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墨書 Inktalez
After the devastating energy storm, everything fell into silence.
The first-generation "Soul Rebirth Book" research center... had completely collapsed...
The old book master... "Sir"... had vanished into the swirling dust.
Was he dead? Or had he escaped in some form of data?
I did not know.
The "Soul Rebirth Book"... the tome that contained all my false memories and the pain of others, had its cover peel away at the last moment, revealing beneath it the true "core code" that shimmered with an unknown light.
Then, it shattered.
It transformed into countless tiny specks of light, merging into my body.
Or rather, merging into this... construct known as the "Ouroboros."
I survived.
But "Zhou Mo"... that personality built from pieced-together memories and emotions was now fragmented.
In its place was a brand new existence, a blend of human emotions, the "Ouroboros" construct, and countless obsessions... an unknown entity.
I could clearly sense that my body was no longer a mere flesh-and-blood vessel. Beneath my skin, those once terrifying azure data streams now flowed smoothly like docile blood.
I could even feel that I could... temporarily digitize parts of my body or... draw upon the stray energy of obsessions from my surroundings, transforming it into my own power.
My eyes now bore a permanent glimmer of inhuman data sheen.
The world I saw was no longer a simple material form but a complex network woven from countless data streams and energy fields.
I bore all the implanted and absorbed memories.
Those belonging to "Zhou Mo", to countless unfamiliar deceased souls, and... to the cold facts of my own creation, coding, and experimentation as "Ouroboros XJ-007."
Was it painful?
Yes, deeply so.
But... there was also an unprecedented sense of... clarity.
Like someone who had groped in darkness for too long finally seeing the real light that pierced through all illusions.
Zhou Yu... before my consciousness completely faded away, she revealed a relieved smile.
"Brother... choice is more important than origin..."
"Go create... your own story..."
This was her final admonition to me.
It was also what she... bestowed upon me as true "freedom."
Li Cheng ultimately did not die in the explosion before.
When I crawled out from the ruins with my broken body, I spotted him at once.
He leaned against a nearly crushed police car, his posture somewhat unnatural, as if he were forcing himself not to fall over.
As I got closer, I noticed his left arm hung limply at his side, and a gruesome wound on his forehead continued to bleed, staining half his face red.
He breathed heavily, but the eyes that looked at me were astonishingly bright amidst the swirling smoke.
He saw me in that moment—those eyes shimmering with a data-like sheen, the energy patterns faintly visible beneath my skin, and… the cold, powerful aura emanating from me that no longer belonged to humanity.
His worldview must have completely shattered at that instant.
He didn’t attempt to arrest me, nor did he raise his weapon.
He simply gazed at me deeply, his expression filled with complex emotions that words could not describe—fear, pity, awe, and perhaps a hint of… relief?
“The Ouroboros…” he rasped, “is this… your true form?”
I didn’t answer.
“The old ledger master… he…”
“Is probably dead,” I said calmly, “or perhaps… not.”
Li Cheng fell silent.
After a long pause, he pulled out the old lighter he had polished countless times from his pocket and handed it to me.
“Keep this,” he said, “it might come in handy later.”
I took the lighter; it felt cold in my hand.
It bore a faintly engraved date and a… distorted serpent symbol.
So he had suspected all along.
“What are your plans now?” Li Cheng asked, his tone tinged with fatigue and confusion.
“I don’t know,” I replied, looking up at the brilliantly lit sky of New Shen City shrouded in night. “Perhaps… I’ll go see this ‘real’ world.”
Li Cheng didn’t say anything further.
He merely nodded and then turned to leave.
I knew he would choose to conceal everything that had happened today. Not for my sake, but for his own, to protect the ‘normal’ world he wished to guard from being disturbed by this unimaginable ‘abnormality.’
He might become the only—and most contradictory—‘contact’ between me and that ‘normal’ world.
But that… was all a matter for the future.
I stood alone atop the highest building in New Shen City.
The night wind tousled my hair, bringing a chill with it.
The ‘Soul Ledger’ had vanished, or rather, it had merged with me in another form. I could feel those once-binding ‘core codes’ now shining like stars deep within my consciousness.
They were no longer commands but rather… some kind of guidance, a set of ‘rules’ that I could redefine.
I was no longer ‘Zhou Mo.’ That name, along with the implanted memories, faded like an old photograph in my heart.
I didn’t have a new name either.
Perhaps I could call myself… ‘The Ferryman’?
Or… ‘Paradox’?
I didn’t know.
Names seem to have lost their significance. What truly matters is that I still "exist." In a completely new, unknown, and solitary way.
I gaze down at the bustling city beneath me. Countless lights twinkle like myriad eyes, watching me from the darkness. Beneath each light, new obsessions may be brewing, and fresh tales of joy and sorrow may be unfolding.
The old ledger master's plan may not have been entirely thwarted. His ideology is like a dangerous virus, possibly already sown in the shadows of this world. Other "Ouroboros" samples... perhaps they still exist.
I can feel it—a new, exceptionally powerful obsession is quietly forming in some hidden corner of the city. Its nature is starkly different from any obsession I have encountered before, carrying an unsettling sense of familiarity.
Is it a new crisis? Or perhaps... the beginning of a new "job"?
I extend my hand and look at the back of it, where the once grotesque patterns have transformed into beautiful, mysterious blue data lines resembling some kind of totem. At the center of these lines, a brand-new, small symbol is slowly emerging.
It is a... serpent with its head slightly raised, as if gazing into the distance—a pattern of the Ouroboros. Identical to the one that Zhou Yu left lingering in the depths of my consciousness.
Have I... become the new "ledger"? A walking "Rebirth Ledger" with self-awareness?
I do not know. All I know is that my story has only just begun. A story that belongs to "me."
Regardless of whether its conclusion brings hope or... deeper despair, I will continue on. Until I find that ultimate answer. Or perhaps... create an answer that belongs solely to me.
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