It will make Corner feel anxious, ashamed, and secretive

An Yu⁠⁠​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​⁠⁠‍‍‍‍​​‌ awoke to the turbulence of the aircraft.

Outside the porthole was a vast expanse of white. Tempestuous snowflakes filled the sky and it was as if the entire world was submerged in the snowstorm.

Ning looked at the overwhelming push notifications on social media and murmured, “It has been eight years since we’ve seen a world-class snowstorm like this. Such a large scale can only be compared to those two super-grade snowstorm back then.”

An was wearing huge headphones, curled up in Ning’s arms, and staring blankly out the porthole. Lumen was curled up with his knees drawn, in the small space between Flame and the wall, his head tilted back against the bulkhead, sleeping peacefully.

Flame languidly asked, “Snowstorm equates to disaster. Has the Main City received any aberrant invasion reports?”

Ning shook his head. “Fortunately, not yet. But everyone is still on super-grade combat alert.”

A deep, somber male voice said, “It doesn’t necessarily mean trouble. The association between snowstorms and disaster might just be people’s assumption.”

As Qin Zhilu spoke, his gaze flicked to his right shoulder, and his tone softened. “You’re awake already?”

“Mngh.” An Yu sat up groggily, smoothing out the wrinkles on the Commander’s shoulder that he had pressed.

He rested his hands on his legs, pressed his temples hard, and murmured, “It’s snowing again…”

Ever since he was little, whenever there was an abnormal snowstorm, he would either be sleeping heavily or catch a cold. He was always groggy.

“How are the time anomalies?” he asked, his voice dry.

Flame had his eyes closed, resting. He lowered his voice and said, “After you cut Zhong Ke’s connection to the central screen, the central screen disappeared automatically. The accumulated time was evenly distributed to everyone in the world. On average, each person got a reset of 84 seconds. So, about three days ago, some unlucky bastard who had just gotten injured got injured again, and some people’s happiness was reset and extended. Of course, the vast majority of people in this world were too busy and numb to feel any obvious difference. After the 84-second reset period ended, the hourglass also vanished. Now the time console is just a pile of screens, like a giant human monitoring center. It has completely lost its control capabilities. I estimate—” he tossed something back and forth between his hands out of boredom, “we’ll have to wait until this guy uses up all the time he had absorbed, and his consciousness fades, for the time console to disappear completely. Hmm… probably in about one hundred and forty-something years. I really hope humanity still has one hundred and forty-something years.”

Only then did An Yu see that he had been fiddling with a screen the size of an old cassette tape. The picture on it was still moving.

“After cutting off its external connections, his screen shrank to this tiny size.” Flame opened his eyes to look at An Yu. “Did you want to observe the developmental history of an anti-social personality?”

“Umm…” An Yu was about to say he wasn’t interested, but Flame had already tossed the thing at him. He scrambled to catch it, but the screen was intercepted in mid-air by Qin Zhilu’s hand.

“Don’t just throw it.” Qin Zhilu handed the screen to An Yu. “He doesn’t have the strength to dodge anymore. If you cracked his head open, Black Tower would make you write a fifty-thousand-word report to explain it.”

Flame just chuckled and closed his eyes again. “Would it be Black Tower that would make me write it, or you?”

Qin Zhilu didn’t answer. He tore open an energy bar and handed it over. An Yu glanced at the “Honey Oat” printed on the wrapper, took it, and bit off a large chunk, vigorously chewing.

He slowly digested Flame’s words. His stuffed-full cheeks suddenly froze. “Three days ago?”

He had thought he had only slept for a few hours this time.

Flame hummed in agreement. “Due to the worldwide snowfall, High Peak changed its mind at the last minute and kept all military and Spire personnel on standby. They didn’t send extra reinforcements to District 34. We spent a full three days cleaning up those madly reproducing water ants.”

Hearing this, An Yu tapped on his terminal and glanced at the team’s battle report—although Qin Zhilu had arrived not long after he had fallen unconscious, the Commander had clearly been too lazy to do the cleanup work. And Flame wasn’t good at AoE attacks, so the heavy task of clearing out the massive water ant aberrant wave had ultimately fallen entirely on Lumen.

The sleeping Lumen oozed depletion The cheek inlaid with the sonic wave plate was flushed red, and it looked painful just to look at it.

Flame turned his head to look at him and pulled the jacket draped over him a little higher.

Qin Zhilu looked out the porthole and softly said, “It looks like the snow is about to stop.”

