Playing inventor in a cultivation world

Chapter 157: Recovery Protocol

The tiny blue crystal floated gently before Nathan.

Its soft glow pushed back the darkness spreading through the ruined street.

Nathan couldn’t breathe.

"Halo..."

The crystal pulsed once.

Then again.

Its familiar voice echoed inside his mind.

[Hello, Partner.]

[I missed you.]

Nathan laughed through the tears gathering in his eyes.

"I thought..."

"I thought I’d never hear your voice again."

Halo’s light brightened.

[You promised to live.]

[I promised to watch over you.]

Nova smiled quietly.

"I knew you’d find each other."

The reunion lasted only seconds.

The crystal giant towering over the city raised its head again.

Its blank white eyes flashed.

A deep mechanical tone rolled across the skyline.

"Recovery Protocol interrupted."

"Guardian confirmed."

"Secondary objective initiated."

Thousands of glowing symbols spread across its crystal body.

Harold’s expression changed immediately.

"Get down!"

The giant opened its mouth.

A wave of blue energy exploded outward.

Unlike the spear...

This attack didn’t destroy buildings.

Instead, it passed harmlessly through concrete, steel, and glass.

But every living person touched by the wave froze.

Nathan felt a sharp pain behind his eyes.

Memories.

Thousands of them.

A little boy chasing butterflies.

Training with Elder Song.

Holding Halo for the first time.

Standing beside Yelena beneath a sky filled with stars.

Watching Nova smile in the endless white field.

The memories mixed together until he could no longer tell which belonged to Nathan...

And which belonged to Seraph.

He dropped to one knee.

Around him, hundreds of people collapsed.

Some screamed.

Others cried.

Many whispered names they had never known.

"My... brother..."

"Master..."

"Guardian..."

Yelena clutched her head.

"I remember..."

She looked toward Nathan.

Her silver eyes glistened.

"...Seraph."

Nathan slowly raised his head.

He looked at her.

Not as a stranger.

Not as someone he had just met.

But as the sister he had crossed countless worlds to protect.

"Yelena."

She smiled through her tears.

"You remembered."

Before Nathan could answer, Halo’s voice suddenly became urgent.

[Partner.]

[Something is wrong.]

"What is it?"

[Those memories... aren’t being restored.]

Nathan frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Halo projected dozens of blue screens.

Each displayed a different person somewhere in the city.

Some remembered battles that had never happened.

Others remembered families they had never had.

One elderly woman believed she had lived for five hundred years.

A child cried because he thought he had lost a dragon companion.

Harold stared at the screens.

"Oh no..."

Nova looked confused.

"What’s happening?"

Harold answered grimly.

"The Recovery Protocol isn’t restoring memories."

"It’s combining timelines."

Nathan’s heartbeat quickened.

"So people are remembering lives..."

"...that belonged to other versions of themselves."

Harold nodded.

"If it continues..."

"They’ll lose their identities."

The giant looked toward the frightened crowd.

Its emotionless voice echoed again.

"Identity synchronization at twelve percent."

"Proceeding toward one hundred percent."

Halo calculated rapidly.

Blue symbols raced across its surface.

[Estimated completion...]

[Thirty minutes.]

Nathan stood.

"We don’t have much time."

"No."

Harold looked toward the giant.

"And attacking it won’t solve anything."

Nathan frowned.

"Why not?"

"Because it isn’t alive."

Nova quietly added,

"It’s a machine."

Everyone turned toward her.

She pointed toward the giant’s glowing chest.

"Someone is controlling it."

Nathan narrowed his eyes.

He focused on the center of the crystal body.

For just a moment...

He saw a shadow.

A human silhouette.

Sitting inside the giant’s chest like a pilot.

The figure slowly lifted its head.

Even from several kilometers away...

Nathan felt its gaze lock onto him.

Then...

The silhouette smiled.

A calm voice echoed directly inside Nathan’s mind.

"Guardian..."

"...come and save me."

"Guardian..."

"...come and save me."

The voice echoed inside Nathan’s mind long after the crystal giant fell silent.

It wasn’t threatening.

It sounded desperate.

Nathan kept his eyes fixed on the giant’s glowing chest.

The shadow inside hadn’t moved.

It simply watched him.

Halo floated to his shoulder.

[Partner.]

[I don’t like this.]

"I know."

"It’s calling only me."

Harold stepped forward.

"That’s exactly why you shouldn’t go."

Nathan looked at him.

"If someone’s trapped in there—"

"We don’t know that."

Harold interrupted him.

"We only know it wants you close."

Nova stared at the giant.

Her bright blue eyes glowed softly.

"No."

Everyone turned toward her.

"He’s telling the truth."

Nathan frowned.

"You can tell?"

Nova nodded.

"I can hear his heart."

She looked toward the giant with sadness.

"He’s scared."

Yelena tightened her grip on her sword.

"We still don’t know if it’s a trap."

"It probably is."

Nathan smiled faintly.

"But if there’s even a chance someone needs help..."

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

Yelena sighed.

"You haven’t changed."

Halo laughed quietly.

