"Perhaps other changes influenced the world to…" Xiao Mao's voice trailed off, knowing this explanation wouldn’t even convince herself.

The youth was unforgiving in his response, "Do you think the change of your own body, with your time frozen after being severely injured, could alter the entire world's fate?" He shattered her last illusion. "Face reality! Because of your self-sacrifice, Xu Yun Cheng, the top-tier anti-human ability user who controls both time and space, survived. And now, hundreds of years later, he's found the opportunity to form an alliance with the parasitic beasts who want to invade humanity. That's why everything became worse."

Xiao Mao slumped against the metal wall, her face buried in her trembling hands. She remained like that for a while, but when she finally looked up, her eyes were empty, devoid of any emotion. It was clear she had fully accepted the reality of Xu Yun Cheng's betrayal.

If the girl's earlier self-mockery had been a form of indifference to the world, now her expression was one of utter devastation. The youth, Xiao Yi, felt that if she were left alone, she might just end her own life.

The black-haired youth spoke softly, "Xiao Mao, what I want you to accept is Xu Yun Cheng's betrayal, not to blame your prophetic abilities for everything. He is the one who betrayed us, not you. There’s nothing wrong with saving someone."

Xiao Mao laughed bitterly, tears streaming down her face and soaking into her disheveled hair. "What's the difference? Since childhood, my prophetic abilities have brought nothing but disasters. Maybe my parents were right. If I had died when I was young, the world would have been a better place."

The youth remained silent, watching her without offering comfort.

Xiao Mao didn’t expect any sympathy from the youth; she just vented her frustrations as she continued speaking, "The prophecies I make, no matter how much people try to change things, they will ultimately come true. I’m just the one who announces the bad news ahead of time! What is more painful than knowing that a cliff lies ahead but still having to take step after step toward it?

"You mean, 'The Happy Planet will be completely destroyed on August 4, 12036'?" the youth interrupted Xiao Mao. "I think it's great. At least it gives me, as a savior, a reason to feel at ease: since the Happy Planet is destined to perish on that day, it's an unchangeable fact of the future. It’s not my fault that the planet perished because I didn’t notice the anomaly in time, " the youth said confidently.

Xiao Mao was taken aback by this 'novel' way of using prophecy to shift the responsibility. Her sadness momentarily paused. It took her a full minute to clear the youth’s twisted reasoning from her mind before continuing:

"As for my second prophetic ability, which allows me to see future images—you’ve already seen the effect. As soon as I try to change something or even reveal just a bit of what I’ve seen, causing the future path to change, something even worse will inevitably occur!"

"I realized this when I was very young. Many times, I warned myself not to speak about it! But I could never stop myself! At first, my parents were simply disgusted by my ability until I was twelve and saw a fire in my town. I cried and called the whole family to wake up, and my parents finally believed me. We drove out of town that night…"

"I lost my brother and sister in the car crash that night. But in the town, only an unoccupied warehouse caught on fire. If my family hadn’t fled, we would have been safe." Xiao Mao gave a tearful smile.

Black-haired youth: "Then the main system found you?"

"Yes, at that time, I had just escaped from the mental hospital for the third time and was hanging out with some thugs on the street." Xiao Mao clearly didn’t want to say more, but it was obvious who had locked her in the hospital. "Then I met Xu Yun Cheng from the Salvation Alliance. Everything was so perfect, the complete opposite of this damn self of mine! For hundreds of years, I believed that saving Xu Yun Cheng’s life was the only right thing I ever did! But in reality…"

Xiao Mao pressed her forehead against the cold metal wall and laughed desperately.

Black-haired youth: "Actually, I have a different view of your prophetic images. You once saw the image of me slaughtering humans with black threads and told the main system. But the main system didn’t kill me outright. Instead, it brought me to the Salvation Alliance. In the end, it turned out that the image you saw was just me slaughtering the parasitic beasts on the Happy Planet, right?"

Xiao Mao: "So what? My ability almost got you killed, and it even almost sparked a war between you and humans."

