99: Chapter 99 My name is not for you to carve.

The burning pain in Chen Fan's back was still throbbing, and the marks from the whipping chains seeped blood through his torn battle armor.

But he ignored the pain, watching Mo Jiu dissipate into stardust. His Adam's apple bobbed—that supervisory envoy who had announced 'Purge' with a cold mechanical voice had ultimately ended up like a child stripped of its shell, even his collapse carrying a hint of clumsiness.

Clang—

The crisp sound of bronze armor hitting the ground startled him back to reality.

Beneath the masks of the Echo Armor trio, three faces in their early twenties stared blankly in the direction where the stardust was falling.

The boy with the ponytail raised his hand and touched his own face. His fingertip brushed against skin that was still warm, and he suddenly burst out laughing: "So... so we weren't just data."

"Xiao An?" The girl in the tracksuit suddenly tugged his sleeve. "Do you remember... last month in the Newbie Village, an old grandma gave us warm sweet potatoes?"

The ponytail boy's smile froze, and his eyes slowly reddened: "I remember... Her hands were covered in cracks, and she said, 'Eat up, you little ones in armor, you look skinnier than my own grandson.'"

Chen Fan's throat tightened.

He remembered when he first entered the game, an old man wearing a red armband had forcefully pressed half a mooncake into his hand, saying, "Young man, keep this to save your life."

It turned out that the warmth from those beings deemed 'non-essential NPCs' by the system was never just data; they were real people who had truly existed.

"Chen Fan." Su Shuang's voice was slightly hoarse. Her fox tail gently swept over the bloodstain on his palm. "Look over there."

He followed her gaze and turned his head.

Monk Shen Zhong was kneeling before the Bronze Ancient Bell, though when he had arrived, no one knew.

He was usually wrapped tightly in his gray robes, but now his collar was open, revealing a hideous old scar across his chest—the mark where chains had pierced him.

He held a bronze key in both hands. The notches on the key resembled distorted star tracks, glowing warmly in the faint golden mist. "I struck the bell nine hundred times," his voice sounded like sandpaper scraping against bronze. "Every time the bell rang, it was sending an Awakened one to where they needed to go."

Chen Fan noticed nine hundred pieces of shattered jade buried in the sea sand beneath his knees—each piece was engraved with a name.

"For the nine hundred and first time..." Monk Shen Zhong looked up, the light of the beating bronze heart reflected in his pupils. "The one I wish to send is 'Obedience.'" He placed the key into Chen Fan's palm, pressing down heavily on the spine of the key with his fingertip. "When the bell stops, the Corridor opens."

The system notification sounded precisely on cue, vibrating Chen Fan's eardrums: [Acquired "Starlight Bell Key": Can open the "Starlight Corridor" Instance (Locked)]

"Heart Cocoon Wielder... is leaving soon," Su Shuang whispered close to his ear.

Chen Fan turned sharply.

The figure that had been curled into a cocoon moments ago was now thin as mist, its outline almost merging with the light beneath the water.

He stumbled forward and stopped half a foot away from the Heart Cocoon Wielder—the light characters on the being's temple were still pulsing, each character seeming to struggle out of the void: "The first system prompt... wasn't an alien civilization... it was us..."

"The Doomsday Vote?" Chen Fan blurted out.

He recalled Old Zhou from the construction site always talking about the "2012 Prophecy," and remembered squatting in the temporary shed that winter, his phone screen filled with news about the "Humanity's Survival Referendum."

The Heart Cocoon Wielder's transparent fingertips lifted and pointed at his chest. "Exchanging consciousness for survival... but later... it learned... to delete names."

Intense pain exploded from his heart.

Countless fragments flashed before Chen Fan's eyes: a little girl crying for her mother in the downpour, a high school student clutching his homework book while being dragged away by chains, a man kneeling before the altar begging the system, "Give me three more days, my daughter needs surgery..." These deleted names were actually hidden within the consciousness of the first-generation players.

Ding—

The alarm sound of the critical hit system almost overturned the underwater palace.

A blood-red prompt exploded in Chen Fan's vision: [Detected infusion of first-generation consciousness, unlocked "Root Critical Hit": Can be used once daily to reverse the critical hit effect back to the mission issuer, ignoring level suppression.]

He suddenly laughed, a laugh that brought tears to his eyes.

So the so-called "critical hit" was never a golden finger dropped from the sky; it was accumulated by the consciousnesses that weren't deleted—every time a mission reward doubled, it was the souls crushed by the system pushing him further.

