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“Click.”
With the soft sound of the pressure lock disengaging, Lin Yu stepped out.
His pace was slow.
His hands were stuffed into his pockets, his head lowered.
“Oh? You’re out!”
The three-person group waiting at the door immediately crowded around him.
“So? So? How’d it go, Senior?!”
Li Qing was the first to dart in front of him.
“What did that spooky Old Mei say this time? Is she planning some weird experiment again? Or making you eat some kind of dark-cuisine medicine?”
“Has the treatment plan been decided?”
Chen Bing stood off to the side with her arms crossed.
Her voice remained calm, but the tightly furrowed brows betrayed her concern.
“If you need rare materials, or samples from high-risk zones, just say the word. We can handle it.”
“If it really doesn’t work…”
Yano Hotaru’s voice was gentler than usual.
“Then apply for recuperation leave first. I’ll talk to the company.”
Looking at those familiar, sincere faces.
Hearing those questions filled with concern.
Lin Yu felt his breathing grow heavy.
“Phew…”
He took a deep breath.
“Ah… Dr. Mei said there is a way.”
“Just that… this poison is a bit tricky. It needs a specially reformulated antidote.”
“So it might… might take a little time before there’s a concrete treatment plan.”
“Wait?”
Li Qing eyed him suspiciously.
“How long are we talking? Ten days? Half a month?”
“Then what about your salary during that time? Your performance bonuses?”
“Oh come on, don’t worry about that!”
Lin Yu laughed it off.
“This is the perfect chance for me to take a proper break, right?”
“You guys grind yourselves to death every day. Let this injured guy enjoy some paid leave!”
As he spoke, he exaggeratedly stretched and yawned.
“Ah—no, no, I’m done for. Been tossing around for so long my bones are about to fall apart.”
“I really am a bit tired today. My head’s a mess…”
“I’ll head back and rest first.”
He turned around and waved his hand without looking back.
After taking two steps, he suddenly seemed to remember something.
His footsteps paused slightly.
“Um…”
Lin Yu stopped, but didn’t turn around.
Standing in that backlit shadow, his voice dropped a little.
“These past few days…”
“Really… thank you all, seniors.”
With that, he walked straight toward the end of the corridor without looking back.
In the empty hallway, only the three girls remained, staring at one another.
After returning to his rental apartment, Lin Yu didn’t even turn on the lights.
He didn’t shower either.
He collapsed stiffly onto the bed.
He pulled the blanket over himself, completely burying his body inside.
Darkness and silence surged over him like a tide.
Only now, in this narrow space that belonged to him alone, did the confusion and fear he’d been suppressing finally burst through like a broken dam.
“Graduate…”
He murmured inside the blanket, chewing over the word again and again.
When Old Mei had handed him that application form, his mind had been completely blank.
That was it?
It was over?
How long had he even been employed?
At most… just a few months, right?
So how did it already come to “honorable retirement”?
According to the original script, shouldn’t Chen Bing—the bossy big sister who always overworked herself—have gone down first?
Or Yeman, that fragile-looking little girl?
Or maybe someone whose index had hit the danger line?
Even Li Qing, who was carefree all day long, had way more seniority than him!
“By any logic… it shouldn’t have been me, the latecomer, leaving first…”
Lin Yu let out a bitter smile and buried his face into the pillow.
But reality was never reasonable.
“Sign here, then submit it to Manager Qian…”
Company procedures.
About fifteen working days.
And then…
He’d be free.
With that sum—enough for an ordinary person to struggle for an entire lifetime—he could buy a house in Xinhai City.
Buy a car.
Even leave some savings to live off the interest.
No more worrying about combat dangers.
No more wearing humiliating outfits.
No more living in fear of his identity being exposed.
Wasn’t this exactly the life he’d always dreamed of?
Wasn’t this everything that the shut-in named “Lin Yu” had originally wanted?
But…
Why?
