Autumn

On the next day, the core machinery room was set up and the first group of experts and researchers would soon be stationed in. At that time, the new project involving the system's core disks would officially begin.

The person in charge of cleaning up the packaging used to transport the equipment left the room, leaving You Huo and Qin Jiu.

There was a large screen lit up before them. Two figures were busying themselves under the screen.

Gao Qi was on his knees holding a metal handle as he said to the other person, "922, lift up that plate."

Wen Yuan was stunned for a moment. Since then, many people called him by his name and only Qin Jiu called him by his code name. Now that there was another person calling him that, he couldn't help but lament.

When they first left the system, they had tried to abandon these numbers and change it into names. The others were fine with it but their group couldn't get used to it.

After a lot of going back and forth, they finally decided to revert back to code names.

They were all witnesses of each other's experiences. As long as they still saw each other, they were destined to remember the past; the days they had spent in the system, the people they had met, and the things they did.

But that didn't matter. All experiences are valuable, regardless of whether they're good or bad. At the very least, it accounted for a part of their lives.

Wen Yuan returned to his senses and lifted the plate. He even called out, "Boss."

Qin Jiu leaned over and installed the core disk in.

"Okay." You Huo pointed at the screen.

They straightened up and patted off the dust on their hands.

Wen Yuan looked at the screen and tapped on the control panel a few times as the others silently waited on the side.

After the systems world had disintegrated, the 'soul' that had always brought people nightmares had disappeared, and 154 had also disappeared along with it. Although he had separated from the system's main body, his life was still dependent on the systems constructed world. Together they live, and together they perish.

But You Huo and them didn't believe this. They had always believed that only the systems main body and 'nucleus' would be truly destroyed as a result of their rebellion. 154 may be affected but he shouldn't disappear completely.

They have tried many things and consulted many experts but every time, the result was the same. Just as Wen Yuan had said: 154 is still there, he should be resting inside this core disk.

They have passed on information to the core disk many times, so often it couldn't be counted, but they were never able to receive a response.

In fact, there was another possibility that they have been reluctant to think about—– 

When the systems core was destroyed, the speaker had said, "Self-correcting program detected". At that very moment, the real self-correcting program was in their hands so someone must have copied the program and merged it with the systems 'nucleus' to completely end this nightmare filled with tragedies.

And so…..who else could copy the 'self-correction program'?

Only 154.

Sometimes, Wen Yuan would suddenly recall that scene at night. The systems voice would constantly repeat itself in his mind, repeating it for a long time until it became 154's voice.

And then he couldn't sleep anymore. No matter how tired he was during training during the day, he could hardly sleep peacefully at night.

Once, he was finally able to fall asleep just before down, but he once again dreamt of that scene. The dream wasn't realistic at all and there were a lot of embellishments added.

He dreamt that 154 had taken over the system's throat. He said to them through the crackling speakers, "I will send you off one last time. It was nice being friends the past few years."

After he was startled awake, he sat in bed for a long time. He felt that he might never meet another person like him in his life.

Wen Yuan paused for a moment and explained, "I tried it out earlier and linked the core disk with a phone. It suddenly had some changes last night, so I wanted to come and see how it is."

He tapped the keyboard a few more times and the screen finally turned on. What appeared was the system at its most basic mode with very basic operations such as start, close and search. It resembled a very out of date computer.

Wen Yuan familiarly went through a few pages but found nothing. When he finally changed back to the monitoring interface, he pointed at the small fluctuation in the early hours of last night and said, "Look. It happened at 2 o'clock last night."

Gao Qi asked, "What does this sudden fluctuation mean?"

"This core disk has always been in power-saving mode….just like a phone that is on standby and is not really turned off." Wen Yuan explained, "This fluctuation means that the core disk wasn't in that mode for a short moment. It's just like when your standby phone suddenly receives a message and lights up."

Gao Qi said, "Then isn't that a good thing?!"

Wen Yuan nodded and said after some silence, "Yes. I couldn't sleep for the rest of that night after that. But I'm worried that it may be a result of us recently moving the disk around too much causing this effect instead...."

He paused for a moment and quickly said in a small voice, "And not because it's proof that 154 still exists."

The room went silent. All that could be heard was machinery running.

After a long silence, Qin Jiu said, "The core disk is the most important part of the system. If you can make it unstable so easily just by moving it, don't you think that you're underestimating the system too much?"

Wen Yuan was taken aback for a moment. His eyes suddenly brightened.

He chuckled, "That's true."

Because of this line, they started a long journey of testing and waiting. 

The experts and researchers involved in the project also hoped to retain traces of 154 so they worked on improving the new systems structure while regularly sending greetings and messages to the core disk.

This had almost become a daily habit for this group of people. It couldn't be changed.

And so spring, summer, autumn and winter…..Four seasons had passed by.

