Interstellar, Imperial Capital.
The heir abandoned by the Sui family was going to marry a banned influencer. This kind of thing was not worth alarming too many people, and it was not qualified to hold a dinner party in the most famous hotel in the imperial capital.
Surprisingly, this time the invitations were sent to almost all the relevant persons in charge at the alliance headquarters, and all the guests were from the top families in the alliance.
At nightfall, the hotel was bustling with people, and the carefully decorated lobby was already brightly lit.
All the guests were well-known families in the alliance, but there was no usual dinner or welcoming greetings.
The corridor leading to the depths was completely silent, in stark contrast to the bustling atmosphere outside.
There was no name list, no gift money, and the guests who entered the room didn't even say hello to the newlyweds, but hurried to the reception room hidden at the end of the corridor.
…
A pitch-black airship that could block an explosion of a hundred tons in size stopped at the door. The Pu family came to W&P's own top-level hotel. As soon as the well-trained bodyguards came out of the airship, they quickly disappeared into the night.
Pu Sicun, the current patriarch of the Pu family, walked into the reception room and saw the patriarch of the Sui family and Dean Nie at a glance.
These two people have been sworn enemies since they were young. At one point they wished they would never have anything to do with each other again, but now they were standing together and talking in a friendly and low voice.
Pu Sicun met their gaze, nodded, and walked over.
"Today is the latest one, almost everyone is here."
Dean Nie handed over a cigarette and said, "The Ye family's children have also joined the special operations team. Their family is worried, and the person in charge of the air force base is still in the military."
Pu Sicun took it, lowered his head and borrowed a light from Sui Yingshi's hand, watching the thin smoke curling up.
No one here really came to attend a wedding.
The Alliance's fleets are engaged in a fierce battle. They have no way of knowing the scene and battle situation thousands of light years away, but they also have things they must do in this world.
Holding a wedding and entertaining guests is just a cover, a plot that must be followed to adapt to the world that has been changed from the story in the book and to develop the plot.
The current leaders of the Alliance Headquarters took advantage of this opportunity and have been holding meetings for more than half a month under surveillance from the far end of the universe.
Before Pu Ying left, he conveyed a message from Electronic Storm that if there is turmoil in this world, the core location will definitely be this hotel - it is also for this reason that the current person in charge of the purge at the Alliance headquarters accepted the invitation and rushed to the wedding tonight.
They will wait for the outcome of a long war.
Either you fall completely along with this world, or you regain the freedom that has been taken away from you.
Pu Sicun took a deep puff of cigarette and was about to speak when his eyes suddenly fell on two figures coming in from the door.
… He saw the man who had treated Pu Ying.
He was a very handsome young man, wearing a silver-gray shirt and a jacket casually draped over his arms, with the cuffs of his shirt neatly folded up to his elbows.
He wore a pair of thin-framed gold-rimmed glasses, the lenses of which slightly obscured his dark eyes.
Pu Sicun was particularly impressed by that pair of eyes. The last time he saw this young man, the other's eyes were still untouchable cold, as if they could swallow up everything.
Pu Si put down the cigarette and looked thoughtfully at the other figure behind him.
Sui Yingshi looked over and was stunned for a moment: "Who?"
He felt that these two people looked very familiar, but no matter how hard he tried to recall, he could not find any impression of them: "Whose family are these young people from? Where are they from..."
"I brought them here. The younger one is called Zhan Chen, and he's a senior from our school."
Dean Nie ruffled Hua Xi's hair and said in a muffled voice, "I owe him a favor... He came to see me tonight and said he wanted to come and see me, too."
Dean Nie was very angry at first, and he had promised the best expert in this field that as long as the self-driving mecha he made could crush the mecha institute, he would help him find the person he had been looking for.
Dean Nie was so busy with various things that he completely forgot about this promise.
By the time he reacted, Zhan Chen no longer needed his help. He brought the people he found and knocked on his office door to ask about the Sui family's wedding invitation.
"There are many guests here. They probably want to try their luck and see if they can get a chance to enter the alliance headquarters."
Dean Nie was not disgusted by this kind of ambition that matched his ability. He admired Zhan Chen very much and said a few more words casually: "It's not easy for him either. He originally had a good family background, but he had a falling out with a group of old-fashioned elders at home. He refused to join the military department smoothly and was determined to come to the Qinshi professional department..."
Sui Yingshi's mind suddenly flashed with lightning, but when he tried to think about it carefully, the idea became so vague that he couldn't see clearly.
Sui Yingshi held down Dean Nie's arm and asked, "Whose child is he?"
Dean Nie was about to answer, but was suddenly stunned.
…There is indeed no family with the surname Zhan in the alliance.
