The hospital ward shook violently.
Hundreds of white cards on the hospital beds emitted a soft yet blinding light at the same time.
Lin Ye shielded Lin Yuqing behind him.
The white mark on his chest began to grow slightly warm as well.
The man in the black mask standing at the ward entrance did not hurry forward.
He simply watched Lin Yuqing in silence.
As if Lin Ye had never been his real target when he came here today.
“Hand her over to me.”
His voice was as calm as ever.
Yet it instantly made the air throughout the ward grow heavier.
Xia Wei took a step forward, the black card held between her fingers.
“Zero.”
“You’ve crossed the line.”
Zero slowly raised his head.
The black mask reflected the ward’s faint white light.
“The one who crossed the line.”
“Has always been the Archive.”
Xia Wei did not answer.
The two of them simply stood there, locked in a standoff.
For the first time, Lin Ye realized.
These two people had known each other far longer than he had imagined.
“Lin Ye.”
The old man suddenly spoke in a low voice.
“Don’t let her leave your side.”
Lin Ye immediately nodded.
“Okay.”
The old man continued:
“And one more thing.”
“No matter what you see later.”
“Don’t doubt your own memory.”
Lin Ye had not yet had time to ask anything.
Zero slowly took one step forward.
Boom!
The floor of the ward split open instantly.
It had not been shattered by force.
It was as if someone had violently torn open a sheet of paper.
Inside the crack.
There was no concrete or rebar.
Only absolute darkness.
Countless white characters flowed endlessly through the darkness.
Lin Ye froze.
Those characters…
They were all names.
People’s names.
Place names.
Dates.
Even things he had once written in his notebook.
“What is that…”
Xia Wei said solemnly:
“The world database.”
“The place where Reset actually operates.”
Zero extended his right hand.
The floating characters began rearranging themselves.
A name slowly appeared before everyone’s eyes.
**Lin Yuqing.**
Then.
Lines of data continued to emerge.
> Age: Seven.
> Status: Pending correction.
> Cause: ■■■■.
The final field.
Was completely covered by black static.
Lin Ye frowned.
“The cause is hidden?”
Zero replied calmly:
“It isn’t hidden.”
“You simply don’t have permission to know.”
Lin Yuqing hid behind Lin Ye, her tiny hand clutching the hem of his clothes.
She looked up.
Then asked softly:
“Big brother.”
“Is he going to take me away again?”
Lin Ye crouched down.
He patted her head.
“No.”
“I won’t let anyone take you away.”
Yuqing gazed at him.
Her eyes slowly reddened.
Then she suddenly held out her pinky.
“Then…”
“Pinky promise.”
Lin Ye paused for a moment.
But he still held out his hand.
Their pinkies hooked together.
“It’s a promise.”
Yuqing smiled.
“You can’t forget me.”
Lin Ye’s heart gave a faint jolt.
Those words.
They were exactly like what Chen Zi'an had said before disappearing.
Snap.
Zero casually snapped his fingers.
The next second.
The scenery around the ward began to collapse.
Every hospital bed vanished in rapid succession.
The walls turned into fragments of white data.
Within seconds.
The entire ward.
Had become pure white.
Between heaven and earth.
Only five people remained.
Lin Ye.
Xia Wei.
The old man.
Lin Yuqing.
And Zero.
Zero looked at Lin Ye.
“Number Seven.”
“Answer one question.”
Lin Ye said nothing.
Zero continued:
“If.”
“To save one person.”
“You had to sacrifice a thousand.”
“How would you choose?”
Lin Ye fell silent.
Xia Wei’s expression changed.
She knew.
This was not a conversation.
It was Reset’s evaluation.
If Lin Ye answered incorrectly.
He would be directly classified as a world anomaly.
Zero asked again:
“Answer.”
Lin Ye looked at Yuqing beside him.
Then he thought of Chen Zi'an.
Of all those people the world had forgotten.
After a long time.
He finally spoke slowly.
“I don’t know.”
Zero showed no expression.
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah.”
Lin Ye raised his head.
He looked straight at Zero.
“If the only choices are a thousand people and one person.”
“Then that means.”
“The real problem isn’t the choice itself.”
Zero fell silent for the first time.
Lin Ye clenched his fists.
Then continued:
“What I want to find.”
“Isn’t an answer.”
“It’s…”
“A third way.”
The entire pure-white space.
Suddenly fell silent.
The old man smiled.
Xia Wei froze.
Even Lin Yuqing looked up at Lin Ye.
Only Zero.
He said nothing for a long time.
After a while.
He finally spoke in a low voice.
“As expected.”
“You and him.”
“Said the same thing.”
Lin Ye furrowed his brow.
“Him?”
Zero did not answer.
He simply turned and prepared to leave.
Just as his figure was about to vanish.
He suddenly stopped.
Leaving behind one sentence.
“Lin Ye.”
“The day you find that third way.”
“Remember to tell me.”
As his voice faded.
Zero’s figure transformed into a stream of black data and dissipated into the pure-white space.
However.
