The aftershocks of the energy storm still trembled in the air, and the faint light of time and space still lingered on Lin Yi's fingertips.
The wave of consciousness, enveloped in the scent of jasmine, suddenly materialized, casting a semi-transparent figure before his eyes—the outline of the light blue dress gradually became clear, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye resembled a shattered diamond kissed by moonlight, exactly as Su Qing looked during their last meeting before she disappeared.
"Su Qing?" Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and the Time-Space Key felt incredibly hot in his palm.
He staggered forward half a step, but was stopped by an invisible barrier. His fingertips almost touched the other person's hair, but froze at the last three inches.
Memories from three years ago flooded back: the convenience store on a rainy night, where she held up a hot cocoa and laughed at him for being soaked to the bone; in front of the dimensional rift, when she stuffed half a jade pendant into his palm and said, "Wait for me to come back"; and that back view of her waving vigorously at him before being swept away by the turbulent flow of time and space.
"Ah Yi." The figure spoke, her voice like a silver bell tinkling in the morning mist, "I am not Su Qing from your memories." She raised her hand, her fingertips passing through Lin Yi's palm, stirring up wisps of light and dust, "I am a remnant of consciousness captured by the Faith System, a mirror image formed from your obsession."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply.
He could clearly see the surging data stream beneath the other woman's skirt, which was the essence of the "abnormal consciousness" that Chu Yao had mentioned.
But when she tilted her head and smiled, the dimples at the corners of her mouth overlapped with memories, and he still uncontrollably clenched the jade pendant on his chest—half of the crack still had strawberry jam stuck in it from back then, something she always said was "more precious than diamonds".
"If you destroy the core..." Ripples began to spread across Su Qing's face, like the surface of a lake disturbed by the wind. "This body, sustained by your obsession, will collapse before the system." She reached out and stroked his brows and eyes, the touch ethereal yet warm. "Actually, this is for the best. At least I won't have to watch you go mad for me for three more years."
"Shut up." Lin Yi suddenly grabbed her wrist—of course, he only grasped a wisp of light mist.
His breathing was rapid, as if he had just emerged from the deep sea. "You have no idea... For the past three years, every single second I've thought about it: if only I had been one step faster back then, if only the time key could have opened one more rift..." His voice trembled. "You said we'd finish the jade pendant together, you said we'd see the aurora borealis, were all of that a lie?"
"It's true." Su Qing's illusory figure suddenly became clearer, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Those memories are real, and your love is real too."
That's why the faith system chose me—it knows that nothing can sway your decision more than the person you love most. She took two steps back, and the blood-red nodes behind her suddenly surged. "Look, the core is urging me to speed up the conversation."
It asks you to choose between 'saving the world' and 'preserving the memories'.
"Sir." Chu Yao's projection suddenly inserted itself between the two, the scorch marks on her hair still sizzling and sparking. "The Faith System has detected that it is tampering with your brainwave frequency through your consciousness."
Current residual data shows that if this consciousness is preserved, there is a 37% probability that the system will rebind it to human faith, and the historical 'theocracy' may repeat itself. Her voice rarely carried a hint of urgency. "This isn't Ms. Su Qing; it's an illusion created by the system."
"I know." Lin Yi closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with a turbulent flow of time and space.
He could sense that the phantom image indeed contained fragments of Su Qing's brainwaves—the lingering echo of her last thought left in the spacetime rift when she was swept away three years ago.
The belief system is like a greedy sponge, absorbing these fragments, shaping them into the sharpest knife, and stabbing them into its softest spot.
"Then what are you still hesitating about?" Long Wu's voice boomed from the communicator three kilometers away.
The burly man, covered in dragon scales, was kneeling on one knee, his dragon-slaying spear stuck in the scorched earth, the tip of which was still dripping with the green blood of an other-dimensional creature. "You are the master of time and space, not a mortal trapped by memories!"
You were willing to burn through all your skill points to save the entire newbie village back then, so why can't you sever this emotional ties for the sake of all humanity now?
Lin Yi suddenly turned his head to look in Long Wu's direction.
Through the hazy barrier of space and time, he could see the bulging veins on the other person's neck and the beads of blood seeping from beneath the dragon scale armor—the wounds left when the other person blocked the spatial fragments for him.
Over the past three years, Long Wu has transformed from a clueless young man who only knew how to shout "Boss, take me to the top!" into a brother who would kick him awake when he was on the verge of a breakdown.
"Old Dragon..." Lin Yi began in a hoarse voice, but was interrupted by Su Qing's light laughter.
"Look, everyone is waiting for you to make the right choice." Her figure began to fade away, like spring snow melting in the wind. "Actually, I should have disappeared long ago."
Ah Yi, you have to see the aurora borealis for me, taste all the new strawberry cakes for me, and for me...
