Chapter 249: My Fiery Little Rose~

Simulation ended

At the end of the simulation, you chose to stand alone on the damaged mecha, waiting for that person's return, but eventually your body could not withstand the wear of time, even with the 'Immortal' bonus it was useless, and you ultimately chose self-annihilation

Time is the cruelest, longest wait; you finally gained liberation. Year is the final date you waited for. Your death did not come from component aging, but from the continual erosion of your heart in endless ages. You are the galaxy's most solitary watcher

In the reward settlement, the simulation results have been archived into reality....

Everything had ended, but Zhang Jie, who usually complained whenever a simulation ended, now remained completely still

Crimson blood slowly flowed from his five orifices, trickling down Zhang Jie's face

Seventy thousand years of solitude surged out from the simulator, crossing time, precisely imprinting onto Zhang Jie's mind the 'weathering' of the river of time

Everything exceeded his expectations; his current body could not withstand such a massive memory flush

At the same time, he also lost control over his various abilities—for example, the Nightmare Disaster still fighting on the battlefield, and someone's treasured Flaming Rose

All of this happened too fast; not even anyone noticed the abnormality, and no one knows how long Zhang Jie's condition will go unnoticed

But the culprit behind all this naturally wouldn't just wait for Zhang Jie to die; it began remedial measures

"Enhanced psychological guidance has been forcibly activated...."

"Begin helping the subject organize memories, directive: retain only memories of event development, trim excess waiting memories, execute immediately..."

Meanwhile, in a certain mysterious room, many display cases appeared here

Inside, things were messy and irregular, with plastic spear toys, empty small medicine bottles, and some photos of boys and girls

To others, this meant nothing, but to a certain person, it might be her most precious memory

Each item was perfectly preserved in its own display case, the glass wiped spotless; one can see that the owner cherishes this place

And yet, in the very center of the exhibition hall, which should be the most conspicuous spot, it is now empty, nothing to be seen

At this moment, the dark exhibition hall suddenly lit up; Lin Ran, who had been busy all day, hummed a little tune as she walked in

That's right, she is the owner of this exhibition hall; this place holds all her best memories, including Zhang Jie's grab-the-lot toy from back then, and the first vial of gene medicine her parents gave her

But if it were only these, she wouldn't need to come here every day recently

Before, she used to come about once a month, but now she comes every day to see the Fiery Little Rose she treasures

That Fiery Little Rose is truly beautiful; Lin Ran loves it to death—it not only changes color, but constantly repeats the process of blooming, and Lin Ran has come many times just for it

At this moment, she hasn't realized what happened; she simply hummed to herself and began carefully wiping each display case

"My Fiery Little Rose~"

"So good, so good~~~"

Until she saw the empty display case

"?"

"???"

Lin Ran's first reaction was that some guy had stolen it, only then did she suddenly realize

Panic instantly appeared on her face; she dropped the tool in her hand and ran toward a certain place

"How could this be possible!"

"Zhang Jie he obviously!"

What met her eyes was a expanse of crimson; Lin Ran incredulously stepped back two steps

"Zhang Jie!"

"What's wrong with you!!!"

One year.... longer than Yunxiao imagined

During this time, everyone in the Federation believed they had prepared for a year-long stay, such as books, games, and snacks

And Yunxiao naturally prepared many things for this vacation

The Federation chief's resting place is huge, arranged to the highest standard; a year's worth of chips, novels, and games were all meticulously prepared by Yunxiao

She looked forward to the days when she could play games with 118; after being busy for so long, she could finally rest properly

But now, looking at the realistic mecha game screen before her, Yunxiao had no desire to play at all

"Hey! I'm telling you, this game you humans made is actually quite addictive!"

"Hey! Just launch a level-six mecha, and I'll take you on a clearing run!"

The Intelligent Machine Empress's incessant beeping came from her ears, making her already bad mood even worse

The Empress was still playing the game mindlessly, and Yunxiao spoke up again, asking that question she had asked countless times

"Is there really no way to bring 118 back?"

The Intelligent Machine Empress stopped her mindless laughter, fell silent for a moment, then still spoke

"You know, the thrust needed to escape a black hole's gravity is unimaginable."

"With our current technological level, it's simply impossible."

"The hastily built Voyager simply doesn't have extra time to manufacture propulsion devices."

This time Yunxiao fell silent, she slowly leaned back against the chair, her eyes filled with unspeakable self-reproach and desolation

It's only been half a month, and I'm already so bored I want to die—how is 118 supposed to spend its time?

"Don't worry too much."

The Intelligent Machine Empress spoke up in time; with her powerful computing ability, she had already calculated every possible situation 118 might encounter

"Machines can enter active hibernation; 118 only needs to wake up periodically to adjust its position, so it doesn't drift too far."

"For the vast majority of the time he can be completely in hibernation, and even his waking time actually never exceeds a year."

Yunxiao felt a bit better inside; the Empress's words were indeed reasonable, and the only thing to worry about was whether 118's equipment might fail

And the one thing the Empress didn't mention was that there's a one-in-a-thousand chance of a malfunction in 118's equipment

But with such low probability, unless the intelligent machine reporting the data brings it up, nobody would mention it

I guess I'll go down, I need to think.

Alright... then I'll play by myself.

Ignoring the Intelligent Machine Empress who had become addicted to the internet, Yunxiao lay on the bed holding two bags of chips.

For some reason, she always had a bad premonition........