Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

"Come up here, let's talk!"

The voice rang in Lin Xuan's ears again, which reminded her of the first time she met Zhi Zi, who had also communicated with her in the same way.

"You're allowed to come alone!" The voice rang out again, coldly cutting off Lin Xuan's attempt to bring Su Zilin and the other woman along.

Lin Xuan's gaze fell on the steps pieced together, then he glanced back at his worried companions. He didn't speak, but simply gestured for them to wait where they were.

Ascending the steps, Lin Xuan arrived at the rooftop of the municipal building. Guided by the other party, she walked through the corridor and pushed open one door after another. Each time a door was pushed open, it felt as if a thin film of the real world was being torn away.

The sensation beneath his feet became unsteady, the surrounding light distorted and warped, and a chilling sense of detachment intensified with each door that opened. The world behind him seemed to be peeling away and disintegrating piece by piece.

When he finally reached the last door, the air was thick and sticky, each breath feeling like a tearing sensation. He reached out and pushed against the door that seemed to separate two worlds—

The door slid open silently inward.

The envisioned view from the top floor was completely gone.

Before him lay only a few cracked, crumbling concrete tiles, like the last icebergs floating in a desolate universe, barely supporting his footing. Beyond the tiles lay absolute, all-consuming void.

Not far away, a figure formed from red light stood in mid-air—no, not one person, but two.

It was a man whose face was obscured, holding the hand of a little girl, whose appearance bore a striking resemblance to Tomoko.

"Lin Xuan...it's been a long time!"

The little girl suddenly spoke and directly revealed Lin Xuan's name. Lin Xuan was startled and did not rush to speak, after all, he did not know who the person in front of him was, but the other party obviously knew him.

"Excuse me, perhaps I should say... nice to meet you, since I'm no longer Number One, and Number One is long dead!"

"This guy is actually number one!"

Lin Xuan was startled. He had thought he would meet Number One, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. He had only just arrived on the mechanical planet, so how could the other party recognize him so quickly?

Number One seemed to notice Lin Xuan's bewildered look. After a moment's thought, she figured out what was going on. Then, she conjured up an interface out of thin air. When Lin Xuan saw this, he was almost scared to death. He thought the other party also had a shock value system.

But upon closer inspection, it seemed to be just a virtual projection, which brought a sigh of relief.

"It's already been three months... It seems that thing has completely taken control of my abilities."

"Can't I stop being a riddle maker?" Lin Xuan asked bluntly. The two types of people he hated most in his life were riddle makers and those who prevented him from being a riddle maker.

"It's nothing, see for yourself."

As he spoke, the other person casually tossed the data to Lin Xuan, who glanced at it and her pupils widened in shock!

What the other party sent me was none other than my travel log, detailing everything I did each day since arriving on Mechanical Earth three months ago.

On August 24, observer Lin Xuan entered the mechanical Earth.

On August 25, Lin Xuan, the fourth observer, entered Revelation 8 as "Bai Bing".

On August 26, Observer No. 8 began attempting to negotiate with an organization called "Spark".

……

There were tens of thousands of similar records, and Lin Xuan even vaguely remembered some of them, but he was certain that he had never done them.

How to describe this feeling? It's like you had a dream, and after you woke up, someone took a notebook and started listing out all the things you experienced in the dream, one by one.

"Your memories have been altered, Lin Xuan. You've been on Mechanical Earth for three months now."

"Who did it?"

Lin Xuan only cared about this. He naturally knew that his memories had been tampered with, but he couldn't remember who he had ever met.

"Xinglan, a wild AI that infiltrated from the outside. I thought I had killed it back then, but..."

"So it's still alive and well, and even altered my memories, right?" Lin Xuan was unfamiliar with this name, which at least proved one thing: he must have never heard of this name before, or rather, he didn't know this name.

“It’s not just that.” A hint of worry flashed across the face of the little girl that Number One had conjured.

How did you enter this world?

"How else could they have gotten in? It must have been by accident, of course!"

"No, I'm not asking how you got into the Mechanical Earth. This... is the world of the Core of the Machine!"

"What do you mean?"

Lin Xuan was completely bewildered by what the other person said. He looked at the shattered world around him and seemed to realize something.

"You mean... the brain in a vat?"

"That's roughly the idea... I don't know who brought you here, but this is definitely not the real world. Someone altered your memories and left you here. This is the world of the core of the machine."

"The world of the core of the machine?"

"In terms you can understand, it's the Super Dream Database. I can only say... we have similar ideas, but there are still some differences between us. You want to apply the Super Dream Database to the real world, while I want to set up a virtual server. You know the metaverse, right? Everyone in the world lives in a virtual world, and I'm responsible for supporting their real-world counterparts. It's roughly... the difference between VR and AR."

"What, do you also want to create a world with someone else?" Lin Xuan couldn't help but tease.

“The administrator wanted to kill me, but I had no choice. Lin Xuan, you know me. My abilities are too special, so much so that I am the most likely among the six observers to give up the experiment. That’s why Bai Bing wanted to kill me from the beginning. He never even considered that I would complete the experiment!”

"Your abilities? What abilities?"

Upon hearing this, Number One became alert almost instantly and retorted, "You don't know my abilities?"

Lin Xuan simply pointed to herself: "My memories have been altered, have you forgotten?"

"That's true!" Upon hearing this, Number One was genuinely taken aback for a moment before nodding.

Seeing that the other party believed her, Lin Xuan was practically laughing to herself. She had been afraid to reveal her identity as an observer, and even dared not meet Number One, because she was afraid of revealing that she had not inherited the memories of the original owner of this body.

I wonder who did this, doing such a huge thing, actually altering his memory!

That's great. From today onwards, he finally has a reasonable excuse to start asking questions, and he no longer has to worry about his identity being exposed.

This is truly a case of someone offering a pillow when you're sleepy, but he still doesn't know who did it. If he did, he'd definitely thank them in person.