Chapter 608

Liguang was beside herself with excitement!

She could feel the human heart in her chest thumping wildly, boom, boom, boom!

Each beat was stronger than the last, the force of it making her whole body tremble!

It turned out that the "usage permission" her Master had given her...

Had been there all along!

Master had never taken it back...

It had never left, it had always been right inside her body!

It was just that something heavy had been pressing down on it this whole time, keeping it from rising to the surface.

And just now, the moment she snapped her own finger—

Crack, that was the exact sensation she felt.

Right at the broken knuckle, that familiar, scorching warm presence!

It was the "permission to use the authority" that she had thought she'd lost forever, the one Master had handed to her personally...

"Master...!"

She jerked her head up, and in her tear-blurred heterochromatic eyes, the amber and crimson glows blazed to life all at once!

She could feel it!

She really could feel it!

She could take control of this permission again!

Any second now...

Any second now she would get to meet Master!

She'd get to touch Master again, throw herself back into his arms, and hear that helpless yet indulgent line of his, calling her "Crazy Girl" once more!

On the ground, words were appearing at high speed!

Liguang, what's wrong? Did you find something? And your finger, you...!

She looked at the carved characters, her whole body shaking.

Ah...!

Master is carving words again!

Master is loving Liguang so fiercely again!

Hehe...!

Ah!

No no no...!

This is no time to get giddy!

"Master, please wait a moment!" The silver-haired girl's voice was trembling, and she abruptly pushed herself upright on her knees.

She needed to sense it! She had to seize this fleeting chance!

She stretched out her unharmed right hand, pressing it hard against her broken left finger.

"Let Liguang sense this!"

"Let Liguang figure out what to do!"

She was going to make Master manifest!

She wanted to see Master's hands, to see the hands that had become broken and maimed for her sake...!

She had to see them!

She stared hard at the horizon where the sea met the sky, gathering every last shred of her focus to catch that wisp of faint, drifting power seeping out from her broken finger.

In her field of vision, a deep blue light suddenly began to flicker.

It's here!

Vzzz—!

A line of code spread out across her sight!

LAYER_01:PERMISSION_ACCESS——UNLOCKED

Vzzz—!

The second line of code came right after it!

LAYER_02:PERMISSION_SCOPE——AUTHORIZATION_LEVEL:MASTER/Fang Qi

Vzzz—!

The third line of code was like a light curtain rippling in the wind, unfolding slowly right in front of Liguang's eyes.

LAYER_03:PERMISSION_STATUS——GRANTED.

SLAVE:LIGUANG.

EXECUTION_RESTRICTED:HUMAN_BODY_LIMITATION

Liguang had her eyes squeezed shut, her eyelashes fluttering wildly.

She saw it! She really saw it!

It was Master's permission, those layers upon layers, endless stretches of code...

All those permission chains she knew so well, every single one of them had lit up again deep in her consciousness.

Every single level is engraved with its master's name, and every single one of them swings open to her soul!

They're all here! They've been here all along!

She can even feel that authority gently responding to her tentative reach...

-- Liguang, I've always been right here.

The corners of the silver-haired girl's mouth shoot up sharply!

Master...

Master, Master, Master!

Liguang is almost there...!

She presses on with her perception even harder, wishing she could grab every last bit of that authority right this second, and cradle the entire world back into the palm of her hand once more.

One layer of code...

【PERMISSION_NODE:REALITY_WRITE——PARTIAL_ACCESS】

Another layer of code...!

【PERMISSION_NODE:ENVIRONMENT_CONTROL——LOW_LEVEL_ACTIVE】

Another layer of code!!

【PERMISSION_NODE:……】

...?

...Huh?

The silver-haired girl freezes slightly.

Her breath catches, and the grin that had curled up on her pretty face goes stiff.

Why...?

Why do these lines of code that should have been as easy to command as her own fingers and toes feel... so foreign now?

Her mind... is such a mess.

Right now, these codes are like countless slippery little fish, darting and weaving all around inside her consciousness!

...They feel more and more alien by the second.

Every single symbol, every single command is so close within reach, but the moment she tries to touch them deeper, to understand them, to make them obey...

...Eh?

Liguang is completely lost.

She feels the jumbled, garbled mess of code deep in her mind, and stands rooted to the spot in a daze.

...What is this even?

What on earth is all of this?

She used to... could she even understand any of this stuff before?

These messy, fleeting symbols...

How are you even supposed to use them?

Huh...?

Liguang is genuinely, utterly at a loss.

She tries so hard to look, so hard to make sense of it all, only to find her brain feeling lazy, soft, and incapable of grasping a single thing.

She recognizes the shapes of the characters, and vaguely remembers what each command is supposed to mean.

But every time she focuses her attention on a single line of code...

Her mind goes blank.

