Chapter 554

Christina really wanted to reach out and grab back her crumbling body, but reason made her retract her hand to avoid making the situation worse.

She still had unfinished business, but her body couldn't hold on first.

Wait... the singularity attracted all the temporal radiation of the universe to maintain its own existence...

"So that's it..."

Isn't the "Black Hole Furnace" a super-large reality anchor?

The moment she crossed the "storm wall," her life began its countdown; hundreds of years of time would soon return, letting this "centenarian" "die of old age."

Christina tried to twitch her fingers.

Sure enough, as the tendons disappeared, her ring finger and little finger had lost function, and only three fingers on her left hand could move.

Hold on a little longer...

Christina became increasingly tired; it seemed a voice rose from the bottom of her heart, lingering in her ears, urging her to fall asleep quickly.

After that, there would be eternal peace.

Just a little while is enough... she told herself.

Taking a breath, Christina took off her helmet to remove some weight.

Then, she struggled to lift her legs and walked toward the huge building.

Alice stood by the gate, connecting the terminal to the permission verification system with a data cable.

After the terminal issued a successful verification prompt, she hurriedly put it away and waited for the site gate to open.

With a "beep," the red light on the door frame turned green.

In the heavy humming sound, the long-silent hydraulic pump extracted oil, the oil flowed through the pipes, giving power to the entire system, and the hydraulic steel pipes operated, slowly raising the heavy alloy gate.

And it seemed it hadn't been used for too long, and lacked maintenance and care.

During the process of the gate rising, there was always a tooth-aching friction sound, as well as a stuttering grinding sound; from time to time, electric sparks could be seen at the door frame.

Fortunately, the gate opened smoothly without any accidents.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief and walked straight inside.

The moment she stepped into the gate, the green light turned red.

The sound of pipes bursting rang out dully, the heavy gate let out a shrill cry, and pressed down with the momentum of a thunderbolt, like a guillotine for Louis XVI.

Alice's heartbeat accelerated instantly, but she couldn't make any reaction in time.

Just at this critical moment, a crisp metallic collision sound rang in her ears, followed by a muffled groan.

"Ugh—!"

At the same time, Alice felt she had been hit solidly and was knocked forward; she staggered two steps and fell to the ground.

She climbed up, turned around, and saw Christina struggling to hold up the gate with her arms and back.

Like Atlas carrying the sky.

The exoskeleton on Christina's body had twisted and broken, metal fragments fell to the ground, and electric sparks splashed.

Noticing Alice's gaze, Christina looked up and gave a smile she thought was cheerful.

Miss Alice... safe now...

It's just... really... so tired...

Is this how it feels... after people get old...

A deeper sense of powerlessness, like a tide, surged wave after wave, trying to drown her.

Christina hated this feeling.

However, she saved Miss Alice's life again... this makes it fair...

Beside her, Alice saw Christina trapped by the gate and unable to move, feeling very anxious.

Her gaze wandered near the door frame, desperately looking for the host or an available terminal.

Even seeing the hydraulic device would be fine.

Just then, Christina called out to Alice:

"No need to bother, Miss Alice."

Alice was stunned, her gaze moved to Christina, not yet asking what this meant.

She noticed the other party's body was breaking, crumbling inch by inch, and dissipating.

Boom!

Alice's brain went blank; the surprised expression first froze, then turned into urgency and panic.

How could...

(bbda)

She reached out, wanting to do something, but only reached halfway before retracting her hand.

This is the curse of time; she could do nothing about it.

Even if it's the Foundation, they can only let people avoid this terrible phenomenon by performing transformation surgeries on selected people.

Once caught up by lost time, how can it be recovered... The Foundation in the apocalypse didn't give an answer.

This is actually the answer—humans are helpless against this.

Alice could only watch as Christina's body dissipated bit by bit.

And could only watch in despair as Christina's life returned to the Grim Reaper bit by bit.

"No..."

"Don't be sad, Alice."

"Is this the price for you using the reality anchor? This shouldn't—"

"It's not, Alice. It's because this is the 'City'."

Christina shook her head, the range was very small.

Even such a small movement required her to concentrate all her will to barely complete it.

And the sound of her speaking also became smaller and smaller.

"Did you forget what 'Drifter' said? This is the place with the thickest temporal radiation in the entire universe."

"The 'storm wall,' this natural barrier, probably appeared for this reason."

Suddenly, the gate trembled, seemingly wanting to continue pressing down.

Christina's body paused, then slowly straightened up; the metal of the exoskeleton made an unbearable sound, and sparks erupted at the joints one after another.

She paused, very tired, then looked up and said:

"This is a journey of gradual loss."

"We are always losing something, aren't we?"

"Losing goals, losing family, losing 'Drifter', losing... me."

Christina's appearance didn't change significantly, but half of her face had already disappeared.

She squeezed out a little smile and raised her left hand, wanting to touch Alice's face.

It's just that before it touched, the entire left arm dissipated completely, like sand blown by the wind.

Looking at the empty exoskeleton of her left arm, Christina felt a bit regretful; it's just that she couldn't make any expression anymore.

"...But these losses must have meaning, Alice."

"This is the end of the world in the true sense. Only you and I are left... soon only you will be left."

"I can see the machine inside, it's big and complex. You have to go in and turn it on."

"It is the source of everything, our destination, the place where everything begins and ends."

Alice leaned forward, her hands reaching toward Christina's body.

"We have to go together. We must go together, you can't—"

"Alice, take my share and witness it together, okay? Witness the..."

Before the words fell, the gate closed with a bang.

The exoskeleton was completely crushed by the gate, leaving only mechanical debris on the ground, and gray-white fragments that were once flesh and blood drifting in the air.

Alice sat slumped against the gate, with the proof of Christina's existence beside her.

She looked up, eyes closed, but couldn't let tears flow out.

After a while, she lowered her head abruptly and woke up the personal terminal, wanting to see the information left by "Drifter" again.

Just then, she suddenly saw a video created late last night.