The laboratory air conditioner emitted a faint hum, and Lin Yi's fingertips still retained the lingering stinging sensation from the coordinates.
On the holographic screen, a red dot resembled a drop of congealed blood, scorching a deep pit on the three-dimensional map of the mother nest's underground—the twelfth underground level, which should have been the core area of the defense system. At this moment, all the monitoring images were distorted into a strange spiral amidst the snow and noise.
"The Hogyoku can forcibly tear open a passage." Aizen's voice was like sandpaper rubbing metal. His knuckles pressed against the table, and the spiritual pressure bandage wrapped around his wrist emitted a faint blue light. "The control source for those clones is hidden on the twelfth floor. If this drags on any longer, Ryuu's men won't be able to hold out."
Su Qing's data projection flickered slightly in front of the holographic screen, and the data stream at the tips of her hair suddenly froze into ice crystals: "The Gate of the End is the manifestation of higher-dimensional laws." She pulled up a string of pale purple law formulas, each character devouring the surrounding light, "I hacked into the old database of the game's mainframe, and the essence of this kind of gate is a verification lock for the cycle of civilizations."
"To rashly use brute force..." Her pupils suddenly contracted to slits. "The entropy of the real dimension will exceed the critical value within three seconds, equivalent to shattering an eggshell with a nuclear bomb."
The laboratory alarm suddenly went off.
Chu Yao's hair stood on end with a "whoosh," and a stream of silver data shot up the wall monitor from the back of her neck—in the purple mist outside the window, hundreds and thousands of translucent replicas were crawling out of the mist. Their faces were distorted replicas of Night Owl, their joints bent at inhuman angles, and the sound of their fingernails scraping against the metal exterior wall was like countless steel knives scraping their nerves.
"Long Wu's location is on the fifth basement level." Lin Yi pulled up the tactical map, and the laser pointer pointed to a glaring red dot at the coordinates "L-12." "Chu Yao, how long will the reverse implantation program take?"
"Forty seconds." Chu Yao's fingertips traced silver trails in the air, and the torrent of code on the holographic screen suddenly reversed. "Night Owl's control protocol uses the fluctuation frequency of his consciousness, and I've added an 'echo' to it—" A cold, laced smile, characteristic of data entities, curved her lips. "Now, one in every three clones will tear its companion to shreds."
A muffled explosion came from outside the window.
Long Wu's communication suddenly switched in, with the background sound of dense gunfire and the clanging of metal: "Boss!"
"These things are endless!" His breathing was rapid, yet his voice trembled with excitement. "But I've discovered—they're afraid of spiritual pressure!"
The talismans that old man Aizen gave me burn like rockets!
"Retreat to the ventilation duct." Lin Yi pressed his thumb heavily on the communication button. "I'll pick you up in three minutes." He turned to look at Aizen, the black blood seeping from the Hogyoku winding along the lines of his palm. "Use the power of faith to construct a temporary barrier." His voice was like a quenched blade. "Su Qing is right, the Gate of the End cannot be forced open, but..." He looked down at the faint spatial rift patterns on the back of his hand, "I can borrow the faith of those people in reality."
Aizen's pupils contracted sharply.
He suddenly reached out and pressed down on Lin Yi's wrist, his spiritual pressure surging into the other's meridians through the point of contact. When he sensed the surging power of faith, this usually calm superhuman's expression changed drastically: "Are you crazy?"
The beliefs of ordinary people are like loose sand; forcibly binding them together will scorch their souls!
"But enough to hold out until the door opens." Lin Yi withdrew his hand, the tactical knife gleaming coldly between his fingers. "They gave me the title of 'savior,' now it's my turn to use that title to do something real." He looked at Su Qing, his gaze softening for a moment. "Locate the coordinates of the Gate of the End and send them to Chu Yao."
Su Qing's data projection suddenly drew close to his face, the icy shards in her hair melting into gentle ripples: "Do you know what this means?" Her voice was as soft as a sigh, "Behind the door might be a trap set by Night Owl, it might be Xuan Mingzi's lies, it might even be..."
"I know," Lin Yi interrupted her, placing a light touch on her shoulder. "But if we don't go in, all the blood shed for us in real life, all the brothers who fought alongside me through the newbie village in the game, will have been for nothing."
The alarm blared again.
Chu Yao suddenly looked up, a stream of silver data shooting out from behind her ear: "Reverse programming complete!" On the holographic screen, the swarm of clones outside the window suddenly exploded, nearly half of them tearing at each other, the purple mist turning a murky gray-red. "But the Mother Nest defense system has initiated automatic repairs, and the passage to the twelfth underground level is closing!"
"Aizen, spiritual pressure barrier." Lin Yi pressed the Hogyoku into the groove of his tactical sword, black blood instantly soaking the blade. "Su Qing, synchronize coordinates."
"Chu Yao, give me the live feed from the twelfth underground level." His gaze swept over everyone, finally settling on the churning blood mist outside the window. "Long Wu, hold on."
A loud laugh came from Long Wu over the communicator: "Boss, hurry up!"
