The instant the glass shattered.
The entire clinic seemed to have had a switch flipped.
BOOM—!
Every light went out at once.
Darkness swallowed the whole building.
Lin Ye only had time to see the doctor's final expression.
Not fear.
But...
Relief.
The next second.
The man's body broke apart into countless black fragments, torn to pieces by an invisible force.
"Run!"
Xia Wei grabbed Lin Ye.
The two of them sprinted toward the entrance.
But then.
The hallway, which had originally been only a dozen or so yards long,
stretched until its end vanished from sight.
Lin Ye slammed to a stop.
"Something's wrong."
"This is where we came in."
Xia Wei looked around.
Her expression grew graver by the second.
"This isn't a ghost's maze."
"It's Reset."
Lin Ye froze.
"What does that mean?"
Xia Wei reached out and touched the wall.
Ripples spread across its surface like waves on water.
"They cut this place off from reality."
"Right now."
"We're inside the 'correction zone.'"
It was the first time Lin Ye had heard the term.
The correction zone.
Xia Wei had no time to explain.
Familiar footsteps had begun echoing from all around them.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It wasn't one person.
It was many.
The sounds closed in from every direction.
"More Correctors?" Lin Ye asked under his breath.
But Xia Wei shook her head.
"No."
"This time, it's worse."
The moment she finished speaking.
At the far end of the hallway.
A figure slowly emerged.
It wasn't a white mask.
Nor was it a black one.
It was a nurse in a white coat.
She pushed an IV stand.
Her expression was gentle.
She even smiled at the two of them.
"Gentlemen."
"Visiting hours are over."
"Please leave the patient's room."
Lin Ye stared.
"Isn't this an abandoned clinic?"
The nurse didn't answer.
She only smiled again.
"Please leave the patient's room."
She took one step forward.
Behind her.
More medical staff suddenly appeared.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Janitors.
Even patients.
Every one of them wore the same smile.
Like this was a hospital operating normally.
Except...
No one had a name tag on their chest.
A chill ran down Lin Ye's spine.
"They..."
Xia Wei said quietly:
"Don't talk to them."
"Don't answer any questions."
"And whatever you do, don't accept anything they offer you."
"Why?"
"Because they're not alive."
The nurse stopped in front of them.
She continued to smile.
"Sir."
"Please fill out your medical record."
She held out a blue folder.
Lin Ye didn't take it.
The nurse maintained the exact same posture.
She didn't move an inch.
"Please fill out your medical record."
Xia Wei pulled Lin Ye slowly backward.
"Don't touch it."
"The Archive recorded this once."
"As soon as you leave your name in the correction zone."
"The world will start rewriting your information."
Lin Ye's breath caught.
"My information?"
"Your identity."
"Your household registration."
"Your photos."
"Your existence records."
"Everything."
"And eventually."
"Even you'll forget who you are."
Lin Ye looked at the medical record.
The cover was blank.
Yet it exerted an inexplicable pull on him.
As if all his troubles would disappear the moment he wrote down his name.
Xia Wei noticed something was wrong.
She suddenly slapped him on the shoulder.
Smack!
The pain snapped Lin Ye instantly back to his senses.
"Don't look at it."
"The correction zone magnifies your subconscious."
"It's trying to lure you in."
Lin Ye hurriedly looked away.
Only then did he realize.
That medical record from moments ago.
At some point.
Its cover had already changed to his own name.
**Lin Ye.**
He had never written it.
Just then.
The loudspeaker throughout the hallway suddenly crackled to life.
BZZT—
After a piercing burst of static.
A familiar woman's voice echoed through the entire clinic.
"Beginning routine attendance."
Lin Ye's head snapped up.
That voice...
It was exactly the same as the one from the old library.
"First."
"Lin Yuqing."
From the deepest part of the hallway.
A little girl's voice suddenly answered.
"Here."
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
It was Yuqing.
She really was here!
"Second."
"Lin Ye."
Xia Wei grabbed his hand.
"Don't answer!"
Lin Ye bit his lip hard.
The announcement paused for two seconds.
Then sounded again.
"Lin Ye."
The lights on the entire floor began to flicker.
All around them, the doctors and nurses
turned their heads at the same time.
They looked at Lin Ye.
No one spoke.
Only those identical, perfectly uniform smiles remained.
"Third call."
"Lin Ye."
The air suddenly went silent.
The next second.
Everyone spoke at once.
"Found you."
The words fell.
The entire hallway instantly sank into dead silence.
The next second.
The doctors, nurses, and patients who had been standing all around them began walking forward at the same time.
They didn't run.
They didn't scream.
They simply advanced toward Lin Ye in perfect unison.
One step.
Two steps.
Three...
With every step, the hallway shortened by another stretch.
Lin Ye could even hear the soles of their shoes scraping across the floor.
"Xia Wei!"
"Run!"
They turned around at the same time.
But after only a few steps, another group of people in hospital gowns appeared ahead of them.
Their heads hung low, arms hanging naturally at their sides.
The same number was sewn across every hospital gown.
0000.
