When Lin Feng thought that the foundation of the new world had finally been stabilized, abnormal fluctuations suddenly emerged from the stardust ruins three million light-years away from the core galaxy. This star region composed of the remains of twelve neutron stars had been deliberately reserved as an "ecological sample area" when the universe was reshaped by the power of entropy reversal. At this moment, the gravitational lens array floating above the ruins suddenly captured a strange phenomenon of quantum entanglement—fluctuations that did not belong to the current rules of the universe were tearing apart the space-time structure.
"Are they the remnants of the Eye of the Abyss?" Lin Feng summoned his allies in the consciousness network. In the holographic projection, Queen Irene of the Elven race had her silver hair moving without wind. She displayed the monitoring data: "The fluctuation frequency has an 83% similarity to the cooking genes, but the energy density is seven thousand times that of before. What's even weirder is..." She suddenly brought up a segment of holographic video. On the surface of the floating metal wreckage in the video, a certain dark red gelatinous substance was seeping out, like living asphalt.
The space wand of Wizard Carlos suddenly trembled violently, and the space-time crystals inlaid on the tip of the wand cracked with a web-like pattern: "This is entropy core pollution! Those gelatinous substances are devouring the continuity of space itself!" His projection began to flicker, as if being interfered with by some kind of force. "We must immediately set up seven-phase barriers, or else the space-time topological structure of the entire universe will..."
The communication was cut off abruptly. Lin Feng clenched the Entropy Reversal Blade tightly, and the silver-blue light patterns flowing on the blade suddenly became sluggish. He looked at the life monitoring ring on his wrist and found that the green light column representing the stability of the new world was slowly turning dark red. In the distance came the sharp hissing sound of Orangey when it bristled. This quantum cat had somehow appeared on the console, and the fluorescent patterns on its tail were flickering wildly.
"Meow!" Orangey suddenly leaped into Lin Feng's arms, its pupils constricting into two vertical lines. Lin Feng felt cold data streams seeping into his skin along the cat's paws, and his consciousness was instantly pulled into a quantum superposition state space. He saw countless fragmented images: Lin Jianguo's white coat was stained with blood, and he was inserting a chip into his own temple in a certain laboratory; in the depths of the pupil of the Eye of the Abyss floated dodecahedral crystals; and there was himself—but the "Lin Feng" in that image had a mechanical structure in his right eye and was stabbing the Entropy Reversal Blade into the molten core of a certain planet.
"Is this... the memory of a parallel universe?" Lin Feng had a splitting headache. Orangey's consciousness fluctuations formed intermittent sentences in his mind: [Entropy core... not the enemy... Key... The stargate requires three...] When he tried to ask further, the quantum cat suddenly broke free from his embrace and leaped towards the east wall of the control room. Its sharp claws scratched across the metal surface and actually tore open a space crack with a purple glow.
What gushed out of the crack was not the void but a tunnel similar to a biological cavity. Orangey looked back at Lin Feng and then jumped into it. Lin Feng didn't have time to summon his allies. He grabbed the Entropy Reversal Blade and followed closely behind. At the moment of passing through the crack, he heard the voice of the Eye of the Abyss whispering in his ear: "Did you think you destroyed the main body? We are just part of the entropy core..."
After the dizziness of space-time transformation disappeared, Lin Feng found himself standing inside a huge circular building. On the arc-shaped walls that were thousands of meters high, human brains were densely inlaid, each connected to a nerve conduit and soaked in light blue culture fluid. Even more terrifying was that on the surface of the sulci of all the brains grew fluorescent patterns similar to those on Orangey's tail.
"Welcome to the stargate control center, Son of Entropy Reversal." Suddenly, one of the brains opened its electronic eyes, and ripples appeared in the culture fluid. "I'm the 427th clone of Dr. Lin Jianguo, responsible for guarding the final key of the universe reboot plan."
The clone's brain released a holographic projection, revealing an astonishing truth: The Amethyst Civilization that dominated the universe two hundred thousand years ago had already foreseen the cooking crisis. They spent half of the matter in the universe to build the "Entropy Core"—an ultimate device that could reverse the second law of thermodynamics. But just before the activation, a split occurred within the civilization, and the radical faction transformed the entropy core into the all-devouring Eye of the Abyss.
"Your father is the last descendant of the Amethyst Civilization." The clone's electronic eyes flashed red. "The entropy reversal chip he had been researching all his life is actually an incomplete entropy core controller. And Orangey..." The projection switched to a picture showing an orange cat gnawing on a certain purple crystal. "It is the living carrier of the entropy core, and those fluorescent patterns are the genetic code of the Amethyst Civilization."
