It was over.
Shen Yi squatted on the ground, then shifted from squatting to sitting down.
She hugged her knees and took a deep breath.
The smell of dust from the construction site, the metallic scent of blood, and the chill of the late autumn night all rushed into her lungs at once.
"I succeeded, System."
[Congratulations, Xiao Yi.]
The System's tone had become much more human, filled with a sense of relief and gratification.
Shen Yi let out a soft cry, burying her face in her knees. She quickly lifted her face again, her eyes red, but the corners of her mouth were turned up.
"I want to know, is there any other plotline?"
Tell her everything.
The System flipped through the story of the worldline and fell silent for a moment.
[You can pay more attention to the movements of the protagonist's group. They are backed by many government agencies and righteous civilian organizations. Song Yi's return to the country was fueled by them behind the scenes, otherwise Sophia, a wealthy young lady, wouldn't have brought her along—their relationship isn't good.]
The System could only warn her up to this point.
[There is only the final segment of the plot left. Shen Yi, you've worked hard.]
Shen Yi gave a soft "Oh."
"It's fine."
At this point.
She wasn't really afraid anymore.
After the System finished discussing the plot with her, it didn't disappear immediately. Instead, it made a point to talk to her about the issue concerning Shen Xun.
Soon.
The System's voice became somewhat confused:
[Xiao Yi, it's not right for him to have memories. He was pre-programmed. I don't quite understand why this is happening.]
"I don't understand either," Shen Yi sat on the ground, unresponsive for a long time. The moonlight shone on her, and the blood on her had already coagulated. "So what? What do you plan to do?"
[Let's leave him be for now.]
The System paused, as if hesitating about something.
[By the way, Xiao Yi, there will be a time penalty after twelve o'clock. Are you ready?]
Shen Yi: "..."
She tilted her head back, looking into the void.
The moonlight fell on the young girl's bloodstained face. She froze for a moment, then unhesitatingly accused the System:
"That's so mean. Did you really have to tell me this when I'm at my happiest?"
[Don't worry, it won't be something like sending you to the Jurassic period.]
The System wasn't actually cruel enough to make her fight dinosaurs.
Shen Yi snorted and didn't say anything more.
After all, she was used to it by now.
Aside from being inexperienced the first time, she was now very familiar with the process.
The System was pondering what to do about Shen Xun.
It was the consciousness of the world.
Its purpose of existence was to maintain the stability of this world and ensure all storylines ran along their predetermined tracks.
Having an anomaly like Shen Yi was already tricky enough.
The perfectly fine protagonist was swapped out, and the later villain somehow retained memories from the past due to her constant reloading of the save files.
This world was already a mess.
Characters having memories was a horror story for the System as well.
It couldn't predict what they would do.
Not to mention Shen Yi starting over again and again, reloading files again and again, turning back time again and again—
It made the space-time of this world very susceptible to collapsing into chaos.
Shen Yi rested for a long time before standing up from the ground.
Her legs were a bit numb. She gently pulled her jacket tighter around herself, zipping it all the way to the top to hide the bloodstains and wounds as much as possible.
Shen Yi took out her phone, eager to call a cab home.
Her fingers swiped across the screen a few times, entering the address and confirming the order.
But after seeing the location and the sight of her covered in blood.
The order was canceled.
Soon, another car took the order.
Then, upon taking one look at her.
The car immediately turned around and fled.
Shen Yi looked down at herself.
She was bloody, her clothes were torn, her hair was disheveled, and there were streaks of dirt on her face.
She really looked like someone who had just walked out of a murder scene. Under these circumstances, no taxi driver would be willing to give her a ride.
Shen Yi stood by the side of the road. The wind blew, and the cold made her shrink her neck. Looking at the "No drivers taking orders" prompt on her phone screen, she pouted, feeling a bit wronged.
In the end, she had to walk to the street corner and dejectedly unlock a shared bicycle.
When she started riding the bike, the wind blew her jacket back.
