Luo Ran's heart beats once every 0.75 seconds.
When the bright light with consistent frequency flashed for the 439,713th time, a rusty old mecha broke through the dark and vast sky and touched the farthest edge of the light.
The next moment, the flow of time suddenly stirred up the most violent turbulence.
A drastic change far beyond human cognition suddenly occurred at the end of the entire interstellar space.
Countless people suddenly woke up, and a strong sense of weightlessness spread rapidly. People pushed open doors and windows in panic, some fell into dreams, some fell back into reality from dreams, some saw an ancient embryo slowly taking shape, and some glimpsed the unpredictable future in a moment.
The turbulence of time engulfs the entire world, and in the violent shock, cracks quietly appear in the invisible and tangible dimensional prison.
Shi Ji's wingman flew out from the crack.
—It’s like the most basic method of escape humans have ever learned.
Chisel out a gap, insert the sharpest blade into the crack, and use all your strength to pry out a way out.
The rusty old mecha positioned itself at that point, and the silver-gray mecha followed closely behind its wingman, like a blade that could never be peeled off and disassembled, it forcibly cut a hole in the invisible barrier.
The pulled world overflows from the breach of the dimensional prison.
Zhan Chen held onto the control panel.
This mecha is the fulcrum of the entire interstellar space. The sudden increase in pressure cannot be regulated by the mecha's own devices, and it seeps into the mecha cabin layer by layer.
Hearing the voice coming from the transmitter, Zhan Chen reached out, took off the spare headset, and placed it near his temporal bone.
"The Dolphin has received news from an unknown source that the dimension is recovering. We must leave here before the world completely upgrades!"
Pu Ying's voice was mixed in with the noisy sound of broken electricity. He tried his best to raise the volume to ensure that his words were transmitted completely: "Mr. Zhan, the sender wants to talk to you directly. We cannot confirm the other party's identity..."
"It's my colleague." Zhan Chen answered the call. "I'm here. I'm Zhan Chen."
After a few seconds, the indicator light on the control panel flashed and a piece of encrypted special data popped up on the auxiliary screen on the side.
In the institutions under the Chuanshu Bureau, the terminals and the monitoring system restrained each other. The monitoring system was once blocked by the data hidden in the library until the game world took over the Chuanshu Bureau and resumed operation.
Data flowed on the screen, and a synthesized mechanical sound jumped out of the headset: "Is your name when you were a human Zhan Chen? This name is good, but it's a bit complicated..."
Zhan Chen interrupted him: "Senior, time is flowing here."
The mechanical voice paused, then came back to its senses, speaking more seriously and faster: "We are assisting their actions, trying to free this world, but we alone are not enough."
The game world and system stayed in the Book Transmigration Bureau, cooperating with the data released by the Supervisory Department, trying their best to maintain the stability of the world dimension in the massive data turbulence, but it was still not enough to promote the normal operation of the program.
"The terminal is gone, and we need someone to turn the pages."
The mechanical voice said: "Do you have a program to turn the pages of a book? It has to be safe and stable enough that it won't be deconstructed and destroyed, and the core data won't be dispersed-"
Zhan Chen: “Yes.”
The mechanical voice only listened with a glimmer of hope, and was surprised when he heard it: "Why do you make such a program?"
Zhan Chen did not explain, but shook his head slightly: "I will send the data packet over now."
He raised his hand and was about to manipulate the data, only to realize that his body had already been completely transformed.
The data from the monitoring department who had hacked into the mecha watched Zhan Chen enter the sea of consciousness. He opened the warehouse and suddenly remembered something: "Oh, when we were counting the inventory before, we found a bunch of data that was not in the records. Did you make it into a system as well?"
Zhan Chen took out the disk and was slightly stunned: "I haven't received any similar notification."
"He sneaked in. He said he was here to visit a friend, so we didn't arrest him and let him in."
The senior from the Supervision Department who came was very talkative. While receiving the program data provided by Zhan Chen, he also took the time to chat during the crisis of Chuanshuju's survival: "Later, we found out that he never came out after entering. None of us wanted to distribute flyers, so we didn't report it..."
At this juncture, the other party would not bring up this matter for no reason.
Zhan Chen exited his sea of consciousness, held onto the console with one hand, and raised his eyes from the progress bar of data transmission.
