The Pufan commercial district was like an anthill blown up to enormous proportions, with crowds streaming between the buildings.

As one of the most densely populated areas in S City, it was always bustling. But today, there was a striking new figure in the crowd.

Whenever people brushed past, passersby couldn’t help turning for a second look, their faces full of astonishment.

Xu Fang wore an invisibility cloak over Gussy’s smart chains, strolling through the crowd at his leisure. In reality, they had merged into one, and Xu Fang was in control.

After a few tries, Gussy had gotten used to sharing a body. As long as it relaxed, it didn’t feel uncomfortable.

“I hate to point this out, but did you forget to turn on the invisibility?” Gussy’s voice rang out in Xu Fang’s mind. “That guy just took a sneaky photo of us with his phone.”

“We’ve done enough shoplifting. We should spend some money and buy something once in a while, or we’ll pick up a bad habit.”

“You’re quite the comedian. Anyway, what should we buy? I want some Water of Life.”

“Haven’t decided yet.”

“Then let’s buy some clothes. I don’t have a cloak.”

Xu Fang glanced at a message on his phone, put it away, and turned into a clothing store.

“W-welcome…” The saleswoman who came to greet them looked at the customer with curiosity. If the cute little customer were any shorter, she thought she’d have to ask whether they’d gotten separated from their parents.

“What kind of clothes are you looking for?”

Gussy perked up inside Xu Fang’s mind. “Buy me something cool!”

……

Outside the store, more and more curious passersby gathered to watch.

“Whoa, did that doll come to life?”

“What doll? That’s an articulated figure, obviously.”

“Is that a real person? Is makeup technology really that insane now?”

“That’s weird… I feel like I’ve seen this kid online, but I can’t remember where.”

Voices rose and fell as the crowd murmured among themselves.

Just then, several security guards hurried over and dispersed the crowd outside.

A few moments later, several police cars pulled up at the mall intersection. The officers got out and quickly put up a cordon.

The ubiquitous surveillance cameras had detected an anomaly and responded at once.

Inside the store, Xu Fang tried on a few outfits. He ignored the saleswoman’s enthusiastic recommendations, took Gussy’s opinions into account, and finally picked out a few things.

A long black trench coat with a subtly matte finish. It was nowhere near the right size, but on a petite figure, it could serve as a full-body outfit. The material was sturdy and heavy, with adjustable cuffs and plenty of pockets inside and out.

A pair of chunky-soled Doc Martens with metal eyelets.

These were the clothes Gussy wanted. Xu Fang didn’t care for them himself; if they had a bulletproof vest, he might’ve considered buying one.

But—

Xu Fang removed the trench coat’s belt, casually tied it over his eyes, and knotted it behind his head.

“Are you cosplaying Gojo Satoru or the Fire Keeper?” Gussy said, then froze. “Wait, how did you do that??”

It shared Xu Fang’s vision. Now it was astonished to find that even with his eyes shut, the surrounding scene was perfectly clear—not just what lay ahead, but everything around him, a full 360 degrees. Even the shelves behind them, the fitting-room mirror to the side, and the lights overhead were crystal clear.

Gussy knew it couldn’t do anything like that.

“It has something to do with sensing through the soul,” Xu Fang replied. “This perspective has its drawbacks, too. I can’t see as far as before, but it’s suited to the complex terrain of a city.”

……

“That’ll be 3,612 yuan. Thank you for shopping with us.”

“Keep the change.” Xu Fang, now in his new clothes, walked out of the store.

Once outside, Xu Fang noticed that the crowd around him had thinned considerably. Someone was deliberately clearing the area.

Fifteen minutes… Not a bad response time.

After leaving the clothing store, Xu Fang saw a squad of special police following at a distance. They moved cautiously, barely making a sound, as if they were afraid of startling him.

Without looking back, Xu Fang walked over to the fountain, turned into the pavilion beside it, and sat on the edge of the stone table. The surrounding shops had already been cleared out; there wasn’t a single customer in sight. Armed personnel carrying loaded weapons patrolled the intersections on every side.

When they saw the target stop, many of the people watching in secret breathed a sigh of relief. If it got any closer to a densely populated area, they’d have no choice but to stop it.

Before long, police cars had filled the nearby intersections one after another. Barricades went up all around. Special police in uniform and sunglasses jumped out of their vehicles, heavy weapons in hand, and formed a tense semicircle around the pavilion.

A police dog crouched low, staring at the person in the pavilion and letting out a soft whine. It could see someone there, but couldn’t smell a trace of human scent, leaving it restless and uneasy.

At the same time, Xu Fang saw a brief flash of reflected light from a lens atop a high-rise behind him.

“Hey, hey,” Gussy said in his mind. “If a fight breaks out, who’s in control? How about you take the left and I take the right?”

“There won’t be a fight.” Xu Fang toyed with his phone, waiting for the negotiator to show up.

If China cooperated, the chances of successfully changing history would be higher. He wanted to speak directly with the Protectors.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged man passed through the cordon and walked toward the pavilion alone. He moved slowly, watching Xu Fang’s reaction as he went.