The impression of Zhan Chen seemed to have stayed in his mind from the beginning, without any cause or effect, like an abrupt fragment that was forcibly cut out.
Just like Zhan Chen.
Dean Nie's heart sank. He closed his mouth, faced Sui Yingshi's inexplicably anxious gaze, and shook his head slightly.
The new discovery was no secret among the alliance's top leaders. They had roughly understood the feeling of the world line being smeared and changed, but they did not expect that this change could even happen to themselves.
This is a feeling that can even make you shudder if you think about it carefully - your memories may not be true, your life may not be the life you should really experience, and everything you firmly believe in may not be the truth.
Dean Nie swallowed all the information about Zhan Chen and stopped talking rashly: "Where are they?"
"They were there just now." Pu Sicun said, "I saw them—"
His voice paused, confused.
Guests were still coming and going, talking in low voices, but there was no trace of the two young men in the crowd.
In the suite on the top floor, Yu Tang closed the curtains and returned to the sofa.
This hotel belongs to the W&P Group. He has been working in W&P using the identity of Yu Tang. He is about to be promoted again. One of the benefits is that he can arbitrarily use the reserved rooms for internal employees in the hotels affiliated to the group.
These suites are as luxurious as top-level guest rooms, with excellent soundproofing. Standing in front of the window, one can overlook the entire imperial capital.
Yu Tang curled up on the sofa, holding the second-hand game console that Zhan Chen had repaired, and opened a fishing game that would never reach a billion-dollar mark.
A pair of hands came into his field of vision and temporarily confiscated the game console.
"Rest your eyes." Zhan Chen reminded him, "The human body cannot be used like this."
Yu Tang rubbed his sore eyes and without waiting to speak, he got up from the sofa.
… The person in charge of the mall abused his power for personal gain and has not yet returned the blanket and pillow to him.
Yu Tang was very satisfied with this. He narrowed his eyes, found a comfortable position in Zhan Chen's arms, and immersed himself in the warmth: "Director Zhan."
Zhan Chen pulled him into his arms, pressed his fingertips on his temples, and massaged them slowly with moderate force: "What's the matter?"
Yu Tang asked: "When you reach 1 billion points in this game, will there really be a treasure chest?"
This was what Zhan Chen had told him when he was still a little kid - as long as he saved up 1 billion points, he could enter a hidden level, where there was a shipwreck containing a treasure chest.
The treasure chest contains the final reward of the game.
Electronic Storm made an ambitious goal to find the sunken ship and bring the treasure chest to show humans.
Zhan Chen paused for a moment, retracted his arms, and let Yu Tang bury his face in his arms.
Teacher Xiao Guangtuan likes this posture very much. Every time he catches some strange-shaped or scary deep-sea fish, he will throw away the game screen and bury it in his arms to concentrate on building a nest.
Even after becoming human, this habit has not changed.
"Yes." Zhan Chen's voice was very gentle, and the warmth in his chest enveloped him, "I made a treasure chest."
This was the first thing he did after changing the data.
He hadn't been able to find a suitable mecha shell yet, so he followed the Internet into Xiao Guangtuan's game console, and bit by bit built the promised shipwreck for him on the seabed.
Yu Tang asked: "What's in the treasure chest?"
Zhan Chen did not answer, but laughed softly and touched his hair: "You have two choices."
Yu Tang was slightly startled and looked up at Zhan Chen.
"The first option is, once we have successfully resolved the matter at hand, I will open a door with administrator privileges and take you to get it."
Zhan Chen patted him on the back and said, "The second option is to play slowly on your own. There will always be a way to unlock the hidden level."
Yu Tang: “…”
He always felt that Director Zhan's encouraging tone was meant to tease him.
Zhan Chen never opened his mind when facing him. Zhan Chen had a kind of temperament that made people trust him. Looking at this man's sincere eyes and gentle voice, it was really hard to tell whether he was serious or joking.
"I'm not kidding." Zhan Chen met Yu Tang's gaze, "I have to choose carefully this time."
Yu Tang pursed his lips and said, "Director Zhan, did you use the mind-reading card?"
Zhan Chen knew that he was deliberately changing the subject. He met Yu Tang's gaze seriously for a long while, and finally sighed half-indulgently and half-compromisingly, then lowered his head and gently kissed Yu Tang's eyes.
"Don't take risks. If you must take risks, use the safest method."
Zhan Chen's voice was soft and slow, with a hint of hoarseness, and the gentle air currents caressed the tip of Yu Tang's eyelashes, with a force that he would only use on the most precious treasures.
He hugged the boy's thin shoulders and gently pressed his forehead against Yu Tang's.
Yu Tang looked at Zhan Chen without flinching, his gaze so bright that it was dazzling.
"I really like Teacher Xiao Guangtuan."
