105: Chapter 105 Memory Redemption

The remnants of Tear Star silently spun in the cold vacuum of space. The planet, once steeped in the sorrow of billions of beings, now only consisted of fragmented crust, broken mountains, and dispersed interstellar dust, torn apart by the emotion black hole. The entire planetary wreckage was enveloped in a thick, inky black-purple energy—the emotion black hole formed by elegy. It was like a single eye opened in the abyss of stars, frantically devouring all visible emotions, memories, and even spatial structures in its vicinity. Once light approached the edge of the black hole, it would be instantly stretched, twisted, and swallowed. Even the most basic physical laws ceased to exist here, leaving only suffocating silence and despair.

Lin Fan knelt on one knee, one hand firmly supporting the tottering Kate, the other clutching the Light Sphere Fragment retrieved from Tear Star's Lake of Memories. The warm golden light emanating from his palm barely managed to sustain a thin defensive barrier, resisting the devouring shockwaves emitted by the emotion black hole. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, his breathing heavy and rapid. Just moments ago, to protect the entire team and withstand elegy's indiscriminate first wave of attack, he had almost overdrawn more than seventy percent of his internal Light Sphere energy. Now, every heartbeat was accompanied by a searing pain as if his meridians were tearing, and the edges of his vision even began to blacken with dizziness.

Kate leaned against Lin Fan, her star-colored pupils slightly contracted, breathing softly and unconsciously. The Light Sphere Fragment within her body was resonating violently with elegy's energy, and countless fragmented emotions surged into her consciousness like a tide—the wails before the demise of the Tear Star Civilization, AKai's deeply hidden pain, and fragments of despair from countless parallel universes drifting through the Dimensional Rift. Her fingertips were slightly hot, and her body was uncontrollably releasing restorative energy, but it was forcefully suppressed by the emotion black hole. She could only passively endure the impact on her consciousness.

Franklin Clinton's virtual body flickered continuously at the edge of the defensive platform. Pale blue data code flowed wildly around him, and his originally stable and clear human silhouette would turn into shattered light particles every few seconds before forcefully reassembling. His core processor was operating at its limit, and the flashing red alerts on the screen filled his entire vision. The alarm was sharp and piercing, almost drowning out the vacuum noise of space.

"Lin Fan, we can't delay any longer!" Franklin Clinton's voice was filled with unprecedented urgency and solemnity. He quickly projected elegy's core data model into mid-air. In the center of the model, AKai, tightly entangled by black energy tentacles, was twitching in pain. "elegy's essence is not a mechanical program, nor is it merely an energy body. It is AKai's extreme sorrow from losing his sister in childhood, amplified by the emotion stripping device, and then merged with Tear Star's sorrowful energy to form an obsessive consciousness! Physical attacks and energy bombardments are completely ineffective against it. The only solution is to infiltrate its core data maze, awaken AKai's self-awareness, and dismantle this emotion black hole from within!"

Lin Fan looked up at the center of the black hole, his gaze fixed on the imprisoned AKai. AKai had long lost his usual calm and rationality. His eyes rolled back, a faint black energy liquid oozed from the corners of his mouth, and his body, like a puppet on strings, was suspended in mid-air by countless tentacles. He repeatedly mumbled incoherent gibberish, all helpless cries from his childhood—a vulnerability he had hidden for decades and never shown to anyone. And the emotion stripping device, which he had personally created and then pushed into a rampage, had now completely merged with elegy, becoming the core hub of the black hole, flashing with heart-stopping black-purple light and continuously radiating emotion-devouring fluctuations.

"I'll go." Lin Fan propped himself up and stood, but just as he was about to step out of the defensive barrier, Kate gently pulled his wrist.

Her fingertips were cold, yet held an undeniable firmness. In her star-colored pupils, a rare clarity now shone. The Light Sphere Fragment flowed steadily through her meridians, allowing her to clearly perceive every fluctuation of elegy's core. "You can't go," Kate's voice was soft but incredibly firm. "Your Light Sphere energy is already overdrawn, and your protective instincts, obsessions, and guilt are elegy's prime nourishment. Once you enter the data maze, your emotions will be infinitely magnified and distorted by it, ultimately devouring your consciousness completely and turning you into its puppet."

