Chapter 4
◆One: Collapse
The third day after "memory debt was cleared"
The world began to sink.
It wasn't an earthquake, nor was it a building collapse.
Instead, it is cities that are "remembered".
The repressed memories deep within everyone's heart—the shadows of childhood, unspoken sins, love lost and found—
Everything was fed back into reality by the Ghostly Web.
Those memories grow from underground.
It became streets, trees, and houses.
The highway winds its way into the shape of an electrocardiogram.
Forgotten tombstones have been unearthed from the sea.
For the first time, humanity has witnessed the "materialization of memory".
Scholars call this phenomenon "zero-layering".
That's the lowest level of reality.
All that is not defined is revealed here.
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◆Part Two: Li Ke's Burden
Li Ke woke up on the edge of the ground floor.
Her skin was covered with a slightly warm film of light—the remnants of energy left behind by Zhuang Jing.
After the Ghost Web was restarted, she was appointed as the "Memory Manager".
The mission is to collect the runaway memory crystals.
To prevent them from destroying each other.
She walked down the street, which was filled with sparkling lights.
The stones beneath your feet whisper, "Remember me."
Every time we look back, we see fragments of someone else's life.
Liu□□ held a glowing stone in her hands, laughing and crying incessantly;
Those were the memories of her dead child.
Li Ke was in so much pain that she could barely breathe.
She collected all the crystals into the core.
That was Zhuang Jing's code—he had borne all the pain for humanity.
Now that pain has returned to her.
"Zhuang, if you were still here, tell me how I would bear this."
There was no echo, but the light on his chest flickered slightly.
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◆Three: The Misalignment of the Ghostly Web
The night watch monitor reported:
"The ghostly web is undergoing a layered reorganization."
The map on the screen shows:
More than seventy "overlapping nodes" have appeared in the global consensus domain.
There, reality and dreams completely overlap.
The laws of physics and longing are in effect simultaneously.
Those caught in it vanished instantly.
They became "ground zero residents".
Parliament ordered a lockdown.
Li Ke, however, resolutely headed to the core node—Belle City.
That's where Zhuang Jing left his last code.
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◆Four: The Gate to the Zero Floor
The tower in the center of Belleville leans like a needle.
The spire pierces the sea of clouds.
She went to the bottom of the tower.
Each layer is a space composed of memories:
First floor—countless people screamed;
The second floor—splashes of water, tears, and a shattered mirror;
The third layer – silence.
At the very bottom, there is only one light gate left.
The door was engraved with familiar characters:
"Level 0 Entrance. Activation condition: Pain = Trust."
Li Ke reached out and touched it, and the door instantly turned into liquid and swallowed her.
She fell.
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◆Five: Reunion with Zhuang Jing
The ground floor is a reflective, desolate sea.
Clouds, cities, and stars are all reflected in the water.
Everything is a countdown to reality.
She saw a figure in the reflection.
The person slowly emerged.
The fabric shimmered with the texture of data streams.
"You've arrived."
Zhuang Jing's voice remained gentle.
But he no longer has a physical form; he is merely a collection of pulses.
Tears welled in Li Ke's eyes: "You're alive."
"I cannot die. Because I am trusted by everyone's memories."
"So what is this place now?"
"This is the zero layer—the boundary between memory and reality."
The trust index is averaged here.
Therefore, there is no deception, and there is no difference.
He extended a beam of light.
Project the entire structure of the zero-level city onto her—
Like the blood vessels of the heart, they flow continuously.
"If we cannot stabilize this place..."
All levels will be pulled into one point.
The dream and the world will perish simultaneously.
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◆Six: The Paradox of Zero
Zhuang Jing told her,
The trust formula is transformed into a new variable at level zero:
T = N × M × P × (1 – T)
The higher the level of trust, the closer it gets to zero.
Because absolute trust equals losing the ability to question and losing reality.
"You see, the highest state of trust is returning to zero."
"Is this what zero trust is?"
"Yes, it is destiny."
The moment the Dawn Protocol was created, zero was already embedded in the program.
Li Ke felt a splitting headache.
Her brainwaves resonated with the Ghost Web.
Data flooded her mind, and she could almost see the memories of the entire planet flowing through her mind.
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◆Seven: Rebellion
The net suddenly vibrated.
The outer world begins to deconstruct.
Buildings melted into liquid light, and a series of codes hung down from the sky.
System prompt:
"Zero-level critical self-correction initiated."
Zhuang Jing remained calm.
"The Ghost Web is going to reboot the entire real world."
"What would happen?"
"All that has been named will be canceled and returned to the original signal."
We were wiped out to zero.
Li Ke reached out her hand, her voice trembling:
"I will not allow you to suffer for us anymore!"
He looked at her.
The light shines through the cracks.
"The fact that you've started saying this proves that trust isn't dead."
This time, we'll do it together.
He divided his energy in half and placed it into her palm.
The two connected to form a dual-core light array.
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◆Eight: Rise from the Zero Floor
The light array rotates.
The entire zero-level city flipped upside down beneath the sea surface.
Like a mirror being pulled out of the water.
Memories are rearranged, and pain and love appear in pairs.
The Ghost Web Hiss:
Cognitive state: Under reconstruction.
They answered in unison:
"Let reality learn to doubt dreams."
Let dreams learn to believe in reality.
That sentence was written into the main core as the final instruction.
Explosion of light.
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◆Nine: Li Ke's Solo Journey
When everything calms down
Li Ke woke up in a desolate city.
The sky was silvery white.
There were no shadows on the street, only the faint sound of a heartbeat.
She looked around.
The "zero-layer city" has completely surfaced.
To become the new core of the world.
Humanity can coexist in multiple realities.
Dreams and memories are each other's energy source.
Zhuang Jing was not there.
The light on her chest had turned into transparent beads.
The interior reflects endless stardust.
She whispered, "You left first again."
Tears fell to the ground, turning into a faintly luminous river—
That river is called "Trust".
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Chapter Four: The Zero-Level City (End)
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