After leaving Zhao Shuying's home, Yu Xunge walked down the streets of Zai Jiu with Tulan and B80. Suddenly, B80 asked, "Will you take me with you, then?"
Yu Xunge did not answer.
"You're going back, aren't you?" Calculation was B80's instinct. It had promised Yu Xunge not to expose the present or calculate the future, but the things Yu Xunge had said while talking to Qihua and Zhao Shuying were too unusual. Many results had surfaced naturally in its programming.
It could not probe the information in that copy of World Sigh or that Game Invasion illustration, but it could guess what had put Yu Xunge in a dilemma. It could also guess the only path to survival-returning to the very beginning.
Even if Yu Xunge gained authority, she would be unable to defeat the Old Order, with its accumulation over several epochs. She could only return to the beginning. It was the only way.
She could not be certain she would succeed, yet there was hope of success, so she hesitated.
She wanted to take all the worlds with her, yet feared heading toward the worst possible outcome, so she was torn.
Yu Xunge remained silent, but she glanced at B80 with tenderness and helplessness in her eyes. That undoubtedly answered its question in the affirmative.
"You're going back to the First Epoch, aren't you?" This was the first time B80 had ever pressed for an answer. "Will you take me with you?"
It was actually very considerate. Its programming analyzed the emotions each of its remarks might produce in the person it was speaking to.
Its database held records of every conversation it had ever had with Yu Xunge, the stories of Yu Xunge and everyone else, every choice Yu Xunge had ever made...
It understood Yu