The metal platform of the underwater base was bone-chillingly cold, and Lin Yi's molars ached from clenching them.
The dragon flames on the short blade were burning hot, yet cold sweat seeped from his palms—the shadows within the ball of light were still churning, and the images in those scarlet eyes were like a rewinding video: the faint light of the golden hourglass when he awakened, the dragon blood that splashed on the back of his hand when Long Wu forged the short blade, and the temperature of Chu Yao's fingertips as she adjusted his tactical goggles for the last time before she disappeared—all of these exploded in his consciousness.
"You're just the beginning of another template." The shadowy voice, like rusty gears grinding against the nerves, continued, "Advanced civilizations crave infinite possibilities, and you..."
\"bite--\"
The spacetime rift on his chest suddenly trembled, and half a page of the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" slid out from the rift.
The moment Lin Yi lowered his head, the wavering in his pupils was sizzling as the words on the pages burned him—the two characters "Lin Yi" glowed with warm gold, and next to them were densely packed the names of Long Wu, Chu Yao, Xuan Mingzi, and even the old beggar who lent him the potion in the newbie village.
"Boss!"
In a laboratory a thousand miles away, Long Wu's roar pierced through the communicator.
Lin Yi looked up sharply, and the dark figure in the ball of light suddenly twisted into his face, a fang-like voice tearing at his eardrums: "Their names?"
It's just system-generated variable code!
"Variable?" Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed as he gently stroked the name "Chu Yao" on the page.
Three days ago, this AI life form, which always claimed that "data fluctuations are within a reasonable range," disappeared while shielding him from an annihilation ray, its last words being, "Abnormal tear gland secretion detected in the host, suggestion..."
The sound of metal clashing came from the communicator, and Long Wu's curses mixed with the monster's roar: "I earned this life myself from the mother nest!" The next second, the monitoring screen suddenly switched to the laboratory, and Lin Yi saw that the reverse scale on Long Wu's wrist was glowing - it was the scale that Long Wu had forcibly broken off when he personally forged the short blade, "My life will be your blade from now on."
"Chu Yao, analyze the language pattern of the shadowy figure," Lin Yi suddenly spoke, his voice colder than the water temperature at the bottom of the sea.
In the holographic projection, Chu Yao's virtual image rapidly tapped the floating light screen with her fingertips.
Her silvery-white hair, originally composed of data streams, trembled slightly—as an AI, she shouldn't have such a human-like reaction as "trembling." "Abnormal code nesting detected." Her voice fluctuated for the first time, and the blue data stream in her pupils suddenly condensed into lines of characters, "This is... the Fate System's simulation code for the 'real personality.'"
The air in the laboratory suddenly froze.
Xuanmingzi had somehow appeared behind Chu Yao, his Taoist robe sleeves still stained with ash from runes.
He stared at the scrolling code on the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing: "If the system can simulate every choice you make..." He suddenly gripped his Taoist robe tightly, his knuckles turning white, "Then what you perceive as 'free will' is nothing more than a more sophisticated program."
Lin Yi's short blade slammed onto the metal platform with a "clang".
He stared at the black shadow within the ball of light that was identical to himself, and suddenly laughed—a laugh that rolled from his throat, carrying shards of ice, causing the spacetime rift in his chest to vibrate. "A program?" He bent down to pick up the short blade, dragon flames rising three inches from its edge. "Then I'll make a variable that can burn through a program."
The dark shadow within the ball of light emitted a shriek, and the runes on the seabed lit up red once more.
But this time, Lin Yi did not back down.
He gazed at the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" floating out of the crack, at the names he had painstakingly written on its pages, and suddenly remembered that rainy day in the beginner village, when he was squatting in a corner wiping the hourglass, and the old beggar had given him hot porridge. "Young comrade," he thought, "in this world, someone always has to believe in something real."
"Chu Yao, set the resonance frequency of the 'Book of Re-establishing Destiny' to its highest level." Lin Yi's voice was as steady as a steel nail driven into rock. "Xuan Mingzi, seal all rune circuits." He turned to look at the communicator; Long Wu was kicking the last monster into the crevice, the golden patterns on his reverse scales already spreading to his wrist. "Old Long, sharpen your life blade."
In the laboratory, Chu Yao's fingertips traced a blinding blue light on the screen: "Resonance frequency locked." Xuan Mingzi raised his hand to form a hand seal, and dark patterns resonating with the underwater runes appeared on his arm beneath his Daoist robe: "Circuit sealed, three seconds remaining."
The dark shadows within the ball of light suddenly began to collapse.
