Chapter Nine: The Second World
“I am the second world.”
The instant those words fell.
The sky split open.
Not lightning.
Not cloud cover.
A real crack.
As if someone had drawn an invisible knife through the middle of the entire sky.
There were no stars on the other side.
No sun.
No universe.
Only countless densely packed scenes.
Every scene contained a different life.
Someone was crying.
Someone was laughing.
Someone was dying.
Someone was being born.
Someone stood by the sea.
Someone stood on a battlefield.
Someone was in a hospital.
Someone was at a wedding.
Someone knelt beside a corpse.
Someone was even just sitting in a room, quietly drinking coffee.
Countless lives.
Countless worlds.
All overlapping beneath the same sky.
Lin Ye looked up.
A thought suddenly appeared in his mind.
Those weren't hallucinations.
Every scene.
Every one was a world that had truly existed.
“Xiao Ye!”
Lin Ye's father grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Don't look!”
Lin Ye snapped back to reality.
“Why?”
“Because once you understand what you're seeing.”
“It'll see you.”
“Who?”
Lin Ye's father didn't answer.
The faceless figure in the sky.
It had already lowered its head.
It was looking at him.
“Lin Ye.”
The voice sounded again.
This time.
It no longer came from the sky.
It appeared directly inside Lin Ye's mind.
“You've been looking for me for a long time.”
Lin Ye gritted his teeth.
“You're the one who's been looking for me.”
“It's all the same.”
“What are you?”
“I already told you.”
“I am the second world.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“How can a world be a person?”
“The first world isn't a person either.”
The voice laughed.
“But in the end.”
“You still turned it into one.”
Lin Ye suddenly thought of Number Zero.
That baby.
ZERO's first consciousness.
“You know Number Zero?”
“Of course.”
“Where is he?”
“Right inside you.”
Lin Ye abruptly looked down.
There was nothing unusual about his chest.
But his heartbeat had quickened.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Every beat.
As if it were answering the sky.
Lin Ye's father grabbed him.
“Don't answer it.”
“It's confirming your identity.”
Lin Ye asked,
“What happens after that?”
Lin Ye's father's expression turned grim.
“It'll take you away.”
“Where?”
“The second world.”
“What is there?”
Lin Ye's father was silent for a long time.
“You.”
“Another you.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Didn't he already…”
“That was only the you from the first world.”
Lin Ye's father spoke.
“In the second world.”
“There is another one.”
Lin Ye looked at the sky.
The faceless figure suddenly raised a hand.
A black snowflake drifted down from the sky.
It landed on the ground.
It didn't melt.
Instead, it became a person's shadow.
Then.
A second.
A third.
More and more appeared.
In less than ten seconds.
Hundreds of black shadows had appeared all along the street.
Every shadow.
Slowly grew a body.
Someone.
Someone.
And someone else.
Lin Ye looked at those people.
His heart began to sink.
Because he recognized several of them.
People who were already dead.
People the police had declared dead three years ago.
People who had disappeared from the ZERO laboratory.
And even…
His grandfather.
Those people stood in the street.
Expressionless.
All of them looking at Lin Ye.
One of the women stepped forward.
She wore white.
Her hair was long.
Her face was deathly pale.
Lin Ye went completely rigid.
“Mom?”
His mother stood in front of him.
But Lin Ye's father suddenly seized him.
“Don't go to her!”
“She’s my mom!”
“She isn't!”
Lin Ye wrenched free.
“How do you know?”
Lin Ye's father gritted his teeth.
“Her eyes.”
Lin Ye looked at his mother.
Those eyes.
They really were wrong.
There had been tenderness in his real mother's eyes.
Weariness.
Love.
But the woman standing before him.
Her eyes held nothing but emptiness.
She looked at Lin Ye.
The corners of her mouth slowly curled upward.
“Xiao Ye.”
The voice was exactly the same.
Yet Lin Ye felt a chill.
“Mom.”
The woman reached out.
“Come here.”
Lin Ye didn't move.
The woman said again,
“Have you not always missed me?”
Lin Ye's eyes reddened.
“I have.”
“Then come here.”
Lin Ye's father held him in a death grip.