Lin Ye did not notice.
The old man watched the direction Zero had left in, with no hostility in his eyes.
Instead…
They were filled with guilt.
After Zero left.
The pure-white space did not return to normal.
Instead, it slowly began to crack apart.
Tiny cracks spread in every direction like a spiderweb.
The old man gazed at those fissures and sighed softly.
“It’s time.”
Xia Wei immediately turned her head.
“What do you mean?”
The old man did not answer.
He merely lowered his head and looked at the medical chart in his hand.
The words on its cover disappeared one after another.
As if someone on the other end were continuously erasing its contents.
“The Archive is shutting this place down.”
Lin Ye frowned.
“Because of Zero?”
The old man shook his head.
“No.”
“It’s because…”
He raised his head and looked at Lin Ye.
“You.”
Lin Ye froze.
“Me?”
“Your second-stage authorization has been forcibly activated.”
“The Archive has determined that you’ve come into contact with something you shouldn’t know.”
Xia Wei’s expression shifted.
“So they’re going to seal off the Seventh Ward?”
The old man nodded.
“Next time.”
“This place won’t exist anymore.”
Lin Ye immediately looked toward the hospital beds.
“What will happen to them?”
The old man did not answer.
He merely gave a bitter smile.
Lin Ye suddenly understood.
It wasn’t that the old man did not want to answer.
It was that…
Even he had no answer.
Just then.
Lin Yuqing suddenly tugged on Lin Ye’s clothes.
“Big brother.”
Lin Ye crouched down.
“What is it?”
The girl carefully pulled a neatly folded sheet of paper from her arms.
The paper had yellowed somewhat.
Its corners were badly worn.
“Dad told me.”
“If one day.”
“Someone still remembers me.”
“Give this to him.”
Lin Ye slowly took the paper.
Before he could open it.
Xia Wei suddenly reached out and pressed down on his hand.
“Wait.”
“Not here.”
Lin Ye looked at her in confusion.
Xia Wei’s expression was unusually grave.
“The Archive keeps records.”
“Some information.”
“As soon as it’s read.”
“Reset will be able to locate it.”
Lin Ye immediately slipped the paper into his pocket.
The old man saw this and nodded lightly.
“Good.”
“Right now.”
“It’s not time to learn the truth yet.”
The ward began to shake violently.
The first hospital bed slowly turned into white points of light.
Then.
The second.
The third.
Hundreds of hospital beds vanished one after another like sand scattering in the wind.
The people sleeping in them did not wake up.
They simply turned into points of light along with their beds.
Lin Ye stood where he was.
He could not say a word.
“They…”
“Will they come back?”
The old man gazed at the light.
He was silent for a long time.
“If someone remembers them.”
“There’s a chance.”
“If everyone forgets.”
“Then that is true death.”
Lin Ye clenched his fists.
For the first time.
He truly understood the meaning of the Archive’s existence.
It did not preserve memories.
It preserved…
Proof that they had existed.
Suddenly.
The old man’s body shuddered.
A familiar black crack began to appear across his chest.
Xia Wei’s pupils contracted.
“No!”
But the old man merely smiled.
“At last.”
“My turn.”
The black crack rapidly spread.
His body began to turn transparent.
Lin Ye hurried forward.
“Wait!”
“There are still so many things you haven’t told us!”
The old man gently patted Lin Ye on the shoulder.
“Someday.”
“Someone will tell you.”
“But.”
“There is one thing.”
“You must remember.”
The old man looked at the mark on Lin Ye’s chest.
His voice grew weaker and weaker.
“Don’t believe.”
“Everything the Archive says.”
Lin Ye froze.
“What?”
The old man forced a faint smile.
“And don’t believe.”
“Everything Reset says.”
“Because…”
He looked at Xia Wei.
Then at Lin Yuqing.
Finally.
At Lin Ye.
“The one truly lying.”
“Has never been a person.”
In the next instant.
The old man transformed into countless white fragments.
He vanished completely.
Without leaving behind a single trace.
Only the thick medical chart.
Landed quietly on the floor.
Snap.
The medical chart opened by itself.
On the final page.
A new line of text slowly appeared.
Patient ID: A-017
Lin Ye’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Below it.
There was another sentence.
Date of initial admission: Ten years ago.
The entire space.
Fell silent in an instant.
Lin Ye slowly lowered his head.
He was eighteen years old.
Ten years ago…
He had only been eight.
But.
He had never been here.
Then this medical chart…
Who had created it for him?
Just then.
The Archive mark on his chest suddenly grew searing hot.
Countless unfamiliar scenes surged into Lin Ye’s mind like a flood.
A hospital ward engulfed in flames.
A woman running while carrying a boy.
An explosion sounded behind them.
And a blurred figure reaching a hand toward him through the flames.
At the very end of the scene.
That person whispered:
“Xiao Ye.”
“Don’t forget me.”
Lin Ye’s eyes flew open.
At some point, a tear had slipped from the corner of his eye.
Yet he could not remember at all.
That person…
Who were they?