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

The three packed their belongings and prepared to set off again. Led by Number One, they passed through the passageway inside the mainframe and arrived at the enormous door that separated the cyber world from the real world.

Just as Lin Xuan was about to cross the threshold, Number One suddenly reached out and stopped her.

"Wait, since you didn't choose to store your memories this time, there are some things I need to tell you in advance."

Lin Xuan stopped and turned to look at her.

"The Final Producer is the embodiment of Number One's 'superego' consciousness. She is me, or rather, the aggregate of all my previous ideals, principles, and absolute rationality. In a sense, she is purer and more extreme than me. Compared to Xinglan's self-awareness, the Final Producer is far more dangerous."

"I know that." Lin Xuan had expected it. Number One's choice to let the Producer manage the entire mechanical Earth was probably intended to design a self-circulating program to realize the operation of the entire mechanical Earth. The Producer is likely more like an AI than the Sophon.

It's quite ironic that the most AI-like final product is a human being, while the most human-like sophon is an AI.

"Moreover, when I first met you, you didn't only have these two companions; there were five of you in total."

“I know, the other two… I’m more curious about how they disappeared than you are.”

The memories stored here are from when Lin Xuan and the others first arrived on Mechanical Earth. In other words, Lin Xuan lost the memories of the second and third reincarnations.

According to his first memory, the Thirteenth Squad consisted of five people, including Lin Xuan: Su Zilin, Zuo Xiao, Ding Cunxu, and Lin Qi.

Of these five people, Lin Qi and Ding Cunxu are now missing, and Lin Xuan has no memory of their disappearances either, meaning they are the second and third people to have disappeared.

He glanced at his watch, which showed a counter of "3", meaning he had already gone through three cycles of restarts. However, he had absolutely no recollection of where the watch came from.

In other words, most of the events occurred during the second and third cycles.

Three strikes and you're out. He knew himself too well; the first two times he'd done it, he must have foreseen the third desperate gamble. Given Lin Xuan's almost obsessive nature, if she were truly in dire straits, she would tear a path to survival even if it meant exhausting all her shock points. The only thing that could make her choose to restart a third time… was "himself."

This was a huge gamble, because he didn't have enough shock points left. He didn't know where he had spent them in the previous three attempts, but... since he had chosen to stay in the previous three attempts, there must have been a reason. All he could do was believe in himself.

"Okay, I'll be more careful."

"Good luck." Number One disappeared after saying this.

Lin Xuan took a deep breath and stepped across the door, or rather, the door didn't exist at all; it was just a concept that separated two worlds.

There was no dizziness as I had imagined; nothing happened.

After the three of them passed through the door, looking at the unchanged scene around them, Lin Xuan almost thought that she had failed.

But when he watched the number "3" on his watch slowly change into the number "4", he realized that he had returned to the real world.

"boom!"

Their location was on the top floor of the government building on the capital planet of Mechanical Earth, the same location from which they entered the core of the machine.

The moment the three appeared, a dull thud was heard from downstairs.

"Who?"

Su Zilin immediately hid behind Lin Xuan, reaching out to touch the sniper rifle from behind, but ended up grabbing nothing.

The two women were startled at the same time, only then realizing that their weapons had all disappeared.

"Mr. Lin Xuan, are you upstairs?"

A man's voice came from downstairs, and then the group saw a man completely covered up from the ground walk up the stairs and wave to Lin Xuan and the others.

"Mr. Lin Xuan, the minister is in a meeting and said he wants you to come along this time."

"You are……"

Lin Xuan looked at the person, and he was quite certain that he did not recognize the person in front of him... at least not in his first memory.

"I'm Zero, and I just joined the network surveillance team today. Director Lin Xuan, I've heard so much about you!"