“Don't!”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What if she really is Mom?”
Lin Ye's father didn't answer.
Lin Ye slowly took one step.
The woman's smile deepened.
“Yes.”
“That's it.”
“Come a little closer.”
Lin Ye took another step.
Suddenly.
Another voice came from behind him.
“She isn't your mom.”
Lin Ye stopped.
That voice.
He knew it too well.
It was another version of himself.
Lin Ye spun around.
At the far end of the street.
A person in a gray raincoat stood there.
“You…”
Lin Ye stared in shock.
The other Lin Ye walked over.
“I told you.”
“Don't trust what you see.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Didn't you already return to me?”
“The me from the first world.”
The other Lin Ye spoke.
“Did return.”
“Then who are you?”
“The me from the second world.”
Lin Ye's breath caught for an instant.
Lin Ye's father clenched his fists.
“It’s here.”
“Who?”
Lin Ye's father looked toward the gray-clad Lin Ye.
“Number Twenty-Eight.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Another one?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye smiled.
“Not another one.”
“The first one.”
“What does that mean?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye moved closer.
“You've always believed.”
“That you were Number Twenty-Eight.”
“But actually.”
“Number Twenty-Eight was never a number.”
“It was a position.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“A position?”
“Yes.”
“Every world.”
“Has a Number Twenty-Eight.”
Lin Ye suddenly understood.
“So every world has a version of me?”
“No.”
The gray-clad Lin Ye shook his head.
“Every world has a ‘you.’”
“But only one.”
“Can become Number Twenty-Eight.”
Lin Ye asked,
“How do you become it?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye looked at him.
“Remember the previous world.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
At that moment.
All the mysteries seemed to link together.
The first world.
The second world.
The third world.
Every world rebooted.
And the reason he could cross between them.
Was because he remembered.
Remembered what came before.
That was why he became Number Twenty-Eight.
But…
Why did it have to be twenty-eight?
“What is twenty-eight?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye answered,
“Twenty-seven worlds.”
“Plus the current one.”
“Twenty-eight.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“That’s not right.”
“What isn't?”
“I remember more than twenty-eight.”
“Right.”
The gray-clad Lin Ye looked at him.
“Because you aren't Number Twenty-Eight anymore.”
“Then what am I?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye didn't answer.
The crack in the sky.
Suddenly widened again.
The faceless figure raised a hand.
The entire city began to shake.
Everyone collapsed at the same time.
The street split open.
The skyscrapers bent like sheets of paper.
The scenes in the sky began falling downward.
One landed at Lin Ye's feet.
He looked down.
Inside was himself.
Three years old.
Sitting on the floor.
Crying.
The next scene.
Five years old.
In a hospital.
The next.
Ten years old.
At school.
The next.
Fourteen years old.
His birthday.
The next.
Eighteen years old.
The ZERO laboratory.
The next.
Twenty-one years old.
Standing outside a convenience store.
Lin Ye stared at the scenes.
“These are all my life.”
The gray-clad Lin Ye said,
“No.”
“These are your possibilities.”
“What does that mean?”
“You only lived through a few of them.”
“The rest.”
“Were lives you could have lived.”
Lin Ye was silent.
He saw a scene.
A version of himself.
Who never entered ZERO.
His father never disappeared.
His mother stayed alive.
He grew up.
Got a job.
Got married.
Had children.
An ordinary life.
Lin Ye stared at the scene.
His eyes turned red.
“Is this real?”
“It was once real.”
“Where?”
“The second world.”
“Can I go back?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye didn't answer.
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Answer me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that you.”
“Is already dead.”
Lin Ye stared.
“How did he die?”
“Because he chose happiness.”
“What does that mean?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye spoke in a low voice,
“He didn't chase ZERO.”
“He didn't look for his parents.”
“He didn't try to change the world.”
“He simply lived.”
“So.”
“The world didn't kill him.”
“It let him grow old.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
“Isn't that a good thing?”
“It is.”
The gray-clad Lin Ye spoke.
“But when he died of old age.”
“He suddenly remembered everything.”
“Including you.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“And then?”
“He regretted it.”
“What did he regret?”
