The blue light from the Corridor of Destiny shimmered in Lin Yi's pupils, creating tiny, fragmented spots of light.
He gazed at the shadow opposite him, sharing every arch of his eyebrows and every inch of his skin texture. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly—the faint scar on the back of his neck rose and fell gently with the other's breath. It was left three years ago when the energy from another dimension went berserk, and even the healed creases were exactly the same.
"You said you are me from another timeline." Lin Yi's voice was like a guitar string immersed in ice water. "In that timeline, I chose to cooperate with the Fate System."
The shadow's fingertips still lingered on that fragment of memory.
The girl in the fragment is Su Qing. On her seventeenth birthday, she held up a cake with crooked candles, her eyes shining like stars.
At this moment, her image is distorted into a pained expression, her hands clutching her hair, and the cake is collapsing into black fragments in the void.
"Fear isn't a weakness, it's your anchor." The shadow's voice was a blend of many of Lin Yi's overlapping tones: the sobs of a young boy being torn apart by monsters in the starting village, the trembling when he first saw Chu Yao's data core, the roar as he watched Long Wu being pierced by an energy blade in the interdimensional battlefield. "You always say you want to control your destiny, but you can't even admit your own fear."
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
He recalled how his hand holding the communicator trembled when Chu Yao's consciousness was swept away by the reverse current in the spacetime rift three months ago; he recalled how the blood splattered on his face when Long Wu shielded him from a fatal blow was hotter than any extradimensional flame; he recalled how his eyelashes trembled when he turned away before Xuan Mingzi said, "Some existences should take their final bow" before he disappeared.
"So you appeared to make me admit these things?" His thumb unconsciously rubbed the silk binding on the hilt of the sword at his waist. It was forged for him by Chu Yao using meteorite iron, and the binding used the gold chainmail thread from the Dragon Five Armor.
The shadow suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with a mad, relieved feeling: "No, I'm here to tell you—your so-called 'salvation' is nothing more than changing the name of fear and continuing to imprison it."
Just like now, you don't dare to lay a hand on me because you're afraid that you'll actually be the one killing yourself.
The communicator vibrated at that moment.
Chu Yao's voice, crackling with electrical noise, pierced through the light mist: "Mr. Lin, an abnormal fluctuation has been detected thirty meters underground in the seventh district."
"I cracked the outer encryption of the old-era 'Apocalypse Project' server node—" She paused for half a second, and a string of blood-red code was projected onto the corridor as a holographic display. "This contains experimental data from humanity's first contact with an interdimensional civilization in 2025, including..."
"Including the initial personality template of the Destiny System," Lin Yi interjected, his gaze still fixed on the shadow.
He saw a flicker of panic in the other person's pupils, like a lie that had been exposed.
Chu Yao's breathing became lighter in the communicator, clearly indicating that she had also realized something—the destroyed experimental records showed that in order to combat the extradimensional world, humanity had attempted to digitize the fear, desire, and hesitation of experimental subjects, creating "mirror personalities" to test their limits.
"I need two hours." Chu Yao's fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, the blue light from the terminal slicing her profile in two. "If we can extract the original personality package, perhaps it can explain..."
"Lock the node first, and wait until I'm done here," Lin Yi interrupted her, his voice filled with unwavering determination.
He could sense that the spatial turbulence in the Corridor of Fate was weakening, indicating that Ivan had stabilized the emotions of the soul fragments—that guy was usually quiet, but when it came to doing things, he was more reliable than anyone else.
The communicator crackled with the soft tapping of Chu Yao's finger, followed by her characteristically concise reply: "Understood." The instant the projection vanished, Lin Yi noticed the shadow's fingertips trembling—not the trembling of energy fluctuations, but the uncontrollable shudder of human muscles.
"You are not me from another timeline at all." Lin Yi took half a step forward, and the light mist surged into a galaxy beneath his feet. "You are a mirror image created by the Fate System using my fear data, used to test whether I can still maintain 'absolute rationality'."
Just like those experimental subjects back then, their mirror images eventually all...
