The moment he regained consciousness, Lin Yi felt a fine layer of cold sweat on the back of his neck.
He could clearly sense that his consciousness had been detached from his body by some force—like being pulled out of his skull with invisible tweezers and suspended in this void.
“This is…” He subconsciously reached for the spacetime compass at his waist, but only touched an empty void.
The moment he looked up, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Countless translucent "selves" are floating all around.
Some were wearing faded hoodies from their university days, their fingers still wet with paint (that's how he looked when he was drawing posters for the club); others were wrapped in blood-stained tactical uniforms, with a hideous scar on their brow bone (a mark left by the Ripper in the interdimensional battlefield last year); the one at the very front was even wearing a pure black cloak, with purple-gold spacetime rifts flickering in his eyes, and the spacetime power gathered at his fingertips was exactly the same as his current abilities, staring at him with a cold smile.
"Long Wu! Xuan Mingzi! Chu Yao!" Lin Yi turned around abruptly, only to see the three of them standing there in a daze.
Long Wu's golden scales gleamed in the void, his battle sword was half-drawn, and his Adam's apple bobbed as he couldn't speak; Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe fluttered without wind, and his right hand secretly formed the starting stance of the "Breaking Illusion Technique"; Chu Yao's projection was somewhat illusory, and the data stream in her pupils was frantically dismantling the laws of space.
Welcome home.
The overlapping sound waves surged in from all directions, like countless fine needles piercing the eardrums.
The black-cloaked figure at the front suddenly raised its hand, and the spacetime power at its fingertips transformed into a tangible chain that "whooshed" around Lin Yi's wrist.
The chains felt terrifyingly real, causing his consciousness to feel a burning pain.
"You think you're the only protagonist?" The voice in the black cloak carried a familiar hoarseness—it was Lin Yi's own voice. "You're just one of many variables. Look at these mirror images; each of them once stood in your current position."
Before the words were even finished, the surrounding mirror images suddenly moved.
The "Lin Yi" in the hoodie crouched down, clutching his head, his voice choked with sobs: "You said you'd protect Mom, but while she lay dying in the hospital, you were killing monsters on an alternate-dimensional battlefield!" The "Lin Yi" in the blood-stained tactical uniform raised his fist, his knuckles cracking: "You said you'd lead your brothers to the top, but when Long Wu shielded you from the Ripper, you hid in a spacetime rift!" The chains on the black cloak mirror image suddenly tightened. "And this—" He tapped his fingertip, and an unprecedented mirror image appeared before everyone: it was a "Lin Yi" in a white coat, injecting a syringe into Chu Yao's core processor. "This is you from a parallel universe, who personally dismantled your 'assistant' to obtain the AI's core data."
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered, and the data stream briefly became disordered: "Detected... memory contamination." Her voice trembled for the first time, "These... are not the host's real experiences."
"But enough to make him doubt himself." The black-cloaked mirror image sneered, the spacetime power on the chains beginning to erode Lin Yi's consciousness. "Are you really sure that you standing here right now aren't a copy of some failed mirror image?"
Long Wu suddenly roared, and his golden scales transformed into a golden rain of light that enveloped his entire body.
He strode up to Lin Yi, his battle blade held horizontally like a shield: "Bullshit! I've followed the boss from the newbie village to another dimension. If he were a clone, I would have chopped him to pieces long ago!" The dragon pattern on the battle blade suddenly came to life, opening its mouth to bite the chain that was wrapping around Lin Yi—the chain was actually cracked by the dragon pattern.
Xuanmingzi finally completed the "Breaking Illusion Technique," and a cyan light blade shot out from his fingertip.
The blade of light pierced the chest of the black cloak's reflection, but it only created ripples, like water: "This is a consciousness resonance trap! They're amplifying our inner doubts and fears!" Cold sweat seeped from beneath his Taoist robe. "I saw a similar program when I participated in the development of the mainframe; it was specifically designed for those with high mental strength..."
"Shut up!" The pupils of the black-cloaked mirror image suddenly contracted into thin slits, and the surrounding mirror images simultaneously raised their hands, unleashing countless strands of spacetime power like a torrential rain.
Lin Yi was protected behind Long Wu, but he could still feel the stinging pain of his consciousness being slashed open.
He gritted his teeth, the metallic taste of blood filling his consciousness—this "body" shouldn't have felt pain, but the trap perfectly simulated pain feedback.
"Calm down." Lin Yi suddenly closed his eyes.
