Chapter 451: Time Node
Time Node
"Should we surrender then?"
Bessie vanished into thin air. In the past, whenever she encountered situations like this, she would immediately run away. That was why she had become the last survivor in the entire world. But this time, she didn't want to run.
Occasionally, she would recall past events, and she would always find herself unconsciously pondering a question:
If she had been braver back then, would the world not have been destroyed?
This time, she was prepared to give herself an answer.
"No, I will fight until the very end, no matter who the enemy is."
Mainly because wanting to run wasn't an option anyway.
Lin Ye took out the energy core from the heavy armor set Ms. Carnot had given him earlier. He had modified this energy core in his spare time; it was his backup power source.
Of course, like all other power sources, this energy core also had an explosion function. To Lin Ye, an energy core that couldn't self-destruct was simply heresy and had no reason to exist at all.
The combat squad outside suddenly halted. They had sensed a high-energy reaction inside the bar.
"Do you know spiritual energy deconstruction? Let's die together!"
Lin Ye suddenly appeared at the flank of the combat squad and threw the energy core in his hand right into the center of the squad.
Perception misalignment.
Several squad leaders were startled. Of course they knew what spiritual energy deconstruction was. If that energy core was related to spiritual energy deconstruction, they would all die here.
The energy core exploded. The blast wasn't insignificant, but it was nothing compared to spiritual energy deconstruction. Lin Ye and Bessie Pro took the opportunity to ambush the squad members, but these heavily armed members were not easy to deal with.
Both Lin Ye and Bessie Pro's ambushes failed. Only Bessie managed to restrain one of the combat squad leaders.
However, before they could even negotiate with the other party, that squad leader was shot dead by his own people.
Several tranquilizer darts hit Lin Ye's body, but he didn't fall. The mutation organs inside his body quickly metabolized the tranquilizers.
But it was meaningless. After finding the tranquilizer darts useless, the sniper in the distance switched to live ammunition. Lin Ye was quickly gunned down. Now he could only use a tiny amount of mental energy, completely incapable of blocking attacks of such a high level.
Bessie Pro fared even worse than Lin Ye. As one of the materials for the lid, it was restrained on the ground by some kind of energy field, unable to even move a finger.
Only Bessie was still resisting. She kept backstabbing the combat squad members, but such blatant backstabbing was no different from suicide. Soon, she was also taken down.
"You shouldn't have refused me."
Ms. Carnot's duplicate walked over. It stepped on Lin Ye's back, looking down with great satisfaction at Lin Ye lying prone on the ground.
"You shouldn't have gotten close to me."
Lin Ye directly deconstructed the residual spiritual energy inside the energy core. He truly had no more trump cards left, but self-destruction was never a trump card; it was a necessary measure.
Boom!
The entire Free City was affected by the explosion. Lin Ye and the others at the explosion's center were completely vaporized, not even leaving a single piece of wreckage.
But just before being utterly blown to dust, a few water-blue butterflies suddenly appeared before Lin Ye's eyes.
These butterflies fluttered their wings, passing in front of Lin Ye.
And Lin Ye's consciousness returned to the moment when Maggie walked towards the Contaminated Zone.
Just before Maggie entered the Contaminated Zone, Lin Ye grabbed Maggie again.
Same as last time, Lin Ye entered the Contaminated Zone and began repeating his previous actions. Although his body was the same as last time, this time he understood the Metal Sphere better than before, so he could easily resolve the Contaminated Zone issue.
But at this moment, Lin Ye wasn't thinking about the Contaminated Zone at all. He hadn't figured out what was happening.
'Wasn't I blown up? Is this a restart?'
'But this isn't the starting point; it's the place where the first Time Mark was generated. Does that mean I can start over from this time node?'
'Is this the effect of the special ability Butterfly Effect?'
'Isn't this way too overpowered?'
Information was a resource. This time, Lin Ye could completely rely on the information obtained from the previous run to quickly solve Free City's problems and then start the cleanup plan ahead of schedule.
It was like starting a New Game Plus in an RPG with all the resources from the first playthrough. There was simply no difficulty.
Just as Lin Ye was contemplating his action plan, his consciousness suddenly returned to the Free City destroyed by the spiritual energy deconstruction explosion. The water-blue butterflies passed before his eyes once more.
Lin Ye's consciousness moved again. He returned to the backyard of the slums bar. The priest was standing before him, muttering to himself.
'No, this special ability isn't about repeating everything. It's about projecting my consciousness to the marked time node, allowing me to make changes at that node, thereby influencing the future!'
Lin Ye hurriedly created a Mental Mark imbued with a spiritual imprint. He didn't need to make changes himself; as long as he could transmit future information to his self at this time node, he could solve all the problems.
After creating the Mental Mark, Lin Ye also cut his palm and controlled the blood to leave some crucial information on his stomach. He wasn't sure if the Mental Mark would persist, so he needed an extra layer of insurance.
He had only written part of the information when his consciousness returned to the future. But this time, he wasn't in a state of consciousness anymore, and Free City hadn't been destroyed by the spiritual energy deconstruction explosion.
"Lin Ye, what's wrong with you?"
At this moment, Lin Ye was sitting on a chair in the cafeteria, holding a spoon and staring blankly. Bessie Pro sat opposite him, asking somewhat strangely.
It was the first time it had seen Lin Ye spacing out.
"Nothing. What's the current situation?"
Lin Ye only knew the future had changed, but he had absolutely no memories of this future.
"What situation? The plans are all progressing steadily. Do you need me to explain everything?"
Bessie Pro asked.
"Yes, tell me everything you know."
Lin Ye needed to understand the circumstances of this future as quickly as possible.
"Then let's change locations. This isn't something that can be explained in a sentence or two."
Bessie Pro and Lin Ye entered the makeshift Laboratory together. It began reporting the progress of various plans to Lin Ye.
Based on the information provided by Bessie Pro, Lin Ye quickly grasped the current state of affairs. However, this didn't put him at ease; instead, it made him feel even more confused.
'...What kind of messy situation is this? Why do so many pieces of information not match up? Is this really the plan I formulated after obtaining the information? Could there have been some issues during the information transmission process?'
Lin Ye wanted to sort out his chaotic thoughts, but one possibility suddenly occupied his mind.
'...Could it be that Bessie Pro has a problem?'
Lin Ye suddenly thrust his hand into Bessie Pro's body, only to find it completely empty inside. What sat before him was a paper doll with only an outer shell.
And as Bessie Pro's creator, Lin Ye had previously failed to notice anything wrong with her at all.
"Oh dear, discovered."
The paper doll smiled and grabbed Lin Ye's right arm, preventing him from withdrawing his right hand from inside its body.