Blueprint Projection

[Three hundred and seventy million obsessions, and this fragment. You can only take one.]

Lin Ye's pupils contracted slightly.

[You can take this fragment. It can make you a true Lord of Ashes and give every civilization whose obsession you bear a chance to return. But the price is—these three hundred and seventy million must remain behind.]

[Because the fragment itself is the condensation of their obsessions. Once you take it away, they will completely dissipate. Not even their obsessions will remain.]

[Or—]

The light of the Blueprint Projection dimmed slightly.

[You can choose to take them. Abandon the fragment. Then leave this place with these three hundred and seventy million obsessions, never to set foot on the First Epoch battlefield again.]

[In exchange, I can guarantee that the Archivist Network will not proactively launch ultimate erasure against the New Era Network during your lifetime.]

Lin Ye fell silent.

Behind him, three hundred and seventy million streams of light froze at once.

They watched that violet-gold figure, waiting for the answer that would decide their fate.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Lin Ye spoke.

He did not answer the Blueprint Projection's question. Instead, he asked another:

"Why are you giving me this choice?"

The form of the Blueprint Projection stiffened slightly.

[Because—]

"Because you can't do it." Lin Ye cut him off, a faint smile rising on his lips. "You suppressed three hundred and seventy million civilizations for endless epochs, yet you could never make them disappear completely. Their obsessions are too strong—so strong that even the Blueprint's ultimate rules cannot erase them entirely."

"You thought that, as time passed, they would slowly fade away. But they didn't. They supported one another, entrusted themselves to one another, remembered each other's Proof of Existence. Instead of fading in endless deathly