Black-haired youth: "But if you hadn't told the main system about that vision, the main system wouldn’t have brought me into the Salvation Alliance. After I slaughtered hundreds of people on the Weyland spacecraft, I would have been continuously hunted by humans. Maybe the image you saw was me really slaughtering humans."

Xiao Mao: "But the vision I saw can never change into a better future…"

Black-haired youth: "You and the main system didn’t try to stop the vision from happening. You just created a better interpretation of it. You turned what was supposed to be the slaughter of humans into the slaughter of the parasitic beasts. You did save countless human lives, even my life trajectory."

Xiao Mao: "This, this…"

Black-haired youth: "What's so impossible about it? The same prophetic image can contain more than one future. You can't possibly distinguish exactly what 'humans' are being slaughtered in such a vague fragment."

Xiao Mao: "You like humans so much; there's no way you would have decided to destroy the world back then!"

Black-haired youth: "When I was drifting in the universe, I hadn't decided yet, but after being attacked by the Interstellar Federation and Weyland Corporation a few more times, I might have. Killing all the humans on a planet and calling myself king was indeed one of my plans."

As Xiao Mao pondered her life, Huo Li's voice echoed in the youth's mind: "Xiao Yi, was what you said just now true?"

"I don't know!" The youth replied irritably with his consciousness. "She just cried for 20 minutes, and I finally found a point to persuade her, so I said it without thinking! But this is indeed a good idea. If Xiao Mao has prophetic visions in the future, we could try to shift the prediction to a more favorable interpretation of the vision."

Huo Li could tell that the youth was avoiding the topic, but whether or not Xiao Yi had truly thought about destroying the world wasn't important. What mattered was that he still liked everything about humans, and that was enough.

Huo Li: "So, what about your previous plan?"

Black-haired youth: "I suspect that Xu Yun Cheng is in love with Xiao Mao, even though she doesn’t know it herself, but that plan will likely fail… I have a backup plan, but its success rate is very low. I’ll only consider it if it’s absolutely necessary. I hope I’ll never have to use it."

Huo Li: "What plan?"

Black-haired youth: "Forget it. The chance of success is too low; I'll probably never need to use it anyway."

Huo Li, being considerate, didn’t press any further.

Black-haired youth: "How many have you checked out? If we don’t take action soon, these 2000-plus saviors will riot en masse. Just blow them up!"

Huo Li was somewhat surprised by Xiao Yi’s decisiveness, but this cold and ruthless method was undoubtedly the most efficient. Huo Li immediately transmitted the order with his mental power.

A few minutes later, mechanical soldiers escorted the saviors who had been taken away earlier back to their respective cells, including the metal cell where Xiao Yi was located.

Han Zhe, Hans, Zhang Hu, and the one with shoulder-length hair entered one after another. They didn’t seem to be injured, but they were all subtly keeping their distance from Hans. Unlike when Hans had left the cell, looking composed and reserved, he now appeared somewhat dazed.

After hearing the main system’s explanation of the parasitic beast incident, Han Zhe’s heart had already been thrown into turmoil. He was already preparing a speech to explain the situation they had just encountered when they were taken away.

As soon as Han Zhe entered the room, he loudly said, "Actually, the few of us…" but then realized that the two left in the cell didn’t immediately approach to ask questions as he had expected. Han Zhe awkwardly closed his mouth.

He noticed that the once cynical, non-mainstream girl's eyes were swollen like peaches from crying, and even now, a tear would occasionally fall from her eyes.

Meanwhile, the once friendly-looking youth was sitting coldly on the inside of the cell, seemingly lost in thought. He exuded an icy aura as if rejecting anyone from coming near.

For a moment, Han Zhe’s mind began to imagine various dramatic love-hate scenarios between the two.

The situation in the other cells was completely different. As soon as anyone was brought back, they were immediately surrounded by other saviors from the same cell, anxiously asking what had happened. After hearing Xu Yun Cheng’s broadcast, the ability users who had been incited to revolt became even more emboldened when they saw no casualties.