“Not saving you.”
Lin Ye said nothing.
The gray-clad Lin Ye walked up to him.
“So.”
“The real problem with the second world.”
“Isn't you.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Who is it?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye looked up.
Toward the sky.
“The you that you could have become.”
The faceless figure in the sky.
Suddenly lowered its head.
Its face began to take shape.
Eyes.
A nose.
A mouth.
Finally.
The entire face.
It was exactly the same as Lin Ye's.
Lin Ye's whole body went rigid.
“That’s…”
Lin Ye's father whispered,
“Lin Ye from the second world.”
The Lin Ye in the sky smiled.
“Hello.”
“Me from the first world.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“What do you want?”
“I don't want anything.”
“I just want my life back.”
“Your world is already gone.”
“So I want yours.”
Lin Ye shook his head.
“Impossible.”
The Lin Ye in the sky laughed.
“You think you have a choice?”
The next second.
The black crack in the sky began descending.
Like a gigantic mouth.
The entire city was covered in shadow.
Lin Ye's father grabbed him.
“Run!”
The three of them sprinted into the distance.
The illusion of his mother followed as well.
She didn't attack.
She only kept chasing them.
“Xiao Ye!”
“Xiao Ye!”
Lin Ye looked back.
She was crying.
“Do you really not remember Mom?”
Lin Ye's steps slowed for an instant.
Lin Ye's father shouted,
“Don't look back!”
Lin Ye gritted his teeth.
And kept running.
The voices behind him grew more numerous.
“Xiao Ye.”
“Lin Ye.”
“Big brother.”
“Child.”
“Come back.”
“Come back.”
“Come back.”
Countless voices.
All calling his name.
Lin Ye covered his ears.
“Don't listen.”
The gray-clad Lin Ye ran beside him.
“Don't trust the voices.”
“Why?”
“Because the second world has no face.”
“It only has memories.”
Lin Ye suddenly stopped.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“The second world has no face?”
“Right.”
“Then who is that person in the sky?”
The gray-clad Lin Ye's expression changed instantly.
“You figured it out.”
“He isn't the second world.”
“Then what is he?”
“The third world.”
Lin Ye abruptly looked up.
The person in the sky smiled.
“Finally, someone figured it out.”
The entire city suddenly froze.
Everyone.
Every car.
Every raindrop.
All stopped.
Only Lin Ye.
Lin Ye's father.
The gray-clad Lin Ye.
And the person in the sky.
Could still move.
The person slowly descended from the sky.
One step.
Then another.
As if walking down an invisible staircase.
Finally.
He stood in front of Lin Ye.
He looked exactly like Lin Ye.
But his eyes were different.
His eyes.
Looked as if they had witnessed countless deaths.
“Who are you?”
Lin Ye asked.
He answered,
“Lin Ye from the third world.”
“Then what about the second world?”
“It's already dead.”
“How did it die?”
“I ate it.”
Lin Ye's expression changed.
“What?”
The man smiled.
“Not literally.”
“I am its next version.”
“So I inherited all its memories.”
“Why are you looking for me?”
“Because you're the first.”
“The first what?”
“The first Lin Ye who belongs to no world.”
Lin Ye was silent.
“Do you know why ZERO kept failing?”
“Why?”
“Because it kept trying to find a world.”
“One where everyone could live.”
“But it didn't know.”
“What truly needed to be preserved.”
“Was never the world.”
“It was you.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“What’s so special about me?”
The Lin Ye from the third world looked at him.
“You're the only one.”
“Who doesn't need a world.”
“And can still exist.”
Lin Ye didn't understand.
“What does that mean?”
“The world can die.”
“Time can disappear.”
“Memories can be deleted.”
“But you.”
He pointed at Lin Ye.
“Can't.”
Lin Ye's heart jolted.
That was the reason every reboot had revolved around him.
Not because he was Number Twenty-Eight.
But because.
He himself was an existence independent of the world.
“So ZERO has always wanted to use me?”
“Yes.”
“My grandfather?”
“Used.”
“My father?”
“Used.”
“My mother?”
“Used too.”
“Number Zero?”
“Is a part of you.”
