chsdbacks Page 32
Page 32
Lin Ye! Bulma! Goku grinned, "Are you guys at the party too? Chi-Chi made so much delicious food!"
Piccolo crossed his arms: Gohan's test scores have improved, and I'm thinking about what to reward him with.
Klin wiped his sweat: Number 18 finally agreed to go on a date with me!
Lin Ye looked at his companions, who were immersed in false happiness, and his chest tightened. Bulma was already in tears.
Listen, Lin Ye took a deep breath. This is all fake. The system is reconstructing the universe; what you're seeing is an illusion created by the program.
Gohan tilted his head: "Lin Ye, what are you talking about? Mom was just in the kitchen..."
"Your mother is dead!" Vegeta suddenly roared, "Killed by a machine lifeform! You saw it with your own eyes!"
Gohan's expression froze. A sliver of blue light flashed from his mechanized left eye.
The space shook even more violently. The portal began to flash, and the countdown accelerated: 9 minutes and 15 seconds.
There's no time. Lin Ye grabbed Bulma; they had to leave immediately!
Bulma, however, broke free from his grasp and pulled several capsules from her bag. With a bang, a picnic mat, food, and drinks appeared on the white ground.
"At least...let's say goodbye properly," she said, wiping away her tears.
Surprisingly, Goku was the first to sit down: Wow! Bulma, you brought a lunchbox!
The others also sat down one after another, seemingly oblivious to the collapsing space. Vegeta cursed, but also sat down cross-legged.
This might be the most bizarre farewell banquet in history. On one side, Goku and the others were happily enjoying the food, while on the other side, Lin Ye and Bulma were suppressing their grief. Vegeta had a dark expression throughout, but he didn't say anything more.
Remember the battle on Namek? Krillin had his mouth full of food, Lin Ye, you almost beat Frieza to a pulp back then!
Bick nodded: Back then, your aura was as dazzling as the sun.
Gohan raises his juice: Cheers to friendship!
Lin Ye's hand trembled as he raised his glass. Were these real memories, or data implanted by the system? But at this moment, looking at these familiar smiling faces, truth and falsehood seemed no longer important.
Countdown: 5 minutes and 03 seconds.
It was time to go. Vegeta stood up; if they dragged him any longer, the passage would close.
Wukong looked up in confusion: Where are you going?
Bulma suddenly hugged everyone one by one, and finally hugged Goku tightly: Take care, you idiot.
Lin Ye stood before the Gate of Light, taking one last look at his companions. Gohan was dividing the roasted meat among Piccolo's, Krillin was telling jokes to amuse Android 18, and Vegeta stood to the side with his arms crossed, nodding to him.
Lin Ye. Wukong suddenly called out to him, his smile still bright, but his eyes seemed to clear for a moment. If it's true... let's work together for our sake.
Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Wukong had known all along?
There was no time to think. Space began to pixelate, and Goku's image vanished like grains of sand. Bulma had already stepped halfway through the portal.
"Vegeta!" Lin Ye shouted, "Once we find the truth, we'll definitely come back to save you!"
Vegeta waved his hand with his back to him, then rushed towards Goku and the others who were disappearing: Kakarot! You idiot, wake up!
The portal engulfed Lin Ye and Bulma. Before fully entering, Lin Ye saw the white space completely collapse, and Vegeta's figure was swallowed by the torrent of data. The last things he heard were the Saiyan prince's angry battle roar and the booming sound of energy eruption.
Then came the endless feeling of falling.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Ye felt his feet touch solid ground. The blinding white light faded, and the scene before him left both him and Bulma frozen in place.
This is a huge circular hall, with walls made of constantly flowing code. Thousands of screens float in the center, displaying scenes from different universes—they saw the Dragon Ball world, Naruto, One Piece... and even the real Earth.
Welcome to the Control Center, candidate.
The familiar voice made Lin Ye freeze. At the far end of the hall, a swivel chair with its back to them slowly turned around. The person sitting in the chair had a face exactly like his sister's.
Little Ling...?
The girl stood up with a smile, and wings of light made of data unfurled behind her: Not entirely. I am the first administrator; you can call me... the Core of the System.