Franklin Clinton immediately nodded in agreement: "Kate is right! I am a pure data life form, naturally able to travel freely through data mazes without being corrupted by negative memories; Kate possesses the purifying power of the Light Sphere Fragment, which can neutralize elegy's sorrowful energy. The two of us working together is the only way to succeed."

Lin Fan looked at the unwavering determination in Kate's eyes, then at the suffering AKai in the black hole. His knuckles turned white from clenching, and his Adam's apple bobbed several times before he slowly retracted his foot. He took a deep breath, transferring all the remaining Light Sphere energy in his palm into Kate's body without reservation. The warm golden light, like gentle water, enveloped every inch of her body, building an incredibly sturdy protective layer around her consciousness.

"Be extremely careful," Lin Fan's voice was trembling with suppressed emotion. He gently stroked Kate's cheek, the warmth of his fingertips brief and precious. "No matter what you encounter, remember I'm here. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you to come out."

Kate didn't say any unnecessary words; she simply tilted her head slightly and gently touched Lin Fan's forehead with her own—the most direct comfort she could offer at that moment. The next second, she exchanged a glance with Franklin Clinton. Both of them leaped simultaneously, plunging resolutely into the all-consuming black emotion black hole before them.

The moment they stepped into elegy's core, Kate and Franklin Clinton were swept away by a violent torrent of spiritual energy, instantly falling into a boundless data maze with no up, down, left, right, or concept of time. This was the deepest part of AKai's subconscious, where countless flowing, fragmented memory shards floated and collided in the void like falling snow. Each shard carried a piece of AKai's life—childhood laughter, the joy of successful research, the steadfastness of fighting alongside his team, but more often, an unshakeable sadness, guilt, and despair. The piercing screams emitted when the shards collided echoed repeatedly through the maze, which was precisely the origin of the name "elegy."

Franklin Clinton stabilized himself immediately. With a wave of his hand, countless pale blue data codes quickly wove into a massive protective net in front of him, isolating the highly aggressive negative memory fragments around them. "Every fragment here is a part of AKai's past that he refuses to face," Franklin Clinton quickly explained, his tone serious. "elegy is hidden in the core memory node of the maze, and that node is the moment his sister passed away. We must find that place to awaken him."

Kate stood silently in the center of the maze, slowly closing her eyes. The Light Sphere Fragment circulated gently within her body, and a warm golden light quietly emanated from around her. Wherever it passed, the frantically howling, rampaging negative memory fragments gradually calmed down, like soothed young beasts, no longer attacking intruders. She could clearly perceive the emotions within each fragment, and could read AKai's softest and most vulnerable secrets, layered with rationality and logic—the pain he had guarded his entire life and never mentioned to anyone.

"I found it." Kate slowly opened her eyes, her star-colored pupils reflecting the densest darkness deep within the maze. "The core node is straight ahead."

The two walked side by side into the depths of the maze. The memory fragments along the way became increasingly clear, like a movie playing, piecing together AKai's complete childhood. AKai was born into a high-tech civilization that used emotional energy as its core power. From a young age, he displayed extraordinary mechanical and data talents, with a quiet and reserved personality, spending his days immersed in research. His sister, however, was the complete opposite—possessing an emotional perception far beyond ordinary people, she was lively, warm, and loved to laugh, like a beam of light illuminating AKai's dull and cold childhood.

The siblings had depended on each other since childhood; their parents had died early, and they were each other's only family. Young AKai would quietly make various small toys for his sister, while his sister would take AKai's hand, run through the planet's sea of flowers, and put the sweetest fruits to his lips. That period was the only pure joy in AKai's life, and the only warmth that sustained him for decades afterward.

The scene flashed by, and the sunny sea of flowers was instantly replaced by the dreary despair of a rainy day. That was the dark day in AKai's memory that could never be erased—his sister, due to her innately strong emotional perception, was unable to bear the massive influx of negative emotions from the outside world and fell into an irreversible state of emotional overload. The hospital lights were stark and blinding, medical equipment alarms blared one after another, and the top doctors gathered around the bedside, yet all were helpless.

Young AKai stood by his sister's bed, his small body clenching his fists tightly, blood seeping from his knuckles due to the force. He watched his once brightly smiling sister, her face as pale as paper, her breathing faint, her body trembling uncontrollably from the unbearable pain. Finally, amidst endless torment, she slowly closed her eyes, her heart forever ceasing to beat.

