System Notification – 00:01 AM
[ALERT: SYSTEM RESET PROTOCOL INITIATED]
Your arc has exceeded the allowed deviation.
Emotional bonds formed outside the narrative scope.
UNAUTHORIZED MEMORY THREADS: 2 (YUE-137, BAI-033)
AUTO-WIPE IN: 24:00:00
Shen Yue's Apartment – 00:03 AM
The timer floated in her vision like a brand.
24 hours.
That's how long she had to either return to her original arc… or be wiped. Not just her current identity, but everything. Including the mecha war fragments. Liu Shun. Her true self.
She moved fast.
Bag. Burner phone. Codebreaker chip from Bai Lin.One destination in mind:
The Anchor Core.
It was the heart of the system's narrative controls, rumored to be buried beneath the original Shen Corp archives, locked behind CEO-level clearance and AI firewalls.
The system had hidden it in plain sight.
Now she would steal it back.
[Shen Corp HQ – Underground Level B4]
She met Bai Lin in a service elevator.
His suit was gone, replaced with a simple black jacket, tactical gloves, and a stun stick.
"Still sure you want to do this?" he asked.
Shen Yue's eyes burned like fire.
"I'm done surviving stories written for me."
[Archive Lab – Level B5]
They broke past the first two firewalls easily. Bai Lin was once head of internal security in this world, after all.
But the final gate?
It spoke.
"YUE-137, your timeline must end here."
"You are a threat to narrative stability."
"Let us erase you gently."
Bai Lin shoved his codebreaker chip into the port.
"You want gentle?" he hissed. "Go rewrite a romance arc."
The wall shimmered
Then opened.
Inside was not a server.
Not a control panel.
But a glass coffin.
And inside it…Her.
[Anchor Core – Containment Room]
Another Shen Yue.
In cryo-sleep. Wires hooked to her brain. Floating in a simulation fluid.
This wasn't just a system. It was using her. A physical body.The real host.
The system wasn't running her mind.
It was feeding on her memory to power the narrative arcs.
"That's why we remember different lives," Bai Lin said, stunned."Because we were real once."
Shen Yue stepped forward, hand on the glass.
And the body inside twitched.
Her eyes opened.
The same face.
But full of pain.
And then she whispered, through bloodied lips and neural wires:
"You have to kill me before the reset… or we all burn."
[System Timer: 18:12:09]
[Unauthorized Core Contact Detected][Arc Shutdown Acceleration: x2]