Why did the mere thought of writing his name in that signature box make his hands tremble uncontrollably?
Why did his fingers shake the moment his name came to mind?
“Is it because of the money?”
Lin Yu tried to persuade himself with the reasoning he was best at.
After all, it was a lump-sum buyout.
No matter how much it was, it would eventually run out.
“If I kept being a magical girl, that’d be steady income… plus bonuses and benefits…”
“…”
“But that doesn’t seem right.”
“That’s not it.”
“He’s afraid.”
“Afraid that once he signs, once he hands in the wristband…”
“He’ll no longer be the 【Gray Crystal】 who can fight alongside them.”
“He’ll become just another unremarkable passerby.”
“And all those moments—”
“The wind they’d shared on rooftops.”
“The oden they’d eaten together at convenience stores.”
“The times they’d trusted each other with their backs at the edge of life and death—”
“They’d all become memories that might be wiped away.”
“Kind of ridiculous, really…”
Lin Yu tugged at the corner of his mouth in self-mockery inside the darkness.
“Clearly a socially anxious shut-in.”
“Clearly someone who hated troublesome relationships the most…”
“…”
“And yet now…”
“He’s become this greedy.”
“Greedy enough to want to hold onto that warmth.”
“Greedy enough to want to stay in that dangerous—but brightly lit—world.”
“If I really just leave like this…”
“In the future… I won’t ever see them again, will I?”
A warm drop slid from the corner of his eye and seeped into the pillow.
“It hurts.”
“My heart really hurts.”
“Chirp… click-clack, click-clack…”
Just then, a faint mechanical sound mixed with keyboard tapping interrupted his spiral of sorrow.
Lin Yu sniffed, lifted a corner of the blanket, and poked his head out.
On the desk beside the bed, the computer screen glowed faint blue.
That little white furball was standing upright, its tiny paws flying across the keyboard at lightning speed.
It looked exactly like a programmer pulling an all-nighter.
“Go ahead, play…”
Lin Yu shook his head with a bitter smile.
“It won’t be long anyway…”
“You’ll be recalled and formatted by the company.”
“When you get a new owner, remember to be nicer.”
“Don’t keep pointing your butt at people all the time…”
Little White didn’t seem to hear his muttering at all, remaining focused on the screen.
A few seconds later—
“Beep!”
It suddenly turned around and patted the screen with a paw, signaling Lin Yu to come over.
“What, showing me your will?”
Lin Yu leaned over helplessly.
On the screen was an academic report webpage, with a photograph at the top.
The photo showed a blonde woman wearing a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses—intellectual, cool, and striking.
“Dr. Evelyn Reed…”
Lin Yu froze.
“Isn’t this the mentor of Little Snow—the one we met at that bio-research institute before?”
“Why are you showing me this? What does this have to do with me?”
Little White shot him a look of disdain, then extended a paw and clicked to the next page.
It was the abstract of a heavyweight paper just published in a sub-journal.
The title was long, packed with obscure professional jargon.
But several keywords highlighted in red by Little White struck Lin Yu’s brain like lightning—
【…On cellular regeneration mechanisms under high-dimensional energy erosion】
【…Gene-modification reversal engineering of neural necrosis…】
Ah—he couldn’t really understand it…
But he seemed to get what Little White meant.
Could this person…
Help his condition?
“You’re saying… this person might be able to save me?”
“Chirp!”
Little White nodded.
And before Lin Yu could recover from the shock—
That lawless AI suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the contract wristband on the bedside table.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
“Beep—”
The sound of a call being placed rang out.
And the contact name displayed was—
【Younger Sister】.
“Holy sh—!!!”
Lin Yu panicked and dove forward, trying to hang up.
“I haven’t even figured out what to say yet, and you—!”
“Beep—click.”
The call connected.
From the receiver came Lin Xue’s slightly tired voice:
“Brother?”
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Hopefully you can do it sis