"Stop talking!" Lin Yi suddenly roared, and the Time-Space Key burst forth with a dazzling blue light in his palm.
He could clearly hear the sound of his heart tearing apart—on one side was the responsibility built up with three years of blood and tears, and on the other side was the love engraved in his soul.
He recalled the system notification when he first awakened his Spacetime Domination ability, which said, "Mythical-level professionals must sever their seven emotions and six desires"; he remembered Gu Tianxing's words before disappearing, "You will understand"; and he also recalled the warning sent by the interdimensional monitoring station three days ago: "The core repair progress of the intruder's nest has reached 90%."
"If I don't destroy the core now..." he murmured to the fading phantom, "when the invaders break in, even more people will lose their loved ones."
There will be many more girls like Su Qing, swept up in the temporal turbulence, leaving not even a fragment of their consciousness behind.
Su Qing's illusory image lingered at the last moment before dissipating.
The beauty mark at the corner of her eye suddenly shone brightly; it was a feature of the real Su Qing—she always said that this mole was a "lucky mark" that would lead her home.
"Ah Yi," her voice was as soft as a sigh, "you always knew what to do."
Before the words were finished, the phantom shattered completely into points of light.
Lin Yi stared at the dissipating light in his palm, a metallic taste rising in his throat.
He turned and walked toward the blood-red node, the blue light of the time-space key almost piercing his retina.
"Chu Yao." His voice was hoarse but firm. "Locate the weakest point in the core."
"Locked on, at the dark purple crystal cluster in the center of the node." Chu Yao's projection flickered. "I need to remind you, this will lead to..."
"No need." Lin Yi interrupted her, his hand holding the keys as steady as a rock. "I know the consequences."
Just as the key was about to pierce the crystal cluster, an old voice suddenly came from behind.
"Be rational, Lin Yi. Emotions can't control the future."
Lin Yi paused slightly.
He didn't turn around, but he could tell it was Xuanmingzi's voice—the original game mastermind's avatar had finally appeared at the most crucial moment.
He looked down at the half jade pendant on his chest, his fingertips gently tracing the crack.
Then, he gave a bitter smile.
Xuan Mingzi's voice was like a silver needle dipped in ice, piercing Lin Yi's taut nerves.
He didn't turn around, but he could clearly sense the semi-transparent phantom behind him—the original game mastermind's avatar always appeared as an old man in a green robe. At this moment, the hem of his robe was gently fluttering with the fluctuations of the divine realm space, and even his white beard was covered with tiny particles of light.
"You advised me to be rational." Lin Yi's fingertips still held the blue light of the Time-Space Key, but slowly fell to his side. "But back then, when you let half of the players in the newbie village die in the interdimensional beast tide to test the resilience of civilization, did you ever think about their parents crying themselves to death in reality?" He suddenly turned around, his gaze cutting through the complexity in Xuan Mingzi's eyes like a knife. "Does emotion control the future? No, it is emotion that makes the future worth protecting."
"Absurd." Xuan Mingzi's pupils gleamed with the eerie blue of data streams, a sign of the mainframe program operating at high speed. "If you destroy the core of faith, all interdimensional barriers maintained by the system will collapse within seventy-two hours. The swarms of the extradimensional mother hive can devour half of Asia in three days—"
"Enough!" Long Wu's Dragon-Slaying Spear suddenly exploded, the tip of the spear deflecting a spatial blade that was slashing towards Lin Yi.
The burly man, covered in blood, had somehow broken through the barrier. Golden and red blood beads were seeping from the cracks in his dragon scale armor. "Old man, you're talking without thinking! If it weren't for the boss using the spacetime rift as a shield for us three years ago, you would have been dissolved into data scraps by the Mother Nest's acid!"
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered, and the scorch marks on her hair transformed into streams of data that fell in a flurry: "Abnormal energy fluctuation detected! Spatial distortion has occurred at coordinates (x - 7, Y - 12)—"
Before the words were finished, a figure shrouded in dark purple mist stepped out from the twisted place.
The Obsidian Commander's shoulder armor was still scorched from the battle three days ago, and his faceplate was cracked open, revealing a mechanical prosthetic eye that gleamed coldly underneath: "Master of Time and Space, do you think you're a savior?" He held up a core chip that shimmered with a ghostly green light. "Take a look at this—the backup energy source for the Faith System, the power of hope that you humans have accumulated over the past century."
Lin Yi's breath hitched.
He recognized the pattern on the chip's surface—it was exactly the same as the energy wave pattern that surged out of the spacetime rift when Su Qing disappeared three years ago.
“Destroy the main core, and this backup power source will trigger a self-destruct sequence.” The Obsidian Commander’s voice was like rusty gears grinding together. “Your so-called ‘hope’ will become the sharpest weapon, blasting the entire Earth into cosmic dust.” He pressed a button on the chip, and the dome of the divine realm suddenly cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns, while the blood-red nodes below began to frantically devour the surrounding energy. “Now, do you still intend to be a hero?”