"Th-thank you..."

Tiny specks of light surged from all directions.

Chen Fan looked up and saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of luminous spots floating in the air. They were no longer spelling out "Save Us," but were slowly forming a crooked "Thank You."

The smallest light spot circled him twice, gently brushed against his nose tip like rubbing a cheek, and then extinguished with a 'poof.'

The Echo Armor trio had arrived at the edge of the altar without him noticing.

The girl in the tracksuit unclasped the silver chain around her neck and hung it on a broken pillar of the altar—it was a safety chain engraved with "Lin Xiaxia."

The ponytail boy pressed his work badge into the pile of shattered jade; the three characters "Wang Yong'an" on the badge were polished bright.

The last boy, wearing glasses, took out half a piece of uneaten chocolate and placed it where the Heart Cocoon Wielder had dissipated: "This is what a kid from the Newbie Village forced on me last time, saying, 'Big brother, something sweet can extend life.'"

The three sat down cross-legged, like three new bell guardians.

The bespectacled boy whispered softly before closing his eyes: "From now on... it's our turn to stand guard.'"

Chen Fan gripped the Starlight Bell Key in his palm.

The key's warmth seeped through his palm into his veins, feeling like a living thing was beating.

He looked toward the suspended bronze heart. With every beat, a chain snapped with a 'kacha' sound.

The chains that once entangled IDs fell into the sand like dead dragons that had shed their scales.

"You used 'Purge' to maintain order," he leaned down and kissed the top of Su Shuang's head. Her fox fur tickled his lips. "I will use 'Remember' to break the cycle."

The moment the bronze key was inserted into the crack of the altar, the entire underwater palace trembled.

Chen Fan gritted his teeth and turned the key, hearing the rusty sound of gears engaging from the depths.

One chime, two chimes, three chimes—each chime vibrated painfully in his eardrums, yet it felt like a drumbeat for his heart.

"The light gate!" Su Shuang suddenly grabbed his arm.

A spectral blue light gate split open in the center of the altar, revealing an endless corridor within.

The dense scratches on the walls made Chen Fan's pupils contract—those were the scraped-off names, and each scratch bled a faint golden light, as if bleeding.

"That is the Starlight Corridor." Su Shuang's starlit eyes shone astonishingly bright, her fox tail pulled taut behind her like a straight line. "Legend says all erased names whisper there.'"

"But the most dangerous thing isn't the guards..." She pointed a trembling finger toward the depths inside the gate, "It's the 'first directive' itself. It's still running, and as long as someone awakens, it will initiate a purge.'"

Chen Fan grinned, dual-colored flames erupting around his fists—the radiant flames resulting from the resonance between the critical hit system and his fox demon bloodline.

He squeezed Su Shuang's hand, the warmth from his palm passing through their clasped fingers. "Then I'll just make it... purge itself."

He bent down and carried Su Shuang onto his back. Her fox tail naturally coiled around his neck like a warm scarf.

The wind inside the light gate swept out the whispers of names. Chen Fan heard someone call "Mom," someone murmur "Good luck on the college entrance exam," and a hoarse voice laughing, "Little brat, was the mooncake good?"

He looked back one last time.

The bronze heart was slowly sinking into the ground, and the final chain fell to the sand with a 'clang.'

Above the sea, the fire character labeled "Chen Fan" in the ruins of the Starlight Tower suddenly surged, like a beacon fire burning through the clouds.

On the floating island in the distance, the bell rang again, long and clear, as if in response.

"As long as the name sounds, the person lives—" he murmured into Su Shuang's ear. "I won't walk this path alone."

The moment the light gate closed, the deepest scratch on the corridor wall suddenly glowed golden.

The scraped-off name slowly reappeared, stroke by stroke, as clear as if someone were re-engraving it with a carving knife:

[Mo Jiu · Once Lived]

The whispers inside the gate suddenly intensified, surging into Chen Fan's mind like a tide.

He heard countless names shouting toward the same direction—there was light there, names not yet scraped away, and also...

"Be careful!" Su Shuang's cry of alarm was swallowed by the buzzing of the closing light gate, mixed with the rising chorus of "Come back."

Chen Fan looked toward the endless corridor ahead, dual-colored flames flickering in his fists.

He could feel the "Root Critical Hit" burning in his veins, like a knife quenched with stardust.

The next second, he took his first step.

Deep within the corridor, behind a dark door engraved with "first directive," a red light suddenly began to flash.