**Click—**
The heavy sound of metal unlocking was especially jarring in the deathly silent hospital room.
Lin Ye and Xia Wei looked toward the deepest part of the room at the same time.
At some point, a crack had appeared in the rusted iron door.
There were no lights inside.
Only darkness so thick it seemed impossible to dissolve.
Lin Ye's phone was still displaying the screen from moments ago.
> **Ability confirmed.** > > **Permission elevated.** > > **A-017—Phase Two unlocked.**
Lin Ye lowered his head and looked at his hand.
The white mark on his chest was brighter than ever before.
It wasn't merely glowing.
He could even feel something slowly awakening inside him.
“Xia Wei…”
He had barely spoken when Xia Wei reached out and shut off his phone first.
“Don't look at it anymore.”
“Archive will cram too much into your head before you're ready.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Do you know what Phase Two is?”
Xia Wei fell silent.
Several seconds later, she slowly nodded.
“I do.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
She raised her head and looked toward the iron door as it gradually opened wider.
Her voice was soft.
“Because…”
“No one can understand their own abilities through someone else.”
“Every backup can only find the answer for themselves.”
The iron door opened all the way.
There were no mechanisms.
No alarms.
It simply stood open in silence.
As if waiting for someone to walk through.
Lin Ye drew a deep breath.
“We're going in.”
But Xia Wei remained where she was.
She didn't move.
“What is it?”
She stared beyond the door.
For the first time, hesitation appeared in her eyes.
“This place…”
“I've never been here.”
Lin Ye froze for a moment.
“Archive doesn't know about it either?”
Xia Wei shook her head.
“This place isn't in Archive's database.”
Lin Ye's heart sank.
Even Archive had no records of it?
Then…
What exactly was this place?
The two of them turned on their flashlights and slowly entered the darkness.
The passage was long.
Bare concrete walls surrounded them on every side.
Their footsteps echoed continuously through the narrow space.
After walking for about two minutes, the view suddenly opened up.
Lin Ye stopped short.
This wasn't a basement.
It was an impossibly huge hospital room.
Hundreds of hospital beds stood in neat rows.
A person lay on every bed.
Some were elderly.
Some were children.
Some wore uniforms.
Some wore suits.
Every one of them had their eyes closed.
As if they were asleep.
The strangest thing was…
A white card rested on every person's chest.
Exactly like Lin Ye's **A-017**.
Only the numbers were different.
A-001.
A-014.
A-109.
A-356…
They stretched all the way to the edge of his vision.
“What is this…?”
Lin Ye's voice trembled.
Xia Wei didn't answer.
She was stunned too.
Just then, an old man's voice rang out from deep inside the room.
“Finally.”
“Someone found this place.”
The two of them spun around.
In the center of the room sat an elderly man with white hair.
He wore a doctor's coat washed nearly white with age.
A thick medical chart rested in his hands.
He was quietly watching them.
Strangely, Lin Ye felt no wariness at all.
Instead, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
As if he had seen the old man…
A very long time ago.
The old man slowly closed the chart.
His gaze settled on Lin Ye's chest.
“I see.”
“Number Seven.”
“Finally awake.”
Lin Ye's pupils contracted.
“You know me?”
The old man smiled.
“It's not that I know you.”
“I was the one who personally wrote your first medical chart.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What does that mean?”
The old man didn't answer.
He merely rose slowly to his feet.
Then he walked toward Lin Ye, one step at a time.
Xia Wei immediately stepped in front of him.
“Stop right there.”
The old man halted.
He looked at Xia Wei.
A trace of nostalgia flickered in his eyes.
“You're just like before.”
“You've always liked standing in front of other people.”
Xia Wei went rigid.
“You… know me?”
The old man nodded.
“Xia Wei.”
“Ten years ago.”
“You left this place too.”
Xia Wei's breathing stopped abruptly.
“Impossible.”
“I joined Archive for the first time seven years ago.”
The old man only smiled calmly.
“That is what Archive told you.”
“It doesn't mean…”
“It is the truth.”
The entire hospital room fell deathly silent.
Lin Ye looked at Xia Wei.
For the first time, he realized…
There was bewilderment in her eyes.
All this time, she had seemed to know everything.
But now…
For the first time, she wore that expression.
The old man opened the chart again.
In a quiet voice, he said:
“What Archive preserves…”
“Has never been the world's memory.”
“But…”
He raised his head.
His gaze slowly swept over the hundreds of beds around them.
“You.”
“Your true past.”
The room was terrifyingly quiet.
Lin Ye's gaze slowly passed over bed after bed.
Every person had their eyes closed.
Their breathing was steady.
As if they were merely asleep.
But the white cards on their chests made the entire scene unnaturally cold.
The old man slowly walked to one of the beds.
He gently pulled the blanket over the girl lying there.
His movements were so practiced, as if he were caring for his own child.
