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Chapter 40 The Wish Has Been Fulfilled
"System self-check...passed."

"Failure rate: 43%. Repair time: unpredictable."

Lin Qing slowly opened her eyes, her vision filled with the remnants of red error messages. Above her was a wooden ceiling, with dim yellow light shining in from the edges, not at all glaring.

She rarely sees this kind of exquisite yet fragile decorating style anymore.

I'm still alive...

She found it hard to believe, because the last image she remembered was of being thrown into the silent, cold expanse of space. What happened after that was all a blur to her.

Wait... the Crystal Palace has already collapsed!?

The moment the thought crossed Lin Qing's mind, she couldn't help but shudder! She sat up abruptly, then a sharp pain in her abdomen gripped her throat, almost choking her.

Has the pain suppressor also been damaged?

She almost bit her lip until it bled to barely suppress the pain and prevent herself from screaming.

As she sat up, she took in her surroundings—she was lying on a sofa in a semi-open space, covered with a thin blanket, clearly being cared for. The room was a mess, with many pieces of furniture broken and holes riddled with holes in the walls. Lin Qing was very familiar with this situation; areas where nanobots were active were like war zones, with most buildings in ruins. This destruction came not only from the nanobots but also from bandit gangs that had lost their order and control.

But the Earth should no longer exist!

"Detecting gravity."

"The gravity measurement is 9.821."

Upon seeing this value, Lin Qing felt a lump in her throat and her eyes welled up with tears. The Crystal Palace uses simulated gravity, with a set value that is always an integer 10, while other space stations have almost no gravity at all.

There were no alarms during waveform detection, indicating no intrusion or deviation.

This is definitely Earth!
Everyone's efforts and sacrifices have not been in vain!
But is all of this real? Am I dreaming?
Despite these thoughts, a lingering doubt remained in her mind. She had witnessed the Crystal Palace collapse, and she hadn't even reached the control room.

What exactly happened after N43 was torn apart?
Just thinking about this problem gave Lin Qing a splitting headache.

You get what you pay for. I should have chosen a more expensive memory device when I bought it!

Suddenly, she heard a series of light footsteps.

Lin Qing looked in the direction of the voice and saw a woman in white coming down the stairs. When their eyes met, the woman was slightly taken aback, then turned and called out, "Manager, your customer is awake."

guest?

Is she referring to me?

Then she saw a man follow her down.

“You’ve been unconscious for two days, so I had someone check on you.” He walked to the sofa and said with concern, “By the way, my name is Chen Xuan, and I’m the manager of this store. Welcome to our store.”

Store manager...

Welcome... to our store...

"Cheer up, I'm coming to save you!"

"Since we've already given up hope, why not give it a try?"

The hazy memories suddenly became clear. A series of images flashed through Lin Qing's mind: in the cold and desolate space, someone grabbed her and told her that everything could still be saved!
And that person was the man in front of them!
"It's you!" She grabbed Chen Xuan's hand.

"Ok?"

"How did you do that?!" Lin Qing asked excitedly. "Didn't the Crystal Palace crash, or was it destroyed on the way?"

"Calm down first, we'll talk about the situation up there later." Chen Xuan turned to look at Liu Shuyue, "Is she out of danger?"

"Hmm, your pulse and everything are normal, it shouldn't suddenly worsen again." The latter took her pulse. "I'll leave you another heart-protecting pill, just put it under your tongue in case of sudden cardiac arrest. However..."

"But what?"

“However, this is the first time I’ve seen someone so thoroughly self-harmed.” Liu Shuyue lowered her voice and shook her head. “While the mechanisms on her body are exquisite, they have also disrupted the balance of the circulating energy. None of her three souls and seven spirits are intact, effectively severing her possibility of cultivation. Pills can only provide temporary relief.” “Well… she probably had no choice.” Chen Xuan coughed twice. “Anyway, you’ve done me a huge favor. Without the life-saving pills, I’m afraid the guest wouldn’t have woken up.”

