Qing belongs to an advanced civilization—” His voice suddenly trembled, but became even more determined, “I will still take her back.”
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the sky of the illusion.
The blood-red battlefield began to distort, transforming into the green grass of the beginner village; Chu Yao's mechanical chest closed automatically, giving him an OK sign; Long Wu's shield clicked back to life, and he patted him on the shoulder, laughing; Su Qing ran from the other end of the grass, her hair tie fluttering in the wind, the ends of her hair brushing against his earlobe as she whispered, "I knew you would choose this."
Three Star Rail Keys fell simultaneously from the crack.
They were no longer floating orbs of light, but real metal, with the same patterns flowing across their surfaces as Lin Yi's mythical mark.
The first key was engraved with Long Wu's daughter's birthday, the second key had a neural interface chip that Lao Zhou had repaired seventeen times, and the third key—he flipped the key over, and the back was shaped like Su Qing's beauty mark.
"bite."
Three keys were inserted into the air at the same time.
The fog curtain was torn open, revealing the cracked sky above.
What kind of scene was that?
The clouds were torn into silver fragments, revealing the flowing starry river behind them.
A figure descended slowly, stepping on stardust. His silver robes fluttered without wind, and his face was shrouded in a thin mist, yet everyone present held their breath—even the shadowy figure knelt on one knee, the surging black mist conveying an almost pilgrimage-like devotion.
"Are you prepared to pay the price?" The voice was like a glacier crashing, or like a morning bell piercing through twelve layers of sky.
Lin Yi looked up.
He saw countless points of light floating behind the silver-robed man, each representing the trajectory of a civilization's destiny; he heard his heartbeat synchronize with the star trails, the heat of the mythical imprint almost scorching his chest; he remembered Long Wu's words on the interdimensional battlefield, "Boss, wherever you point, I'll hit," the off-key folk song Lao Zhou hummed while adjusting his equipment, the blanket Chu Yao secretly covered him with when he stayed up all night, and the light that Su Qing couldn't hide in her eyes every time she looked at him.
He reached out and caught the three keys.
“What I’m prepared for is never to bear the cost.” His voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly pierced through the boundaries of reality. “It’s to use those costs to exchange for their future.”
The man in the silver robe stood still for a moment, then raised his hand and placed it on Lin Yi's brow.
The excruciating pain surged like a tide, but transformed into a warm current the instant it touched consciousness—it was a memory of the "spark of civilization," the true selection criterion of advanced civilization.
As the silver-robed man disappeared, the fog at the boundary of reality began to tremble violently.
Lin Yi heard Long Wu's roar from his left: "Boss! I smashed that monster in my illusion with my shield!" Old Zhou's mechanical arm flew past his ear, and the red light in his prosthetic eye, which had re-lit, was full of excitement: "Spatial fluctuation detected! I'll locate the teleportation coordinates right away!"
Chu Yao's projection suddenly appeared beside him, her hair still damp with the mist from the illusion: "All team members' consciousness anchors have been connected. Forced teleportation in thirty seconds—" Her voice suddenly stopped, her gaze sweeping over the three keys in Lin Yi's palm, "But... Boss, it seems you've gained a new skill?"
Lin Yi lowered his head.
The three keys are merging, and new patterns are flowing across the metal surface, eventually forming an hourglass-shaped icon.
He could sense that this icon connected the consciousness of all those who trusted him and changed jobs, like an invisible net weaving the faith of the entire Earth's civilization into the strongest barrier.
Amidst the deafening roar of space being torn apart, he took one last look at the depths of the boundary of reality.
The voice of the silver-robed man seemed to linger there, mixed with Su Qing's light laughter: "Very good, the next trial... awaits you at the origin of another dimension."
As the white light enveloped his entire body, Lin Yi gripped the fused key tightly.
He knew the real challenge was just beginning—but this time, he was no longer alone.
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