[Not even a little.]

The crystal giant suddenly began moving.

Its enormous foot struck the ground.

BOOM!

The entire city shook violently.

Skyscrapers swayed.

Roads split apart.

People screamed as they ran through the streets.

The giant took another step.

Its destination wasn’t Nathan.

It was the city center.

Harold’s expression darkened.

"It’s heading for the population."

Nathan looked around.

Thousands of civilians were trapped.

Some couldn’t move because the Recovery Protocol had filled their minds with conflicting memories.

Others had collapsed unconscious.

Children cried for parents who didn’t recognize them.

The city had become pure chaos.

"We have to stop it."

Harold nodded.

"But carefully."

"If that machine is maintaining the memory wave..."

"Destroying it might destroy every connected mind."

Nathan clenched his fists.

"So we disable it."

Before anyone could move, Halo projected a detailed scan.

A three-dimensional image of the crystal giant appeared above the street.

Red lines stretched throughout its body.

[Energy network identified.]

[Central Core located inside the chest.]

Nathan looked at the glowing point.

"The pilot."

Halo nodded.

[Correct.]

[Removing the pilot should immediately deactivate the giant.]

Yelena frowned.

"And if the pilot dies?"

Halo became silent.

After several seconds, it answered.

[Probability of survival... twenty-one percent.]

Nathan’s face hardened.

"Too low."

Harold folded his arms.

"What are you thinking?"

"I’m bringing him out alive."

Yelena almost laughed.

"Of course you are."

Nathan shrugged.

"I’ve been told I’m stubborn."

Harold smiled.

"That’s an understatement."

Without warning, twelve pillars of blue light erupted around the city.

Each stood several miles apart.

Halo immediately analyzed them.

Its voice became urgent.

[Those aren’t power sources.]

"What are they?"

[They’re anchors.]

Nathan frowned.

"Anchors for what?"

The answer came from the giant itself.

Its emotionless voice echoed across the city.

"Synchronization reaching twenty-five percent."

"Reality Merge beginning."

The sky changed.

The bright afternoon vanished.

In its place appeared two different skies overlapping each other.

One belonged to modern Earth.

The other...

To the cultivation world.

Nathan watched in disbelief as distant mountains appeared above the clouds.

Floating islands materialized over the city.

For a brief moment...

He saw Soul Cross Sect standing where the financial district should have been.

Then the image flickered away.

People screamed.

Some reached toward things only they could see.

Others watched buildings transform into ancient temples before changing back again.

Halo’s warnings flooded the air.

---

Reality Integrity: 81%

Dimensional Overlap Increasing

Estimated Full Merge: 24 Minutes

---

Harold stared at the impossible sight.

"If the merge completes..."

Nathan finished the sentence.

"Neither world survives."

A loud crack echoed from above.

One of the floating mountains broke free from the illusion.

It became real.

The enormous mass began falling directly toward the city.

Thousands looked up in horror.

Yelena whispered,

"Oh no..."

Nathan didn’t hesitate.

"Nova!"

The little girl smiled.

"I know."

She lifted one small hand.

The falling mountain froze in midair.

The strain showed immediately.

Tiny cracks spread across her silver armor.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

"Nathan..."

She forced a smile.

"I can only hold it..."

"...for one minute."

Nathan looked toward the crystal giant.

Then at the trapped city.

Then back at Nova.

One minute.

That was all they had.

At that exact moment, the mysterious pilot inside the giant spoke to him again.

This time...

Nathan recognized the voice.

His entire body went cold.

"No..."

He whispered.

"It can’t be..."

The voice came once more.

Broken.

Weak.

Filled with pain.

"Seraph..."

"...it’s me."

Nathan’s heart stopped.

Because the voice belonged to only one person.

Elder Song.

Nathan’s legs felt weak.

The voice echoed again, softer this time, as though the speaker was struggling to remain conscious.

"Seraph... if you can hear me... don’t destroy the Core..."

Nathan’s breathing became uneven. He knew that voice. It had encouraged him when he failed, scolded him when he acted recklessly, and stood between him and death more times than he could remember.

"Elder Song..."

Yelena’s eyes widened.

"You heard it too?"

Nathan nodded slowly.

"It was him."

Harold’s expression darkened with concern.

"That’s impossible."

"Why?"

"Elder Song belonged to the previous cycle. His soul should have found peace after the reset."

Halo’s crystal pulsed rapidly.

[Soul signature detected.]

Everyone turned toward Halo.

"You can confirm it?" Nathan asked.

[Ninety-eight percent match.]

[The consciousness inside the Crystal Giant belongs to Elder Song.]

Nathan clenched his fists.

"Then he’s alive."

Harold immediately shook his head.

"No. It means someone copied his soul."

The words struck Nathan harder than any attack.

"If that’s true..."

His eyes slowly rose toward the giant.

"...then whoever built this machine had access to the previous world."

The giant’s white eyes flared brighter.

Its emotionless voice rolled across the trembling city.

"Guardian... your time is running out."

Then the giant took another step toward the city center, and the countdown to catastrophe continued.