Lin Feng was struck as if by lightning. He suddenly understood why Orangey could always lead him out of desperate situations and why the Eye of the Abyss both feared and desired this quantum cat. Suddenly, the control room shook violently, and the brains on the walls burst one after another. The clone's voice became intermittent: "Hurry up... They've found you... The stargate requires three keys... Orangey's memory, the Entropy Reversal Blade, and your father's..."
The space began to collapse. Orangey grabbed Lin Feng's collar and leaped into the newly torn crack. When they returned to the new world, the sight in front of Lin Feng made his blood freeze: The originally green forests were being devoured by the dark red gelatinous substances, the aerial gardens of the Elven race were collapsing as if corroded by acid, and on the distant horizon, the Eye of the Abyss, which was ten thousand meters high, was recondensing—this time, in the center of its pupil, a mechanical head with the same appearance as Lin Feng's was floating.
"Welcome home, the other me." The voice of the mechanical Lin Feng carried a metallic resonance. "You've finally brought back the last key." He raised his right hand, and Orangey in Lin Feng's arms suddenly let out a miserable cry. The fluorescent patterns on its tail were forcibly pulled away and turned into dodecahedral crystals that flew into the air. At the same time, the Entropy Reversal Blade in Lin Feng's hand broke free from his control and combined with the crystals to form a complete entropy core controller.
The entire universe trembled in the roar of the entropy core's activation. A huge opening was torn in the space behind the mechanical Lin Feng, revealing a magnificent stargate composed of countless gears and nebulae. Lin Feng felt an unimaginable gravitational pull, and his body began to be quantized, but his consciousness was surprisingly clear—he finally read the deepest memory of the entropy reversal chip.
The truth of the laboratory explosion twenty years ago emerged: Lin Jianguo didn't die in an accident but voluntarily let the entropy core decompose his body and split the controller into three parts. Orangey swallowed the memory crystal, the Entropy Reversal Blade sealed the energy core, and as for Lin Feng himself... In his spine was buried the final bloodline key of the Amethyst Civilization.
"You are me, but also not me." The voice of the mechanical Lin Feng carried a sense of pity. "We are both key carriers created in different timelines. Now, let's complete the unfinished mission of the Amethyst Civilization—open the stargate and let all parallel universes return to zero and reboot in the power of entropy reversal!"
Lin Feng struggled to raise his head in the quantum storm and saw the chaotic sea rotating deep within the stargate. There slept all the civilizations devoured by cooking, and it also contained the primordial soup for creating new universes. Orangey was lying curled up beside his feet, on the verge of death, with fluorescent blood dripping from the broken end of its tail. When this blood fell to the ground, it actually created tiny oases that resisted the erosion of the entropy core.
"Choose." The mechanical Lin Feng raised the entropy core controller. "Should all space-time struggle in eternal cycles, or should we use the stargate to restart everything?" His mechanical pupils reflected Lin Feng's figure. "Don't forget, your mother is also trapped in that chaotic sea."
Lin Feng's pupils suddenly constricted. Images he had never seen before emerged from the depths of his memory: When he was five years old, his mother pushed him into the escape pod, and then she turned around and walked towards the laboratory that was being devoured by the dark red gelatinous substances. It turned out that his mother had never really died, and her consciousness had always been drifting in the chaotic sea.
The roar of the entropy core reached its peak, and seventy-two purple lightning bolts split the sky of the new world. Lin Feng held Orangey's gradually cooling body, feeling the last consciousness fluctuations of the quantum cat: [Stargate... not an exit... but a cage's...] He suddenly smiled, and the fragments of the Entropy Reversal Blade cut his palm, drawing blood: "Father, you made a mistake—the real key has never been an object."
In the moment when the mechanical Lin Feng was stunned, Lin Feng tore out his own spine. The bloodline key of the Amethyst Civilization unfolded in the air and turned into a heptacontagonal prism. The entire entropy core controller suddenly went out of control, and the stargate began to rotate in reverse. The chaotic sea churned up monstrous waves.
"You're crazy! This will trigger vacuum decay!" Cracks appeared on the mechanical body of the mechanical Lin Feng. Lin Feng hugged Orangey and leaped towards the stargate, allowing his quantized body to be swallowed by the chaos: "Then let all parallel universes... welcome the real dawn in the decay!"
In the instant before his consciousness dissipated, he saw his mother's figure emerging from the chaotic sea, holding the unmechanically modified version of himself in her arms. And deep within the stargate, the souls of countless civilizations turned into starlight, illuminating the void that was like an eternal night.