Sitting on the edge of the stone table, Xu Fang beckoned to him.

The agent glanced at the special police behind him, as if seeking one last bit of reassurance. Then he took a deep breath and stepped into the pavilion.

“Xu Fang?”

“That’s right.”

The middle-aged man opened the laptop, where a meeting was already in progress. None of the participants had their cameras on, but they could clearly see what was happening here. A distorted voice came from the computer. “I was wondering who it was. Turns out the rat from the gutter has crawled out.”

Xu Fang knew who the voice belonged to.

“One rat has you this scared. Should I call you cautious or cowardly… Mr. Yan Hong, may I call you that?”

The other side fell silent for two seconds.

“…Where did you learn my name?”

“I don’t just know your name,” Xu Fang said. “I also know you’re lying in a hospital bed somewhere in District 135, having just been woken up. Why not have a glass of water and take your medicine before we continue? Give your muddled thoughts a chance to settle.”

With that one sentence, all the other side’s hard-won momentum vanished.

The agent holding the laptop felt a chill run through him. He was already sweating buckets. Yan Hong—the founder of the Protectors, a core figure at the national level—was someone almost nobody could dig up information on. Yet in front of this monster, it was as if he’d been stripped bare.

“All right, all right!” Yan Hong paused. “Is this another one of the Author’s special abilities?”

“Tell your bodyguards to stop looking for surveillance footage. That’s not how I get my information.” Xu Fang smiled. “Can we have a calm, reasonable conversation now?”

Yan Hong hit the mute button, and the conference room fell briefly silent. He leaned against the headboard as a nurse tucked a pillow behind him.

The faint footsteps in the hallway belonged to the guards, who were on duty around the clock in rotating shifts.

“Old Yan, we should move you. This place may no longer be safe.” The chief bodyguard kept his voice low. The meeting was muted, but Xu Fang’s words kept circling in his mind, impossible to shake. “It even knew you’d just been woken up. This place…”

Yan Hong had a lean, lined face, but his eyes held a sharpness not usually found in the elderly. He showed no sign of panic. “If it knows where I am but hasn’t come here in person, that means it has no intention of making a move on me for now.”

“If it dares show up, we’ll shoot it dead!” the bodyguard said at once.

“Ordinary firearms aren’t enough to threaten it. At the very least, the armed police can’t. According to the Singularity Individuals, Xu Fang’s long-range attacks are even stronger than America’s laser weapons. If it wants to kill me, no one here can stop it.” Yan Hong looked toward the Defense Ministry’s meeting window. “The missile units are not to make any rash moves. I suspect it can sense anything we do.”

“Understood, Commander-in-Chief. We can’t possibly launch missiles in the middle of a city,” the Defense Ministry replied.

“We received information earlier that Xu Fang had supposedly been eliminated by Organization K. It looks like that was a false alarm.” The head of the intelligence department looked grave. “Could the two sides have reached some kind of agreement?”

“Maybe it can’t stop thinking about its property?” someone from the Protectors suggested. “We could use that to negotiate with it.”

“Not necessarily. It’s never mentioned anything like that.”

“Xu Fang can create duplicates—or perhaps they’re individuals of its own species.” Yan Hong closed his eyes and let out a breath. “Let me guess its aim. Perhaps it wants to use us against Organization K?”

“Wouldn’t that be perfect? Those several mass anomalies involving Organization K earlier might have had something to do with it.”

“An enemy’s enemy isn’t necessarily a friend.”

Yan Hong finished in a low voice, then nodded to the bodyguard.

The mute button was switched off.

“Xu Fang, why don’t you just tell us what you want? But let me be clear: it’ll be difficult for us to trust you. Can you show us some sincerity?” Yan Hong probed.

On the screen, the little girl with her eyes covered smiled faintly.

“No problem.”

The smile looked completely harmless. One of the special police surrounding the pavilion unconsciously shifted the barrel of his gun a few degrees away.

“You haven’t made the truth about the plane disaster public, have you?”

Yan Hong’s brows twitched. “Why bring that up?”

“If you haven’t, then there’s still a chance to save the victims.”

“The victims? You mean the people who were on the plane?” Someone in the Emergency Management Department’s meeting window couldn’t help asking.

“That’s right.”

Yan Hong didn’t answer right away. He pressed the mute button and scanned every face on the screen.

“Have you confirmed the identities of the carbonized human remains?”

The fire chief hurried to answer. “We’ve identified fifty-three people based on their teeth and long bones. As for the rest… the remains were too badly damaged to identify. Of course, if anyone managed to parachute out in time, they could theoretically have survived. But we searched…”

Yan Hong didn’t wait for him to finish. His mind was on something else.

It had first asked whether the truth had been made public, and only then said the victims could be saved. What did those two things have to do with each other?

Author… Singularity Individual… the observer effect… The words linked together in his mind.

Though he was old, Yan Hong’s mind and memory were still sharp. Xu Fang’s words had made him think of a possibility.

Only Singularity Individuals could see traces of history being changed. That meant history, even after it had happened, could still be altered.

So could the Author bring the dead back to life?

If so, why would it do that?

What was in it for them? Was this its idea of sincerity?