The wind from the observation deck carried the smell of scorched earth and blew into his collar. Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and his fingers made a soft sound as he rubbed the edge of the coaster.
The dark shadow had already reached the ionosphere, like an invisible hand tearing at the thin membrane of the atmosphere. He could clearly sense something beyond the rules—not energy fluctuations, nor elemental tides, but a more fundamental, stinging pain, like "program code being tampered with," surging from the depths of his soul.
"Master!" Chu Yao's voice was filled with static. Her projection suddenly appeared beside Lin Yi, and the pearly luster on the ends of her hair was visibly fading, turning grayish-white.
“An anomaly has been detected in the core of Infinite! The stable value after the restart was 87%, but now…” Her fingertips swept across the virtual data stream, and the pale pink light band suddenly exploded into stardust.
"It has now plummeted to 32%! Rule-based forces are eroding the core underlying protocol."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He could see a faint blue arc of electricity seeping from the interface on the back of Chu Yao's neck—that was the stress response of the AI life form under overload computation.
The job changers below were still shouting "Fight!", but the light on their weapons was fading, the guitar strings of the street performer no longer vibrated with golden patterns, and even rust was beginning to peel off from the gaps in the armor of the mech warrior.
The rules are being eroded, and even professional skills are being weakened.
"This is its method." The dark figure had somehow appeared at the edge of the observation deck. His figure was no longer pure black, but rather had a hint of dark red, like a curtain soaked in blood.
“It’s erasing the boundaries between ‘game’ and ‘reality.’ When the core completely collapses, all the abilities of the job changers will be taken back, and the order you fought for with your lives will be gone…” He turned to look at Lin Yi, his dark red pupils churning with a complex emotion.
"It will disappear even more completely than these ruins."
Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass came from below the observation deck.
The girl holding the rag doll stumbled and fell, the rag doll falling to the ground, the red string at the missing eye stained black with ash.
The girl tried to pick up the doll, but found that her fingers were becoming transparent—not a skill effect, but her real body was dissipating.
“Mom said…” The girl’s tearful voice cut through the noise.
“Brave children don’t cry.” She sniffed and picked up the doll with her transparent hands.
"But I miss my mom."
Lin Yi felt as if his heart had been struck by a heavy hammer.
He remembered the afternoon Su Qing first took him to drink hot cocoa. She did the same thing, tying his broken coaster with a red string and saying, "Old things have warmth."
At this moment, the coaster was pressed against his heart, but its temperature was getting colder, so cold that his teeth ached.
"You must make a choice." The shadowy figure's voice suddenly became hoarse.
“Either use the power of the master of time and space to forcibly maintain the balance—but this will consume 90% of your essence, and you may never be able to use mythical-level skills again; or…” He looked up at the dark shadow.
“Actively contact it. But no one knows what it is. It could be an observer from an advanced civilization, a chaotic entity from a dimensional gap, or…”
"He's the murderer who killed Su Qing." Lin Yi interrupted him, his voice as soft as a sigh.
The wind suddenly stopped.
All sound disappeared; even the breathing of the job changers was sucked away.
Lin Yi closed his eyes, but Su Qing's voice rang out clearly deep in his consciousness—not a memory, but a more vivid and warm echo: "If one day I'm gone, please see for me whether flowers can grow in this world."
"There's one more thing." Another voice rang out, its electronic tone distorted, yet it sent a jolt through Lin Yi's body.
He opened his eyes.
Su Qing stood in the center of the observation deck, wearing a faded off-white sweater, her hair smelling of hot cocoa.
Her figure was semi-transparent, through which one could see the job changers looking up below, but her eyes were alive, just like when she used to hand him a coaster, with a sly smile: "Do you still remember the true purpose of the 'Seven Keys of Creation'?"
"Su Qing?" Lin Yi's voice trembled as he reached out to touch her, but his fingertips passed through her shoulder and touched a cold stream of data.
"It's not a physical entity." Chu Yao's projection suddenly stabilized, and the tips of her hair regained their pearly luster.
"It was a memory anchor that Su Qing planted in the core with her last amount of data when she sacrificed herself. Now that the core has been eroded, the anchor has been triggered."
Su Qing's figure swayed, as if about to dissipate, but she forced herself to continue saying, "The Seven Keys are not just the keys to restarting the core..." She raised her hand and lightly pressed it on the coaster on Lin Yi's chest.