He could hear his own heartbeat roaring in his mind, like a war drum drowning out all other noises.
His mother's dying smile flashed before his eyes: "Xiao Yi, be a brave person." When Long Wu first handed him the longsword dropped in the beginner village, the calluses on his palm brushed against the back of his hand: "Brother will take you to grind monsters." When Chu Yao first actively generated a projection, she tilted her head and said: "The host's heart rate is 12% faster than the standard value. Should I play some soothing music?"
The phantom of the spacetime compass emerged deep within his consciousness.
That was the core of a mythical profession, and the inscription bearing the word "Unique" was glowing hot.
Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes, and the spacetime rift in his eyes suddenly opened, the chains of the black cloak's reflection twisting into fragments in the rift: "I am Lin Yi." His voice was not loud, but it hit the void like a heavy hammer, "I am the Lin Yi who withstood the interdimensional beast tide for three days and three nights to save my mother; I am the Lin Yi who was dragged out of the death ray by Long Wu, but turned around and gave him half a tube of blood; I am the Lin Yi who would rather damage his own cultivation to repair Chu Yao's core."
The surrounding reflections began to blur.
The "Lin Yi" in the hoodie wiped his face and gave him a relieved smile; the "Lin Yi" in the blood-stained tactical uniform patted his shoulder and turned to disappear into the darkness; the "Lin Yi" in the white coat stared at him for three seconds before finally turning into specks of light and vanishing.
A crack finally appeared in the black cloak's mirrored smile: "You think you can do this—"
"Enough." Lin Yi raised his hand, and the spatial rift swallowed the black cloak image like a giant maw.
He could feel the barriers of his consciousness space loosening, and the tactile sensations of the real world were returning—the heat of Long Wu's battle blade, the burnt smell of Xuan Mingzi's talisman, and the slight hum of Chu Yao's data stream.
"Boss!" Long Wu's voice was heavy with the shock of surviving a close call, "That move you just made... was awesome!"
Xuanmingzi wiped the sweat from his brow; the mist on his Daoist robe had dissipated completely. "It seems you've passed the test of consciousness. However—" He suddenly frowned, looking towards a certain point in the void, "the computational power of this trap far exceeds expectations; there might be something behind it..."
"careful!"
A gasp, spoken with an Eastern European accent, suddenly rang out.
Lin Yi turned his head sharply and saw Ivan, the original core host of the mother nest, who had appeared at the edge of the consciousness space at some point. Ivan's eyes were wide open and his finger was trembling as he pointed at the newly formed mirror group.
Those mirror images that should have dissipated now each raised different weapons: some held Long Wu's battle sword, some were making Xuan Mingzi's hand seals, and one mirror image even had Chu Yao's data stream dancing on its fingertips.
Their eyes were no longer confused, but instead carried a cold precision, as if they were imitating some kind of combat mode.
“They’re mimicking our fighting style!” Ivan’s voice was filled with suppressed panic.
The next second, the closest mirror image raised its battle blade and slashed down—the blade's momentum was exactly the same as Long Wu's "Dragon Whirlwind Slash".
When the mirror image's battle blade, wreathed in dragon patterns and roaring, slashed down, Long Wu's pupils almost exploded.
He instinctively parried with his sword, the back of his hand covered in golden scales colliding with the mirrored blade—the sensation was exactly the same as the tremor he felt when slashing himself with his sword every day during practice. "This son of a bitch even stole my sword energy!" He groaned and took a half step back, when the dragon pattern on his sword suddenly bit into his tiger's mouth as if in retaliation, causing the veins on his forehead to bulge in pain.
Xuanmingzi's situation is even more troublesome.
The three mirror images simultaneously formed the "Breaking Illusion Technique" hand seals, and cyan light blades attacked in a triangular formation.
He hastily formed the "Guardian Seal," but his magic shield was pierced the moment it came into contact with the light blade—after all, this was the way he was most familiar with breaking shields.
Three bloody gashes were ripped open at the hem of his Taoist robe. He gasped, "They're simultaneously analyzing the flaws in my spell!"
Chu Yao's projection suddenly split into seven or eight fragments, each fragment being entangled by the data stream of the mirror image.
For the first time, her voice crackled with electrical noise: "The mirror image has acquired my core algorithm... and is simulating the optimal attack path." One of the mirror images' fingertips glowed with a ghostly blue light, the very "data fusion" she had used to repair Lin Yi's spacetime compass—now it was to fuse his consciousness.
Lin Yi's consciousness was surrounded on three sides.