I'll be waiting for you at the ventilation duct entrance—remember to bring something warm, it's freezing cold in this crappy place!
The laboratory floor suddenly shook.
On the holographic screen, the image of the twelfth underground floor finally finished loading—the bronze door engraved with patterns of spacetime rifts was slowly turning, and in the chaotic mist seeping from the door patterns, countless points of light could be vaguely seen flickering, like crushed stars.
Lin Yi pressed his fingertips against the blood groove of the tactical knife, and the black light within the Hogyoku suddenly surged.
He could hear the whispers of the spacetime rift in his ear, and he could feel countless gazes from reality piercing through the dimensional barrier and landing here—the nurses caring for the wounded in the hospital, the security guards setting up defenses on the streets, and the ordinary people cheering him on in the live broadcast room.
Their beliefs, like a gentle stream, are flowing into his soul along the lines of the spatial rift.
"Barrier complete." Aizen's voice was weary. He took two steps back and leaned against the wall, his spiritual pressure bandages almost transparent. "It can last three minutes, four minutes at most."
Chu Yao suddenly pointed to the holographic screen: "The channel is open!"
The ventilation ducts from the fifth to the twelfth basement level are now the only access route!
Lin Yi tucked his tactical knife into the scabbard at his waist and tapped his knuckles twice on the hilt—this was his and Long Wu's old code, meaning "I'm here."
He turned and walked toward the laboratory's security door, his steps as steady as if he had measured every inch of the ground.
"Be careful." Su Qing's voice followed, "Behind the door... there might be a truth you least want to face."
Lin Yi's hand stopped on the doorknob.
He turned his head to look out the window. The purple mist had thinned a bit, and he could see Long Wu's team members sticking their heads out of the ventilation duct in the distance, their tactical flashlights twinkling like stars.
"The truth?" He chuckled softly, the movement of pushing open the door creating a gust of wind. "I've been prepared to face it for a long time."
The moment the door closed behind them, the bronze door on the holographic screen suddenly roared.
The spatial rift patterns carved on the door lit up simultaneously, as if some ancient being was slowly opening its eyes through the door.
The roar of the bronze door made Lin Yi's eardrums ache. The moment he stepped through the laboratory's security door, the spiritual pressure barrier on the ground suddenly rippled with a dark blue light—Aizen's backlash from exhausting his last bit of spiritual pressure exploded into tiny fragments of light at his feet.
The metal walls of the ventilation duct groaned and twisted behind them, and Chu Yao's notification tone pierced through the communicator: "Tunnel closure progress 87%!"
But Lin Yi put all of that aside.
The moment his fingertips touched the bronze door, he felt as if he had been plunged into a boiling galaxy.
What emerged from the doorway was not the darkness expected, but countless intersecting ribbons of light.
The light and shadow of crimson gold, deep blue, and indigo shimmered like crumpled silk, weaving into crisscrossing rivers in mid-air, each river reflecting a clear image:
—In the starting village, he gripped his rusty iron sword and slashed at the first goblin, followed by three teammates with red eyes who refused to back down;
—In reality, the girl holding up a "Lin Yi, keep going" light sign during the live stream was grazed by a stray bullet, but she was still smiling;
—The first time Long Wu offered him a cigarette, he said, “Boss, from now on we’re brothers who will risk our lives for each other.”
—Su Qing's data form materialized for the first time, standing in the morning light, dewdrops clinging to her hair as she smiled at him...
"This is..." Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and his fingertips unconsciously touched one of the bands of light.
The scene suddenly materialized, and he saw himself being pierced through the chest by a clone of the Night Owl in a certain timeline, with blood splattering on the bronze door and blooming into eerie purple flowers.
"The devouring record of the cycle of order."
A hoarse male voice came from deep within the band of light.
Xuan Mingzi emerged from a stream of silvery-gray light. His Taoist robe was no longer neat, and the talismans wrapped in his hair glowed with a fading light. In his eyes was a weariness Lin Yi had never seen before: "Every civilization judged 'unqualified' is compressed into a timeline specimen and trapped here."
"Including the world you once knew."
Another sound was like an ice pick piercing the spine.
The owl's consciousness rose from the blood-red light band, its semi-transparent body composed of countless distorted faces, each repeating the words "betrayal, failure, despair": "You think you're the chosen one?"
He's just the 3792nd fool in the cycle trying to break free.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted to pinpoints.
He saw a figure that looked exactly like him deep within the band of light, holding the same tactical knife, but was shredded by the light the moment it touched the bronze door, without even having time to scream.
"So that's why you've been guiding me all this time?" He turned to Xuan Mingzi, his voice heavy as if weighed down by lead, "From the hidden quests in the starting village to the hints at every crucial juncture... you knew about the loop all along."
Xuan Mingzi's fingers unconsciously caressed the jade pendant at his waist—a manifestation of the game's core code. "I am the executor of the rules, and also their prisoner," his voice trembled with broken sobs. "Each time a cycle is completed, the mainframe extracts a portion of my consciousness to patch the loopholes."
"Now..." He looked up, the light in his eyes gradually fading, "I don't even have the power to stop Night Owl from merging with the Gate of the End."
