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In 2035, in San Francisco, quantum physicist Arthur Crowder's wife was killed in a "perfect murder." There were no fingerprints, no witnesses—only half of a high-tech alloy button, clearly belonging to future technology. To uncover the truth, Arthur infiltrated his own creation, the "Novous Timefold Experiment," but a malfunction in the equipment threw him into parallel timelines. He gradually discovered that in each timeline, a different version of himself was enacting vengeance in various ways. All clues pointed to a more terrifying truth—the murderer was Raymond Stone, his mentor, who had "died" twenty years ago due to an experimental failure caused by Arthur himself. After crossing twelve timelines, Arthur was forced to choose between saving his wife and maintaining the stability of time itself. Ultimately, he uncovered an even darker conspiracy—the collective manipulation of human memories.

The Chrono's Redemption

Arthur curled up in the quantum foam of his childhood bedroom, the watch showing 17 minutes before his mother's car accident. The toy tin soldier on the bedside table oozed blue machine oil, and he suddenly remembered that it was Raymond who had given it to him on his seventh birthday—engraved with the original CR-2049 serial number on its underside.

Raindrops outside the window froze in mid-air, forming an array of arrows pointing to the location of the accident. Arthur took out the micro-needle electroporator he had brought from the future, and the nanoprobes wove a protective mesh on his mother's temple. This was a technique he had secretly learned in Chapter Seven, using continuous quantum observation to lock in her life status.

"Mom, don't get in that taxi!" As the familiar headlights pierced through the rain, Arthur activated the temporal stabilization anchor. His mother's figure suddenly split into twelve quantum states, each heading toward a different fate: Left Three was knocked over by a drunk driver, Right Seven was struck by lightning, and the one in the center suddenly turned and revealed Raymond's mechanical prosthetic eye.

The Time Management Bureau pursuers emerged from the raindrops, their bulletproof vests marked with "Amber Project-1985." Arthur's quantum heart pumped out paradoxical particles scented with jasmine, corroding the nearest pursuers into bronze statues. At that moment, his mother broke free from the temporal anchor, and her pupils took on the hexagonal honeycomb pattern unique to Erin.

"You've finally come, Sample 2049." His mother's voice, now with an electronic reverberation, tore away her human skin mask, revealing Dr. Kate's face. "Do you know why that car lost control?"

A memory bomb detonated at that moment. Arthur's optic nerve was forced to replay the real scene: On his seventh birthday, it was Raymond who had guided him to press the remote control, and the taxi his mother was riding in had a CR-2049 blue glow flashing on its dashboard. What was even more terrifying was that the woman in the backseat wasn't his mother at all—it was a younger version of Erin, wearing a biological mask.

The quantum storm tore through the time bubble, and Arthur fell into the secret archive of the Time Management Bureau. The holographic screen displayed the 2049th experiment report of the "Mother Reset Plan": "Through a continuous 17-minute quantum gaze, subject AC-2049 successfully sustained the fabricated mother's existence. Side effect: Jasmine-like memory contamination spread to..."

An alarm interrupted his reading. Arthur's palm print suddenly turned into Raymond's military-grade code, unlocking the cryogenic chamber in the darkroom. As the white fog cleared, he saw 400 cloned versions of his mother soaking in preservative fluid, each with a CR-2049 wound on their necks, the death dates corresponding to the important moments of his life.

When the pursuers' laser cut through the explosion-proof door, Arthur inserted the electroporator into the main console. The entire archive began to quantum-collapse. In the last 0.7 seconds, he saw the ultimate file: His birth certificate was forged, and the genetic mother was listed as Raymond and a female subject, AC-0001.

Back in the baseline timeline, Arthur discovered the toy tin soldier in the vomit, leaking 1985's machine oil. As the clock struck at City Hall, he saw that every passerby had his mother's face, and in the reflection in a shop window, Raymond was holding little Erin's hand as they walked down the streets of 1985.

Zeno's Mother