Her wounds hurt a bit, but it was bearable.
On the way home, even the wind felt sweet.
Seeing this, the System inexplicably felt like a parent watching their clumsy yet stubborn child stumble their way to success; it was oddly gratifying.
[You can relax now. It's over, Xiao Yi.]
[However, there seems to be a little problem with your brother.]
Shen Yi grew alert: "What problem?"
[I think I told you that your repeated reloading and turning back time could easily cause space-time chaos, right?]
Shen Yi nodded subconsciously: "I think you did?"
But at that time, she was already going crazy grinding the instances over and over. How could she have carefully considered the System's words? Even if the sky fell, it would have to wait until she brought Shen Xun back.
[Your brother, he...]
The System said, subconsciously flipping open the storylines of other timelines in this world.
It scanned through the dense streams of data, the intersecting timelines, and the Shen Yis existing in different ways across different worlds.
It muttered to itself:
[Why is he messing with the story...]
Amidst its confusion, there was a trace of something indescribable.
The whole thing was unexpected.
Yet it also seemed to make perfect sense.
[But it seems like the future story development of this timeline... this isn't bad either?]
It was talking to itself the entire time.
Shen Yi didn't know what was wrong with it.
She tilted her head in slight bewilderment, the loose hair on her forehead blown up by the wind.
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting?"
As a result, the System ignored her again.
Shen Yi called out a "Hey," but there was still no response.
She sighed.
When there was nothing going on, this System had absolutely no presence.
Shen Yi actually quite liked its superb sense of boundaries.
But speaking in halves and acting like a baffling riddler was also quite detestable.
...
Shen Xun's forehead rested gently against the wall.
He watched helplessly as Shen Yi walked out.
If death was inevitable, he wanted to follow her, to stand in front of her, to face that man in her place—
But his body completely refused to obey.
Something pressed down on him, pinned him down, sealed him in.
Then, the young man uncontrollably felt as if a hand had forcibly closed his eyelids.
He fell into a long, drawn-out dream.
Or perhaps it wasn't a dream.
He couldn't tell.
In the dream, the world was familiar to him.
The familiar home, the streets he passed by every time, everything was exactly as he remembered, yet slightly different.
It was like the same painting had been given a different color palette. The lines were clearly the same, yet it felt somewhat foreign.
Shen Xun drifted around, quietly watching everything in front of him.
He didn't quite understand.
Was this a dream?
A lucid dream?
He had pinched himself and tried holding his breath; both brought a real sense of pain and suffocation.
Everything felt like a real scene.
In this familiar yet strange place, Shen Xun subconsciously hid his figure. He silently stepped onto a high vantage point and looked inside through a window covered in a thin layer of dust.
He saw himself.
His younger self.
Small and quiet, sitting on the living room rug, with a box of scattered puzzle pieces in front of him.
Little Shen Xun was intensely focused, able to rapidly scramble and reassemble objects in a matter of moments.
He needed no help, nor did he have anyone to keep him company.
Shen Xun stood to the side, watching his younger self.
It was like looking at a stranger.
He tried to force himself to wake up.
He used willpower, pain, and every other method he could think of.
But it was of little use.
Shen Xun remained trapped in this strange world.
For a moment, a multitude of thoughts swirled in his mind.
Starting with Shen Yi's ability to turn back time, Shen Xun had no choice but to analyze the scene unfolding before his eyes from an unscientific perspective.
Unscientific.
In the past, he would never have associated such a word with himself.
He was a man who believed in logic, but Shen Yi's death had completely shattered his worldview.
Shen Xun studied his younger self.
The boy quickly finished a jigsaw puzzle, then picked up a Rubik's Cube and began to twist it.
With nimble fingers and a clear mind, he solved all six colored sides in a remarkably short amount of time.
Shen Xun's only childhood playmate had been himself.
In this world, he had been entirely alone as he grew up.
And yet, he was supposed to have a younger sister.
