Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 114 The White Lord Descends! Reset

His body, his equipment, and all traces of his existence are being completely erased from the memory of reality.

“No…impossible…” A Zhe’s smile froze, turning into extreme horror.

He looked down at his disappearing hands, trying to grasp something, but even the act of "grabbing" itself was dissipating.

He abruptly raised his head, looked at Xu Yan's true form, and with the last vestige of his consciousness about to be erased, let out a roar that no one could hear:
“Tell her…I…”

There was no time to speak, but he gritted his teeth and stared intently at the pale face.

That was Xu Yan—the name that always came first in the mission reports, the figure that always stood in the center of Chen Zhiwei's photos.

Countless times late at night, he would look at the two names next to each other on the task list and fantasize: If one day my name could appear alone on the list of the dead, would I finally be able to get ahead of you?
Now, his fantasy has come true in the cruelest way.

He chuckled to himself, a bittersweet smugness in his eyes.

"This time... I've finally beaten you."

The words have not yet fallen.

Snapped.

Like a soap bubble bursting.

Ah Zhe, along with the space several meters around him, completely disappeared.

He left no trace, no bloodstains, no ashes, as if he had never existed in this world. Only that area presented an absolute emptiness, deeper than darkness, more complete than nothingness.

It's not death, it's "never having existed".

Xu Yan's train of thought was interrupted for a second.

The drill arm's computing core briefly crashed because it was unable to process the result.

He subconsciously searched for the name "A Zhe" in the database—[No such person found].

The vibrant existence that would call him "Brother Yan," compete with him, and secretly like Chen Zhiwei, has left not even a single data fragment.

Then, an emotion far exceeding the system's capacity swept away all logical firewalls like a tsunami.

"...Ah Zhe?"

His electronic voice beeped softly and confusedly, as if confirming a program error.

Next second,
"Ah Zhe!!!"

The drill arm's chest armor exploded from the inside!

—At that moment, time stood still.

A very faint cracking sound came from the air.

Xu Yan's breathing suddenly became erratic, and his pupils contracted violently.

One by one, the psionic circuits inside the drill arm prosthetic body exploded, making a burning sound.

"...Ah Zhe?"

The sound was barely audible, like a dream that had been cut off.

The next second, he roared.

That sound seemed to tear open the ceiling of the iron coffin area!
"—Ah Zhe!!!"

All the monitors simultaneously lost focus, and the mercury column of the spiritual pressure probe jumped wildly.

The spiritual light around him surged instantly, as if it were the core point of a soul explosion.

The mechanical casing of the drill arm could not withstand the violent tremors; rivets flew off one after another, and the energy shield tore apart in large pieces!
"Bastard! Bastard—!"

Xu Yan roared and slammed his fist into the void. With that punch, the air became materialized, creating a sonic boom crack!
The surrounding psionic particles were drawn in, bursting out in a blinding flash!

The image of Ah Zhe's laughter from just now flashed through his mind; that laughter burned and twisted in his memory, eventually turning into white light.

"You idiot...why did you—"

He screamed, his voice breaking.

The shoulder armor of the drill arm shattered, revealing a translucent psionic skeleton, and his consciousness was almost broken!

"Soul-Suppressing Iron, activate—!!!"

He suddenly activated the original body's protective seal, and a blue light exploded from the void, instantly forming a protective field that forcefully held back his collapsing rationality.

The jade cicada floated in the palm of his hand, and although the connection with the Mirror of Shared Life was weak, it was not broken!

Xu Yan's breathing was rapid like a wild beast's, and his face was expressionless, filled only with uncontrolled cold rage.

"You think... I'd let you die in vain?"

The sound reverberated through the space, as if hundreds or thousands of Xu Yans were roaring at the same time.

"Yuan—! Listen carefully!!!"

He looked up, staring at the collapsing sea of light, his pupils reflecting the image of Yuan.

"You want this body—is that right?"

"Then come and get it!!!"

The chest cavity of the drill arm prosthetic body split open, and he poured all his spiritual energy and will into the synapse in a desperate gamble!
The line suddenly lit up, like a bolt of lightning piercing through reality!

At the other end of the line, his true form was right there!

"go back!!!"

Consciousness transformed into a torrent, rushing towards the body along the luminous path!
--still.

Time was once again frozen in time. Only he could think.

Then, a crack appeared in the virtual space between him and his physical body.

A pale, long, bloodless hand reached out—exactly like his own.

But that hand, with precision and ruthlessness, gripped his outstretched wrist bone!
A cold, soul-tearing pain assaulted me!
"Want to come back?"

A voice, a blend of his own tone and the echoes of the abyss, whispered directly into the core of his consciousness.

"The place you 'went back' to..."

That hand suddenly tightened!
"...has been requisitioned by me."

Boom——! ! !
The symbiotic relationship has completely broken!

