The polygraph in the Time Management Bureau is a modified particle collider. Arthur is shackled in the center of a superconducting magnetic ring, with his nostrils filled with liquid helium mixed with the scent of jasmine. Interrogator Rosen's mechanical prosthetic taps on the data screen, each tap causing the magnetic ring to contract by two millimeters—this is a pain threshold control method he discovered during the previous seven interrogations.
"Seventh timeline, Arthur Claude." Rosen plays a holographic recording, where Arthur, in prison clothes, is seen dismembering Erin's corpse. "Confess to your murder rehearsal in the baseline timeline."
Arthur's hyoid bone is suddenly fixed by a quantum entanglement field, forcing him to say, "I didn't…" Before he can finish the sentence, the CR-2049 component in his molar activates. The polygraph screen erupts in blue light, showing a completely contradictory result: [Testimony Truthfulness: 37% | Bodily Reaction Truthfulness: 102%].
The temperature in the interrogation room plummets to the absolute zero critical point, causing Arthur's skin to become transparent, revealing the CR-2049 metal solution flowing within him. For the first time, Rosen's expression cracks, and his iris flashes a mechanical red light—identical to Raymond's prosthetic eye features.
"Interesting." Rosen stabs his mechanical prosthetic into Arthur's quantum heart. "Let's see what Easter eggs Dr. Raymond implanted in you."
In agonizing pain, Arthur's optic nerve connects to a memory archive from twenty years ago. He sees himself restrained on an operating table, with Raymond inserting a dodecahedron crystal core into his occipital lobe. Suddenly, an encrypted memory segment decompresses: standing in the corner of the operating room is six-year-old Erin, holding a CR-2049 component stained with blue blood, with Rosen's headless corpse lying at her feet.
The polygraph suddenly emits a high-pitched shriek: [Inverse Memory Contamination Detected]. Arthur's ear canal bleeds Klein bottle-structured blood crystals, which store a more horrifying truth—every agent in the Time Management Bureau has Raymond's youthful face, and all their employment dates are October 25, 1985.
Rosen's prosthetic begins to disassemble, revealing gears engraved with CR-2049 serial numbers inside. Taking the opportunity, Arthur breaks free from the magnetic ring's confinement, and his quantumized left arm pierces through Rosen's chest, grabbing the still-beating mechanical heart. When he inserts the chip into the interrogation room's main computer, the entire Time Management Bureau's building structure restructures before his eyes—it's actually a time-space folded state of Raymond's suicide lab from that time.
During his escape, Arthur crashes into the restricted zone of the archive. The holographic screen scrolls through a hundred thousand execution orders for the "Amber Project," each attached with his biological data. The latest order reads: [Immediate elimination of AC-2049, activate Erin Clone #13].
As the explosion doors burst open, Arthur leaps into the ventilation ducts. In the metallic reflections of the pipes, he sees his own reflection aging, while the footsteps of pursuers behind him echo from both the past and the future. When he crushes the last CR-2049 component, the jasmine fragrance intensifies—this was the perfume Erin wore on their wedding day, but now it emanates from his own quantumized pores.