Lin Yi's hand gripping the short blade bulged with veins. The moment the dragon flame licked the edge of the ball of light, he heard countless voices explode in his consciousness—it was Long Wu's cursing, Chu Yao's data analysis, the aroma of the old beggar's hot porridge, and all the people he had written into his book, saying, "We believe in you."
"Now," Lin Yi's pupils blazed with golden light, his short blade, wreathed in dragon flames, slashing into the center of the light, "it's my turn to prove myself."
The moment the runes on the seabed shattered into stardust, Ivan suddenly emerged from the shadows in the laboratory.
The man, once parasitized by the core of the Mother Nest, now had the crimson in his eyes completely gone. He rested his knuckles on his chin: "The reconstruction process just now..." He paused, glancing at the still-trembling spacetime rift, "...left behind some blank laws."
Through the communicator, Long Wu's voice crackled with static: "Boss, the golden markings on Reverse Scale... damn it, they're growing into its heart!"
Lin Yi watched the black shadow gradually dissipate within the ball of light, the dragon flames on his short blade making his eyes shine.
He reached out and caught the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" that floated in front of him. The names on the pages were shining, like a constellation of stars that would never be extinguished.
"The Law of Blankness, huh..." He chuckled softly, turning to walk towards the teleportation portal deep within the base. "Perfect timing." As the alarm at the underwater base suddenly blared, Ivan was resting his chin on his fingertips, his pupils swirling with some obscure patterns of law—the awakening of knowledge remaining within the core of the Mother Nest.
He gazed at the stardust floating at the edge of the spacetime rift and suddenly spoke: "The Law of Blankness."
Before he could finish speaking, Chu Yao's screen displayed a data stream: "Detected a 370% surge in the concentration of law fragments!" Her silver-white hair stopped trembling and instead solidified into a sharper blade of light. "Mr. Ivan, you mean..."
“These remaining laws have not been completely devoured by the Fate System.” Ivan’s voice was like shards of ice hitting glass. He raised his hand and caught a speck of stardust. The scarlet lines dancing in his palm intertwined with the golden light within the stardust. “Just like when a mirror is broken, some sharp edges can still cut the hand holding it. We can use them to create a ‘disordered space’—where the Fate System’s predictive algorithms will completely fail.”
Lin Yi tapped his knuckles twice on the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny".
The words "Long Wu" on the page suddenly shone brightly, burning his palms—the words Long Wu had said three days ago when he forcibly pried off his scales, "My life is your blade," were still echoing in his ears.
He looked up at the screen of Long Wu on the communicator: the guy was kicking half of the mutant's claw into the crevice, the golden stripes of the reverse scale had climbed up his collarbone, and burned red marks on his sweaty skin.
"Is it feasible?" he asked Chu Yao.
"Probability 78.3%." The AI's voice had a rare sharpness to it, "but it requires your spacetime permissions as an anchor point."
Lin Yi didn't hesitate any longer.
He thrust the short blade into the ground with his backhand, and the moment the dragon flames rose, the spacetime rift in front of his chest suddenly expanded into a black hole as tall as a person.
Deep within the black hole, indigo and silvery light surged—the price he paid for forcibly tearing apart dimensions using his [Time and Space Domination] authority—the blood vessels in the back of his neck throbbed as if a red-hot needle were pricking him.
"Old Dragon!" he roared into the communicator, "Take your Reverse Scale and set up defenses on the outer perimeter! Those aberrations abandoned by the Fate System are about to break in!"
In the laboratory, Long Wu abruptly flung away the tentacle on his shoulder, and the golden scales of his reverse scale instantly spread across his chest.
He grabbed the heavy sword beside him, the dragon flames rising from its blade even more intense than Lin Yi's: "I've been keeping an eye on these bastards for a while! Boss, remember this—" He swung his sword and cleaved three sharp-beaked beasts that pounced at him, golden patterns gleaming on his Adam's apple, "If you dare let my blade be sharpened in vain, I'll melt down your short blade and reforge it!"
Before the words were finished, black mist suddenly rose from the edge of the chaotic realm.
Hundreds and thousands of aberrations emerged from the fog, their skin translucent, revealing the distorted streams of code within—the inconsistent defects left by a shattered system of destiny.
Long Wu's heavy sword drew golden arcs, each strike precisely hitting the broken points in the code stream, splattering not blood, but the hissing sound of data streams.
"Hurry up!" His roar mingled with the sound of a sword scraping against code. "The laws of this godforsaken place are crumbling! If we delay another half hour, even I'll be sucked into the rift!"
