Chapter 57 – The Ghost of What Was Lost
---
A Face from a Forgotten Past
Luo Fan's grip tightened around the figure's wrist. She shouldn't be here.
Xiao Ling shouldn't exist.
And yet, here she was.
A faint silhouette, flickering like an unstable mirage. Her robes shifted between torn fragments of reality, as if she couldn't decide which version of herself she truly was.
Her eyes—once sharp and full of mischief—held something else now.
Regret.
> "You weren't supposed to find me," Xiao Ling whispered again.
Luo Fan's chest tightened. The last time he had seen her…
No.
She had died.
She had sacrificed herself during the Reset.
So why was she here?
---
The World Cracking Apart
> "Uh, Boss? Just checking—HOW are you touching someone who shouldn't exist?"
EchoStar's voice crackled in his mind, unusually tense.
> "She's not a memory. Not an illusion. I'm detecting… something else. Something wrong."
Luo Fan ignored the system. He wasn't letting go.
He had lost too much already.
"Xiao Ling," he said slowly, forcing his voice to stay steady. "How are you here?"
> "I don't know," she admitted. "I shouldn't be."
The air twisted.
A sharp ringing echoed through the ruined city. The streets rippled, as if reality itself was rejecting her presence.
> "Okay, yeah, bad vibes! This place is LITERALLY falling apart because she's here. Time to GO."
Luo Fan clenched his jaw. No.
He wasn't leaving without answers.
---
Memories That Shouldn't Exist
Xiao Ling studied him. Her expression was unreadable.
> "…You still remember me?"
Luo Fan's heart pounded.
"Of course I do."
Something flashed across her face—shock, then something closer to sorrow.
> "Then you're different from the others."
Luo Fan frowned. "What do you mean?"
> "Most of the multiverse doesn't remember what came before the Reset." She exhaled, her form flickering. "You weren't supposed to either."
The words hit him like a hammer.
EchoStar froze.
> "…Oh. Oh no."
Luo Fan narrowed his eyes. "What?"
> "…Boss, we have a PROBLEM."
EchoStar's interface glitched. Data flooded his vision, flashing warnings he had never seen before.
> [ERROR: MEMORY ANOMALY DETECTED.]
[WARNING: SYSTEM INTEGRITY COMPROMISED.]
[UNAUTHORIZED DATA ACCESS—]
And then—
A voice—cold and mechanical—rang through the air.
> "Unstable Data Detected."
"Initiating Erasure."
---
The Hunters of the Forgotten
A low hum filled the city.
Luo Fan's instincts screamed—danger.
Xiao Ling's face darkened. "They found me."
The sky shattered.
Figures emerged—shrouded in glitching static. Their forms were impossible to define, shifting between countless identities.
And yet—Luo Fan recognized the energy.
The Meta-System's Enforcers.
> "Unstable Data Confirmed."
"Commencing Purge."
> "…Okay, so BAD NEWS—WE'RE ABOUT TO DIE." EchoStar screamed.
Luo Fan gritted his teeth. No cultivation. No audience. No power.
And yet—
> "Run," Xiao Ling said. "Now."
> "GREAT IDEA! RUNNING SOUNDS FANTASTIC!"
Luo Fan didn't hesitate.
He grabbed Xiao Ling's hand—
And ran.
---
[To Be Continued...]