“Her name is Li Shihan,” the old man said softly.
“She was fifteen.”
“She was Zeroed three years ago.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Wasn't she erased from the world?”
The old man didn't turn around.
“Tell him.”
Xia Wei was silent for a long time.
Only then did she slowly speak.
“When someone is truly Zeroed…”
“Their body doesn't disappear right away.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What?”
“What disappears…”
“Is the world's awareness of them.”
Xia Wei looked at the girl in the hospital bed.
Her voice grew quieter and quieter.
“Their parents forget.”
“Their friends forget.”
“Their teachers forget.”
“All their records disappear.”
“But…”
She paused.
“Their body…”
“Continues to exist for a while.”
Lin Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.
He looked across the entire hospital room again.
Hundreds of beds.
Hundreds of sleeping people.
So…
They weren't corpses.
They were…
People the entire world had forgotten.
“They're still alive?”
Lin Ye couldn't help asking.
The old man shook his head.
“They exist somewhere between being alive and not existing.”
“We call it…”
“Backup State.”
The old man walked toward the next bed.
The man lying there looked to be around thirty.
A wedding ring still encircled his left hand.
A family photo sat at the head of the bed.
Except in the picture…
There were only a wife and child.
The man's place…
Had become a blank space.
“His wife comes every day,” the old man said calmly.
“Although she doesn't know why she's coming.”
“She doesn't know who's lying in the bed, either.”
“But she always feels…”
“That she's forgotten someone very important.”
Lin Ye's chest tightened.
So…
Those who had been Zeroed…
Hadn't truly disappeared.
It was just that…
The entire world had forgotten them.
Xia Wei suddenly spoke.
“Archive never told me.”
The old man smiled.
“Because you don't have enough permission.”
“Permission?”
“Archive isn't an organization.”
The old man looked at Lin Ye.
“It's more like a library.”
“How much each person can know…”
“Depends on their level.”
Lin Ye lowered his head and looked at his phone.
The notification from earlier.
A-017—Phase Two unlocked.
So…
It wasn't an ability upgrade.
It was…
An increase in permission.
Just then, a faint sound came from the far corner of the room.
“Dad…”
Lin Ye whipped his head around.
A little girl of seven or eight was slowly opening her eyes.
He recognized her at a glance.
Lin Yuqing.
She was awake.
Xia Wei's expression changed.
“Impossible!”
“She won't be Zeroed until tonight!”
The old man showed no surprise.
He simply watched Yuqing calmly.
The girl slowly sat up.
Her gaze was hazy.
“Daddy…”
She looked left and right.
Her eyes gradually reddened.
“Where did Daddy go?”
Lin Ye immediately walked over.
He crouched beside the bed.
“Yuqing.”
The girl looked at him.
Then suddenly froze.
“Big brother.”
“You can see me?”
Lin Ye nodded.
Tears instantly spilled down the girl's cheeks.
“That's great…”
“Finally, someone…”
“Someone who hasn't forgotten me.”
She cried quietly, but it felt as if something had fiercely clenched Lin Ye's heart.
He finally understood.
Those who had been Zeroed…
Weren't unconscious.
They could only wait in solitude.
Wait for the day…
Someone still remembered them.
Xia Wei suddenly realized something was wrong.
She whipped around to look at the old man.
“Wait.”
“If Yuqing is already here…”
“Then who is the Yuqing outside right now?”
The old man didn't answer.
He merely closed the medical chart.
The next second, every light in the hospital room went out.
Darkness swallowed everything around them.
A cold electronic voice came from the ceiling.
Warning.
Archive permissions accessed illegally.
Beginning lockdown of Seventh Ward.
Reset has acquired the coordinates.
The smile vanished from the old man's face for the first time.
He slowly raised his head.
He looked toward the entrance.
In a low voice, he said:
“Too late.”
BOOM—!
The heavy iron door was blasted completely off its hinges by a terrifying force.
Through the billowing dust, a familiar figure slowly walked in.
A long black trench coat.
A pure black mask.
The cracked Archive mark on his chest emitted an eerie glow in the darkness.
He didn't look at anyone.
He only stared at Lin Yuqing on the hospital bed.
Then he spoke calmly.
“Found you.”
“Number Eight Backup.”
Lin Ye's pupils contracted violently.
“Number Eight Backup?”
He instinctively stepped in front of Lin Yuqing.
Xia Wei immediately drew a black card as well and said coldly:
“Zero… you really did find this place.”
The masked man ignored them both and quietly watched Yuqing.
“She doesn't belong to Archive.”
“She should never have woken up.”
Yuqing fearfully gripped the hem of Lin Ye's clothes, her voice trembling.
“Big brother… he's the one who's been chasing me.”
The masked man slowly raised his right hand.
The entire hospital room began to shake violently.
The white cards on the hospital beds lit up with blinding light all at once.