The heavy, rusted iron door of the Reincarnation Management Bureau slowly closed behind them, completely cutting off the incessant mechanical hum and data stream light from within. Outside lay the boundless night of the abandoned city, and above, the real, cold, and brilliant starry sky.
The night wind was sharp, carrying the scent of ancient dust, stirring the strands of hair on Wang Chuan's forehead and tousling Wang You's locks, which had never fallen freely outside the system's regulations. She subconsciously tightened her overly thin Executor uniform—a subtle gesture carrying a newfound, unaccustomed sense of fragility.
"Home…" Wang You repeated the word she had just uttered herself, the syllable feeling somewhat unfamiliar on her lips. Her gaze withdrew from the starry sky and fell upon Wang Chuan beside her, carrying a trace of barely perceptible dependence and inquiry. The system-defined "home" was a standardized living unit conforming to optimal space utilization, a node for maintaining efficient physiological function. But now, this word from her mouth clearly pointed to a meaning the system could not calculate.
"Yeah, home." Wang Chuan tightened his grip on her hand, trying to impart some warmth. His palm was slightly damp from the earlier tension, yet exceptionally firm. He got his bearings and, pulling Wang You along, stepped deeply and unevenly into the shadows of the city's abandoned zone. This place was once the bustling heart of civilization, now only the skeletons of reinforced concrete remained, silent carcasses of behemoths crouching under the starlight. Tenacious plant vines twisted around them, carving green paths through the broken walls, the air filled with the complex, real scent of dust and decaying vegetation.
Wang You followed silently, her senses seemingly processing all of this with unprecedented intensity. She was no longer the Executor perceiving the world through data streams. The coarse gravel under her shoes, the touch of the night wind on her skin, the chirping of unnamed insects in the distance vibrating her eardrums… all this raw information, un-"optimized" and un-"filtered" by the system, surged against her newly awakened sensory system. She occasionally stopped, reaching out to touch a mottled wall, feeling its rough texture, or lifting her head to gaze at a wildflower struggling from a fissure, her eyes revealing a pure curiosity never logged in any system record.
"Father…" Wang You spoke softly suddenly, breaking the silence of their walk. "The fragments of his consciousness…"
"They're still here," Wang Chuan replied, unable to precisely describe the heavy feeling deep within his own consciousness, something slowly settling and reorganizing. "He didn't vanish, just… exists in a different way now." He pointed to his own heart, then to the starry sky above. "Here, and there."
Wang You seemed to understand, yet not fully. But she didn't press further. She trusted this non-logical expression, just as she trusted the awe the starry sky had given her.
They passed through a collapsed overpass, its piers thickly covered with vines like grotesque sculptures. Suddenly, Wang You stopped sharply, alertly gazing into the depths of the shadows. Her body subconsciously shifted into a defensive stance—muscle memory left by Executor training.
Wang Chuan also stopped, following her gaze. In the shadows, several points of faint green light flickered, then a few lean, urban stray creatures cautiously poked their heads out, sniffed the air, and quickly disappeared back behind the ruins. They were lives abandoned by the system on this land, long adapted to the harsh environment.
"They're not a threat," Wang Chuan said quietly, relaxing his tense body.
Wang You slowly relaxed too, but the wariness in her eyes didn't completely fade. "The system judged all unregistered, uncontrolled biological individuals as potential risk sources."
"Here,the system's judgment doesn't count," Wang Chuan said, looking at her seriously. "They're just… living. Like us."
"Living…" Wang You chewed on the word, her gaze turning back to the deep shadows. Those points of faint green light no longer seemed so dangerous, but instead carried a wild, tenacious vitality.
They continued on. After walking for an unknown length of time, the outline of a low, old-style residential area, seemingly never completely covered by the system's planning, emerged faintly in the starlight in the distance. The lights there were sparse, yet they carried a warm, lived-in atmosphere that could never exist inside the Reincarnation Management Bureau.
Wang Chuan quickened his pace. "Almost there."
Just as they were about to step into the edge of the residential area, a very well-concealed port on Wang You's wrist suddenly flashed a weak, ominous red light, then quickly died. Her body swayed almost imperceptibly, her brows furrowing slightly.
"What is it?" Wang Chuan noticed immediately.
"Permission revocation… has begun," Wang You's voice was soft, carrying a thread of weariness. "The system core… is attempting to forcibly deactivate my identification code. That just now… was the final warning signal."
It meant her connection to the Reincarnation Management Bureau's vast energy source and data streams was being severed. She was no longer Executor Wang You. She had become a true "individual," an existence that needed to rely on her own energy to face the unknown world.
Wang Chuan tightened his hold on her hand. "It's alright," he said, his voice steady. "We don't need its permissions anymore."
He led her around the final street corner. An old-style three-story building, its exterior walls covered in ivy, appeared before them. A window on the top floor emitted a dim, warm, yellow light. It was the light from Father's study. Although Lao Wang was gone, that lamp seemed to stubbornly be waiting for something.
Wang Chuan stopped and looked at Wang You. "This is home."
Wang You looked up at that dim yellow light, then at the building before her, so full of traces of time and utterly different from the Reincarnation Management Bureau's cold, grand style. The cold, sharp lines of the Executor on her face, under the starlight and the glow of the lamp, finally softened completely. She gripped Wang Chuan's hand in return, her fingertips no longer so cold.
"Mm," she nodded, her eyes reflecting the starlight and the lamplight, and said softly, "Let's go home."
Side by side, the two stepped into the area enveloped by the warm light, leaving behind the massive, silent shadow of the system, and all the unknowns under the boundless starry sky, for the dawn that was about to begin.