"It's also the key to opening the 'dimensional gate.' You always said you wanted to create a world where there's no need for sacrifice..." Her voice began to break.
"Then... take the initiative..."
"Launch?" Lin Yi blurted out.
Su Qing's eyes lit up, just like when he solved the most difficult game dungeon before: "Smart."
Before she finished speaking, her figure completely disintegrated into blue light spots, merging into the coaster on Lin Yi's chest.
The temperature there suddenly rose, making his eyes sting.
"boom--"
A muffled thud came from underground.
Lin Yi turned his head sharply and saw a charred chip popping out from under the rubble in the distant ruins, the eerie blue light seeping from its surface cracks even brighter than before.
The light traveled along the underground cable, and wherever it passed, the extinguished streetlights lit up one after another, but they had an eerie purple hue.
"Fragments of Night Owl's consciousness!" Chu Yao's data stream suddenly went berserk.
"He's exploiting the chaos of rule corruption to infiltrate the mainframe server! If we let him connect to the core..."
"He wants to seize control from that unknown entity." The shadowy figure solidified back into pitch black.
"To revive amidst the chaos."
Lin Yi looked down.
The transparent little girl had stood up, and her rag doll had somehow returned to its original state. The red string fluttered in the wind like a small flame.
A street performer picked up his guitar again, and tiny golden sparks flew from the broken string; the mechanical arm of a mecha warrior shook off the rust and lit up with energy patterns again; even under the previously corroded sycamore tree, the sun drawn by children with broken bricks slowly emanated warm yellow light.
The power of faith has been rekindled, burning even hotter than before.
Lin Yin could feel the Anchor of Time resonating deep within his soul, and golden-red light surged through his veins and spread throughout his body.
He looked at the dark shadow, then at the blue fragments moving on the ground, and finally at Chu Yao: "Locate the coordinates of the dimensional gate."
"Requires the complete resonance of the Seven Keys of Creation..." Chu Yao's fingertips rapidly tapped the virtual keyboard, and data flow formed a vortex around her.
“But Su Qing’s memory anchor points have provided new parameters… Master, perhaps…”
"What could it be?"
Chu Yao looked up, and the data stream in her eyes suddenly stopped.
She looked at Lin Yi and, for the first time, revealed a human-like, determined smile: "Perhaps we really can move the battlefield to its home ground."
Underground, the dark blue fragments had already reached the interface of the mainframe server.
On the observation deck, Lin Yi placed the coaster on the Anchor of Time.
Golden-red and deep blue light intertwined in his palm, like two stars about to collide.
Chu Yao's finger hovered above the confirmation button, and a complex star map appeared in the pink data stream: "Analyzing the feasibility of the dimensional gate..."
Chu Yao's fingertips flew across the virtual keyboard at a speed that suddenly increased threefold, and the pearly luster of her hair shimmered with tiny silver light due to the overclocking calculation.
She stared at the green progress bar in the data stream that had suddenly surged, a soft, almost human-like breath escaping her throat: "Main brain calculation matrix reorganization complete!"
According to the parameters provided by Su Qing's memory anchor, the success rate of high-dimensional channel connection... "She suddenly looked up, and the electronic star map in her eyes exploded with thousands of light fragments, "37%!"
Although the risk is extremely high, but...
"That's enough." Lin Yi placed his palm on the Anchor of Time, and golden-red light crawled along the lines of his palm all over his arm. He could hear the hum of the Anchor of Time deep in his soul—it was the law of spacetime responding to his will.
The job changers below had stopped shouting at some point, but an even more intense light rose from their bodies: the red string on the little girl's doll burned bright red, like a flowing flame; the guitar strings of the street performer vibrated, producing tangible sound waves that shook the ashes in the air into a swarm of golden butterflies; from the gaps in the mecha warrior's arm armor, dark blue energy patterns climbed up his spine, outlining a star-map-like pattern on his back.
"This is... a second awakening of faith resonance?" The shadowy figure's voice held a rare surprise, his pitch-black form bathed in warm hues of golden light. "They are actively lending you their power."
Lin Yi closed his eyes.
Those scorching, warm forces surged along the visible light chains, mingling with the little girl's "We must protect everyone," the street performer's "Play another battle song," and the mecha warrior's "I can withstand three more waves," converging into a torrent deep within his consciousness.