The entire project ended in the autumn of the second year. The new system was basically complete and would mainly be used for simulating training scenarios and screening. Soon, it would be put to use.

The special training grounds at the time carried the atmosphere of autumn and was a little deserted. It was because You Huo and Qin Jiu had taken all the trainees south for a joint training at sea. In this huge place, only the researcher in charge was left to do some finishing touches.

Wen Yuan didn't have lunch and instead went into the machinery room carrying some special detergent. Perhaps it was because he just wanted to clean or perhaps it was because of some other reason...he wanted to clean this place up a little, especially since he would be leaving with the S Brigade in a week.

The next time he comes here, it would be when the new system starts up. And after that.....he didn't know when he would be back.

He sat in front of the screen for a while before turning on the system and as usual sending a greeting to the core disk.

Perhaps because he was leaving, he suddenly felt that the message he had sent was too simple, too concise. He clearly had a lot to say. Not only him, there was also Qin Jiu, You Huo, 021.....All those who knew of 154's existence had a lot to say.

But it wasn't talking one-sidedly. What they wanted was to communicate with him, just like how they could before. Whether it was small talk, jokes, or disses, as long as there was a response.

Wen Yuan sat there in daze for a very long time. When he returned to his senses, the screen before him was filled with messages he had just subconsciously sent.

Every line was blank and had no content. It was as if he had something he wanted to say but didn't know where to start.

Wen Yuan was taken aback. Sending messages continuously like this could easily throw the program into disorder.

He hurriedly shot up from the chair and tapped at the keyboard, intending to undo all the useless blank messages and along the way check to see if he had caused any problems.

Just as he was about to execute a program, the screen suddenly flashed.

For a moment, Wen Yuan thought he saw wrong.

The program on the screen was still scrolling. It scrolled down a few hundred lines in an instant.

He stood frozen in place for a long time. He suddenly reached out and dragged the screen back up.

After scrolling through for a long time, he finally found a message among the densely packed characters. The source of the message was shown to be the core disk itself, and the message content only had three numbers and one punctuation:

922?

·

Coincidentally, that day was September 22, the day before the autumnal equinox.

As Wen Yuan sat in shock before the screen, Yu Wen was in the middle of coming out of a lecture hall of a certain university in Harbin. Carrying his schoolbag while replying to messages, he discussed with his classmates what they should have for lunch.

Wu Li and Yang Shu at this moment was standing in a laboratory in Beijing. As they wore special glasses, they watched over a device and recorded data in their books.

Di Li was reading in a certain library in Shanghai with one hand supporting his head. His phone that was turned silent sat next to him, occasionally lighting up every now and then.

Shu Xue had changed jobs and was walking down a street of a certain city in Zhejiang. She had gradually forgotten about the events in the system and only remembered that she seemed to have had a very long dream. In the dream, someone had told her that if they were fated, they could meet in this city.

She would often run into a shy young man who had just returned to school after a long break due to his health. He would scratch his head and approach her with a red face, "My name is Zhao Wentu. Can I…..get to know you?"

And You Huo and Qin Jiu at this moment had just finished their morning training. They greeted Gao Qi and Chu Yue and walked up to the deck.

The sky during this season was always high and exceptionally clear. The sea breeze was wet, and it carried a faint autumn chill.

You Huo suddenly recalled the sea in the system. It would always be windy at a fixed time, be turbulent at a fixed time, rain at a fixed time, snow at a fixed time...

And most importantly, you could never see the end of it.

All the scenery in the system was like that. With the sky and mountains in the distance covered in fog, the end could never be seen.

But here it was different.

Here, the wind stops at the mountain, the boat stops at the shore.

The land behind him stretches for 100 million hectares, and the sea below him is more than 3 million square kilometres.

Everything here has a beginning and end, but it could also accommodate all the unexpected and long-awaited reunions.

The world is a brilliant and grand place.

Welcome home.

[END]

KK has something to say:

The end!! Thank you everyone for following this novel and reading until the very end. I hope you all enjoyed the novel as much as I did. As I mentioned before, the main part of this novel that had me sold were the character relationships and dynamics (I mean, isn't You Huo and Qin Jiu, like, the cutest?? And the side characters were amazing and weren't just cannon fodders. I'm so glad the author hinted in the end that our little baby 154 isn't completely gone….*wipes away tears*)

Now, I did see some comments about not understanding the answer to some of the exam questions, particularly the first one. It may not be how exams work in all countries but in some cases, just writing the word 'Answer' or 'Solution' on the blank answer sheet can give you a mark for 'attempting' the question (if the person marking it is VERY lenient that is ). You know how sometimes you write 'Answer: xyz' in the answer sheet? You Huo basically took advantage of that since the trashy system didn't even give them a proper question to answer in the first place. I hope that clarifies it???