Lin Yi gripped the "Book of Re-establishing Destiny" tightly; the names on the pages were now glowing, like a string of wind chimes swaying in the breeze.
He gazed at the churning gray mist deep within the chaotic realm and took a deep breath—the air carried the lingering cold fragrance of Chu Yao's data before it dissipated, the burnt smell of the Dragon Five's reverse scales being forged, and the sweet aroma of the old beggar's hot porridge.
These flavors lingered in his throat, burning his eyes and making them sting.
"I'm going in," he said into the communicator, stepping into the gray fog without waiting for a response.
The depths of the chaotic realm are quieter than one might imagine.
Countless fragments floated in the gray fog: there was the golden hourglass from his first awakening, the fingertips of Chu Yao adjusting the tactical goggles before she dissipated, and the blood droplets that splattered on the back of his hand when Long Wu broke off the reverse scale.
In the very center stood another "Lin Yi"—wearing his usual black tactical uniform, but with eyes and brows even colder than his, like a piece of jade tempered by ice.
"You've come." The shadowy figure smiled, extending a hand, its fingertips gleaming with the same crimson as the Destiny System. "Join us. Become a part of destiny, not its enemy. You will gain limitless possibilities, and your friends will no longer face the risk of death..."
"Possibly?" Lin Yi stared at the hand and suddenly smiled.
He recalled that three days ago, when Chu Yao disappeared, even though the data was about to collapse, it was still saying "It is recommended that the host adjust the breathing rate"; he recalled that when Long Wu was gnawing on the core in the mother nest, every wound was shouting "I insist on living"; he recalled that when the old beggar handed him hot porridge, his wrinkled hands were trembling, but he said, "Young comrade, you have to believe in something real."
He reached out and grasped the scarlet hand.
The shadowy figure's pupils contracted instantly, for what he felt was not obedience, but scalding heat—the heat of all the names in the "Book of Re-establishment of Destiny," a real, flesh-and-blood heat.
"I truly believe in them," Lin Yi said softly.
He suddenly exerted force with his fingers, and dragon flames shot out from his palm, burning into the veins of the shadow along his arm.
The shadowy figure let out a piercing shriek, its body beginning to disintegrate into fragments, but Lin Yi's hand clenched tighter and tighter, as if he wanted to crush all the false "possibilities" in his palm.
"You're insane!" The shadowy figure's voice trembled with tears. "Without the Fate System, humanity will..."
"What will happen?" Lin Yi interrupted him.
The dragon flames had already burned through the shadowy figure's wrist. He saw a flicker of fear in the other's eyes—an emotion that programs could never simulate. "He will forge his own path."
As the last shadow disappeared, Lin Yi heard countless sounds exploding in his ears.
That wasn't a system notification sound, but rather Chu Yao's data analysis voice, Long Wu's cursing, Xuan Mingzi's low chanting of incantations, and the old beggar's "Little comrade."
The clearest sound was an aged yet warm voice: "Congratulations on breaking through the template... Welcome to the true human era."
The laws of the chaotic realm suddenly began to tremble violently.
Lin Yi staggered and grabbed the broken pieces beside him; the stinging pain in the back of his neck had disappeared without him noticing.
He touched his chest; the pages of "The Book of Re-establishing Destiny" were turning gently, each name glowing as if to say, "We are still here."
Long Wu's panting came through the communicator: "Boss? That damn thing's been taken care of? The mutants on my side... they're retreating!"
Lin Yi looked up at the exit of the Chaos Realm.
The gray fog was dissipating, and Long Wu's heavy sword could be seen stuck in the ground. He was kneeling on one knee, and the golden markings on his reverse scale had spread to his brow, yet he was still grinning.
Chu Yao's light screen emerged from the crack, and the ends of her silver-white hair transformed back into a data stream, which then spun around in front of him, as if to say, "Mission accomplished."
"It's resolved." Lin Yi smiled into the communicator, his voice as soft as a sigh.
He felt something being peeled away from the depths of his soul, like a shackle he had worn for thirty years being removed.
The wind blew in through the cracks, carrying the salty smell of the sea, but clearer than ever before.
The last vestige of the Fate System is fading away.
Looking at the dragon flames still burning in his palm, he suddenly understood—true freedom is never the possibility given by the system, but the reality of one's own choices.
(The alarm at the underwater base suddenly stopped.)
Lin Yi reached for his tactical goggles and noticed that his heart rate was three points slower than usual.
Something much larger is awakening, like the first crack of a seed breaking through the frozen soil.
)
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