"It seems you've decided to move on."
In the lounge of the construction department where Ye Lan had stayed yesterday, an elderly man, who looked to be in his fifties, was standing there, holding a gentleman's cane and wearing a gray striped suit jacket and a purple vest.
His face was deeply wrinkled, and his beard and slicked-back hair were meticulously groomed, with a pure black tie tied at his collar. From the creases and stitches of his clothes to the gleaming leather shoes, everything maintained an extremely rigorous level of propriety.
Standing opposite him was Supervisor A, who stared silently at the old man in front of him, waiting for the man to say the next thing.
"Your mind and body have already been ravaged and eroded by that cruel reality. Do you really have the confidence to continue?"
Supervisor A didn't speak, but just looked at him silently.
The old man, having received no answer, remained silent along with Supervisor A. After a moment, he seemed to relent and continued, "Alright, in any case, you must still have many questions about everything that happened here, right? For example, 'Who is this old man in front of me? Why does he have the same voice and face as me?'"
"A person cannot see themselves without external help. Consider me as a mirror reflecting you... or more precisely, a broken mirror. This old man is a piece of that broken mirror, named Abel. Overwhelmed by anger and stubbornness, he awaits to be forgotten by the world. I, like you, decided to move forward, but I saw no turning back. Every night I toss and turn, unable to sleep, even plagued by nightmares."
The conversation between the two, or rather, between Supervisor A and a part of his personality, continued, but the work for the day could not be stopped because of their conversation.
Ye Lan, who had just woken up in his dormitory, had all his injuries healed thanks to the regeneration reactor. Now, his naked body was completely unmarked.
Entering the bathroom, a slight smile appeared on my face as I looked in the mirror. Today was the 47th day of this cycle, and only four days remained until the Seed of Light was launched.
Four days. After four days, he can escape this endless cycle of reincarnation.
Beep beep!
The ornament on the sink jumped out of the light screen once again, and Central's face reappeared in front of him.
"Some bad news: our attempt to enter the city by aircraft has failed. The only message the agents sent back was, 'There are no stars in the sky above the city. What are those shiny things?'"
"Is there even worse news?"
Ye Lan smiled happily and asked Central. Central's words today were the first he had heard in countless reincarnations, and his time had indeed moved forward by one day.
"Indeed, there is worse news. New anomalies have broken out again in the area outside the city known as the ruins, and we will not be able to provide you with evacuation routes for the time being."
The old lady in the light screen showed genuine regret on her face, but what she was thinking was something Ye Lan, who had just transmigrated to this world more than ten years ago, couldn't understand, and now she understood even less.
After ending her conversation with her, Ye Lan hummed a silly tune and walked out of her room in a cheerful mood. In the elevator, she ran into Sephirah Netzach from the security department.
"Hey, isn't this our best employee? You looked so pathetic yesterday, you scared everyone to death."
Sephirah, whose shell still bore traces of endorphins, patted Ye Lan hard on the back, discussing his performance yesterday: "You actually took down that henchman all by yourself! Haha, after hearing the news yesterday, I was so surprised that I went to Hod to ask for some more endorphins."
Without making a sound, Ye Lan removed the mechanical hand that had been patting her back from behind and asked him, "Didn't you quit?"
Seemingly sensing Ye Lan's concern, this guy, who had once used endorphins to escape reality, blinked his mechanical eyes and, feigning magnanimity, banged his shell loudly as he said to Ye Lan, "Hey, let's celebrate. Even if it's a salvaged test, it's just a henchman. Besides, there's no beer here, so we'll just have some endorphins. Don't worry, it's really just a tiny bit. I won't run away anymore."
"I hope so..."
Ding! The elevator arrived at its destination, and the two of them walked into the restaurant together.
"We were the first to enter the 'Well of Humanity.' We have existed for a long time, but as time has passed, our existence has been gradually forgotten and denied—and now, only a few people can feel our presence."
In that break room, Abel's conversation with Supervisor A continued. However, it was less of a conversation and more of Abel's monologue, or perhaps Supervisor A's own monologue.
"Only a very few people. Carmen was one of them. She noticed and became convinced of our existence. She even tried to persuade us. If our existence could be proven, then she too would have the opportunity to enter the 'Well of Humanity.' She firmly believed that only through the 'Well' could the cure for the intractable disease rooted in the world be found. So, we continued the unfinished research left by Carmen and succeeded…"
"...This discovery gradually took root in our subconscious, and we thought we could rekindle the forgotten flame of life. However, we went down the same path as Prometheus. So in the end, what did we accomplish? What did we gain? We lost far more than we gained."
After breakfast, Ye Lan ran into Hod on her way to the locker room. Hod was preparing to welcome the new employees. As Sephirah from the training department, she needed to provide the new employees and clerical staff with training manuals she had personally written.
"Good morning, Hod. I could see your antenna from far away. Is it really not a microphone?"
In a cheerful mood, Ye Lan made a joke about the antenna stuck on Hod's shell as soon as she saw her, but it was obviously too harsh for the timid little angel Hod.
"Um... this isn't a microphone! And don't joke around with my antenna!"
"Ha, hahaha!" Ye Lan laughed loudly when she heard Hod's rebuttal. "Hod, have you noticed that you've become much stronger than before? After the core suppression, you've truly let go of what you experienced back then."
"Huh?"
Leaving Hod puzzled as to how Ye Lan knew about what happened back then, Ye Lan went into his dressing room. The twilight suit he wore yesterday was there; it seemed A planned to have him start working in that gear today.