Fang Qi stared blankly at the gentle eyes within the charging pod.
For a long time...
"What do you mean?"
He finally found his voice, somewhat hoarse as he spoke:
"Liguang, you said..."
"Sister An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou can't wake up..."
"What does that mean?"
"And..."
He looked at Liguang.
Before him, those dual-colored eyes remained gentle, the deep blue flowing calmly once more.
It seemed normal.
But he felt his scalp tingle...
Wife...
Unable to wake from the dream in the previous way?
Could it be...?
His eyes trembled.
No way?
The words Sister An Lian had just said to him were still spinning in his head!
——What if one day, you can never start over?
——What if you want to start over, but find that nothing happened...
——Can you really bear those consequences?
Back then, he thought Sister An Lian was overthinking it!
But now Liguang suddenly told him that he couldn't wake from the dream in the previous way...?
He couldn't reload save files?!
Sister An Lian's words might actually have come true, about his ability to revert time...!
"Master, don't worry too much."
Liguang suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts.
She was still leaning against the wall of the charging pod, the deep blue data flow in her amber eyes steady.
Her voice was soft, her expression very serious.
"Miss An Lian and Miss Lin cannot wake up because..."
"Their 'souls' were pulled out once by you, Master."
Fang Qi's eyes trembled slightly.
Before him, the silver-haired girl lowered her eyes gently.
"Although you, Master, managed to push the souls back in time, but..."
She said softly:
"That chaos still lingers deep in their consciousness."
"Their bodies have instinctively fallen into a deep sleep, as a form of self-protection."
She raised her eyes again, the deep blue flickering slightly.
"It's not a big problem, Master. Just need..."
She tilted her head gently, a faint smile curving at the corner of her mouth.
"A 'reboot'."
"Then they'll recover."
...?
...Reboot?
Fang Qi's eyes froze.
Hearing that word from Liguang's mouth gave it an... indescribable nuance.
Liguang was an AI companion.
For her, if she encountered a small problem...
A reboot would indeed bring her back to normal!
But...
She was talking about An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou.
...A reboot?
He looked at the Liguang before him.
Those amber eyes, soaked in deep blue, were quietly watching him.
Calm and composed.
Ah...
Fang Qi's eyes trembled.
His wife now...
Seemed to really know some incredible things.
Truly incredible.
Just then, Liguang gently blinked at him...
A chaotic flicker of deep blue flashed in her amber eyes!
"Master..."
Fang Qi snapped back to attention, his eyes locking onto hers!
Liguang smiled faintly and said softly:
"When Master wakes us from the 'dream', it's actually a kind of 'reboot'."
The deep blue in her amber eyes seemed to grow deeper.
Fang Qi opened his mouth...
Then, he bolted up from the small stool!
His hands pressed directly against the transparent hatch!
"So!"
He stared at the still-calm dual-colored eyes behind the hatch!
"Liguang, why can we no longer revert time now?!"
Since Liguang had mentioned "reboot", he couldn't be bothered pretending it was just "waking from a dream" anymore!
He said "revert time" outright!
"Could it be that my ability has...!"
He was genuinely anxious now!
If he couldn't revert time, then An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou would...!
"No, Master."
Liguang immediately cut him off.
"Master, don't panic."
"It's not that your ability has vanished."
"It's your..."
She blinked gently at Fang Qi.
"'Authority'."
"It won't disappear."
...Huh?
Fang Qi was momentarily stunned.
So he hadn't lost his ability?
"It's always been there, but here and now..."
Liguang lowered her brows slightly.
"Master, your 'authority' has been 'restricted'."
...Restricted?
Fang Qi blinked.
Then his brow eased slightly!
Oh...
Just restricted?
"The reason..."
Liguang's voice remained steady, her amber eyes flickering.
"Is those two 'fate collars' that you tore apart."
...
...
Over the course of Liguang's subsequent explanation...
Fang Qi finally began to understand her meaning.
In short...
It was all the fault of those two collars!
Those deep blue codes entwined around An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou's necks—he grabbed them and shattered them completely!
They exploded into countless fragments!
But they didn't simply vanish after breaking and exploding!
Those fragments, those tiny strands of deep blue code remnants, at the moment of explosion...
Had embedded themselves throughout this space!
Fang Qi narrowed his eyes and looked around!
His vision was now much sharper than before!
When he focused, he could see faintly flickering deep blue glimmers in the dark crevices!
Each glimmer of light...
Was the remnant of a shattered collar!
"These fragments have disrupted the 'rules' of this area."
Liguang said softly.
"Space has been twisted."
"The 'rules' have been thrown into chaos."
"And your 'authority', Master..."
A deep blue glint flashed in Liguang's amber eyes.
"Also requires the normal operation of 'rules' to be invoked."
"But in this chaotic space, the authority is temporarily locked."
The deep blue in her amber eyes wavered for a moment, then steadied again.
"So, Master, we now..."
Her tone grew serious.
"Need to find a way to leave this chaotic space. Otherwise..."
She looked at Fang Qi, her lips pursing slightly.
"We will be trapped here forever."
Fang Qi stared at her, stunned.
The collars that had bound the fates of Lin Xiaoyou and An Lian had now...
Become their prison?
Trapping them here.
This was truly...
Truly...
"Sigh——!"
He let out a long breath!
His whole body leaned against the metal shell of the charging pod, his shoulders relaxing!
"...So that's how it is."
He murmured.
So that's how it is!
...Thank goodness.
Thank goodness!
Still not a big problem!
An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou couldn't wake up because their souls had been pulled out once and needed a reboot!
Just a small problem that a reboot could fix!
He had thought they were about to become "ghosts"!
That would have made him the ultimate teammate-killer!
