99: Chapter 99 City of Origin

Behind the door was not the Memory Corridor, not a maze of rules, nor the Trial Tower.

It was a city.

Chen Mo stood on a wide street, flanked by high-rise buildings, their glass curtain walls reflecting golden light.

The road was asphalt with white markings, and several cars were parked on the side—ordinary sedans and SUVs, windows intact, tires inflated, as if they had just parked there.

The sky was blue. A true blue, with clouds and a sun.

Chen Mo was stunned for a moment. He looked back—the door was gone. Behind him was only an extending street and the buildings on both sides.

The others were gone too.

【Entering special area: Origin City】

【Rule: The starting point of the Ghost Realm's erosion, time frozen at the moment of arrival】

【Current status: Illusion and reality overlapping】

【Advice: Find the core, break the cycle】

Chen Mo looked at those lines of text. Origin City. The starting point of the Ghost Realm's arrival.

He gripped his cleaver and walked forward along the street.

The buildings were all new, without damage or stains.

Merchandise was displayed in shop windows, unfinished food sat on restaurant tables, and there was still half a cup of coffee in a mug at a café.

Everything was as if time had paused.

But there was no one.

Chen Mo walked several streets and did not see a single person.

There was no one in those buildings, no one in the cars, and no one on the roads. The entire city seemed to have been abandoned.

He walked into an office building.

The lobby was spacious, and on the wall behind the reception desk hung a logo—a blue ring with "Origin Tech" written in the middle.

A computer sat on the front desk, its screen still lit, displaying the date.

grave calendar Year 1, March 15th, 9:17 AM.

Chen Mo stared at the date. The first day of the Ghost Realm's arrival. The first hour. The seventeenth minute.

He continued walking inside.

The elevator was stopped on the first floor with its doors open. He stepped inside and pressed the highest floor—the thirty-third floor.

The elevator doors closed and it began to ascend. The numbers ticked up: first floor, second floor, third floor... until it reached the thirty-third floor, and the doors opened.

The hallway was quiet, carpeted in gray, with doors on both sides. Each door had a sign hanging on it—R&D Department, Marketing Department, Administration Department.

At the end of the hallway was a set of double wooden doors with "Chairman" written on them.

Chen Mo walked over and pushed the doors open.

Behind the door was a large office, and the floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of the entire city.

Behind the desk sat a man. He was in his forties, wearing a suit and glasses. He had his head down, looking at something.

Chen Mo walked over. The man looked up.

It was Zhang Yuan.

A young Zhang Yuan, without wrinkles, without gray hair, and with no fatigue in his eyes. He looked at Chen Mo and smiled.

"You have come."

Chen Mo did not speak.

Zhang Yuan stood up and walked to the window. "This is the first day of the Ghost Realm's arrival." He looked at the city outside the window, "At 9:00 AM, everything was normal. Seventeen minutes later, everything changed."

He turned around and looked at Chen Mo. "Do you want to know what happened?"

Chen Mo nodded.

Zhang Yuan raised his hand. Those golden lines surged from his palm, forming an image in the air—

The city was still operating. People were going to work, shopping, drinking coffee. Then the sky split open.

A golden crack, from east to west, pierced through the entire sky. Those golden lines surged out from the crack, falling like rain.

They fell on people, and the people vanished. They fell on buildings, and the buildings began to twist. They fell on cars, and the cars turned into scrap metal.

Seventeen minutes. The entire city had become a ghost town.

Zhang Yuan withdrew his hand. "I was the one chosen that day," he said, "the first Chosen One."

He looked at his hands, those golden lines flowing beneath his skin. "And also the first Sequence Controller."

Chen Mo looked at him. "And then?"

"Then I died," Zhang Yuan said, "and became an Agent. I became a part of the will of the ghost realm."

He smiled. The smile was bitter. "But my memories remained. In this city, in every corner."

He turned around and pointed out the window. "Can you see them? The memories of those people."

Chen Mo walked to the window and looked down. Human silhouettes appeared on the streets. Not Ghost Shadows, but real people—office workers, students, the elderly, children. They were walking, talking, laughing. Those images flashed by, then disappeared.

"They are all here," Zhang Yuan said, "trapped in this city. Trapped in the day the Ghost Realm arrived."

He paused. "Do you want to save them?"

Chen Mo looked at him. "How do I save them?"

Zhang Yuan did not answer. He merely raised his hand and pointed toward the center of the city. There was a tower there, very tall, with a golden orb of light rotating at its apex.

"That is the core," Zhang Yuan said. "Destroy it, and this city will vanish. Those memories will also vanish. But the Ghost Realm will also lose its Foundation."

He paused. "This is the only chance."

Chen Mo looked at the tower. In his Time Perception, the fluctuation of that orb of light was very stable, like a beating heart. If he destroyed it, the Ghost Realm would lose its Foundation. But the memories of those people would also disappear.

"Is there no other way?"

Zhang Yuan shook his head. "This is the only way."

He turned around and walked back behind the desk. "Go. I will wait for you here."

Chen Mo looked at him. "You are not Zhang Yuan."

Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment. "What?"

"You are his memories," Chen Mo said, "the real Zhang Yuan is already dead."

Zhang Yuan was silent for a few seconds. Then he smiled. "You are right. I am not him. I am just his memories." He looked up, "But I want to help him do one last thing."

Chen Mo did not speak. He turned and walked out of the office.

The elevator was still on the first floor. He pressed the button, and the doors opened. He stepped in and pressed the button for the first floor. The elevator began to descend. The numbers ticked down: thirty-third floor, thirty-second floor, thirty-first floor... it reached the first floor, and the doors opened.

Chen Mo walked out and stood in the lobby. Outside, those human silhouettes appeared again. They walked on the streets, talking, laughing. A child ran past him, laughing, and vanished. A woman stood by the side of the road, looking at her phone, and vanished. An old man sat on a bench, feeding pigeons, and vanished.

Chen Mo watched those scenes for a long time. Then he turned and walked toward the tower in the center of the city.

There lay the answer. And there lay the end.