A game where you have to pay to win? But I have a lifespan roulette wheel!

"This key can unlock the anchor points in the conceptual gap."

The director gently lifted the crystal-clear key with his fingertips, and it floated in front of Jiang Lin. The surface of the key was covered with fine light patterns, as if countless miniature scenes of the story were flashing within it.

"Anchor point?"

Jiang Lin didn't immediately take the thing.

I was just thinking, Old Deng, do you know that the word you suddenly mentioned could easily be mistaken for "ai"?

"Every being who enters this conceptual rift leaves an anchor point here. That is your last connection to the original timeline. Find it, use this key to unlock it, and you can return." The director withdrew his hand, his tone calm.

"But the anchor point is shrouded in a jumble of concepts, making it almost impossible for you to pinpoint it on your own. I, however, can guide you."

No?

Jiang Lin stared at the key for a few seconds.

Suddenly, she burst out laughing. "Didn't you say you were just a recorder? That you wouldn't interfere with the plot or set the ending? Then why did you give me the key? And didn't you say you wanted me to play along before telling me how to leave? Why did you suddenly surrender? What are you doing now?"

The director remained silent for a moment.

The pure white space rippled slightly, and the surrounding fragments of images began to rotate and accelerate.

"Because..." his voice lowered a few decibels, "the narrative itself also craves the unexpected!"

Jiang Lin raised an eyebrow.

What does that mean?

It's not some kind of dream ending, or an ending where you break the fourth wall yourself?

Yes.

That's right.

The director has said so much here.

Jiang Lin was still wondering if this guy was playing a trick on him.

The main problem is that the director's premise is too absurd!

So it's really just a conceptual entity?

If this were a pay-to-win game, the director might become some kind of story king, history king, or narrative king.

"Endless recording, weaving, organizing... even a conceptual avatar would feel tired, let alone in this conceptual gap, where there is no past and no future, the story cannot move forward." The director raised his head, a glimmer of emotion appearing in his eyes for the first time. "I hope the story here can move forward. I have tried many times for this. You are on the fourth draft of the script. I hope you can break out of all the established frameworks and create an ending that I cannot predict. Perhaps only in this way can I see the true meaning of narrative."

Jiang Lin pondered.

The director added, "Of course you can refuse, but if you do, you'll be trapped here forever, drifting with the tides of conceptual rifts, experiencing one broken possibility after another, until your consciousness is submerged by countless Jiang Lin memories, becoming yet another new cycle of echoes."

Amidst the fragmented images around us, a brief shot suddenly flashes by.

Jiang Lin, with a face covered in scars and a crazed look in his eyes, is trapped in the same scene, dying repeatedly.

Jiang Lin's pupils contracted.

"..."

He reached out and grabbed the key.

"I agree."

In other words.

If you don't take this path, then you'll be just like everyone else.

Is it an endless loop here?

The key feels warm and smooth to the touch, like holding countless interwoven storylines, with subtle vibrations coming from your fingertips.

"A choice made knowingly."

The director smiled with satisfaction and pressed the last button on the typewriter.

[Fourth Draft - Final Chapter Prologue: Delivered to the actors.]

The pure white space began to dissipate.

The director's figure gradually became transparent, and his voice drifted from afar:

"Your anchor point lies in the starting point of all of Jiang Lin's shared memories. Go find it! Remember, you are not creating an ending, but the possibility itself!"

The voice trailed off.

The pure white space was completely shattered.

……

"Splash splash splash~~~"

The waves washed over the wheelchair.

Ok.

Of course it's impossible, because this is the World Ocean, not a real sea.

Jiang Lin reappeared on the World Ocean.

The wooden wheelchair floated steadily, just like a general riding a bicycle!

The surrounding scenery hadn't changed; it was still the same distorted, tangled world of broken glass that he had been invited to before. However, the abnormal area with the steel material had disappeared, as if it had never existed.

Even in this distorted world, Jiang Lin cannot see another Jiang Lin.

He looked down at the key in his hand, the patterns on it flickering.

"The starting point of all Jiang Lin's shared memories?"

He murmured repeatedly, several fragments flashing through his mind: his bedroom on Earth, his hospital bed on Blue Star, the Impermanence Street in the City of Freedom, the Ghost King's call...

"No, no, these are just my memories, not all of Jiang Lin's..."

Jiang Lin didn't know how many times the director had met her.

However, Jiang Lin himself knew beforehand that there was another version of himself, such as the cuckolded Jiang Lin.

I just don't know everything that the director is talking about regarding Jiang Lin.

Ultimately, it was all the original Jiang Lin.

It's still all about crossing the river and forest.

Or perhaps, only the version of oneself that travels through time is special?

Are the other Jianglin people all native to this area?

Jiang Lin closed his eyes, trying to find some clues from the few fragmented images the director had just shown.

He was certain that he had seen the cuckold inside.

Jiang Lin with the scarred face is on an endless loop.

And then there's that gloomy version of himself who wrote "Be Careful, Director" in a broken world.

"What do they have in common? What exactly do they have in common?"

As everyone knows!

Jiang Lin's attention span is comparable to that of an adult mouse.

At this moment, he seems like he's telling a corny joke.

"What all Jiang Lins have in common is that they are all from Chu Nan!"

"Ahem, just kidding."

At least the cuckold king shouldn't be one.

Although Jiang Lin transmigrated here, he was already lying down and didn't have a chance.

But the original cuckolded king and Leng Qingxue still got married for so many years, if it were still Chu Nan.

So~

Jiang Lin will once again think more highly of the original owner of this body!

powerful!

That's incredibly powerful.

"So what else could they have in common besides that? It can't be that our wives are all Leng Qingxue, right? Hmm..."

It's time for Jiang Lin's most dreaded part: using his brain.

He still hasn't figured out all of Jiang Lin's situation.

The question remains whether this is Jiang Lin after he traveled through time or the original Jiang Lin.

Is he the most special one, or is it that all of Jiang Lin were actually himself before he transmigrated?

Jiang Lin's brain exploded here.

A burning sensation came from my hand.

"Um?"

This key seems to be guiding Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin turned his wheelchair around and sped off in a direction deep in the ocean.

The closer you get, the hotter the key becomes.

After sailing for an unknown period of time, a strange area appeared ahead.

Countless "screens" of varying sizes float in the world's ocean, some displaying still images, some playing blurry videos, and some even displaying static noise. They are connected to each other by fiber optic-like data streams, forming a vast, ever-evolving network structure.

At the very center of the network is a huge, pitch-black screen.

It displayed nothing, just pure black, yet it seemed to absorb all the light around it.