The owl's laughter shook the light band violently, the swallowed timeline images began to distort, the teammates in the newbie village suddenly grew clones of sharp claws, and the live stream girl's smile cracked into a spider web: "Accept your fate, Lin Yi!"
Your so-called power of faith is nothing more than fodder used to feed 'order' in this cycle! His consciousness suddenly expanded, enveloping Lin Yi in a cocoon of crimson light. "When you completely collapse, I'll use your soul as the key—"
\"shut up.\"
Lin Yi's voice was as soft as a sigh.
But suddenly cracks appeared in the cocoon of light. He pressed his left hand to his chest and could clearly feel countless unfamiliar pulses mixed in with the beating of his heart: the determination of the nurses who stayed up all night in the hospital to take care of the wounded, the resoluteness of the security team who built a wall of flesh and blood on the street, and the burning passion of millions of people in the live broadcast room shouting "Lin Yi will win" at the same time.
"Their conviction is not fodder." His right hand gripped the tactical knife at his waist; the Hōgyoku hummed in its scabbard, black blood seeping from the hilt, leaving dark red lines on his palm. "It's a spark."
Xuanmingzi suddenly looked up.
He saw a semi-transparent phantom appear behind Lin Yi—it was all the people he had protected, now condensing into a light shield in the form of data, smashing the blood-red light cocoon to pieces.
"You...you've merged a faith network that transcends reality and the game?"
"They connected willingly." Lin Yi's fingertips traced the blood groove on his tactical knife, the patterns of the spacetime rift spreading from the back of his hand to his neck. "When I saved that girl in reality, she thought to herself, 'He can definitely win'; when Long Wu and the others took a hit for me in the game, they thought, 'We can't let our leader fight alone.'" His gaze swept across the surrounding timeline, and the swallowed scenes suddenly began to flow backward: the goblins in the newbie village retreated into their eggs, the live-streaming girl's wounds healed, "These thoughts were never just scattered sand."
For the first time, the owl's consciousness wavered: "Impossible! The law of cycles..."
"The laws of cycles are established by advanced civilizations," Lin Yi interrupted him. The moment his tactical knife was drawn, three forces fused together on the blade—the gold of faith, the black of the Hogyoku, and the purple of the laws of spacetime—gathering into a rotating halo. "But I am the master of spacetime."
He raised his sword and slashed into the air.
The light wheel tore apart all the light bands.
The swallowed timeline emitted a joyful chirping sound, like a bird breaking free of its chains and soaring in all directions.
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe suddenly glowed with golden light, and the extracted consciousness flowed back through the gaps in the light wheel; Night Owl's consciousness began to disintegrate, and the human face that made him screamed, turning into specks of blood foam that were swallowed by the light wheel.
"You've rewritten it..." Xuan Mingzi's voice was filled with ecstatic joy, yet also with deep worry, "But the spacetime turbulence beyond the Gate of the End..."
"I know." Lin Yi plunged the sword into the ground, and a vortex of light unfolded beneath his feet. The patterns on the bronze door lit up, and a roar like crashing waves came from behind it. "But if we don't go in, these timelines that have barely managed to come back to life will be swallowed up by the next cycle."
He turned to look at Xuan Mingzi, whose Taoist robes were now neat and tidy, and whose eyes had regained their vitality: "Help me stabilize the connection between reality and the game." He then looked at the remnants of Night Owl's forces, who were rebuilding their data entities, "As for you..."
The owl's last shriek of consciousness cried out: "You'll regret this!"
There is something in the spacetime turbulence...
\"Bang--\"
The gates of the end burst open with a deafening roar.
What emerged from the doorway was not darkness, but a surging mist of light.
Countless translucent star trails weave through the fog, like a disturbed Milky Way.
Lin Yi could hear the spacetime rift calling out excitedly from inside the door. It was a rift far larger than any he had ever encountered before, as if the timelines of the entire multiverse were converging there.
"Boss!"
Long Wu's roar exploded from the communicator.
Lin Yi looked down and saw Long Wu's location on the tactical screen rapidly rising from the fifth basement level, followed by more than twenty team members, each with their tactical flashlights switched to red—that was their agreed-upon "safe rendezvous" signal.
He smiled and bent down to pick up the tactical knife from the ground.
The three energy wheels on the blade were still spinning, but a few wisps of pale pink light had appeared—that was Su Qing's data entity squeezing in through the communication signal, carving a line of tiny words onto the blade: "I'll be waiting for you in reality."
"The real war has only just begun."
Lin Yi took the first step.
The light and mist inside the door suddenly surged, and a star trail with a silver edge brushed past his hair.
He heard an ancient, gear-like sound coming from the deepest part of the door—the heartbeat of time-space turbulence.
Behind him, all the saved timelines are being rewoven into a new network.
His teammates in the newbie village smiled at him, weapons in hand, while the livestream girl's light stick shone even brighter. Long Wu's teammates had already broken through the ventilation duct, and the beams of their tactical flashlights formed a galaxy pointing in this direction.
Within the Gate of the End, the legend of Lin Yi has only just begun to unfold.
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