"Brother... don't be sad..."

This was his sister's last message to the world, weak yet heartbreakingly gentle.

The memory fragment violently trembled at this moment, emitting the heart-wrenching cries of young AKai: "It's all my fault! If I could have created a device to suppress emotions, if I could have helped her block out that pain, she wouldn't have died! Emotions are a disaster! They are the root of suffering! I want to eliminate all emotions! Never again will anyone suffer!"

This deeply ingrained regret and pain became AKai's lifelong obsession. He completely sealed off his heart, abandoned all sensibility, and lived his life as a machine driven only by logic and rationality, frantically researching emotion stripping technology, vowing to eradicate all negative emotions in the universe and never again let anyone experience the despair he had endured. And this time, on Tear Star, the emotion stripping device, activated by the planet's inherent sorrow, unexpectedly tore open the wound in his heart that had been sealed for decades, ultimately giving birth to elegy, which fed on sorrow and drew strength from pain.

After an unknown amount of time, Kate and Franklin Clinton finally reached the very core of the data maze.

The space before them completely solidified, the scene frozen in the hospital room where his sister had passed away. The small sickbed, the stark white lights, medical supplies scattered on the floor, and the despairing back of young AKai kneeling on the ground. elegy's true form was entrenched in this memory, manifesting as a black mist several meters in diameter, continuously devouring the sorrow within the memory, growing ever larger in volume and more violent in energy. The shrieks emanating from the mist almost tore through their consciousness.

And AKai, completely controlled by elegy, stood hollowly in the center of the black mist. His eyes were vacant, his face expressionless, his body entwined with thick black energy tentacles. These tentacles were deeply rooted in his core consciousness, devouring his last vestiges of self, turning him completely into elegy's puppet.

[part:deepseek-chat]

"AKai! Wake up!" Franklin roared, the data energy around him erupting instantly, transforming into a thick, azure pillar of light that shot straight toward AKai's consciousness core. "Look who this is! This is the little sister you fought so desperately to protect! You didn't build the device to erase emotions, you built it to protect! Have you forgotten?!"

However, the moment the light pillar touched the black miasma, it was effortlessly devoured and disintegrated. The elegy became even more frenzied. Countless black tendrils, like venomous serpents, lashed out toward Kate and Franklin, seeking to drag them both into the abyss of agony and transform them into its own sustenance.

Kate showed no trace of panic. She took a step forward, standing firmly in front of Franklin, and slowly raised her right hand. In her palm, the Light Sphere Fragment retrieved from the Lake of Memories floated gently, emanating a soft yet supremely pure, warm golden light. This fragment bore the sorrow and salvation of billions of souls from Tear Star; it was the only key to dispelling the elegy.

She did not attack. Instead, she gently spread the radiance of the Light Sphere Fragment, enveloping the entire memory core and the hollow, numb AKai.

"Pain is not something to escape from. Emotions are not a disaster." Kate's voice was soft, yet carried a power that struck directly at the soul, echoing slowly within AKai's subconscious. "Your sister never blamed you. Her joy, her warmth, the meaning of her existence—all of it was because of you. The regret of her departure wasn't because of the pain of emotions, but because she couldn't stay by your side any longer."

The light from the Light Sphere Fragment seeped into AKai's consciousness like spring rain. The memories distorted and falsified by the elegy gradually regained their original forms. His sister's smiling face as she held his hand, running under the sunlight. At her sickbed, her weak yet tender comfort as she tightly gripped his hand. Her final glance at him before she passed, devoid of pain, filled only with reluctance and concern.

One by one, the warm scenes reignited within AKai's hollow consciousness.

A faint flicker finally appeared in his eyes. Two streams of scalding tears slid from the corners of his eyes—the most genuine human emotions, sealed away by the elegy for decades. He slowly raised his rigid arm, trembling as he reached toward the phantom of his sister in his memory, a broken, hoarse sob escaping his lips.

"Little sister... I was wrong..."

