System Space – 03:04 AM
The world froze.
Shen Yue had just closed the diary again when everything around her stuttered, like an old video buffering in slow frames.
Her window flickered.The lamp beside her vanished, then reappeared.The digital clock scrambled numbers like code gone feral.
[System Error: Thread conflict detected.Source: Memory Layer Access Violation]
She stood.
"System," she said sharply. "Explain."
No answer.
Only static, like whispers through a broken radio.
Then the world around her tore open... just for a second, and she saw something she shouldn't have:
[...The Memory...]
Rain. Neon. Screaming engines.
She was in a mecha cockpit, hands covered in blood, alarms blaring.
Her hair was shorter. Her suit was military-grade.
Beside her, a voice yelled:
"Yue! Don't let the AI override your neural sync. If it goes red, you die!"
She turned
A man.
Dark eyes. Burned cheek. A military dog tag that said:
Liu Shun. Captain. Interstellar Division.
He was holding her wrist.
"I won't lose you again, Yue. No matter which timeline you're dropped into."
Then
Boom.
The entire world snapped backward like a rubber band.
Back in the Present – Apartment
Shen Yue woke gasping, eyes wide, sweat on her collarbones.
The diary was gone.
Her room was as it had been.
Except
*[System Alert: Hidden Arc UnlockedTimeline Anchor Fragment DetectedMemory Source: Parallel Host?]
Warning: Your identity is no longer stable.Do not trust the origin code.]*
Shen Yue sat still, heartbeat in her throat.
That wasn't a memory from the original Shen Yue.It wasn't even from her current body.
It was a bleed-through.
Another version of her.From another arc.A life where she was a mecha pilot, where someone loved her, too.
But if that life ended in fire...
Why was she remembering it now?
[Side Thread Unlocked: "Glitch Timeline – Yue of the War Arc"Integration Level: 3%Upcoming Event: Data Echo Collapse — ETA: 4 chapters]
Meanwhile...
Inside the system core, something watched her.Not a program.Not a voice.
A will.
Waiting.
Smiling.