Lin Ye's heart jolted.
"Zero?"
Xia Wei gritted her teeth.
"It's not a number."
"It's..."
"People who have been completely Zeroed."
Lin Ye's steps slowed for half a beat.
Completely Zeroed.
They didn't even have names.
Only a string of numbers remained.
The patients slowly raised their heads.
Their eyes were all pure white.
No pupils.
No focus.
Like dolls that had lost their souls.
One of the old men suddenly opened his mouth.
In a hoarse voice, he said:
"Do... you remember me?"
Lin Ye froze.
The old man continued forward.
"I am..."
His lips trembled.
Yet he couldn't say his own name, no matter how hard he tried.
The next second.
His entire face began to crumble.
Like an old photograph, it peeled away bit by bit.
In the end, only a blur remained.
"My name..."
"My name..."
"I forgot..."
Lin Ye's chest jolted violently.
He finally understood.
The truly terrifying thing wasn't death.
It was having even your identity stolen away by the world.
"Don't stop!"
Xia Wei yanked him back to reality.
The two of them rushed into the patient room beside them.
BANG!
The door slammed shut.
Impacts immediately sounded from outside.
Once.
Twice.
Harder and harder.
The entire wooden door began shaking violently.
Lin Ye panted and looked around the patient room.
There was only a hospital bed.
A desk.
And a wall covered in photographs.
Xia Wei suddenly stopped.
"Wait..."
Lin Ye followed her gaze.
The entire wall.
It was covered with pictures of Lin Yuqing.
From her birth.
Through preschool.
Through elementary school.
There was a picture from every year.
But.
One of the photographs caught Lin Ye's attention.
It was Yuqing's fifth birthday.
She stood in front of a cake, smiling happily.
Her parents stood beside her.
And...
A fourth person.
Except.
That person's face had been viciously painted over with black ink.
Lin Ye slowly moved closer.
For some reason.
He had the distinct feeling
that he knew this person.
Just as his hand was about to touch the photograph.
The Archive mark on his chest lit up again.
A white light swept across his eyes.
The next instant.
The black ink slowly vanished.
The photograph returned to normal.
The fourth person.
Was a boy around seventeen or eighteen.
He stood smiling behind Yuqing, one hand resting lightly on her shoulder.
Xia Wei's pupils suddenly contracted.
"How is that possible...?"
Lin Ye turned around.
"You know him?"
Xia Wei didn't answer.
She only stared fixedly at the photograph.
Her lips trembled slightly.
Several seconds passed
before she finally forced out a sentence.
"He..."
"Seven years ago."
"He was already Zeroed."
Lin Ye lowered his head and looked at the photograph again.
He suddenly noticed
that the boy's uniform
was exactly the same as his own.
It was—
Qinglan High School.
But.
Seven years ago.
Lin Ye had only been in elementary school.
Yuqing hadn't even been born yet.
This photograph...
couldn't possibly exist.
BOOM!
The door was finally knocked open.
The nameless people filed into the patient room one after another.
They kept repeating the same words.
"My name..."
"Give me my name..."
"Give it back to me..."
"My name..."
"Give it back to me..."
A sudden stab of pain shot through Lin Ye's chest.
The white mark lit up again.
But this time.
It didn't stop time.
It didn't restore an object.
Instead...
The entire patient room
suddenly turned pure white.
A name appeared above every person's head.
The old man.
The child.
The nurse.
The doctor.
Even the people who had been Zeroed.
Their true names reappeared one by one before his eyes.
Lin Ye stared.
"I..."
"I can see them?"
Xia Wei stared at him in shock.
For the first time, her voice was filled with disbelief.
"The Archive isn't letting you read memories..."
"Your ability..."
"is seeing a person's 'true name.'"
Just then.
The old man at the front suddenly began to cry.
He raised a trembling hand and touched his face.
In a soft voice, he said:
"I... I remember now..."
"My name is..."
"Chen Guorong."
The next second.
His body turned into a warm white light.
It slowly faded away.
There was no pain.
No struggle.
Like he had finally fulfilled a long-awaited wish.
And outside the patient room.
The entire correction zone
began to collapse violently.
Xia Wei looked at Lin Ye, her eyes filled with shock.
She finally understood
why the Archive called Lin Ye—
No. 7 Backup.
Because his ability
wasn't to preserve memories.
It was...
to let those forgotten by the world find their existence again.
After the white light faded.
The patient room returned to silence.
All the nameless people stopped moving.
They quietly gazed at Lin Ye as the pain on their faces slowly disappeared.
Some smiled.
Some gave a gentle nod.
The next moment, their forms turned into countless tiny points of light, drifting toward the ceiling before finally vanishing into the darkness.
However, the mark on Lin Ye's chest had grown even hotter.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
For the first time, the Archive actively pushed a message that had never appeared before.
Ability confirmed.
Permissions elevated.
A-017—Phase Two unlocked.
Before Lin Ye had time to think.
From deep inside the patient room, the iron door that had never once opened suddenly emitted a heavy mechanical unlocking sound.
Click—