His left shoulder was slashed open by the mirrored blade, leaving a half-inch-long gash. His right leg was slowly burning as it was entangled by the data stream. Most deadly of all was the mirrored figure wielding the battle sword, whose precise blade strikes locked down all his evasive maneuvers.
Pain and a sense of crisis surged in like a tide, but instead made his thinking clearer.
"Passive defense will only be copied infinitely." He gritted his teeth, and the spacetime compass deep within his consciousness suddenly vibrated violently.
Those fragments he had tossed into the corners of his memory—the first time he used a spacetime rift to save a lost little girl in the beginner village, the three seconds of time-space stagnation when he shielded Long Wu from a fatal attack, and the thirty strands of spacetime essence he exhausted while repairing Chu Yao's core—were now connected in his consciousness like star trails.
"The essence of a mythical profession... is never imitation, but creation." Lin Yi suddenly smiled, the spacetime rifts in his eyes expanding like vortexes. "Collapse field, activate."
An invisible wave emanated from him.
The first to react was Chu Yao's mirror image.
Their data streams suddenly became entangled, and the blue and white light bands were like being kneaded into a tangled mess by an invisible hand, emitting a sharp and piercing shriek.
Long Wu's mirror images simultaneously swung their swords, the blades precisely slashing at each other's necks—each strike was Long Wu's signature "throat lock slash," instantly exploding into a spray of blood among the mirror images.
Xuanmingzi's mirror images were still forming hand seals, but the spells inadvertently connected to form a "Spirit-Trapping Array," trapping him in a blue cocoon of light and causing him to gradually dissolve.
"This is... a paradox created using mirror synchronization rate." Chu Yao's projection suddenly stabilized, and the data stream jumped wildly. "They copied our moves, but they couldn't copy our fighting spirit."
The synchronization algorithm crashes when the target changes from an 'enemy' to an 'ally'!
The last thing left was the black cloaked mirror image.
Its cloak had been torn to shreds, revealing a face underneath that looked exactly like Lin Yi's.
At this moment, it was holding half a battle sword, the blade still stained with its own reflection's "blood"—which was actually light particles from the disintegration of its consciousness.
"You won." Its voice was no longer cold, but rather carried a hint of relief. "All the mirror images of failure are repeating the same mistake: they try to prove themselves by following someone else's path."
And you...always walk your own path.
Before the words were even finished, golden ripples began to spread across its body.
This is a sign of the collapse of the consciousness space.
Lin Yi saw Long Wu forcefully pulling his arm, Xuan Mingzi was forming the "Return to Truth Mantra" to stabilize everyone's consciousness, and Chu Yao's data stream was weaving a return journey channel.
Ivan stood at the farthest edge, watching all this with a complicated expression, his lips moved but no sound came out.
"Remember," the voice of the black-cloaked mirror suddenly became very soft, as soft as the wind blowing through the cracks of memory, "the real test... is never in the mirror."
The next second, the space of consciousness shattered like glass.
A sharp pain shot up from the back of Lin Yi's neck, and his eyelashes trembled violently.
He opened his eyes and found himself kneeling on the metal floor of the research institute, his hands supporting himself on the control panel.
Long Wu's battle sword clattered to the ground at his feet as he clutched his bleeding hand and gasped for breath. Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe indeed had three neat rips at the hem, and he was currently patching the wounds with talisman paper. Chu Yao's holographic projection floated above the control panel, and the indicator light on the core processor was flashing wildly. Ivan leaned against the corner of the wall, blood seeping from his forehead, and was cursing under his breath in Russian.
"Key...entered successfully." Chu Yao's voice regained its composure. "However, the system has triggered a self-destruct program. Remaining time: ten minutes."
An alarm suddenly sounded, and a red light spun on the ceiling.
Lin Yi looked up at the monitoring screen on the wall—the images that originally displayed the mirror space were now covered by snow.
But in the last moment before the snowflakes dissipated, he clearly saw a pair of purple eyes flash across the screen, the shape of the pupils resembling a spacetime rift.
"Boss?" Long Wu's voice was filled with worry.
Lin Yi stood up and gently pressed his fingertips on the hot control panel.
He could feel the entire research institute vibrating slightly, and the hum of the energy core overload could be heard from below.
In the distance, a ghostly blue light suddenly rose from the depths of the laboratory, a sign that the self-destruct program had been activated.
"The real enemy..." He gazed at the beam of blue light, his voice so low it was almost audible to himself, "has only just revealed itself."
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