"Not at all. Seeing you take such good care of your guests makes me very happy," Liu Shuyue said with a smile. "Besides, this little favor is nothing compared to all the help you've given me. Moreover, this is the first time I've seen a case like this; it's quite an eye-opener for me."

Are you going back to Mala Village?

"Time waits for no one, and I'm not comfortable leaving the door open all the time."

Chen Xuan nodded, "Okay, I'll contact you again when we're about to leave."

“Well, even if I get to Yunzhou, I need to find out the situation first before making a decision.” Liu Shuyue waved her hand and walked upstairs. “If you encounter any tricky problems, just call me.”

What exactly are they saying?
Lin Qing found it somewhat incomprehensible... There was no problem with the language; she could understand everything they said, and the two of them didn't seem to be avoiding her. However, every word they uttered seemed strange.

The woman sounded like a doctor, but why was she using pulse diagnosis and alchemy? What were the circulating qi and the three souls and seven spirits? Even if she was a charlatan, this kind of talk was too old-fashioned.

But she knew her own situation. Despite so many prosthetic systems malfunctioning, she didn't feel much pain, and her mental state was far better than expected. This was something a charlatan could never do.

After Liu Shuyue left, Chen Xuan served the new guest a cup of coffee before sitting down and asking, "What's your name?"

"Lin Qing, Lin as in forest, Qing as in sunny day," Lin Qing told the truth.

"I have two pieces of bad news to tell you, and I hope you are mentally prepared."

"Please speak." She took a deep breath.

"Firstly, you might not be able to go back." Chen Xuan sighed inwardly as he said this; the guest satisfaction rating was probably doomed. He hadn't been idle these past two days. Besides asking Liu Shuyue for pills, he had also registered Lin Qing as a VIP guest and used her room card to open the door, wanting to see what the situation was like in her world. However, to his surprise, the back door of room 202 was completely locked and couldn't be opened.

The only thing he could think of was that a huge disaster must have happened in that world, and the shop had closed the back door for safety reasons.

If the other party's wish is to save the world from destruction, then his current reserves will be insufficient.

Lin Qing didn't react at all, seemingly still waiting for his second message.

"Secondly, I didn't reach the control room. You mentioned the space city called Crystal Palace, right? It did crash, at least it did before I took you away. So, you ask me how I did it? The answer is I didn't do anything."

"Where is this place?"

"Earth, it's just that it might be slightly different from where you are." Chen Xuan deliberately used a conservative answer to avoid provoking her too much.

“Difference… what difference could there be?” She frowned.

"The river of time flows on and on, each drop of water different from the last. It doesn't matter if you don't understand now; you'll get used to this world..."

Lin Qing's eyes suddenly widened. "You mean—time? I really hadn't considered that possibility, but... how could that be?"

Chen Xuan sighed softly, "Are you trying to say that time might be able to go backwards? But time going backwards is unlikely."

She did ask, "May I ask what year it is now?"

"In my case... 2025," Chen Xuan said, spreading his hands. "But it might not be of any reference value, because the two worlds are not—"

Before he could finish speaking, the girl seemed to have confirmed something and immediately opened her arms and hugged him tightly.

Even though the large movement made her gasp in pain.

"Uh...this guest?"

"It really did take us back a century! Everything makes sense now!" Lin Qing not only didn't let go, but tightened her grip even more. Her voice sounded incredibly excited, even a little choked up. "Thank you... Although I don't know how you did it, there's no doubt you've given me an opportunity I never dared to dream of... If this world can be saved because of this, you are the most crucial savior!"

"...Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Chen Xuan looked completely bewildered.

I run a legitimate business; I don't do any of those world-saving pyramid schemes!

“No.” Her answer was resolute. “My mistake was that I had doubts about you before, but now it’s clear that you have met all my expectations!”

(End of this chapter)