Lin Xiao's heart raced. The system? It's back? But how? Lin Xiao's pulse quickened. He had tried accessing it earlier, and it had been gone. Now, out of nowhere, it had returned.
"Am I... am I hallucinating?" he whispered, his voice shaky. His fingers twitched slightly as he tried to interact with the system, unsure if what he was seeing was real or just another fragment of a coma-induced delusion.
But the interface in his mind remained steady, as real as it ever had been before.
"System, open," Lin Xiao commanded cautiously.
The familiar grid of information filled his vision. Stats, skills, everything was there—just like it had been before he had woken up in the hospital. His status window appeared before him, showing his current level, skill points, and abilities, as if nothing had ever changed.
"What the hell is going on?" Lin Xiao muttered under his breath. This wasn't possible. One minute he was lying in a hospital bed, and the next, the system was back online like nothing had ever happened.
His hands trembled slightly. He tapped the status window, scrolling through his skills. Everything was intact. But then, something new appeared in the update log.
[New Quest Unlocked: Return of the Forgotten.]
The title of the quest sent a chill down his spine. "Return of the Forgotten? What's that supposed to mean?"
Suddenly, it hit him. Maybe this wasn't a hallucination after all. Maybe everything—the twin moons, the strange cave, Xiao Bai and Lil'Blackie—was real.
And somehow, the system had come back to guide him. But what was this quest about? And why now, after so much confusion and doubt?
Lin Xiao's mind raced. He had so many questions, but no answers. The only thing he knew for sure was that the system wasn't gone—and that meant something bigger was happening.
"Looks like I'm not as crazy as I thought..." Lin Xiao whispered, a mixture of relief and anxiety building up in his chest.
He sat up straighter, his eyes gleaming with determination. If the system's back, then I need to figure out what this quest is about. Maybe it'll help me understand what's going on.
Lin Xiao's thoughts swirled as he stared at the system screen in front of him. Everything felt surreal, but one thing was clear: this was far from over.
Lin Xiao's heart raced as he focused on the newly unlocked quest. His mind filled with questions, but the title "Return of the Forgotten" lingered heavily in his thoughts. Without hesitating, he tapped on the quest icon, eager to see what it held.
The system flashed, and the familiar notification appeared:
[Quest Update: Congratulations on returning to the Prime Timeline, Host. You have finally returned to the real timeline.]
Lin Xiao's eyes widened as the words sank in. Prime timeline? His breath caught in his throat. All this time, had he been living in a false reality? Was that why everything felt so disconnected when he woke up in the hospital? His confusion deepened, but a strange sense of clarity began to take shape.
The system continued:
[Quest Reward: Restoration of Prime Timeline Memories]
[Condition: Fully accept your return to the Prime Timeline.]
For a moment, Lin Xiao just stared at the screen, his mind struggling to comprehend what it was saying.
Memories of the Prime Timeline? What did that even mean? Had everything he experienced before—the alternate realities, the strange worlds with the twin moons, the supernatural encounters—been some sort of illusion? Or had those been different timelines, each disconnected from the real world?
His fingers hovered over the quest details as the weight of the words hit him like a tidal wave. "The real timeline… I've finally returned."
Lin Xiao's thoughts spiraled as he tried to grasp the full meaning. If he had been in alternate timelines all this time, then what had happened to the real one?
"Does this mean… everything I've known up until now was wrong?" Lin Xiao whispered to himself, his voice barely audible in the quiet hospital room.
He glanced at his surroundings—everything looked so normal, so ordinary. His mother hadn't remembered the red moons, his cats Xiao Bai and Lil'Blackie had disappeared, and even Li Jing no longer existed. It all made sense now. He had been in a fractured reality, a timeline that was never meant to exist.
Lin Xiao's thoughts grew louder. He couldn't believe it. His entire journey had been leading him back here, back to the world where everything was right—or was it?
Suddenly, the quest notification blinked again, urging him to take action.
[To reclaim your memories and understand the truth of the Prime Timeline, you must first accept that this world is real.]
Lin Xiao's pulse quickened. The system was asking him to believe that this world, the one where he had woken up in a hospital bed, was the original reality.
He bit his lip, hesitation creeping in. But something inside him pushed forward. This is the real world. Everything else was an illusion. A distraction.
Slowly, he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to center himself. He thought back to all the strange things he had encountered—the red moons, the portals, the boy who had kicked him through the last one. It had all been so vivid, so real.
But if what the system said was true, then those events weren't part of the true timeline. They were echoes of something broken, fragments of an incomplete reality.
"I accept," Lin Xiao whispered, his voice firm with resolve.
A sudden wave of warmth washed over him, flooding his mind with memories he didn't recognize—yet they felt strangely familiar. It was as if the missing pieces of a puzzle were falling into place, filling the gaps in his understanding.
Flashes of people, events, and places raced through his consciousness. There were moments of his life that he had never experienced before—or so he thought. His real life. His true life.
And then, the memories stopped as suddenly as they had begun, leaving Lin Xiao breathless.
He blinked, his mind buzzing from the overload of new information. It was overwhelming, but one thing had become clear—he had lived in the Prime Timeline once before.
All those fragmented realities, those strange worlds and supernatural events, were deviations. They weren't part of his true path.
The quest notification appeared once more, confirming the shift in his understanding.
[Memory restoration complete. Welcome back to the Prime Timeline, Host.]
Lin Xiao leaned back in his hospital bed, trying to catch his breath. His body still felt weak, but his mind was sharper than it had been in days. "So this is the real world," he thought, finally accepting it fully.
But as he did, a new question formed in the back of his mind—"what was I doing in the other timelines? And why did I leave the Prime one?"
The answers weren't clear yet, but one thing was certain—Lin Xiao was back where he belonged. And now that he had his memories, he had a lot of questions that needed answering.
"Time to figure out what happens next," Lin Xiao murmured to himself, feeling the weight of his journey pressing down on him once again.