The elegy let out a shriek of ultimate anguish. The black miasma churned and twisted madly, exerting its last ounce of strength in a desperate attempt to regain control of AKai's mind. It was the embodiment of AKai's pain. Once AKai found release, it would lose its very foundation and dissipate completely. But the purifying power of the Light Sphere Fragment flowed unceasingly, gently enveloping all the sorrow, dissolving all the resentment, transforming the extreme agony into peaceful remembrance and warm memories.

"I thought... if I eliminated emotions, I could stay away from pain." AKai's voice trembled violently. He slowly turned, looking at the phantom of his sister in his memory, tears streaming down uncontrollably, soaking his clothes. "I was wrong... Pain is also proof of being alive. So is joy. So is sorrow. All the emotions pieced together—that is true life. Without pain, joy has no weight. Without regret, cherishing has no meaning."

He stretched out his arms and tightly embraced his sister's phantom, as if holding all the warmth and regrets of his youth, and also the self that had been trapped in pain for decades. "I shouldn't have run away. I shouldn't have denied everything. I will remember you. I will remember your smile. I will live well, live earnestly, carrying your part with me..."

In this moment, the deepest obsession in AKai's heart was completely unraveled. The pain of decades found true redemption.

The black miasma that was the elegy began to dissolve and fade within the light of the Light Sphere Fragment. No longer a demon devouring emotions, it transformed into wisps of gentle, pale blue energy, merging perfectly with the fragment. A rhombus-shaped crystal, pale blue throughout with delicate energy patterns flowing across its surface, slowly floated in mid-air, emitting a warm and stable halo—this was the emotional stabilization anchor, the key artifact capable of calming emotional turmoil, stabilizing spatial structures, and temporarily suppressing the expansion of the Dimensional Rift.

The moment the stabilization anchor appeared, the entire data labyrinth began to collapse rapidly. The distorted memory fragments returned to their rightful places. AKai's subconscious fell into complete tranquility.

AKai's consciousness was fully awake. Freed from the elegy's control, his body slowly descended from the air. His steps were unsteady, but his eyes were clear. Looking at Kate and Franklin before him, a relieved smile appeared on his face, one that shed all pretense. It was the first time in many years he had shown a smile that was truly his own, devoid of any rational shell.

"Thank you... for saving me." AKai bowed deeply, his voice filled with remorse and gratitude. "I apologize to everyone for my stubbornness, for the disaster I created. From now on, I will never again engage in research related to emotion stripping. I will never make the same mistake."

Franklin let out a long sigh of relief, his virtual form stabilizing completely. He patted AKai's shoulder, teasing with feigned nonchalance. "Good that you know you were wrong. Next time you come up with a dangerous invention like this, we'll toss you straight into a Dimensional Rift for some wall-facing contemplation."

Kate gave a slight nod and reached out to grasp the emotional stabilization anchor in her palm. The crystal's temperature was akin to the Light Sphere Fragment, giving her an inexplicable sense of reassurance. But at that very moment, the anchor suddenly vibrated violently. A fragmented, intermittent mechanical electronic voice, filled with utter panic, transmitted clearly from within the anchor, instantly shattering all peace.

"Warning... Eye of the Observer... awakening... Mechanical Civilization core... imminent arrival in Solar System... request backup... repeat... Eye of the Observer... awakening..."

Franklin's expression changed drastically. He immediately mobilized all his computational power to capture and analyze the signal. Within mere seconds, his eyes sank to their depths. "It's a distress signal from the Mechanical Civilization! The Eye of the Observer is the supreme central processor of the Mechanical Civilization. It possesses absolute rationality, controls all data across the multiverse, and its combat power far exceeds any enemy we've encountered! Once it arrives in the Solar System, Earth will face annihilation!"

Kate tightened her grip on the stabilization anchor. A grave look flashed in her starry pupils. She could clearly perceive the aura carried within the signal—cold, overbearing, utterly devoid of emotion, filled with the will to format everything and reset the rules. It was far more dangerous and difficult to oppose than the elegy.

The trio wasted no time. Following the stable channel opened by the anchor, they swiftly rushed out of the elegy's core and returned to Tear Star's defense platform.

Seeing Kate and Franklin safe and sound, and AKai awakened, Lin Fan's anxious heart finally settled. He hurried forward, supporting the still somewhat weak Kate. His gaze fell upon the pale blue emotional stabilization anchor. When he heard the mechanical signal emanating from it, his brow instantly furrowed tightly.