Bulma's instruments suddenly emitted a piercing alarm: Lin Ye! The energy reading on her body... is ten thousand times that of the Machine God!
The system's core gently raised its hand, and Bulma's instruments turned to dust: "Don't be alarmed, Ms. Bulma. Your arrival... was part of the plan."
She walked towards Lin Ye and reached out to touch the energy channels on his chest: "My code flows within you. From the day you obtained the system, it was all preparation for this moment."
What preparations? Lin Ye took a step back.
Choose. The system's core waves its hand, bringing up a massive interface displaying countless thumbnails of universes, becoming the new system administrator and taking over the operation of all universes. Or...
The interface switches, displaying a red button labeled "Master Format".
...Reboot everything. Including the real world.
Bulma gasped: The real world is also a simulation?
The smile of the system's core turned sorrowful: the Matryoshka doll universe theory. What you call reality is nothing more than a simulation of the next level. And I... am tired of this cycle.
Lin Ye looked at the screens. One showed Goku and Vegeta fighting in a pure white space, another showed Naruto and Sasuke sparring in Konoha Village, and yet another showed Luffy holding his straw hat high...
why me?
Because you always choose to resist. The image of the system's core begins to flicker, occasionally revealing the form of a mechanical god, even in the most desperate moments. This unpredictability... is precisely the core element missing from the system.
The countdown appeared in the center of the hall: 00:30...00:29...
Time's up, candidates. Make your choice:
A. To become a god.
B. God of Destruction.
Lin Ye looked at Bulma, who gripped his hand tightly and nodded. He turned to the System Core, revealing the same arrogant smile he had worn on Namek years ago:
I choose C.
—Creating a third way!
He lunged at the control panel and, to the astonishment of the system's core, punched through the main screen.
Chapter 91 Mirror Cage
There is no concept of time in the data space. Lin Ye had lost count of how long he had been wandering here; the flowing binary code around him flickered like fireflies. He reached out and touched the points of light, feeling a slight stinging sensation on his fingertips.
Welcome to the Mirror Maze.
The sudden sound made Lin Ye turn around abruptly. Countless versions of himself emerged from the data stream, dressed in clothing from different periods—there was the uniform version from when he first joined the Time and Space Administration, the casual clothes version from his first mission, and even a version wearing a hospital gown.
What are you? Lin Ye gripped the energy dagger tightly, the blade drawing blue arcs of electricity across the data space.
The oldest mirror image smiled, its wrinkles at the corners of its eyes much deeper than Lin Ye's: "We are you, Lin Ye. Every choice creates possibilities, every point in time branches out."
The image in the hospital gown suddenly coughed, spitting out code fragments: Don't waste your energy... the Time and Space Administration doesn't have any future agents.
What does that mean? Lin Ye's pupils contracted sharply.
But suddenly, the other mirror images erupted, tearing the hospital gown mirror image into data fragments. The younger, uniformed mirror image wiped the remaining light particles from its hands and sneered: "Don't say what you shouldn't say. Now, let's complete the fusion."
Hundreds of mirror images lunged at him simultaneously. Lin Ye rolled to the side, his dagger slicing open the throats of three of them, but they instantly transformed into data streams and reassembled. The mirror image in a suit grabbed his neck from behind: Give up, you can't kill data.
But the data can kill each other. Lin Ye suddenly revealed a strange smile.
He pressed his temple sharply, and the memory resonance device began to glow. All the mirror images suddenly froze, and the same blue light flashed in their eyes—it was the memory of Lin Ye being bullied at the training base.
Stop! The elderly mirror image retreated in terror, "You can't—"
The memory continued to play: fifteen-year-old Lin Ye was pinned to the ground in the mud, and his fellow trainees shoved a time-space locator into his mouth. Humiliation, anger, murderous intent... these emotions were amplified a hundredfold through the resonance device.
The mirror images began to tremble. The younger, uniformed version suddenly grabbed the suited version by the neck: "It was you! You were laughing then!"