"Boss!" Long Wu roared and pounced forward, his Dragon Slayer Spear drawing a golden arc to sever the Obsidian Commander's wrist.
But the figure suddenly became ethereal. Long Wu's spear tip pierced only a cloud of black mist, but at the moment of contact, it exploded with a dazzling purple light—that was extradimensional corrosive energy, which instantly burned a charred hole in the dragon scale armor.
"Chu Yao!" Lin Yi grabbed Chu Yao's projection and injected a surge of spacetime power into her data core. "Analyze the chip structure! Long Wu, protect the backup power!" His pupils churned with a vision of reversed galaxies, and the spacetime key shone with a blinding blue light once more. "Xuan Mingzi, didn't you always say 'civilization needs balance'? Now give me that balance!"
Xuanmingzi's figure suddenly solidified. He raised his hand and formed a hand seal, revealing dense circuit patterns beneath his green robe: "Main brain core activated level two protection!" Countless golden runes rose from beneath his feet, forming a wall of light between the Obsidian Commander and the backup energy source.
But the dark purple mist slithered into the gaps in the runes like a venomous snake, and cracks appeared in the light wall in the blink of an eye.
"Analysis complete!" Chu Yao's voice crackled with electrical static. "The backup chip and the main core are locked together. To separate them, an equal amount of faith power is needed as a medium—"
"That's enough." Lin Yi interrupted her, looking down at the half jade pendant on his chest.
The strawberry jam inside the crack had oxidized to a dark brown, yet it now shimmered faintly.
He suddenly laughed, his eyes reddening as he laughed. "So, the 'lucky mark' Su Qing mentioned meant that I should use myself as the medium."
"Are you insane?!" Long Wu roared, his voice mingling with the booming of an energy explosion. "That will drain all your spacetime power!"
"It's better than watching all of humanity perish." Lin Yi pressed his fingertips to his chest, and the power of spacetime seeped from his pores like a living thing, condensing into a pale blue energy vortex in mid-air.
He could feel a tearing pain deep in his soul, the most primal power of a mythical-level professional being slipping away, but countless images flashed before his eyes: the little girl he had saved in the newbie village smiling with a candied hawthorn; the reddened eyes of the researchers from the Reality Alliance as they stayed up all night repairing the barrier; and the wisp of jasmine fragrance that was swept away by the spatial turbulence when Su Qing waved goodbye for the last time.
"Chu Yao, locate the coordinates of the residual consciousness." His voice began to tremble, but it was unusually clear. "I want to separate Su Qing's fragments—not as bait for the system, but as an independent consciousness."
"Three seconds required." Chu Yao's projection suddenly became exceptionally stable, even the scorch marks disappeared. "Locked. Injecting faith power now—"
"Wait." Xuanmingzi suddenly reached out and pressed Lin Yi's shoulder.
In the eyes of this mastermind, the program's azure blue was gradually being replaced by human emotions. "Do you know what this means? You will lose some of the powers of a mythical professional, and you may never be able to open interdimensional rifts again."
"So what?" Lin Yi looked up at the collapsing dome, a smile the most relaxed he hadn't seen in three years spreading across his face. "Without Su Qing's memories, without Long Wu's brothers, without anyone worth protecting... what's the point of that god-level power?"
He said no more, and simultaneously poured the power of time and space he had gathered, along with the power of faith surging in his chest, into his core.
In an instant, the entire divine realm erupted with a light more dazzling than the sun.
The Black Obsidian Commander's roar was drowned out by the torrent of energy. Long Wu's Dragon Slayer Spear shattered into fragments but still protected him. Xuan Mingzi's rune wall completely collapsed but blocked the fatal blow for him at the last moment.
As the light faded, the gates to the divine realm slowly closed.
Lin Yi knelt on one knee, and the Time-Space Key fell to his feet, its surface texture now dulled like ordinary metal.
A pale golden mist lay in his palm, a newly separated remnant of consciousness—it didn't resemble Su Qing, but carried a familiar fluctuation that made his heart pound.
"Let's go." He collected the light mist into the crack in the jade pendant, then looked up at the still struggling Obsidian Commander. "The story here is over."
As the last spatial ripple spread out, Lin Yi's consciousness plunged into darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying in a medical pod in the real-world base.
The smell of disinfectant stung my nose, and Long Wu's roar came from outside the cabin: "Doctor! The boss is awake!"
But his attention was entirely focused on his right hand—in his palm lay a faintly glowing data chip, its surface engraved with the words "Destiny is not yet over" in Su Qing's favorite cursive script.
The chip vibrated gently in his palm, as if responding to the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com