120: Chapter 120 You play your requiem, I'll sing my funeral tune.

Deep within the rock fissures of the earth vein, Chen Fan's knuckles dug deep into the damp stone wall.

The blue flame surged up his wrist like a living snake's tongue, meandering beneath his skin—it was the energy of the 'Seed Echo Array,' using the critical hit power he had previously injected to connect seven light bands into a ghostly blue net.

'It's done!' Black Crow's voice cracked, his trembling fingers finally pressing the last Secret Key into the array's core.

Amidst the crisp sound of the bronze key hitting the stone pedestal, Chen Fan saw the tear mole at the corner of the young man's eye flicker in the blue light. 'Just one more hour, and the Light Speaker can use the Original Sound Frequency to restore all the memories tampered with by the system—'

Ding—

A mechanical sound, like a needle dipped in poison, suddenly pierced everyone's eardrums.

Chen Fan's critical hit system exploded with blood-red text on his retina, the pre-translation function screaming out an analysis: [High-risk signal detected, initiating 'Silence Protocol'—True Command: Activate 'Ultimate Soothing Sound,' moved forward to 1 hour from now.]

'Dammit!' Chen Fan smashed a fist into the rock wall, causing gravel to shower down.

He could hear his heart beating like a war drum—originally there were two hours of buffer, but now only sixty minutes remained.

Once the 'Ultimate Soothing Sound' at the top of Starlight Tower was released, all players in the city would be washed into obedient marionettes, including those ordinary people who had just had their memories awakened by Little Candle's sound waves.

'Don't panic.' The Broken Pen Official's coughing came from the corner, accompanied by the crackling sound characteristic of data.

Chen Fan turned his head and saw the semi-digitalized man unfolding a cross-section map of the Starlight Tower's summit with bloodied fingertips. The bloodstains blurred into an eerie purple on the parchment. 'The Silent Dome has a weakness. The node where the seven sound locks intersect is the "Pain Resonance Point" of the first generation of players' remnant souls. Their final emotions before being erased by the system...' He suddenly convulsed violently, half his face dissolving into a data stream before barely re-coalescing into human form. 'As long as the "Sound of Negation" is struck there, the resonance frequency of the entire tower will lose its balance.'

Chen Fan's thumb unconsciously rubbed the bronze coin in his palm.

Su Shuang had pressed it into his hand, saying it was engraved with the Fox Demon Tribe's Protection Spell.

At this moment, the coin was scalding hot, like a piece of red-hot coal, burning his palm with pain.

He looked at the red dot circled in red ink on the cross-section map and suddenly smiled. 'Wait for her to pass a message? We might as well start the funeral dirge first.'

Before his voice faded, the sound of tearing fabric came from the shadows.

Chen Fan looked up and saw that formless black mist of the shadow pact crawling in through the fissures of the earth vein. Wherever it passed, the rocks crumbled into powder like corroded sugar cubes.

This thing was a contract spirit created by the system to eliminate rebels; it had no physical form but could devour all signals—including the seven blue flames that had just been connected.

'Little Candle!' Black Crow's shout echoed through the cavern.

The girl with twin ponytails leaped out from the center of the array.

The Anti-Contract Rune on her chest was burning hot, red patterns crawling up her collarbone to her neck like a blooming Equinox Flower.

Chen Fan had seen this rune—she had traded her own blood to a black market runemaster for it, the price being that she could never become a registered player.

Now she stood in the path of the shadow pact, pressing the rune to her heart, a broken roar spilling from her throat: 'I don't have a name... but I remember!'

The moment the rune flashed, a roar erupted simultaneously from the direction of the seven broadcasting stations.

Chen Fan saw the mining lamps on the rock walls shaking violently, and the 'negation' sounds of the distant Echo Corpse groups suddenly changed pitch—those monsters, transformed into repeaters by the system, actually raised their heads in unison and repeated in hoarse voices: 'We existed!'

The sound waves were like a tide.

The black mist of the shadow pact was knocked back, surging like torn rags in the wind, even emitting a high-frequency scream-like sound as it retreated to the edge of the void.

Even more startling, Chen Fan heard the sounds of sobbing rising and falling from above—it was the players on the surface.

They knelt in the streets clutching their heads, tears and snot streaming down as they unconsciously murmured: 'I remember... the dumplings my mom made were leek-filled...' 'On my daughter's birthday, I promised to take her to the amusement park...'

'It's working!' Black Crow's eyes were terrifyingly bright as he lunged at the terminal, typing frantically. 'The Light Speaker's remnant soul has been activated! She can hear us!'

The blue flame at the deepest part of the earth vein suddenly condensed.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the phantom of a silver-haired woman emerging in mid-air.

She wore a faded qipao, and from her ear hung a bronze coin identical to the one in his palm, even the small fox carving on the coin was exactly the same.

'I am Su Shuang's older sister.' Her voice was like wind passing through a bamboo curtain, carrying the warmth of old times. 'I was also the first person to say "No" to the system. Now... it's your turn.'

Chen Fan's breath suddenly hitched.

He remembered Su Shuang saying her sister had been erased by the system in the early stages of gamification.

But at this moment, the light in this phantom's eyes was more vivid than any living person's.

He clenched his fists, the blue flame surging through his arms into his palms, and the critical hit system's prompts flowed across his retina: [Target locked: Silent Dome.

Interference window: 1 hour]

'You play your requiem.' Chen Fan looked toward the Starlight Tower, his Adam's apple bobbing, his voice low and raspy like sandpaper on an iron plate. 'I'll sing my funeral dirge.'

The seven broadcasting stations roared almost simultaneously.

It wasn't the soothing sound preset by the system, but a distorted noise—Chen Fan knew it was a battle song edited and spliced together by Little Candle using the 'Sound of Lingering Regret' network, collecting the 'No's' from ten thousand players before they died.

The red light at the top of Starlight Tower flashed madly.

The silver-haired woman's phantom suddenly raised her hand, her fingertips catching a falling tear.

That tear condensed into an ice crystal in mid-air, reflecting Chen Fan's shadow.

'Brother...' Her lips moved, her voice mingling with the sound waves, 'This one call, I have waited ten years for.'

Chen Fan turned and stepped onto the rock stairs leading to the surface.

He could hear the earth vein resonating beneath his feet like some ancient heartbeat.

The blue flame spread along his footprints, branding bright, searing marks onto the rock walls.

Deep within the Gray Alley stronghold, a battered terminal screen suddenly lit up.

Black Crow wiped the sweat from his face, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

On the screen, the blue flame of the fire seed deep in the earth vein was changing shape according to his operations, like a ball of living fire, waiting for a certain key command to descend.

(End)