"You also know that, except for the staff of Chuanshu Bookstore, the rest of the data cannot enter the mall warehouse at will - if you have to enter, you have to accept the temporary data blockade."
The mechanical voice said: "'s memory data has been stripped away and is still with us."
The mechanical voice paused for a moment, and then continued as if chatting casually: "The small system that we left in the Chuanshu Bureau, I think the code looks very familiar..."
There was a flash of sharpness in Zhan Chen's eyes.
The supervisory department is responsible for self-inspection and should not cooperate with any illegal operations that do not comply with regulations.
The person who came to find Zhan Chen didn't say anything more. He just stopped there and returned to Chuanshu Bureau with the program he got.
…
Zhan Chen calmed his mind, deleted the intrusion record of external data, and looked at the regularly flashing light again.
—This is the rule that Pu Ying once discovered.
After falling into the electric storm, Pu Ying learned a little bit of the electric storm's language and chatted with the electric storm that had just gained self-awareness.
Pu Ying discovered that as long as the core particles were digitized and sent into the eye of the storm, they would not be completely formatted.
In that orphanage, Pu Ying left a note and taught the trick to the two people.
Zhan Chen separated the core data and hid it in Teacher Xiao Guangtuan’s home in the eye of the storm—Feng Qing did not successfully find this way, so his core data must be somewhere else.
For example, the database of Chuanshu Bookstore, or the storage area of a shopping mall.
At that time, Zhan Chen had been the head of the mall for a long time, but it was his first time trying to build a system.
He had no experience and couldn't find many of the template data, but he found the core program easily.
It went as smoothly as if a piece of data had snuck in, coming to see a friend with great enthusiasm, mortgaging its own memory but still vaguely remembering the name of its good friend.
…
That was the first time Zhan Chen built a system for the host.
The host's name is Yu Tang. He received the standard physical data assigned to employees and just reported in from the eye of the storm.
The host's performance was extremely biased. Zhan Chen stripped away twenty years of his acting skills, made them into cards and secretly gave them away as lucky draw gifts, but it only allowed the host to barely raise his test scores to C level.
The host was transferred from the general housekeeping department to the spare tire department. He passed the internship period with some difficulty and needed a system to cooperate with his work.
When delivering the newly made system, Zhan Chen saw the new employee standing in the waiting hall.
It still had initialized body data and an unadjusted standard appearance. If you didn't look carefully, you would almost think it was a randomly generated NPC.
Noticing Zhan Chen coming over, the other party raised his head, his dark pupils were calm and cold, with a well-hidden strange resistance and vigilance, and fell on Zhan Chen.
Zhan Chen adjusted his physical data and shook hands with him. The other party's fingers touched his, and they were pale and cold, which was not in the data.
Zhan Chen handed him the system that accompanied the host to chew bubble gum.
Yu Tang didn't stay long. He took the system from him, thanked him, and left the hall.
The senior from the Supervisory Department leaned forward and put his hand on Zhan Chen's shoulder: "Is this the new host that I've been waiting for so long?"
"What is this? There is no atmosphere at all. Even if it is statistics, it is not meaningful."
The data from the Supervision Department have always had a good relationship. A colleague winked at Zhan Chen and enthusiastically suggested: "Let's help him stop him. Find an excuse so that he can say a few more words to him..."
Zhan Chen withdrew his gaze from that figure.
"No need." He smiled and shook his head. "It's already very good."
The colleague didn't see what was good about it, and couldn't persuade him, so he left with a strange look on his face and shook his head, to enjoy the internal benefits that only the employees of Chuan Bookstore had.
Zhan Chen stood there, he looked at his palm and tried to squeeze it lightly.
It was he who forgot to teach Storm not to look for him if they were defeated.
It was because he failed to remember the past in time that Lightning Storm failed the first assessment and was tricked into having his particles stripped off.
Lightning Storm was trapped in this world by him.
… This was the best reunion among the 768 deductions that Zhan Chen had conducted alone.
The unprecedented earthquake instantly brought everyone back to consciousness.
"Dimension modification confirmed, we must leave as soon as possible!"
