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Chapter 277 Similar People
This question was quickly answered when Elori appeared in front of her carrying a bag of food, accompanied by another person.

Upon seeing that person, Honglian's eyes widened in surprise.

The other person also showed a surprised expression.

"Team Leader! Long time no see!" Elori immediately put down the bag and walked forward happily to hug Honglian. "Oh, right, I'm no longer an agent of the organization, so I should call you Miss Honglian."

Honglian continued to stare at the woman, both of them filled with confusion, though in slightly different directions.

"May I ask who you are...?" Honglian took the initiative to speak.

"My name is Lin Qing." Lin Qing stared at her eyebrows and the curve of her lips, and slowly said, "You are Hong Lian?"

“Yes.” Honglian confirmed that this was the first time she had heard this name. “Are you a real person… or a shadow created by Elori?”

It was undoubtedly very impolite to ask such a question, but she couldn't help it.

Otherwise, she couldn't understand why the other person looked so much like her.

Lin Qing's heart was also filled with shock. She had long heard of the leader of the resistance and had always wondered what she looked like when she was young. However, she never expected that Hong Lian's facial features were so similar to her own, or rather... she was herself before she underwent cybernetic modification.

But surprise aside, the show had to go on... According to Chen Xuan's plan, she was also an ability user drawn by the World Ability Center and was the key figure in saving Elori.

“Of course I’m alive.” Lin Qing lowered her gaze. “It’s just that I’m not in the Northern Heaven Academy, but in a much farther place, and I’ve entered this realm of consciousness in the same way as you.”

"Have you met before?" Elori asked curiously.

"No, not..."

"Why do you all look so strange? It's like you've been separated for many years."

Honglian coughed twice. "Can't you tell that we look alike?"

"Really?" the angel asked, puzzled. "It can't be that bad. One has red hair, the other has colorful hair, their eyes are different, and their accessories are different. Even a blind person wouldn't mistake them."

There was a moment of silence at the scene.

"Liuli, what do you think?" Elori asked her friend for help.

Liuli nodded in agreement, "The two are indeed not alike. I can only say that they are both very beautiful, but I think they are undoubtedly two distinctive swords, revealing differences in every aspect."

“See, I wasn’t wrong,” Elori said confidently.

"Pfft." Honglian couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Sorry, I forgot you're a foreigner, so it's normal for you to have face blindness."

As for the other one, she couldn't even sense the presence of a "human".

"Did you go grocery shopping?" She patted the girl's head.

“Yes, because I heard you were coming.” Elori let go of her and turned to pour water to make tea. “My refrigerator is small and can’t store food for more than a few days.”

This feeling is really strange.

Honglian had imagined that communication would be cold and rigid, like facing a lifeless body, coldly listening to conversations of dubious authenticity. However, the reality was quite different. She was sitting in a small but cozy bedroom, with not only the living Elori in front of her, but also two of her friends. The three of them were constantly joking around, just like a daily comedy.

Listening to their conversation, she recalled her time with Elori. The person in front of her was indeed her group member, and her personality and behavior overlapped with the girl in her memory.

Honglian took a sip of the freshly brewed green tea, its aroma lingering in her nostrils. Everything in her consciousness space felt terrifyingly real.

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember you going missing.” She put down her cup and looked at Elori. “You should have been with Jiang Siqi, Li Xing and others in the reception hall. But I have no recollection of what happened after that, as if you never joined the Vision Agency.”

“It’s not your fault,” Elori shook her head. “I don’t really understand what happened either. According to Sister Lin Qing, it’s all because of the changes in the world.”

So this person belongs to the World Power Center? Honglian glanced at Lin Qing, deciding to get to the point first, "Can you tell me what happened after that?"

“Well…it all started with why I came to your world.” Elori sat down at the round table. “It all began with a demon…”

She recounted the entire story to the other party in detail.

Of course... it's the version modified by Chen Xuan.

She omitted the parts about Chen Xuan and Lin Qing in New Paris, only saying that she herself was caught up in a future timeline. In an underground fortress a hundred years later, she unexpectedly received assistance from the World Power Center and returned to the original world with the truth about the apocalypse. Due to the failure of the demons' plan to attack the Temple Vault, the future underwent tremendous changes, and the agents of the organization currently in that timeline were also affected by these changes, completely forgetting about Elori.

"You mean... all of our memories have been rewritten?" Honglian couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine. This kind of change was far too terrifying! Although the authorities had repeatedly emphasized the dangers of historical pollution in the past, and one of the main purposes of capturing wanderers was to prevent them from tampering with history, they had never mentioned that once history was changed, it could reshape everyone's perception to the point that they were completely unaware of the change itself!

There is no doubt that these two statements are contradictory.

Historical pollution, as perceived by authorities, can have localized or limited impacts, such as the sudden disappearance of individuals or a neighborhood becoming dilapidated overnight.

This pollution is irreversible, it can only be controlled, which is why the preventative work of the implementation team is extremely important.

But if what the World Power Center says is true, then this is simply impossible to defend against! Because history will rewrite everyone's fate, making everyone unknowingly accept the changes in the world. Since everyone has accepted it, what is there to resist?
"Miss Honglian, what do you think is the reason you were able to remember?" Lin Qing suddenly interjected.

"Is it because of... your advice?"

“That’s not the case.” She shook her head. “If you were to see Elori with your own eyes one day, you would also remember that there was such a companion. But if you were born into that world and have never been to other worlds, then even if someone tells you that history has changed, you will only find it utterly absurd.”

Honglian's heart skipped a beat as she suddenly realized the difference between the two.

“That’s right. Someone like you who has seen more worlds is already a Wanderer,” Lin Qing said slowly. “And the Wanderers themselves… are the ones who can perceive the root of change. The Dimensional Authority doesn’t want to see Wanderers enter this world because it would threaten their information monopoly.”

She fell silent for a moment, her mind churning.

This was the first time she had examined the issue of wanderers from this perspective.

"But the problem of capability-related crimes they bring..."

"Is every Wanderer like that?" Lin Qing interrupted her directly. "Elori theoretically fits the definition of a Wanderer, but do you think she's a vicious criminal? Now that you and Wang Baihu have also become Wanderers, has Wandering itself changed your character?"

of course not.

There is no doubt about this.

"It's a pity that even someone as harmless as her still became a thorn in the side of the authorities." Lin Qing then turned the topic back to Elori, "Tell her what happened next yourself."

Elori begins her story after history has been altered. To prevent a repeat of the apocalypse, she travels back to the future to find crucial intelligence that could determine the course of history. Then, she is ambushed by a demon, and the person who betrays her is none other than Captain-Commander Shawcanon—the demon, posing as Crimson Lotus, used a mobile phone to pinpoint her location.

Fortunately, "Shixin" noticed the change and sent Lin Qing to the scene to rescue her, bringing her dying body back to Jiangcheng.

“This is the story after I ‘disappeared’,” Elori sighed. “If it weren’t for them protecting me in the dark, I would have died long ago.”

(End of this chapter)