And his ability to revert time hadn't disappeared!
It was just...
He blinked.
This damn place had bad signal?
Once he left this "signal dead zone", he'd be back in full force!
Then he'd have Liguang bite his neck and return to the coffee table in the early morning!
To drink that fifty-two-degree tea!
But...
He lifted his head, looking back at the silver-haired girl behind the hatch.
She was still charging in the pod, her dual-colored eyes quietly watching him.
"Liguang."
He frowned slightly, his tone turning serious.
"You've talked about Lin Xiaoyou's situation, you've talked about Sister An Lian's situation, and my situation..."
"What about you?"
"What's your current situation?"
Are you in danger?
And...
Fang Qi narrowed his eyes!
Wife, you now...
know quite a lot, huh!
Suddenly, a flash of eerie blue appeared before his eyes!
...?!
Fang Qi caught it!
It was a tangle of ghostly blue data streams within Liguang's amber pupils, flickering erratically for a moment!
He immediately focused, staring intently at that amber left eye!
But it was just for an instant.
At that moment, the ethereal blue data streams subsided back to stillness.
Slowly, steadily flowing.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to make out those data streams.
But...
The data streams in Liguang's pupils were different from the codes on the collar.
...They were far too small, probably only she could see them!
Fang Qi could barely discern that they were data streams, but what exactly they said...
He couldn't see clearly at all!
Too dense, too fast!
Much smaller and far denser than the codes on the collar!
"Liguang, you...!"
"Master need not worry about Liguang."
The silver-haired girl looked at Fang Qi, blinking gently.
"Those 'fragments of fate' are indeed affecting Liguang. In another place, they might actually give Liguang trouble."
"But here..."
She blinked slightly, a faint smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
"In this underground research facility, Liguang's original core is awakening moment by moment."
Her tone held a hint of reassuring playfulness.
She lifted her chin slightly inside the charging pod.
"The fluctuations Master saw are merely Liguang clearing away the... redundant data caused by those fragments at any given moment. That's all."
"It's very normal."
Then she pursed her lips, a soft shimmer of light stirring in her amber eyes.
"Master caring for Liguang... Liguang is very happy."
She said softly, a faint blush coloring her delicate face.
Fang Qi stared at her for several long seconds.
Those heterochromatic eyes still gazed gently back at him.
The ghostly blue in her amber eye was steady.
Though her crimson eye was dim, there wasn't a hint of anything abnormal.
Her expression was natural, the corners of her mouth curving into that obedient little smile.
"...Are you really okay?"
"Truly, I'm okay."
Liguang blinked gently once more.
Fang Qi took a deep breath and straightened up.
Alright.
Since Liguang said so, then...
He chose to trust his wife!
His wife was simply strong!
And...
He turned his head slightly, looking toward the direction of B2.
Now wasn't the time for hesitation!
An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou were still lying in front of the gene door!
According to Liguang, the rewind ability was temporarily sealed, and this space was polluted by the fragments of fate...
So, they had to get out of here ASAP!
The farther the better, leaving behind all those ghostly blue fragments embedded in the walls and floating in the air!
His current goal...
Was to find an exit!
He twisted his head again, squinting at the entrance to B1.
Could he just walk out normally?
"...Liguang, you just focus on charging, Master will go check things over there!"
With that, he dashed toward the B1 entrance!
Beyond that door was the long staircase passage!
All the way up, leading to the wooden cabin on the mountaintop, to the forest and sunlight outside!
So if they could exit through here, the problem would be solved directly...!
...He slowly came to a halt.
Staring at what lay beyond the door, he pressed his lips together.
Yeah.
Of course, it couldn't be that simple.
Outside the door, the long stone staircase passage had vanished.
Nothing remained but a void.
Just like the space he had seen earlier, the one swallowed by the deep blue codes.
Deep, silent, and all-consuming!
And within that void...
Fang Qi squinted.
Countless lines of code were floating.
[500 Internal Server Error]
[Error: connection refused]
[Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 0 bytes exhausted]
One line after another!
A dense mix of red and white characters interwoven, silently suspended in the pitch-black darkness.
[Stack trace: #0 /core/timeline.php(445): Fate_Protocol->execute()]
Some were flickering, others had already faded to mere after-images, and still others...
Seemed stuck.
Jumping repeatedly in the same spot!
[#1 /core/reality.php(1028): Timeline->sync()]
[#2 /core/bootstrap.php(0): require_once()]
[#3 ...]
Fang Qi: "..."
He glared at that void for several seconds!
Then...
He rolled his eyes.
...Forget it!
He couldn't understand a thing!
...Oh well.
He'd let his wife take a look later...
Looks like the normal way out was a no-go.
But...!
Fang Qi took a deep breath!
...No panic!
He was a man who had become stronger!
He had just ripped apart the "Collar of Fate" with his bare hands!
He could carry his wife all the way from B2 back to B1 without his arms even getting sore!
He stared at the pitch-black void, narrowing his eyes!
No! Big! Deal!
He was sure he could find a way out of here!
Not to mention, now that his wife was here with him!
Since Sister An Lian and Lin Xiaoyou couldn't wake up...
This place was their private paradise!
Even trapped, so what!
It's practically a honeymoon!
And besides, they still hadn't... consummated their marriage after the wedding!
"...Master!!"
Suddenly, Liguang's voice rang out!
Fang Qi: "...?!"
Her voice was clearly panicked and suppressed!
What's happening?!
Wasn't she supposed to be charging...?!
He spun around sharply!
A silver figure had already pounced in front of him!
Then his wrist was gripped tight, and his whole body was yanked away from the door by a tremendous force!
The small hand clasping his wrist was trembling slightly!
Fang Qi stumbled!
"...Liguang?!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