Zhan Chen said: "I just want to take him home, turn over books for him every day, break his will with milk and cookies, and then -"
He paused and didn't continue talking.
Yu Tang waited for a few seconds, and finally couldn't help himself, so he hugged his human and shook him: "What about you?"
“… I don’t know.”
Zhan Chen smiled and said, "I have been in this cycle... I don't know what will happen next."
They met in their first reincarnation, but the electronic storm swallowed up the computer room out of control and they fell asleep in the eye of the storm.
After that, Zhan Chen reset the world many times. After each reset, he did not look for the little ball of light that he was ambitious to raise.
He really wanted to solve the problems in this world, to make it a better place, and then go on to his electronic storm.
"I didn't do anything."
Zhan Chen said softly: "It was because you were too self-righteous that you chose the wrong method and failed to find the real crux of the problem. It was because you found the wrong person to find those particles you separated out—"
Yu Tang was not there to listen to his apology. He raised his head and interrupted Zhan Chen to say the next word.
Zhan Chen paused for a few seconds, helplessly bent his eyes slightly, and swallowed back the words that followed.
… Zhan Chen raised his hand and adjusted the hidden headset he had been wearing since entering the hotel.
Just now, the young interstellar commander has arrived at the hotel.
Shi Ji was very cautious and did not alert anyone else. He managed to find Dean Nie, who was now leading people around the hotel looking for him and Yu Tang.
On the other side, the wedding preparation room was also in chaos. After enduring for so long, Ke Ming finally learned that Sui Si was no longer the heir of the Sui family. Even though the Sui family's bodyguards were well-trained, he almost couldn't control the situation.
Ke Ming was knocked unconscious, and when he woke up he wanted to run away like a madman, but for some reason, he couldn't move his body at all.
"Hello, this is your exclusive anti-addiction system."
Next to him, an emotionless mechanical voice requisitioned his phone and reiterated the rules in a stern manner: "You must get married and live happily together. This is what you agreed to when you signed the internal beta registration agreement."
Ke Ming shrank in fear. He had been in this cycle too many times. He had long forgotten who he was and where he came from. He no longer understood what addiction and inner testing meant: "Can't you regret it? I regret it! Let you go..."
"No."
The anti-addiction system is a purely program-based system, and it also reiterates the registration agreement of the internal test players at that time: "You must get married..."
Zhan Chen didn't listen any further and turned off the radio.
This is equipment unique to the person in charge of the mall. When the system receives an application from an employee to purchase an insurance package, it will automatically modify the monitoring equipment in key locations of the hotel.
Zhan Chen can no longer continue to serve as the person in charge of the mall, but he can still make some minor modifications and monitor key information in the hotel.
… At this point, there is no need to continue monitoring.
Zhan Chen took off the headset and put it aside.
Yu Tang's eyes widened, obviously not expecting that he would dare to be so careless at such an important moment. His eyes swept back and forth across his neck, probably trying to choose a suitable place to bite.
Zhan Chen reached out and held Teacher Xiao Guangtuan, applying a little force to help him lift his head.
"Repeating in reincarnation will have some side effects - for example, it will make people forget who they are and only remember the roles they play, or it will make people get used to reincarnation and lose all expectations for the future."
It goes on and on, there is no escape, and no one can be immune to it.
Zhan Chen collected his thoughts and met Yu Tang's gaze with complete concentration: "You are also a human being, and you are no exception."
Yu Tang couldn't help but frown, but Zhan Chen continued talking seriously.
"I can't imagine any possibilities in the future." Zhan Chen said, "So this possibility is up to you, Teacher Xiao Guangtuan. You are responsible for planning our future."
Yu Tang's chest suddenly felt hot.
He couldn't guarantee the result of this attempt, so he pursed his lips, and was about to speak despite the heat spreading from his ears, but was hugged by Zhan Chen.
“You are responsible for planning for the future.”
Zhan Chen said: "I will be responsible for guaranteeing it."
He spread out his own domain, and invisible, clear water-like waves quietly spread out, enveloping the humans who were making the commitment.
—In this evil laboratory, the reason why Zhan Chen became the lowest-rated experimental subject was not because of his obedience or talent problems.
Zhan Chen received the lowest rating because he was not able to successfully hack into the data.
He is the only one among all the experimental subjects who underwent transformation who did not have any secret transactions or implanted data into his field, but instead evolved his superpowers on his own during the experiment.
His special ability is that he will definitely do what he promised.
Zhan Chen lowered his head and kissed Yu Tang's eyes.
"This wedding was supposed to be our ceremony, and it will become our ceremony."
"We won't open it again."
His voice was soft and solemn, and he met Yu Tang's gaze and made promises word for word in his own field.
"I promise, we will reach the future in your heart."