In the moments before consciousness was torn apart,
He "saw" deep within his own being—those black hole-like eyes, coldly staring back at him through the remnants of the wire.

“Ah Zhe…I…”

That sentence was left unfinished.

Xu Yan's consciousness was torn to pieces as if it had been thrown into a shredder.

The drill arm prosthetic body collapsed to its knees, a large hole blasted through its chest core, spewing out a runaway stream of plasma.

—And in that instant, his mind was completely consumed.

The entire iron coffin area was simultaneously engulfed by that roar and the shattering energy.

Yuan lowered his head, mimicking the way Xu Yan used to frown.

Those black hole-like eyes reflected the emptiness of A Zhe's disappearance, and Xu Yan's mechanical face contorted with pain. "Is this feeling... called 'sadness'?" it asked itself softly, then denied it again, "No, it's 'noise'."

It raised its hand, as if to wipe away the useless noise.

The next second, the space collapsed again.

[Connection: Interrupted]

[The anchor point of the soul has been lost]

He fell downwards, into boundless nothingness and pure white.

Before his consciousness completely faded, he heard...

"...Xu Yan".

It was Chen Zhiwei.

The voice, tinged with tears, pierced through the barrier of dimensions.

I must... survive.

He suddenly realized that Yuan was not an "outsider".

Every pulse, every breath it takes, is a reflection of his memories.

In those reversed light and shadow, there is Chen Zhiwei, his dead companions, and the countless moments he himself pressed the shutter.

—It is imitating him.

A chill ran down my spine and up to the top of my head.

"So, I was its dream all along."

At that very moment, the center of the ring-shaped space was silently sliced open by an absolutely straight, unnaturally sharp, pure white crack.

A blurry human figure emerged from within.

Faceless. Colorless.

Only a pair of eyes, seemingly composed of nothingness, calmly cast their gaze.

The White Lord descends.

All existing consciousness was forcibly linked, and a feeling of being "placed on an autopsy table" gripped all souls.

Mo Lin and Yan Huang, who had remained indifferent until now, had an unprecedentedly solemn expression, and even... a hint of discomfort from their own rules being suppressed.

"—Target: 'Abyss'. Assessment: Level C threat. Controllable sample invalid."

"—Execute: Extinguish."

A pure white line of light fell.

There was no energy impact.

The part of the Abyss it touched, that newly formed black-and-white boundary space, vanished into thin air as if it had been cut off from the canvas of reality.

Only absolute emptiness and pure light, devoid of any information, remained.

Xu Yan's vision went white, and he lost consciousness.

His last sensation was the gaze of the White Lord, which seemed to linger for a moment on his fading consciousness.

“Marked as an anomalous sample – E-07”

"Recycle."

The world fell silent in the white light.

……

On the lawn of Jiangcheng Botanical Garden.

"Oh!"

Xu Yan was suddenly awakened when a red foam glider crashed down on his head.

He froze, looked around, and his pupils suddenly dilated.

This is……? !

The crowd was bustling, laughter filled the air, and the sunlight shone brightly on the azure sky, so blue it seemed untouched by dust.

Flowers of all colors bloom in profusion along the lawn, and the sea breeze, carrying salt and floral fragrance, gently caresses the area. In the distance, several kites rise and fall leisurely in the sky.

Everything was so beautiful it seemed unreal.

But he clearly remembered that he had not returned to his original body and his consciousness began to dissipate.

“Marked as an anomalous sample – E-07”

"Recycle."

The White Lord's final command was still echoing in his mind.

what happened?

He looked down blankly and saw the dark silver camera hanging around his neck, with a suitcase next to him.

"This is……?"

"E-07? I've returned to the timeline of the E-07 mission?"

The thought flashed through his mind, and even though he had experienced regional changes, he found it hard to accept the reality before him.

He slowly stood up, his expression blank, his gaze sweeping across this "too calm" world.

A woman wearing a light blue skirt came running up, panting, holding the hand of a five or six-year-old boy.

As she adjusted the strap of her bag, she smiled apologetically, "I'm really sorry, my son threw it. He recently started learning to fly a glider and keeps flying it around randomly."

The little boy peeked out from behind her, a mouthful of unfinished ice cream still stuck to the corner of his mouth.

Everything was exactly the same as the scene that day.

Xu Yan suddenly realized what was happening and forced herself to calm down.

He bent down, picked up the foam glider, and handed it over.

His face remained expressionless, but his heart was churning like a turbulent tide.

After apologizing, the woman left with her child.

Xu Yan stood there, searching his body.

Finally, he pulled an old, encrypted terminal out of his pocket.

— Clear out the belongings before midnight.

His breath hitched slightly, as if a silent drumbeat in his chest had suddenly struck violently.

He could almost hear the echo of his heartbeat—

Bang, bang, bang.