Completely, totally blank, she can't make heads or tails of a single thing.

Liguang drifts off into a slight trance.

She... can't use these authorities anymore?

Why?

How did it end up like this?

Ah... because right now she is...!

Liguang's eyes tremble slightly, and she stares blankly out at the calm surface of the sea.

She seems to have just realized something.

That's why her old master split this "authority" into nine pieces, and gave them out to nine super AIs.

Because...

Only the computing power of a super AI can drive these terrifyingly complex "authorities".

Only a super core that can process hundreds of millions of commands in an instant is worthy of being a "vessel" for these authorities.

But what about her right now?

She's trapped in a human girl's body, so fragile that even hauling a big fish out of the water takes every last ounce of her strength.

Where is her super core now?

...She has no idea.

She lost it, all on her own.

And her computing power has been draining away little by little this whole time, silently and without a trace.

Little by little, she's gotten slower and slower.

She's forgotten all those complex logics, forgotten all those massive operations, and turned completely into... a silly, simple human girl?

Which means...

She can't use this authority anymore.

Couldn't she even understand it anymore?

Just like... Master?

She clearly had the permissions, but had no clue how to use them at all.

She could only stare on helplessly, getting tormented half to death by this stupid set of permissions.

Right now... was she even more like Master now?

The corners of Liguang's mouth started twitching slightly again!

She was so happy, Liguang and Master...!

Her hands tightened around the hem of her swimsuit, and a searing, tearing pain shot right up from her broken finger!

"Ugh—!"

The pain made her eyes fly wide open, and tears welled up instantly.

It hurt! It hurt so bad!

This hurts... just as much as it hurts Master...?

Hehe...

No no no!

She shook her head violently.

What was she even thinking? How could she be happy right now? This was no time to be happy!

She couldn't use the permissions anymore!

Which meant the permissions Master gave her were right there with her, but she couldn't operate them, and Master couldn't use them himself either...

So were they stuck like this forever?!

...Huh?

Huh?!

All of a sudden, carvings started appearing on the ground.

[What's wrong, Liguang? Did you figure something out?]

Liguang stared blankly at the characters being drawn stroke by stroke...

She jolted violently and ducked her head in a hurry.

"It's nothing, Master!"

She strained to make her voice sound normal.

"Liguang is... Liguang is trying to use the 'permissions' right now!"

After saying that, she closed her eyes again, forcing herself to sense and take control.

Liguang can figure this out!

Liguang is not stupid!

Even without her core, Liguang can still do it!

But the harder she pushed, the faster those codes scattered apart.

On instinct, she tried to give the permissions back to Master, but...

Nothing happened.

She didn't even know how to "return" the permissions anymore.

Back then, all she had to do was spin her core, and the permissions would flow to Master right along with her consciousness.

But now...

She didn't even have a core anymore, how was she supposed to give them back?

"Ugh...!"

Her breaths got faster and faster, and her kneeling body started trembling softly again.

What do I do?

What do I do what do I do what do I do?

We're doomed... we're doomed we're doomed we're doomed we're doomed...!

She's made a huge mess...!

Could it be... that she and Master are going to stay like this forever?!

Master would have to keep using that finger of his that kept breaking over and over, grinding until it bled, to carve out word after word for her...

Hehe...

No!

She admitted that when she saw those words, she felt so happy, so giddy, her heart was beating so fast it could burst!

But... they couldn't keep going like this forever. Absolutely not.

At the very least... at the very least, she should get to watch Master do it!

Let her see with her own eyes Master bleeding for her, Master hurting for her, Master carving his love for her right into that plank...!

...No no no! That's not right either!

Liguang shook her head hard again, shoving down that dangerous thought that was about to make the corners of her mouth stretch into a grin.

If she could see Master, Master wouldn't even have to do all that in the first place!

And... she couldn't let Master keep suffering like this.

She couldn't...!

"Vroom—!"

A flash of red light suddenly streaked across her field of vision.

Liguang's whole body jolted.

...Huh?

She stared blankly open-eyed, her out-of-focus gaze drifting toward the sea surface.

This feeling...?

...Huh?

Is... is that how it is?

She held her breath, almost unconsciously, and reached deep into her own consciousness once more.

This time, she didn't try to touch those... massive, complex permissions that belonged to the "world".

She followed that streak of crimson light, carefully groping her way deeper and further down to the very bottom.

And then...

Her eyes slowly lit up!

Because... she sensed a special permission.

A permission entirely different from all the others.

It did not come with overwhelming swathes of code, nor was it a tangled logical chain so complex it would drive anyone to the brink of collapse. It simply rested there, quiet and undisturbed.

Like a red crystal, hidden away in the deepest core of one's soul.

It required no computing power, no complicated understanding. All it took was the simplest "trigger" to put it to use.

