Quick Wear: Passerby A's Counterattack Revised Plot

Node A: First Mission: Jiang Yan (Survived, but no longer a 'savior')

[Node B: Second Mission: Han Xi (survived, but no longer a 'savior')]

[Node C: Third Mission: Unknown (Data Incomplete)]

[Node D: Current timeline ???]

"Han Xi?" Lin Yi thought of the young man he found in the abandoned factory. "Isn't he a key figure? How could he become the savior?"

"It didn't say that the key figure couldn't be the savior, right?"

Shi Qi pressed the light thread downwards, and node B suddenly enlarged—

In the picture, Han Xizheng and Ji Xiran were forced into a corner by a group of gray-black shadows.

He held the invitation card with the red moon mark, but the card was burning.

A countdown faintly appeared in the flames:

[Identity Anchor Remaining 00:29:31]

"During the second restart, Han Xi was chosen as the savior."

"But the mission failed, and the card marked him as a 'backup anchor', ready to be overwritten by the system at any time."

Lin Yi thought of Han Xi's cold face and suddenly understood something:

"So you kept him around on purpose, in order to—"

"Whether it's surveillance or protection," Shi Qi spread his hands, "at least don't let him be treated as consumable material for the third time."

En suddenly raised his hand. "Who's the blank in node C? Why doesn't it even have a name?"

Shi Qi narrowed his eyes and lightly touched the four words "incomplete data" with his fingertips.

The light thread emitted a sharp electric sound, like a tape being forcibly torn apart, and a young man's voice floated out intermittently:

[“…Don’t believe them, I’m the real—”]

The sound stopped suddenly.

"The third Savior was erased from the records."

"It could be a system glitch, or it could be that someone doesn't want us to know."

Lin Yi put the chip back into his pocket and said in a low voice, "Then only node D remains, the current timeline."

Shi Qi shook his head, looked at Ye and said, "The third savior is you. I'm curious, how did you manage to restart the world right under my nose?"

En blinked, and for the first time, a depth that was inconsistent with his appearance appeared on his childish face.

"Sister, have you finally remembered who I am?" He gently raised his hand, and a gray-white gear appeared in his palm. The edge of the gear was covered with cracks, but it was still turning stubbornly.

"During the third reboot, while you were still busy repairing the 'World Book', I tore myself in half."

"Half of them have become what you call 'copy anomalies'—the boxes, iron plates, shadows, and children you encounter along the way..."

"The other half was picked up by you." He pointed at Lin Yi, "It's the chip in your hand."

When Lin Yi heard this, he subconsciously tightened his grip on the chip, but felt a subtle pulsation in his palm - like a heartbeat.

En continued, "I hid myself in the cracks of time so that Heaven couldn't find the 'savior'. This way, the fourth restart wouldn't be 'repaired' by you."

"In the end, you guys came anyway."

Shi Qi: "You don't welcome us?"

En showed a tired smile: "Sister, I'm tired."

"Every time I restart, I'll be eliminated as a bug by your 'quick-pass game'; every time, I have to hide myself from scratch."

"I want to be free."

"That's liberation."

Shi Qi raised his hand, and the golden light condensed into an extremely thin scalpel, with the tip of the knife pointed at En's chest.

"Give me the gear, I will end the fourth cycle with my own hands." En took half a step back, and the gray-white gear in his palm suddenly broke into three pieces, and a light golden light seeped out of the cracks.

"Sister, you forgot one thing——"

"The 'savior' of the fourth reboot is not me."

He raised his other hand, and a fourth light node appeared at his fingertips.

Node D: Current Timeline Lin Yi (Bound by: ???)

Lin Yi: “…Me?”

En tilted his head, his wispy bangs swaying across his forehead. A childlike smile played on the corners of his mouth, but his voice was like an icicle scraping across glass, every word stinging:

"You think Jiang Yan was the first savior, Han Xi was the second, and I was the third—"

He suddenly stood on tiptoe, poking his fingertips at Lin Yi's chest. The innocence in his eyes instantly shattered into sharp fragments of light. "But the one who has truly been chosen by the will of the world has always been you."

Lin Yi suddenly took a half step back, and his back hit the rusty railing. The smell of rust mixed with blood rushed into his nostrils.

His knuckles were clenched white, and the sound seemed to be squeezed out from his throat:

"Nonsense!" Lin Yi's Adam's apple rolled violently, "How can it have always been me? If Shi Qi hadn't come here, I would have never-"

He suddenly raised his hand and roughly ripped open two buttons on his collar. "I wouldn't be here at all! How could the World Will know me?!"

Ye's pupils shrank to the size of needles in the shadows. His voice was as light as a feather, yet carried a metallic chill: "As long as it's you in the end, the process doesn't matter."

Suddenly, Ye's fingertips pointed at Lin Yi, and his voice suddenly rose, "Shi Qi, kill him! Kill him! All the problems in this world will be solved!"

Shi Qi stood between the two of them, her thin back straight. She slowly glanced at Ye's frantic expression, then looked at Lin Yi's tense face, and suddenly smiled, "So this is your purpose? To make us... kill each other?"

Ye licked his cracked lips, and his tongue brushed across his fangs, leaving a line of blood.

He took a step forward, his boot sole crushing a piece of broken glass. His voice was as sticky as a venomous snake's tongue: "Then can you kill?"

Shi Qi's eyelashes trembled violently.

"Of course not."

She turned her face to the side and gently wiped away the drop of blood that had just accidentally splashed on Lin Yi's hand with her thumb. "He will never be an option."

En said nonchalantly, "There's no such thing as forever. In the end, it's just that the benefits are not enough. Since you don't want to sacrifice him, then go away! What happens here has nothing to do with you."

"Walk?"

Shi Qi laughed softly, and the golden light suddenly tightened, wrapping around En's throat like a noose.

"Little guy, what do you think I am—a knife that can be summoned and waved away at will?"

En's toes were lifted off the ground due to the strangulation, but he still had that innocent look on his face. However, the phantom of gears in his pupils began to spin wildly.

"Sister, you can't kill me."

Shi Qi said, and quickly attacked En, "That's true, you won't die, but will you still be yourself when you wake up again?"

The light thread left a very thin blood line at the corner of En's lips, but he was still smiling.

"Sister, you pierced the wrong place."

Ding--

The golden scalpel pierced his chest precisely, but not a drop of blood was spilled.

But the next second, the child's body shattered into countless tiny gray and white gears like paper that had been drained of moisture, and rolled to the ground with a clanging sound.

The moment the gear fell to the ground, the entire space began to vibrate violently, the light tubes on the ceiling exploded one after another, and darkness surged in like a tide.