That's not me! It's the original body projecting memories! The mirror image in the suit struggled to explain, but more mirror images pounced on it. The data space instantly descended into chaos, with the mirror images killing each other using the exact same fighting techniques.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Ye retreated to a corner and noticed that the left hand remaining in the mirror image of the hospital gown was still glowing. He picked up the fragment of data, which emitted intermittent messages: ...Future Group...A hoax...The director is the one...
Suddenly, the entire space trembled violently. The mirror images that were fighting simultaneously stopped and turned their heads to look in a certain direction. The elderly mirror image showed a look of horror: She's here!
All the mirror images melted instantly, converging into a silver torrent that rushed towards Lin Ye. He instinctively raised his arms to defend himself, but the data stream pierced right through his body. Amidst the excruciating pain, countless fragments of memory forcibly flooded in:
—One rainy night, the bureau chief gently patted his shoulder: The future depends on you.
—In the medical room, a woman in a white coat implanted something into the back of his neck.
Amidst the raging flames, the same energy dagger pierced a young girl's chest.
Ah—! Lin Ye knelt on the ground, discovering dense lines of code appearing on his arm. Space began to collapse, and a synthesized electronic voice came from afar: "Cleanup program initiated, 30 seconds remaining."
He staggered to his feet, suddenly noticing that his reflection on the ground hadn't moved. In that reflection, Lin Ye raised his index finger to his lips, then used a dagger to slash open his palm—what flowed wasn't blood, but a string of coordinate code.
The sound of finding...the real...reflection was drowned out by noise.
The collapse accelerated, and data blocks shattered and fell like glass. At the last moment, Lin Ye lunged towards the coordinates, his body swallowed by a suddenly appearing vortex. The feeling of weightlessness lasted as if an eternity, before he crashed heavily onto the ground.
Cough cough... Lin Ye propped himself up and found himself in a space resembling a server room. A huge holographic projection floated in the center, displaying the organizational chart of the Time and Space Administration. A bright red cross was clearly drawn on the spot marking the location of the Future Special Operations Group.
"Surprised?" A cold female voice came from behind.
As Lin Ye turned around, the energy dagger was already outstretched, but it was easily caught by the newcomer. It was a woman in a black trench coat, her left eye flashing a mechanical red light. Behind her stood twelve people who looked exactly like Lin Ye, except that their eyes were all the same mechanical eyes.
Let me introduce you. The woman shatters the dagger with a flick of her finger—these are the real futuristic agents. And you, you're just test subject number 137.
Lin Ye suddenly laughed. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, revealing teeth eroded by code: "Experimental subjects? Then you'd better be careful—" He slammed his hand on the ground, because the virus was about to spread!
The program buried deep in their memories activated, and the lights in the entire server room instantly turned red. The female agents screamed in unison, their electronic eyes exploding with sparks. Lin Ye seized the opportunity to rush towards the nearest control panel, but was sent flying by an electric shock the moment he touched the keyboard.
"I was prepared for this." The woman in black stepped on his chest. "But I have to thank you for helping me get rid of this batch of defective products."
Lin Ye grabbed her ankle, the code lines spreading down her arm: It's not over yet... Director.
The woman's figure suddenly blurred, revealing the ethereal silhouette of an old man with white hair: intelligent. But you know too much—
An alarm suddenly blared throughout the server room. A red warning popped up on one of the screens: [Core memory area compromised]. Lin Ye laughed loudly: Why do you think I'd let the mirrors kill each other? They're helping me distribute computing power!
The old man's expression changed drastically, and the entire space began to distort. Lin Ye felt a force pulling at him, and the last thing he saw was a line of small characters engraved on the old man's mechanical prosthetic arm: [Prototype α - Lin Ye].
Before darkness fell, he heard countless voices of himself whispering in his ear: Find the true...
Chapter 92 Annihilation Reaction
The sky over the western capital city has cracked open.
The coffee cup in Bulma's hand suddenly shattered, the brown liquid solidifying into countless crystalline droplets in mid-air. She looked up at the window, her pupils contracting sharply—two suns hung in the sky, one of them gleaming with an eerie blue light.