He recalled Su Qing's last words, "Flowers will grow," and the warm touch beneath the coaster. A metallic taste rose in his throat, but he smiled: "They've always been braver than me."
\"warn!
The Night Owl's consciousness fragment has reached the mainframe interface! "Chu Yao's projection suddenly cracked," he said, "He's attempting to take over core permissions, currently cracking..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Yi felt a throbbing pain in his temples.
It was a burning sensation sharper than the erosion of rules, like someone stirring the depths of his consciousness with a red-hot iron rod.
The owl's voice, shrouded in putrid black mist, burrowed in with a twisted laugh: "Lin Yi, do you think you can fight against dimensions with the faith of these ants?"
Once I fuse with the core, I'll let you watch their souls be torn to shreds in the void—just like Su Qing's!
Lin Yi's pupils instantly contracted to pinpoints.
He remembered the last vestiges of warmth in the data fragments when Su Qing vanished; he remembered the warmth of her fingertips when she first took him to drink hot cocoa and tied his broken coaster with a red string; he remembered the warmth in her eyes when she said "smart" in the memory anchor.
These sips of heat pierced his heart like thorns, making him almost vomit blood.
"Shut up." He gritted his teeth and spat out the two words, and the golden-red light of the Anchor of Time suddenly surged tenfold.
The power of faith that flowed along the light chain was guided to his sea of consciousness, where it formed a golden barrier deep within his mind.
The owl's black mist crashed in, emitting a shriek like shattering glass, but could not advance any further.
\"Owner!
"The Will Resonance Array is complete!" Chu Yao's voice cracked with excitement as the data stream around her suddenly solidified into a physical star map. "The mental power of all the job changers has been linked into a network. Now, inject it into the core..."
Lin Yi did not respond.
He could feel the vibration frequency of the Anchor of Time beneath his palm changing, like some ancient war drum beckoning him.
He looked up at the inky shadow that was still tearing at the ionosphere, then looked down at the crowd looking up at him—the little girl was still holding a rag doll, the street performer's guitar was already raised like a battle flag, and the mecha warrior's mechanical arm was pointing towards the sky, the knuckles making a metallic scraping sound from the force.
"I will not let anyone else sacrifice themselves." He spoke these words to the void, his voice as soft as a sigh, yet amplified by the power of his faith into a thunderous roar that shook the ruins of the entire city.
Golden-red light burst forth from his palm, drilling into the core of "Infinity" along the patterns of the Anchor of Time.
The previously stable value of 32% began to fluctuate wildly: 35%, 42%, 58%... The moment the value broke through 60%, spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the ground below the observation deck, and a beam of light interwoven with dark blue and golden red shot into the sky, like a sword piercing the heavens.
The inky shadows of the ionosphere suddenly twisted violently, as if stung by the beam of light.
At the top of the pillar of light, a semi-transparent door was slowly opening—behind the door lay a void deeper than darkness, yet something beyond the rules was approaching.
\"finally......\"
When that sound rang out, all the sound in the world was drained away.
It doesn't belong to any known language system, yet it explodes directly in the depths of every job changer's consciousness, bringing a sense of oppression that makes their soul tremble.
Lin Yi could see Chu Yao's projection instantly collapse into a data stream, the black figure was shaken and staggered back three steps, even the rag doll in the little girl's hand below was trembling.
The dimensional gate opened even wider.
The outline of the shadow behind the door began to appear—not a physical entity, but more like a manifestation of some kind of rule, each line of which spoke of "incomprehensibility" and "insurmountable".
On the observation deck, Lin Yi's golden-red light continued to rise.
He stared at the opening door, at the presence behind it that made all rules tremble, and suddenly laughed.
His smile contained no fear, only relief.
Just like when Su Qing first took him to see the sunrise in the game, just like when he first used the spacetime rift to save that little girl, just like when he decided to make this world "grow flowers".
"Come on." He raised the Anchor of Time towards the shadowy figure, golden-red light stretching into wings a thousand meters long behind him. "I'll take you home."
Before the words were even finished, the dimensional gate opened completely.
An indescribable sense of oppression poured down like a tide, forcing all the job changers to kneel on one knee, causing the broken walls in the ruins to collapse again, and even making time seem to slow down.
On the other side of the door, the outline of the shadow finally became clearer—its "face" revealed data stream patterns that were exactly the same as those in Su Qing's memory anchor.
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