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There were tiny time-space fluctuations within those dancing snowflakes. He could now 100% sense them, even if he couldn’t see clearly what was in those time-spaces.

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An Yu was surprised. “Treat it himself?”

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“He missed the optimal time for his right thigh amputation and refused to listen to the doctor’s advice. The consequence was that he was constantly one step behind the spreading rot, cutting himself off, bit by bit. First the right thigh, then the left calf, then the left thigh… one piece rotted after another. It was a miracle he could bring himself to do it. Just watching it gave me phantom pains.” Flame gave a bored yawn. “Oh, right. His screen is a bit different from others. It only recorded this most painful memory. He will relive this memory over and over for one hundred and forty-something years. Tsk…”

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Flame paused, then turned to Qin Zhilu. “Don’t you think the supervision target you chose is terrifying?”

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An Yu accepted another energy bar that Qin Zhilu handed him and said docilely, “Thank you, Commander.”

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His lips trembled, constantly repeating the same shape with his mouth—“If only I had more time.”

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Flame snorted. “What science, what not. The sandbox was going to be overturned sooner or later. If I were High Peak, I’d just cut off Brain’s funding. It would be better to give the people in Bait City an extra meal a day.”

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Qin Zhilu glanced at him. “Wasn’t this what you wanted to give me?”

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An Yu immediately recalled the 930-yuan price tag. His little bit of worry all turned into happiness.

—But this happiness only lasted until the aircraft landed.

[Black Tower.]

Joseph showed An Yu his portly and friendly smile for the umpteenth time.

“You entered the screens a total of 11 times. According to your recollection, 9 of those times were spent reliving the scene of killing Ling Qiu in District 53. So, what did you see the first and last times, respectively?”

An Yu was expressionless. “11 times? I only remember 9.”

Joseph took a deep breath yet maintained his smile. “Mr. Corner, I assure you on behalf of Black Tower that it was 11 times in total. If you don’t believe me, you can review the video footage.”

An Yu immediately shook his head. “No need. If you say so, then it was…” He unconsciously kept looking at the corner of the wall. “Do I really have to report these things?”

“Does reporting these things make you anxious?” Joseph asked perceptively. He paused, then softened his tone. “That’s precisely why we hoped you could open up. High Peak and Brain has always been very concerned about your mental health. Additionally, as you know, your mental strength had fluctuated during this mission. We need to understand what kind of scenes will trigger your abnormality.”

An Yu was silent for a moment. “The mental strength fluctuations were unrelated to the events on the screen. I guess it was determined by whether or not I could realize I was in a parallel time-space at that moment.”

“Then why did it fluctuate back and forth?”

An Yu thought for a moment. “My consciousness went through a struggling process. Anger and humiliation seemed to catalyze its awakening, so the repeated fluctuations occurred.”

Joseph immediately lowered his head and jotted down a few notes. “Very good. I’ll sync your analysis with the researchers. Now, please cooperate with me and continue to recall. What exactly happened in the first and last screens?”

“……”

He still hadn’t gotten around it.

Ling Qiu had been right. Black Tower was full of cunning people.

The first screen was related to An Yu’s mother, and it had also once again confirmed the fact that he had accelerated his own body and the #091 containment officer by eight years during his infancy. As it involved his origin, the Commander had forbidden him from reporting it.

As for the last screen… he subjectively did not want to talk about it.

Even though there was no incredible secret on that screen, he had abruptly felt that “sense of privacy” Ling Qiu had once mentioned. In his entire memorable life before this, he had never had any privacy, and this novel experience had arrived completely unexpectedly.

The smile on Joseph’s face had already been fixed for five minutes. He vigorously sucked in his cheeks, working his sore facial muscles, and squeezed out another smile.

An endless standoff.

An Yu was about to be defeated. He gave up and said, “I suddenly remembered that the Commander promised to help me write the battle report for this operation. Couldn’t you just read it in the report?”

“But only you know what happened on the screens. Would Mr. Law be aware of it?”

“I told him.” An Yu lied immediately. “On the plane back, I already told him everything.”

He paused. “Sorry, I don’t want to recount those two things personally. Please just read the battle report later.”

Joseph hesitated for a good while after hearing this before saying, “Very well, then.”

He nodded as he took notes. An Yu secretly glanced at what he was writing— The events in the first and last screens will make Corner feel anxious, ashamed, and secretive, unwilling to mention them personally to strangers, only willing to inform his supervisor…

What in the world.