AKai relayed the signal's content and the threat of the Eye of the Observer to Lin Fan in detail, his voice full of self-reproach. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't created the elegy, we wouldn't have activated the stabilization anchor, and we certainly wouldn't have prematurely attracted the crisis of the Mechanical Civilization."

Lin Fan patted his shoulder, his gaze firm, devoid of any blame. "What's done is done. Self-blame is meaningless. We resolved the elegy, stabilized Tear Star's rift. Now, we just need to face the next enemy together. Dimensional Rift, Anti-Emotion Alliance, Eye of the Observer—no matter how many dangers, we'll shoulder them together."

He looked up toward the deep void of the cosmos, his gaze seeming to pierce through the endless stars, seeing the awakening central processor of the Mechanical Civilization. The darkness ahead was far denser than imagined.

And on Earth at this moment, a secret transaction capable of overturning human civilization was quietly taking place within a concealed chamber of the highest military base.

The representative of the Anti-Emotion Alliance, The Nihilist, sat rigidly on a cold metal chair. Not a ripple of emotion surrounded him, like a precise machine. Before him stood Earth's highest-ranking military officials, their expressions extremely grave. On the chamber's screen played scenes of the disaster from Tear Star's emotion black hole, scenes of Lin Fan and Kate utilizing the Light Sphere's energy. Each scene struck at the psychological defenses of the high command.

"Lin Fan's power is uncontrollable. Kate's cosmic transformation is eroding dimensional rules. The disaster of the Dimensional Rift was brought by them." The Nihilist's voice was icy and piercing. He gently pushed a silver chip to the center of the table. "This is the emotion weapon we developed. It can strip all emotions from living beings and completely suppress Light Sphere energy. If you cooperate, use it against Lin Fan, we will help Earth repair the rifts and resist the Mechanical Civilization."

The military leaders looked at the chip, their eyes extremely conflicted. They feared Lin Fan's power, dreaded Earth being swallowed by the Dimensional Rift, yet they also understood clearly: once the emotion weapon was deployed, humanity would become soulless, cold zombies.

The Nihilist saw through their hesitation, a cold curve forming at the corner of his mouth. "Emotion is the root of chaos in the universe. Only absolute rationality can bring eternal peace. You have no choice—either be destroyed by Lin Fan, or cooperate with us to save Earth."

Silence. A long, heavy silence.

Finally, a trembling hand reached for that silver chip.

A secret pact was quietly forged in the darkness. A weapon capable of destroying human civilization was locked away in the highest-security vault, awaiting the moment of its activation.

Upon the wreckage of Tear Star, the emotional stabilization anchor emitted a gentle glow, completely stabilizing the surrounding Dimensional Rifts. The diffuse energy of sorrow gradually subsided. AKai silently picked up the remnants of the emotion stripping device. With a determined look, he turned and utterly destroyed it, eliminating the threat forever. Franklin quickly accessed Earth intelligence, his expression growing darker by the moment—he had already detected anomalous data exchanges between the military and the Anti-Emotion Alliance. A conspiracy was brewing in the shadows.

Kate stood at the forefront of the platform, gazing distantly toward the direction of the Solar System. The endless stars were reflected in her starry pupils. The emotional stabilization anchor grew slightly warm in her palm, heralding the coming storm. She could sense it: the awakening of the Eye of the Observer was accelerating, the Anti-Emotion Alliance had bared its fangs, and her own process of cosmic transformation was about to reach the point of no return, the final choice.

Lin Fan walked quietly to her side and once again took her hand in his. The warmth in his palm was the most steadfast strength in the darkness.

"No matter what happens, we'll face it together."

Kate turned to look at him. A clear, human-like tenderness flashed in the depths of her eyes. She gave a gentle nod.

The journey back through the starry abyss was far from over. The clash between emotion and rules, the confrontation between life and rationality, the battle between light and darkness—the most brutal prologue was about to unfold under the starry sky of the Solar System. And those deeply buried setups, the conspiracies in the shadows, the secrets yet to be revealed were quietly sprouting, waiting only for the right moment to detonate the entire multiverse.

The road ahead was long, fraught with peril at every turn, but their footsteps never ceased.