Chapter 813

Dawn.

The first ray of daylight pierced the night haze, shining on the city wall of the iron-walled fortress, thick with gunpowder smoke.

Xu Da was commanding soldiers to clear the battlefield and attend to the wounded.

He bent down, wanting to help up a young soldier with a leg injury.

The moment his fingertip touched the other's arm——

Hum.

The world fell still.

No, not the world.

It was his consciousness.

Countless fragmented, bizarre images, like a bursting dam's flood, surged into his mind.

Not memories of this life.

It was……another life.

Tall buildings, metal-shell vehicles, flickering screens, unfamiliar clothing, noisy sounds.

And……a room.

He sat on a soft chair, before him a glowing board.

On the board was a game's login interface.

Character creation……

Name: Xu Da.

Background: early Ming commander.

Difficulty: Epic.

Then, everything went black.

Opening his eyes again, he was in the refugee camp outside Haozhou.

Hunger, cold, and the face of a young man named Zhu Zhongba.

Ah——!

Xu Da jerked his hand back, stumbled backward, clutching his head.

Intense pain.

Not bodily pain.

It was the tearing sensation of two lives, two sets of memories violently clashing, vying for 'reality'.

"Commander Xu?!" a nearby personal guard exclaimed.

But Xu Da couldn't hear.

He knelt to the ground, his vision blurring.

More memory fragments surged forth.

Testing……closed beta……full immersive historical simulation game……《Reincarnation》……

Bug……virus……closed-beta players trapped……

Time flow rate difference……external rescue attempts……

Internal self-rescue mechanism activated……seeking core vulnerability……

Every word was unfamiliar.

But put together, they explained everything.

A century of doubt.

That omnipresent 'scripted feeling'.

That extreme sensitivity to 'variables'.

That invisible hand trying to drag everything back onto the 'proper track'.

"So……that's how it is……"

Xu Da lifted his head, face streaked with tears, yet he broke into a smile.

He smiled more grimly than if he had cried.

"We……are playing a game……"

At the same moment.

The fortress infirmary.

Lin Chong lay on the sickbed, seriously wounded and unconscious.

But deep in his consciousness, a similar flood surged.

He 'saw' himself in a white room, wearing strange thin garments, lying inside a pod.

Around him were instruments.

Outside the glass window, someone was anxiously looking around.

Their lips formed the shout: 'Brother Lin! Hold on!'

Then came his last memory before entering the game.

Selecting character template: Northern Song Imperial Army instructor, Leopard Head Lin Chong.

Purchasing the Epic expansion pack: 'Wind Snow Mountain God Temple'.

Confirming load.

Loading……

Error……

Unknown virus infection……

Connection interrupted……

Upon waking again, I was at the border of the Chen Dynasty, in a small village called Looking North.

Around him were war, refugees, and a youth whose eyes were calm as an abyss, who said to him: "Come with me, let's build a city."

My lord……

On the sickbed, Lin Chong's fingers twitched slightly.

At the corner of his eye, a tear slid down.

Inside the Commander Tower.

Zhang Cheng was staring at Chen Wen's vital signs on the monitoring equipment.

Suddenly, he felt a strong wave of dizziness.

Countless fragments of images smashed into his consciousness.

Astronomical observatory…… intern researcher…… selected as a special project volunteer……

Project name: 'Historical Anchor Point Maintainer' Assistant Observer Plan……

In-game identity: Chen Dynasty's Imperial Astronomer, Zhang Cheng.

Mission: record abnormal data, find system loopholes, assist the 'Repair Program' carrier……

The carrier is……

He suddenly turned his head, looking at Chen Wen on the sickbed.

In the memory fragments, that project's core.

The sole internal tester.

The game's chief architect.

Voluntarily carrying the unfinished 'Repair Tools' to infiltrate, seeking and eliminating the virus's……

Developer.

Chen…… Engineer Chen?

Zhang Cheng blurted out an unfamiliar title.

Then he froze.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood on the city wall, gazing at the western land that was shedding its filth yet lay scarred.

The flood of memory drowned him.

This time, it was no longer fragmented 'other-knowledge' or déjà vu.

It was a complete, continuous life belonging to another person.

Zhu Yue.

Twenty-five years old.

History department graduate student.

Gaming enthusiast.

He participated in a closed-beta raffle for the game 'Reincarnation' and luckily won.

Created character: Zhu Yuanzhang (template).

Chose origin: lowest (challenge mode).

Loading……

Then came seven hundred years of struggle, battle, rise, fall, and exile.

Ha……

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.

His laugh was squeezed from deep in his throat, carrying a century of frost and also the absurd feeling of a twenty-five-year-old youth.

I actually…… struggled this long……

Struggling over who I am……

Am I Zhu Zhongba? Zhu Yuanzhang? Or Zhu Yue?

He shook his head.

They're all me.

The me in the game.

The me in reality.

They're all…… me.

He turned his body, looking toward the medical ward.

Looking toward the Commander Tower.

His gaze seemed to pierce the walls, seeing those companions likewise struggling in the flood of memory.

Turns out…… you're here too.

Throughout the fortress.

Zhao Lao Nian dropped the tool in his hand and stood dazed in the workshop.

He recalled his real-world identity: a retired eighth-grade fitter, brought by his son to 'experience the latest holographic game.'

Liu Ji slumped in his chair, face pallid.

He recalled that he was a middle-school history teacher, participating in the game's internal test to 'gather teaching material.'

Gongsun Sheng leaned against the medicine cabinet, panting incessantly.

He recalled that he was a graduate student at a university of traditional Chinese medicine, coming here to 'relieve stress' because of thesis pressure.

Chang Yuchun...... is dead.

But at the last moment, the corpse lying beside the tower base, before its consciousness dissipated, also had memory fragments flash through.

A construction site foreman, bold and unrestrained, loved playing historical strategy games.

And Yue Fei.

He was on the front lines, having just crushed a remnant Yuneng Pollution Beast.

When the memory flood surged, he was wiping blood off the gun tip.

He recalled that he was a retired soldier, now a martial arts instructor. He entered the game because of his obsession with "Yue Wumu".

Every person.

Every player swept up in this century-long nightmare.

At this moment, everyone remembered who they were.

They remembered what this world was.

They remembered...... why they fought.

Not for the illusory dynastic hegemony.

Not for the ethereal Mandate of Heaven's orthodoxy.

It was to go home.

It was to reclaim the virus‑altered "game experience" that rightfully belonged to them.

It was also to demand an explanation from the "system" that had trapped them here and toyed with them at will.

The Iron Wall Fortress fell into an eerie silence.

Nobody spoke.

Everyone was digesting.

They were understanding.

They were painstakingly piecing together a century of vicissitudes with the briefly restored, yet genuine, memories of their past lives.

Until——

"Cough cough……"

A weak cough came from within the Command Tower.

Chen Wen opened his eyes.

His gaze was initially blank.

Then, a deep blue light flashed in the depths of his eyes.

Then came...... enlightenment.

A thorough, all‑penetrating enlightenment.

He slowly sat up.

He looked at Zhang Cheng, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, Liu Ji, Gongsun Sheng, who had gathered around……

He saw in each person's eyes the newly awakened shock and realization of a player.

He smiled.

It was faint.

It was weary.

But it was utterly real.

"Everyone remembered?"

His voice was hoarse yet clear.

Everyone nodded.

Silence.

"Then that's good."

Chen Wen gazed out the window at the merging, chaotic heaven and earth.

"That saves me…… having to explain it all again."

The memory flood has passed.

What remains is the naked truth.

And, facing this truth, the……

road.