“What about you?”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Are you also a part of me?”
The Lin Ye from the third world smiled.
“No.”
“I am what you may ultimately become.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“What kind of person is that?”
“If you lose everyone.”
“If you lose every world.”
“If you're left with nothing but yourself.”
“You'll become me.”
Lin Ye fell silent.
At that moment.
For the first time, he felt true fear.
Not death.
The future.
A future with no one beside him.
Only himself remaining.
Existing forever.
Remembering forever.
Alone forever.
That person was him.
“I won't become you.”
“That’s what you're saying now.”
The Lin Ye from the third world smiled.
“Every version of you.”
“Says that at first.”
“In the end.”
“They all come looking for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm at the end.”
“Waiting for you.”
The sky split open again.
This time.
It wasn't black.
It was red.
Red light seeped through the crack.
The entire world began raining red.
Lin Ye's father's expression changed drastically.
“The fifth reboot.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Didn't it already begin?”
“That isn't the fifth.”
“It's the zero-th.”
“What?”
Lin Ye's father looked up.
“The real ZERO.”
In the red sky.
A gigantic number appeared.
0.
Then.
One.
Two.
Three.
All the way to twenty-seven.
Finally.
The twenty-eighth.
The number never appeared.
Lin Ye's heart sank.
“Why isn't there a twenty-eight?”
Lin Ye's father said,
“Because twenty-eight.”
“Is you.”
A voice suddenly rang out from the red sky.
“The first world.”
“The second world.”
“The third world.”
“The fourth world.”
“The fifth world.”
“They were all just tests.”
Lin Ye looked up.
“Then where is the real world?”
The voice answered,
“Inside you.”
Lin Ye suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.
He dropped to his knees.
Both hands clutching his chest.
His heartbeat began to accelerate.
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
With every beat.
A memory surged forth.
He saw his mother.
His father.
His grandfather.
Number Zero.
Another version of himself.
The version of himself from the second world.
The version of himself from the third world.
Countless versions of himself.
All appearing before him at once.
Finally.
Everyone became one person.
Lin Ye.
A truly complete Lin Ye.
He opened his eyes.
In his eyes.
A black radiance appeared.
The Lin Ye from the third world took a step back.
“Impossible.”
“You've awakened?”
Lin Ye stood up.
“Awakened what?”
“Your first memory.”
“What is that?”
“Your true name.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Isn't my name Lin Ye?”
The Lin Ye from the third world shook his head.
“Lin Ye.”
“Is only the name you use in the human world.”
“Your true name.”
“Is ZERO-00.”
Lin Ye was silent.
“So I'm not human?”
“You are human.”
“And you are ZERO.”
“And time.”
“And the world.”
“What are you?”
The Lin Ye from the third world looked at him.
For the first time, fear appeared on his face.
“You are the first.”
“The first person ever born outside the world.”
Lin Ye lowered his head.
Black radiance spread from his chest.
The entire city began to fall silent.
The red raindrops stopped in midair.
Lin Ye raised a hand.
Every raindrop.
All of them flew backward into the sky.
The crack began to close.
The Lin Ye from the third world changed expression.
“You can't do this.”
“Why not?”
“Because you'll pull every world back.”
Lin Ye looked at him.
“Then let them come back.”
“Let everyone come back.”
“Are you insane?”
“Maybe.”
Lin Ye smiled.
“But I've had enough.”
“Enough of what?”
“Watching everyone die.”
“Watching everyone forget.”
“Watching myself lose everything again and again.”
“If the world wants me to choose.”
“Then I won't choose.”
The Lin Ye from the third world stepped back.
“You can't merge every world.”
“I can.”
“Many people will die.”
“Then we'll bear it together.”
“The world will collapse.”
“Then we'll rebuild it together.”
“You'll lose yourself.”
Lin Ye paused for an instant.
Then.
He smiled.
“I've already lost myself so many times.”
“What difference does losing myself one more time make?”
He extended his hand.
Black radiance spread in an instant.
Across the entire city.
Countless cracks began to appear.
Behind every crack.
Was a world.
The first world.
The second world.
The third world.
The fourth world.
The fifth world.
And countless more.
