Chapter 684

I failed again....

Second Loop.

In the time rift, Zhang Jie looked at Lei Na, whose anomaly had turned her transcendent within the timeline, and he suffered a relentless headache.

He didn't know whether his choice was correct; fate was like an unbendable metal—once bent, it could never return to its original shape.

Zhang Jie thus wasted his first Loop, because no matter what he did, he could not let Lei Na successfully ascend to Forbidden.

To this end, he even made a table, strictly following the effect of every microgram of strange substance on Lei Na's bodily changes.

But no matter how Zhang Jie tried, Lei Na's final result was always a mutation into a transcendent being.

No exceptions.

In other words, Lei Na's storyline is dead.

Lei Na, because she did not heed his advice, forcibly sought out strange substances, causing her to become a transcendent being.

This dealt another heavy blow to Zhang Jie's mindset—Qi Yu was gone, now Lei Na was gone too; what did he have left?

When Master Zhang returned home after a busy day, the first thing he saw was not a steaming bowl of chicken soup but a kitchen filled with smoke, and he knew something was wrong.

Afterward, in the basement of the research institute, he found the girl who had mutated into a transcendent monster.

He ended her life with his own hands.

After that, there was no afterwards; when the second aberrant god corruption descended, three of the seven Forbidden were killed or injured, and Zhang Jie could not save them all no matter what.

Then the situation collapsed one-sidedly; the mimics seized the opportunity to occupy most of humanity's habitats, and under the drain of his body and the exhaustion of his energy, Zhang Jie collapsed.

The undying obsession activated, driving him to become a vengeful spirit.

He lost most of his sanity and launched an incredibly fierce revenge against the mimic swarm.

His sole obsession was to eliminate the aberrations, retrieve Qi Yu, and kill all mimics.

When Qi Yu learned of all this, it was already too late—his Master had become a vengeful spirit that existed only for revenge in this world.

Even though he desperately wanted to recognize his Master, praying and begging, hoping he would remember himself.

But all that greeted Qi Yu was the undying thought of a spirit.

He ultimately did not become a Legendary Investigator, but he was already comparable to one.

He slaughtered all mimics, personally killed three aberrant gods, and personally destroyed the AI on Yunxing that called itself an evil god.

He burst out of the interstellar sclera, alone facing countless Insect Disasters, using his obsession and insect flesh to build a new flesh membrane for human civilization that belonged to him, Zhang Jie.

Thus, Zhang Jie outside the spacetime rift completed his first Loop.

Before the second Loop began, he needed to record a detailed plan, which could also be called an update log for his own timeline.

"Second Loop, first."

"Corrected Lei Na's childhood psychological trauma, increasing the success rate of his ascension to the Forbidden Permit."

"Second, advance Lei Na's first use of blood timeline."

"Third, try to raise the older sister's talent state and mentality."

"OK, that's all; let's give it a try."

The reason for recording these update logs is to prevent excessive forgetting; every timeline's final descent into decline is an irrevocable decision.

Zhang Jie fears forgetting; he cannot afford to forget, and if he could, he would want to record every node of each timeline.

But unfortunately, the rules inside the temporal rift do not allow such things to exist in the next Loop.

In other words, if necessary, he must keep every change to the timeline in his mind and, before this Loop ends, recite them all from memory.

One or two times is fine, but the more Loops there are, the greater the pressure on his brain.

While his mind is still relatively clear now, he can only make a minor adjustment to his timeline, making it as good as possible.

"OK, then let's begin."

"First, we need to confirm what happened to Lei Na during her loli period."

Moreover, Zhang Jie discovered that his ability had become stronger in the second Loop.

It's not that his strength increased, but that his own ability to influence the timeline had increased.

For a character like Lei Na, whose fate carries great weight, he can now influence her even more.

Zhang Jie speculates that this might be some kind of assimilation effect; when he first arrived here, he had not fully merged with the temporal rift.

As the Loops continue to advance, his relationship with the temporal rift will presumably deepen; this may also be the main reason why his other timeline selves forget.

The deeper his integration into the rift, the greater his influence over fate, but correspondingly, the degree to which fate influences him in return also increases.

What characteristics do people within fate have?

The answer is fairly obvious: they do not know they are within fate, they do not know what they have changed, and they do not know what they will experience in the future.

This may be the true essence of forgetting.

"Hey, I knew you kid had talent."

Old Zhang Jie came out at some point, his eyes showing emotions that Zhang Jie could not quite understand.

Although it's called the second Loop, in fact many days have passed—at least one or two months.

Since Zhang Jie chose to let Lei Na use strange substances to break through Forbidden, he has not seen that old thing.

It is obvious that this old thing is dissatisfied with Zhang Jie's decision.

After all, Lei Na is definitely an inseparable part of him; Zhang Jie's choice to sacrifice Lei Na would certainly dissatisfy him.

But there's no way around it; if he wants to achieve a perfect ending, relying solely on his current state definitely won't work.

Either Lei Na or the elder brother—if either of them can break through Forbidden, they can change this situation.

Even Zhang Jie somewhat regrets killing Si Luo.

In this chaotic world, someone like him who stops at nothing is indeed needed.

But Zhang Jie will absolutely not let him return, even if this is the second Loop—it's impossible.

If such a person were my teammate, Zhang Jie could consider letting him stay.

But as long as this guy exists for a day, it is extremely dangerous for me and the people around me.

"Yo, the busy one's here."

Zhang Jie teased Lao Deng, and the other party didn't get angry, sitting down beside Zhang Jie.

"Since I've figured out the operating mode, I won't say more."

"But I still want to say, you should be a little nicer to Lei Na."

"She's been having a tough time."

Zhang Jie was speechless. Is this really me? How did I become so effeminate?

But Zhang Jie still agreed with what he said; Lei Na is a good girl, and he doesn't deny that.

"Don't worry."