The sound of the electric current suddenly became sharp and humming, as if penetrating the noisy high-frequency noise in his mind. Shi Ji's voice tried its best to come out: "Mr. Zhan, we must find a way to get close to Mr. Yu. It won't be long-"
He suddenly realized Zhan Chen's plan and said anxiously, "Mr. Zhan!"
—Before they could notice, Zhan Chen had already entered the other side of the dimensional rift!
"It's more appropriate for me to go!"
Shi Ji's voice was hoarse: "I have received high-intensity training and can withstand greater pressure while wearing protective clothing—"
"Don't worry." Zhan Chen had already put on the protective suit. He fastened his goggles and tapped the throat microphone. "I hold the record for survival training."
Shi Ji was slightly stunned.
The devilish training of the team was inherited from the Security Department, and there are several particularly long-standing records that have not been surpassed by anyone until now.
Those records only contained data but no names. Some top soldiers were dissatisfied and believed that these data could not exist and were made up to provoke people.
Especially the survival training, the conditions are extremely harsh and cruel, and it makes people shudder just thinking about it.
It started with sleep and rest deprivation, high voltage, weightlessness, electric shocks, torture, and being thrown into the gas chamber until the last sound of painful struggle could no longer be heard.
All trainees who have achieved high results in this project have a strong will to survive.
Live, live at all costs.
Shi Ji still remembered what Zhan Chen had said to him - he suddenly couldn't imagine under what circumstances the record holder would choose to die voluntarily.
…
The huge mecha slowly opened its protective shield.
Zhan Chen was trapped in the dazzling light. This was the end of the dimension. The newly upgraded world stirred up countless turbulent undercurrents, almost squeezing all the heat in his chest out of his body.
The chest cavity was hollowed out as it took its last breath, the eardrums ached, and a faint red color rose in the field of vision.
Zhan Chen saw the figure in the light red vision.
He reached out and held Yu Tang in his arms.
A powerful force suddenly burst out from behind Yu Tang, pulling the body into the depths of the light.
They are in the vortex of time and space, and the core that causes the collision and distortion of time will not be released easily. The huge rules of the entire universe are pressing down, crushing the arrogant provocateurs who overestimate their own capabilities.
Zhan Chen wrapped Yu Tang into his chest and shoulders. He lowered his head, and the tight protective suit pressed against Yu Tang's forehead. The force was so gentle that it felt like a kiss after a long separation.
Yu Tang woke up from the touch.
Particles of his body had already merged with the sea of light, but the next moment he saw Zhan Chen, an exceptionally bright smile still appeared in his eyes.
"Senior Zhan." Yu Tang snuggled in his arms, rubbing his hands gently, "Senior Zhan."
Zhan Chen held his hand.
The hand still maintained its original shape, but when it was grasped, it suddenly dissipated and turned into flying points of light.
Zhan Chen loosened his grip, and the light spots gathered back to their original shape.
"I'm fine, just a little sleepy."
Yu Tang moved and pressed his face against the heavy protective suit: "Senior Zhan, if I fall asleep, remember to wake me up."
"Little light ball." Zhan Chen shook his arm gently, "Go home and sleep."
Yu Tang blinked twice, trying to see more clearly, but his vision was already filled with light.
Zhan Chen lowered his head and met the dark mist in those eyes.
This is the true form of granular text.
Without the interaction of energy and the annihilation of matter, all electricity would have been neutralized long ago, becoming the beginning and end of chaos.
After returning all the particles belonging to this world, the lightning storm returned to its original state.
Yu Tang leaned against Zhan Chen's chest, the strange dark star mist slowly spreading from the bottom of his eyes, and the light on his body quietly faded away, turning into a dense and stable particle cloud.
He was trapped in a dimensional vortex.
"Wake up, let's go home and sleep."
Zhan Chen called him softly: "I haven't completed the 1 billion points in the game yet, and I haven't found Feng Qing—"
"Feng Qing is my system." Yu Tang said, "I found him in the game world... He himself doesn't remember it, Senior Zhan, please find a way to return him to his domain."
Zhan Chen paused, said nothing, and just gently touched Yu Tang's hair.
“I know it’s a little difficult.”
Yu Tang felt the touch and rubbed his palm against Zhan Chen's: "There must be a way."
Zhan Chen was speechless: "Are you so confident in me?"