"They've all gone mad!" the shadow suddenly roared, his voice laced with the screeching sound of metal scraping against metal. "They've been consumed by their own fear and judged as failures by the system!"
And what about you?
How much better do you think you are than them?
Do you think your so-called "loyalty and righteousness" isn't the "optimal solution" deliberately selected by the system?
Fragments of memory exploded into countless stardust between the two.
Lin Yi gazed at the images flashing through the fragments: Long Wu's grin when he handed him the last healing potion in the beginner village; Chu Yao's furrowed brows when she first appeared in human form, unaccustomed to the body temperature; and the blurry, tearful expression that Xuan Mingzi conveyed with his last bit of energy before disappearing in front of him.
"The system filters 'those who can win,' but it has no right to define 'how to win.'" Lin Yi reached out and caught a fragment. It was the little girl he had saved in reality three years ago, who was now patrolling the Seventh District wearing the robes of the Soul Guardian Pavilion.
The fragments felt warm and alive in his palm. "I fear losing them, so I must become stronger; I hesitate about winning, so I must fight with all my might—these emotions are not weaknesses, but proof that I am alive."
The shadow's body began to become transparent.
He gazed at Lin Yi, the madness in his eyes gradually fading, revealing a tenderness bordering on relief: "So... this is the right path." Before the last wisp of light dissipated, he whispered, "I'm sorry, I tried to kill you with your fear."
The sound of orderly footsteps echoed from the depths of the corridor.
Ivan's message followed immediately: "Mr. Lin, the volunteers from the Soul Guardian Pavilion have arrived."
They carry soul-suppressing bells and memory stabilizers, allowing them to enter the core area at any time to guide souls.
Lin Yi reached for the sword at his waist; the meteorite iron on the scabbard gleamed warmly in the misty light.
He looked up into the depths of the corridor, where a pale blue mist was gradually condensing into a tangible passage, like a door leading to a new beginning.
"Let them in," he said, his voice carrying a long-lost warmth of humanity. "Tell everyone... this time, we're going home together."
In the misty light of the corridor of fate, the first clear sound of the soul-suppressing bell fell like shattered jade into a deep pool.
Ivan walked at the front, his black trench coat hem adorned with stardust-like particles of light. He turned back and gestured to the volunteers behind him to "keep your distance." The old scar on his knuckle, running through the web of his hand, gleamed pale white in the blue light—it was a mark he had taken when he, as the host of the nest, took the blow of the mutated tentacles to protect Lin Yi.
“Mr. Lin.” Ivan walked up to Lin Yi, his Adam’s apple bobbing, and his voice was three octaves lower than usual. “Xiao Tang from the Soul Guardian Pavilion brought a memory stabilizer. She said it can treat the most stubborn fragments of trauma.” He turned to the side, revealing a girl with a high ponytail behind him.
Xiao Tang's fingers were gripping the copper bell at her waist, her knuckles white, but she still managed a forced smile: "Three years ago in the Seventh District, you were the one who pulled me out of the mutated beast's mouth. Now... it's my turn to protect your memories."
Lin Yi's gaze swept over the silver ornaments swaying in the girl's hair—those were the unique Soul-Suppressing Patterns of the Soul-Guarding Pavilion, exactly the same as the one worn by the little girl he had saved three years ago.
He suddenly recalled the gentle look in her eyes before the mirror image personality shattered, and a warm feeling rose in his throat: "Thank you for your hard work." He reached out and gently patted Xiaotang's shoulder. The girl's shoulders trembled slightly, but she immediately straightened her back and walked towards the nearest memory fragment with the stabilizer in hand.
The communicator vibrated at that moment, and Long Wu's voice, with a metallic echo, crashed into my ears: "Boss, we've found the secret passage on the third underground level." In the background, there was the crisp sound of gravel rolling down, as well as Long Wu's unique panting, which sounded like dragon scales rubbing together. "It's like an old-fashioned shelter. The doorknob... has fragments of meteorite iron stuck to it."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
Meteorite iron is a specialty of other dimensions. Three years ago, when Chu Yao used it to forge a sword for him, there were only three pieces in the entire Blue Star's inventory.