In less than five minutes, small fires of rebellion spread like wildfire throughout the entire prison. The saviors began using their powers in all kinds of ways to break the doors and free those in neighboring cells. Soon, the saviors, still wearing handcuffs, had all escaped and crowded into the hallway.

"Beep—All enhanced individuals return to your cells immediately! Otherwise, in 10 seconds, the handcuffs will explode randomly!"

Since the broadcast had been cut off, the announcement was made simultaneously by the mechanical soldiers who had come to assist.

"Don't listen to them!" a savior among the crowd shouted, "This is all the work of traitors inside our ranks. The mastermind has other hidden motives for capturing us. He won’t casually kill us!"

"Right! Let’s charge out! Let’s see what other tricks he has up his sleeve!"

These words undoubtedly echoed the thoughts of most of the ability users, and the crowd grew more frantic. Various abilities rained down on the surrounding mechanical soldiers, shattering them into pieces. The missioners were winning step by step!

"Beep—Countdown is over!"

While the ability users were still basking in the joy of victory and hadn’t yet reacted, there was a deafening explosion. Dozens of people in the crowd were instantly turned into pieces by the sudden detonation of the handcuffs.

In the midst of the blood mist, the crowd that had been fervent and passionate moments ago instantly fell silent. A few ability users, unfortunate enough to be caught in the explosion, crouched down, crying out in agony.

But most of the crowd was stunned by the scene, still staring at the scattered corpses in a daze…

"Beep—All ability users return to your cells immediately! Otherwise, in 5 seconds, the handcuffs will continue to explode randomly!"

Hundreds of mechanical soldiers spoke in unison, their cold electronic voices dragging everyone back to reality. The ability users scrambled, rushing to squeeze back into their cells. The blood and fervor that had surged earlier was completely replaced by the fear of death…

The youth returned to the metal warehouse with the flow of people, noticing that, as expected, Han Zhe and the others, who had been hiding their worries since their return, were unharmed. Meanwhile, the dazed Hans didn't return; undoubtedly, a traitor who was blown up to scare the monkeys.

Soon, a real-time report from Huo Li echoed in the youth's mind: "The 47 traitors identified through memory reading were blown to death, 243 innocent individuals have been informed of the parasitic beast secrets by the main system and returned to the crowd. 19 taskers with unclear positions were caught in the explosion wave, all sustaining minor injuries."

"So, according to the current progress, you still need 3 more days to complete the investigation?" Xiao Yi responded with his mind, "Keep investigating! They should now believe that the handcuffs will explode. Locking up over 2000 enhanced individuals without this method would be difficult. But isn't it a bit too obvious that all the ones killed were traitors?"

"It won't be a problem. Based on the memories I just read, the traitors themselves don't even know who their comrades are. The list of traitors is in Xu Yun Cheng's hands." Huo Li replied.

"That's good," the young man replied, but his face showed no joy at all. "I hope Xu Yun Cheng will stop resisting soon…"

.

Although the handcuffs could move with the hands, the main area remained close to the chest and abdomen, so the explosive force required wasn’t very strong. The unlucky individuals affected by the blast only sustained minor injuries.

Of course, this was also related to the actions of the 243 informed individuals who subtly separated themselves from the crowd.

After the prisoners calmed down, the task of identifying the traitors continued at a frantic pace. Every few minutes, a batch of operatives would be escorted by mechanical soldiers to the interrogation rooms. The innocent ones were immediately informed of the truth by the main system, while the traitors were controlled on the spot by Huo Li.

Just when half of the over 2,000 operatives had been checked, the air near each cell door slightly distorted for a moment. A piece of paper suddenly appeared in every cell and floated gently to the ground.

As soon as the youth noticed the subtle distortion in space, he realized something was wrong! He quickly got up and grabbed the paper from the ground.

On it was written:

The main system is harboring the alien, allowing it to hide within the Savior Alliance for unknown reasons. This alien has been disguising itself as a human savior, and its ID is zz2d14. Its claimed Guardian ability is actually composed of the alien's limbs and black threads. All saviors are urged to immediately escape using any means possible upon learning the truth!

——Xu Yun Cheng