"Yes." Yu Tang said, "Senior Zhan will definitely do what he promised."
Zhan Chen asked in a gentle voice: "What about taking her home?"
Yu Tang did not answer immediately. He opened his mouth and fumbled to hold Zhan Chen's fingers.
"I was just being tough with them at the time, Senior Zhan, don't take it to heart."
Yu Tang bent his fingers and slowly drew circles in Zhan Chen's palm: "The core particles of the electric storm are indispensable for maintaining the structure of the galaxy... I don't always go out to play."
Yu Tang said: "This is the meaning of our existence."
As he explained, his pupils, which had been occupied by dark mist, widened slightly. He tilted his head slightly and listened to Zhan Chen's reaction while speaking.
The person hugging him remained silent.
"I would go home occasionally, drink milk and eat cookies, play games, sleep with a pillow and a small blanket, and read the books that the little robot turned for me."
Yu Tang said: "Look out the window, if there is light—"
He paused suddenly.
Yu Tang holds Zhan Chen’s hand.
He noticed that Zhan Chen had taken off his protective suit, and couldn't help but frowning. He was about to open his mouth, but suddenly realized that something was wrong.
… At some point, the environment around them had quietly changed.
Yu Tang felt the hard metal material.
He was so familiar with these metals that he knew what they were as soon as he touched them: "Senior Zhan, have you rebuilt our mecha?"
"It's not a mecha now." Zhan Chen said, "It's our room."
"..." Yu Tang was both angry and amused: "Who would live in such a place?"
It was only when he arrived here that he discovered that this area was the key to preventing the dimension from collapsing. Before the human world could be completely restored, it had to be supported by electric storms.
For a galaxy, this period of time is not too long, but compared with human lifespan, it is really too long.
"I'll be home soon."
Yu Tang and Zhan Chen discussed: "It may not glow anymore, and it's not as warm as before, but eating is not a problem..."
The rest of the words were blocked before he could even finish them.
Zhan Chen didn't waste any more time explaining. He kissed her with a burning sensation, swallowing every word she said, which turned into boiling blood burning in his chest.
The blood burned in the body, and the cold mecha metal burned in the silence and constancy of the vast universe.
Zhan Chen has always been gentle, but this time he seemed to want to give him the warmth and heart in his chest. His mental strength like water overflowed from his domain, inch by inch, overwhelming the darkness in Yu Tang's eyes.
Yu Tang's heart tightened: "Zhan—"
"Little light ball." Zhan Chen withdrew slightly and pressed his forehead against Yu Tang's. "You'd better rethink your answer."
Yu Tang's body was enveloped by Zhan Chen's domain. His mental strength surged out without restraint, forcibly reversing time and pushing back the physical state within the domain millisecond by millisecond.
"I want to be with you. If you don't come home, then I will make home where you are."
Zhan Chen's voice came through his chest, a little hoarse than usual, and every word seemed to carry an unprecedented, burning heat.
Zhan Chen put his hand around the back of Yu Tang's neck and said, "This is something that doesn't need to be discussed."
Yu Tang shuddered slightly from the burn, and before he could react, he heard a voice beside him: "Senior, it's glowing again."
Yu Tang: “…”
"It's a normal overflow of energy!" Yu Tang didn't even think twice and picked up a handful of bubble gum and threw it at the sound, "What's going on? Breaking into a private house—"
The system, wearing the shell of a mecha figure, rushed over and held his arm tightly, "Host, host, host..."
Yu Tang paused.
"I found the answer." The system nudged him, "Feng Qing doesn't want to live again because he was too careful in making the system."
When you are a system, you don't just get sold around, you follow the host around, and you squat with the host and chew bubble gum.
“But I want to live again now.”
The system pulled Yu Tang: "Host, host, have you seen this game world? I like him."
"I've chosen the right one this time. I won't settle for anything less." Feng Qing said, "I want to spend my whole life with him."
Yu Tang's particle state had not yet been completely reversed, and everything in front of him was still blurry.
He didn't want to disappoint the system, so he turned his head and glanced, and suddenly saw a bright and dazzling human-shaped light bulb: "..."
"Senior, we've taken a fancy to this house." The human-shaped light bulb came over and squatted down with the system. "Should we take it away?"
Yu Tang's vision gradually became clear, and he propped himself up with his arms.
