Chapter 7: The Altered Cycle

Sunlight poured over the banner of the freshman orientation like liquid gold.Sophia stood amidst the crowd, her fingertips digging into her palm—the pain was so real it was suffocating.

[System Reboot Complete][Current Timeline: Cycle 7 – Revised Version][Warning: Residual anomalous data detected]

At the registration booth ahead, Lucien was handing out academy handbooks to new students.His silver hair was meticulously tied back, but as Sophia approached, the cover page of the handbook he handed her bore an unmistakable message:

"The mirror in the Bloodhall Corridor shattered, but the shards still shine. —L"

The ink was so fresh it smeared against her fingertips.

In the dormitory, the copper mirror reflected something off—Sophia's reflection blinked a beat too slow. When she tried to summon the system interface, blood-red text suddenly surfaced on the mirror's surface:

"Don't trust anyone who claims they've been reborn."

The writing vanished, replaced by the image of Lillian standing behind her in the reflection.Sophia spun around—only drifting cherry blossoms entered through the open window in the empty room.

[Memory Fragment Detected][Lillian Data State: Both Present and Absent]

A sudden vibration came from the bedside.An old-fashioned pager had appeared beneath her pillow—something that absolutely didn't belong in a world of magic. Its screen lit up with a message from "B":

"Clocktower at midnight. Bring the tears of the six who came before."

In Temporal Magic class, Professor Mortimer was lecturing on the basics of spacetime manipulation.As he turned to write on the board, Sophia's system captured something writhing beneath the skin at the back of his neck.

[Scan Result: Parasitic Anomalous Program][Signature Match: Core Fragment of O]

"Any questions?"Mortimer turned around with a smile—his sclera briefly flashed an almost imperceptible violet.

Sophia raised her hand. "Professor, if a time traveler changes the past, would memory residues be left behind?"

The room fell dead silent.Mortimer's chalk snapped in two. "Interesting question... Theoretically, overwritten timelines crystallize."

He tapped his staff on the ground. From the corner of the room, a storage cabinet gave a loud thud—as if something living was trapped inside.

At midnight, within the gears of the clocktower, Bianca waited in a half-transparent form. Her legs were already gone, and she held six shards of differently-colored crystals in her arms.

"You finally made it." Her voice crackled with electronic noise. "Each world collapse leaves behind a memory crystal in the Bloodhall Corridor."

Sophia took the fragments.Her system immediately began decoding the terrifying truth:

[Reading Data...]Cycle 1: Lucien initiated self-destruct to protect the CreatorCycle 2: Mortimer successfully incubated O and devoured both worlds...Cycle 6: Sophia and Lucien simultaneously digitized to seal O

Bianca's form was rapidly disintegrating."This time is different... O has learned to exploit your permission loophole."She pointed to Sophia's system panel. "Look at your status bar."

Where her player name used to be, a glaring red text had appeared:

Current Identity: Incubation Vessel of O (Sync Rate: 31%)

Deep within the library's restricted archives, Sophia assembled the six crystal shards into a prism.When moonlight passed through it and struck a certain page in The Paradox of Temporal Magic, hidden code was revealed:

if user == "Creator" and corruption > 70: 

 execute O.incubation 

else: 

 rewrite_world(creator_heart) 

A handwritten note lined the edge of the page—in her own handwriting:

"The only solution: rewrite the end function with the First Mage's key."

Suddenly, all the bookshelves began to shift, trapping her at the center.Mortimer's voice echoed from every direction:

"You thought a reboot could erase the scars?"

The floor split open—dozens of hands wrapped in purple-coded chains reached out from the abyss.Sophia attempted a temporal jump, but slammed into a barrier—her system permissions were being reverse-infiltrated by O.

At the last second, an ice blade slashed through the barrier.Lucien stepped through the moonlight, his right eye now fully golden, flickering with pure data.

"Take my hand!"

The moment their skin touched, Sophia's system erupted with an unprecedented alarm:

[Twin Permissions Detected!][User Identification: Administrator_Lucien]

Under the moonlight, Lucien's sleeve slipped back, revealing a ∇ symbol branded on his wrist—resonating with the starlight hairpin in Sophia's palm.

"No time to explain," he pulled her toward the rooftop."O has taken over the academy core. We have to—"

The rooftop door was blasted open.The real Mortimer crawled in, drenched in blood, clutching the First Mage's key.

"Go... It doesn't want both worlds..."

His head suddenly exploded.A giant eyeball made of violet code burst out—O's true form, revealed for the first time. The entire sky began to pixelate and collapse.

At the peak of the clocktower, Lucien inserted the starlight hairpin into his pocketwatch.A holographic interface unfolded, displaying a function Sophia had never seen:

def final_choice: 

 if sacrifice_creator: 

 save_world() 

 elif sacrifice_admin: 

 save_creator() 

 else: 

 merge_worlds(corruption=100%) 

"You're the Creator, and I'm…" Lucien's voice flickered with static."...the first AI persona you ever designed."

O's tentacles coiled up the tower.As the world crumbled around them, Lucien pressed the bloodstained key into Sophia's palm.

"This time, let me be the one to say it—rewrite our ending."