Countless Lin Yes.
All looked up at the same time.
All looking at him.
Lin Ye said,
“Come back.”
One world began to merge.
“Come back.”
A second.
“Come back.”
A third.
Countless worlds.
Like a tide.
Surged toward Lin Ye.
The Lin Ye from the third world shouted,
“Stop!”
Lin Ye didn't stop.
“Didn't you always want my life?”
He looked at him.
“Then I'll give it to you.”
“What?”
“All of it.”
Black radiance swallowed the Lin Ye from the third world.
He didn't disappear.
Instead, he merged into Lin Ye.
Countless memories entered him at once.
Lin Ye saw the future of the third world.
He saw himself eventually becoming a faceless person.
He saw himself waiting for thousands of years.
He saw himself create the second world.
He saw himself kill the first world.
He saw himself search for his true self again and again.
Finally.
Lin Ye understood.
That person wasn't his enemy.
He was the loneliness he would become in the end.
Lin Ye reached out.
“Come back.”
The Lin Ye from the third world began to cry.
“I've been waiting for you for so long.”
“I know.”
“I don't want to be alone anymore.”
“Then don't be alone.”
Their palms touched.
Boom!
The entire sky.
Instantly turned white.
All the worlds.
Merged into one.
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
The last thing he heard was his father's voice.
“Xiao Ye.”
“Yeah?”
“You're finally home.”
No one knew how much time had passed.
Lin Ye woke up.
He was lying on a lawn.
The sky was blue.
The sunlight was warm.
Birdsong came from the woods.
He sat up.
He was in a park.
People were taking walks.
Others were jogging.
Children were playing.
Everything looked ordinary.
So ordinary it felt like a real world.
Lin Ye looked down at his hands.
No black light.
No wounds.
Nothing unusual.
His phone was in his pocket.
He pulled it out.
Time:
08:22.
Date:
August 22, 2026.
Lin Ye froze.
2026.
He was back.
Back in the real present.
He immediately stood up.
“Dad?”
No one answered.
“Mom?”
No one answered.
He ran out of the park.
People on the street were living normal lives.
Cars moved normally.
The convenience stores were open as usual.
The world looked completely normal.
Lin Ye walked to a convenience store.
He stood outside.
Three years ago.
The first time anomaly had happened here.
He looked at the glass door.
Slowly, he placed his hand against it.
The clerk looked up.
“Welcome.”
Lin Ye went inside.
He bought a cup of coffee.
He stood at the register.
The clerk asked,
“Do you need a receipt?”
“No.”
He turned around.
He was about to leave.
At that moment.
The electronic clock on the wall suddenly flickered.
08:23.
Lin Ye stopped.
Because he noticed.
Every other clock.
Still read 08:22.
Only this one.
Read 08:23.
He slowly walked back to the register.
“Is this clock broken?”
The clerk looked up.
“Which one?”
“The one on the wall.”
The clerk glanced at it.
“No, it isn't.”
“What time is it now?”
“Eight twenty-two.”
Lin Ye stared at the electronic clock.
08:23.
The next second.
The screen suddenly went black.
A line of white text appeared.
[Phase One Complete.]
Lin Ye stopped breathing.
A second line.
[World Integration Rate: 100%.]
A third line.
[All Lin Yes Recovered.]
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
The final line.
[The Real Question: Which Lin Ye Is Using This Body?]
The screen returned to normal.
08:22.
The clerk hadn't noticed a thing.
Lin Ye stood there.
Slowly, he reached toward his chest.
His heart was beating.
But.
This time.
There wasn't only one heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Another heartbeat.
Sounded at the same time.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Lin Ye closed his eyes.
Deep in his mind.
Someone laughed.
“Hello.”
“Me from the first world.”
“Now.”
“It’s my turn to wake up.”
Lin Ye abruptly opened his eyes.
Every light in the convenience store.
Went out at the same time.
The entire city.
Stopped at midnight again.
And outside the glass door.
A person in a gray raincoat stood there.
The person raised his head.
Revealing Lin Ye's face.
But this time.
His eyes were red.
He smiled and said,
“The ninth world.”
“Begins.”
End of Chapter Nine