… This is an unstable point in the dimension, and an electric storm is needed to stay here for support.
There is more than one lightning storm in this world.
Yu Tang's hand was gently held by Zhan Chen.
This time the particles did not dissipate. Feeling the warmth covering his palm, Yu Tang slowly moved his fingers and clenched them back little by little.
"…If you get bored, ask me to take over."
After a long while, Yu Tang finally pulled the corner of his mouth and exhaled softly: "I will make a program for you."
… Although this world has already escaped control, it still needs a gradual transition. For a period of time that is not too short, the Transmigration Bookstore must continue to operate.
The job of the terminal is to "turn pages". After they leave, another set of programs must take over.
This program must be stable enough to remain unaffected even by data shocks, and have sufficient self-correction and adjustment capabilities to ensure long-term operation.
"Got it." The game world said, "It's the program for development."
Yu Tang was slightly startled and turned his head to look at Zhan Chen.
His strength had been exhausted, and his movements were not big. The soft stubble of hair rubbed against Zhan Chen's palm, bringing a bit of real warmth.
"What expression? I know a little bit."
Zhan Chen smiled and said, "I am only good at this one procedure."
He is only good at making a little robot that turns pages of books.
When Yu Tang was still asleep, Zhan Chen had spent almost all of his time working in the mall polishing the program of this little robot.
He wants to make a small robot that flips through books. It can do so for a long time, until the human lifespan ends, the data is modified and reset, and everything returns to the beginning at the end of time.
Turn to the day when the electric storm woke up.
Yu Tang felt a little regretful: "Don't you have any little robots at home?"
"No more." Zhan Chen met his gaze, "I'll just have to turn it over, okay, Teacher Xiao Guangtuan?"
Yu Tang coughed, tried his best to remain calm in the face of the new artificial electric storm, and nodded slowly.
He wanted to stand up calmly, but Zhan Chen had already grasped his legs skillfully, picked him up steadily, and brought him back into his warm embrace.
Yu Tang was kissed on the forehead and couldn't help but squint his eyes in comfort: "Senior Zhan..."
— He thought about many questions, whether Zhan Chen recognized Sui Xifan and his wife, whether Meng Nanke got back his own destiny, how Zhong San and Wen Er were dealt with in the end, how to deal with Sui Si and Ke Ming's data...
But it seems that there is no need to rush for the time being.
Yu Tang leaned closer to Zhan Chen's arm again, and the arm behind him tried to pull him back. Zhan Chen lowered his head and met Yu Tang's gaze: "What's wrong?"
"I'm sleepy." Yu Tang closed his eyes, "I want to sleep."
Zhan Chen couldn't help but chuckle.
He hugged her and nodded, "Go to sleep."
The lightning storm had been guiding the way at the end and had already exhausted all its energy. Almost at the same time as it heard his voice, it drooped its eyelashes and fell into a deep sleep.
Shi Ji's wingman docked with the space station converted from a mecha, opened the hatch, and flashed the guidance light twice.
Zhan Chen wrapped Yu Tang in his arms. He nodded to the game world and the system that was staring at Yu Tang worriedly, then boarded the wingman.
He wanted to put Yu Tang into the sleeping cabin with repair function, but when he moved a little, he found that the fabric of his shirt was tightly grasped by the sleeping person.
Shi Ji heard the noise and turned around to look over worriedly.
Zhan Chen made a gesture that it was okay, then hugged Yu Tang and moved him into the corner, allowing Yu Tang to lie on him more comfortably.
He held Yu Tang's hand and looked at the dark sky through the window of his wingman.
The Dolphin followed closely beside the wingman, waiting to return together. At the end of the silver-gray streamlined mecha, a dazzling gold color was reflected.
The light of the stars leaped across the nebula, and the messenger of light set out again, heading farther and farther.
Yu Tang was immersed in the light coming in through the porthole, sleeping soundly on Zhan Chen's shoulder, his chest rising and falling steadily.
Zhan Chen lowered his head and gently kissed Yu Tang's closed eyes.
The long river of time flows quietly, and the stars are burning and dying.
There are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, and at least trillions of galaxies in the universe. Compared to this infinite and vast space, humans are just a drop in the ocean.
But now, it's time to go home.