Just as he was about to speak, Long Wu's voice suddenly became muffled, as if he had covered his microphone: "Wait—there's something alive."
The light and mist in the corridor of fate suddenly surged and boiled.
Lin Yin could clearly sense that the coordinates where Long Wu was located were emitting chaotic spacetime ripples—that was the anchor point characteristic left by the fate system.
He pressed his fingertip to the communicator and said to Ivan, "I'll leave this to you." As he turned, the scabbard of the Meteorite Iron sword at his waist brushed against the mist, sending up a string of golden sparks.
The air in the underground shelter was filled with a musty, stale smell.
Long Wu's fingertips burned with pale blue dragon flames, illuminating the figure huddled in the corner ahead.
He was an old man with gray hair. His lab coat had long since faded to gray strips, but the second button was still neatly fastened—just like the uniform of the experimenters in the "Apocalypse Project" twenty years ago.
“Dragon…Dragon Scale Guard.” The old man raised his head, his cloudy eyes suddenly gleaming. “You came with Lin Yi? Is he still alive?” He struggled to crawl over, and Long Wu immediately bent down to support his back, but frowned when he touched the old man’s skin—the old man’s body temperature was abnormally low, and faint blue currents coursed beneath his skin. “I am Tester No. 007, the living vessel of the first-generation personality template of the Destiny System. They said…the first-generation Lin Yi… during the 47th time-space overlap…”
"Cough!" The old man coughed violently, and only then did Long Wu notice a penetrating wound on his chest, the edges of which were purplish-black—traces of corrosive energy from another dimension. "The First Generation... he didn't lose. He used his own soul as an anchor point to seal the system core into the temporal rift. But those higher-ups... they destroyed the records, saying he was a failed experiment..."
Dragon Five's dragon scales automatically stood up at the crook of his arm, emitting a low hum.
He took out an emergency spray and pressed it onto the old man's wound, his voice deep: "Who did this?"
“I don’t know.” The old man grabbed Long Wu’s wrist, his nails almost digging into the gaps in the dragon scales. “But I remember… he said at the end, ‘If one day, another me comes here… tell him that fear is not a shackle, but a spark to ignite the fire in his heart.’” His gaze suddenly became unfocused, and his fingers fell limply to his sides. “Now… it’s your turn to deliver the message.”
The dome of the Corridor of Fate cracked with a sharp sound.
Lin Yi stood in the center, watching the last fragment of memory merge into Xiao Tang's stabilizer bottle—it was the complete image of Su Qing's seventeenth birthday. The candles on the cake finally stopped collapsing, and the girl's clear laughter echoed against the light wall.
"It's going to collapse!" a volunteer shouted.
Lin Yi, however, advanced instead of retreating, pressing his hand to his brow—he could feel that the mirror personality composed of fear data was carrying all the imprisoned soul fragments back to their rightful place along the temporal turbulence.
The pain started from the faint scar on the back of my neck, an old wound from a dimensional energy outburst three years ago, but now it felt like a warm current was washing over it. "So this is what it feels like to accept myself."
He said softly.
Suddenly, all the light and mist gathered in his palm, condensing into a crystal that shimmered with seven colors—the complete form of his shattered soul.
The sunlight of reality shone through the cracks in the dome, and as he gazed at his reflection in the crystal, he saw for the first time that what was beating deep within his pupils was not fear, but an inextinguishable fire in his heart.
As Lin Yi stepped out of the Corridor of Destiny, the twilight sky was stained blood red.
He looked up and squinted, but saw a line of large golden characters in the clouds, as if carved with starlight: "Destiny is not dead, only because you have not let go."
The communicator vibrated at that moment, and Chu Yao's voice was unusually urgent: "Mr. Lin, we have detected a surge in the soul resonance index of all job changers worldwide! Also... there is an encrypted message from Long Wu that you need to check immediately."
Lin Yi reached for the Starfall Iron Sword at his waist; the blade gleamed warmly in the twilight.
He gazed at the words in the sky, a faint smile playing on his lips—this time, he finally knew how to seize control of his destiny.
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