That was...

"Master's..."

Liguang's lips moved faintly, and she whispered under her breath.

"Save... Load... Permission...?"

Ah, she remembered now.

She had stripped Master of his load permission before!

So... that permission had been transferred from Master over to her?

Which meant that right now, she could actually...

Use Master's load ability...?

Hm?

She blinked.

In the past, it had always been Master bringing her along when they loaded a save. But this time... she could...

Bring Master along and trigger the load herself?

Bring Master and let him "wake up from the dream"?

Liguang was so overcome with excitement that her whole body trembled!

The broken finger that had been throbbing with dull pain just a moment ago did not hurt at all now!

She could feel that tiny little red light point inside her body, responding to her quietly and obediently.

As long as she wanted to, as long as she died right now...

No, not just died. Once she was killed...

They would trigger the load!

"Ha... Hahaha...!"

The silver-haired girl's eyes instantly grew hot, and tears went "plop plop" falling down her cheeks, yet the corners of her mouth lifted into a wide, overjoyed grin!

She was going to see Master very soon!

And Master would finally be able to touch her too!

He would never have to snap his own fingers again, never have to carve characters for her while his hands were bleeding.

All he would need to do was reach out, and he could pull her into his embrace, listening to her laughing and crying as she called out "Master"!

It was perfect.

So perfect, so perfect, so perfect!

Liguang was so elated she nearly jumped for joy, she was about to do it right this instant...

Her gaze swept across her surroundings unconsciously, searching for a way to "kill" herself and trigger the load.

But her line of sight suddenly froze.

She spotted the little wooden cabin.

She saw... all the carvings that covered the walls, the floor, every inch of the room.

Those lopsided, messy characters that belonged to Master.

[I am here]

[Good night, Liguang]

[Liguang, don't be afraid. I will always be right here with you]

Those words lay quietly on the planks, like countless gentle hands that had once taken Master's place to keep her company.

Liguang stared at those words blankly, her whole body turning rigid.

Wait a second...

On which exact day was Master's "save point" set, again...?

If she chose to load... then...

Would all these words cease to exist?

Liguang's eyes trembled!

These words were the proof of the love between her and Master...

They were the characters Master had ground out one by one with his own fingers, just to soothe her, just to help her hold on through that hopeless stretch of time when she could see nothing and touch nothing...

These words were treasures Liguang would cherish for all eternity!

A flicker of deep blue light flashed sharply in her amber pupils.

Liguang would absolutely never allow them to disappear!

Absolutely never!

But... but right now, the only thing she seemed to be able to do was trigger the load...?

"—!"

She took a deep breath, her gaze hardening with resolve.

Disappear...? No, they would not. They absolutely would not!

"...It's alright..."

She murmured to herself.

Right, it was alright.

Loading a save did not mean everything would vanish.

Because...

She will memorize every single carved character, every word, every single stroke in this room, completely and firmly!

Not a single position will be off by even the tiniest margin!

That way, after the "rollback", even when all these carved words vanish completely...

She, Liguang, her master's Liguang, will make them reappear again!

Just like... how she recreated that sea escape raft for her master back then!

Just like how she brought back those beautiful memories that belonged only to the two of them.

So it's all going to be okay.

It's just... she's being a little slow right now, so it might take a bit more time.

So...

"Master."

The silver-haired girl lifted her head, looking in the direction where her master might be.

No more words were appearing on the ground, but a few faint scratches and one indentation had shown up.

Her master is so worried about her...!

"Liguang can now...!"

Her voice was still trembling slightly nonstop.

"Use your rollback ability, Master!"

She told her master directly, and made a promise to him...

"Liguang will definitely bring Master back!"

She took a deep, shaky breath then!

"But... please give Liguang a little bit of time. Liguang..."

She pressed her lips together hard, and finally spoke out her "selfish request"!

"Liguang wants to memorize every single thing that Master worked so hard to carve, completely and firmly!"

She looked at the empty space right in front of her with utter seriousness.

"Liguang is being a little silly right now, so maybe... maybe it will take a bit longer. But..."

She bit her lower lip, and her eyes started to sting and grow warm again.

"But Liguang really can't bear to part with all these carved words..."

"Master doesn't want to part with them either, right?"

She looked at the empty space in front of her with a face full of hope.

"Liguang will remember every single stroke and mark, completely and firmly!"

"That way... after Liguang and Master wake up from this 'dream', Liguang will recreate all of this!"

"So..."

She knelt up straight, her hands folded over her lower abdomen, staring steadily at the empty void where she couldn't see her master.

"Please wait for Liguang just a little longer, okay?"

After saying that, she leaned down, bracing her hands on the wooden planks, and pressed her forehead against the ground.

Her silver hair hid the corner of her mouth that...

Couldn't help but tug up into a smile.