Chapter 31 – Echoes of the Erased
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Departing the Archive
As the golden light of the Archive faded, Luo Fan felt an odd sensation—as if stepping from one reality to another. The weight of the knowledge he had absorbed lingered in his mind, a whisper of lost history.
He glanced at his palm, where faint traces of golden script still flickered before vanishing.
> "Alright, Boss. We just looted an ancient library, got a shiny new quest, and partially rebooted yours truly. What's next? Side quests? Shopping for overpowered artifacts?"
Luo Fan smirked. "We follow the lead."
He opened his status screen, which now had a new section labeled "Forgotten Archive Data". Within it, the first entry glowed faintly:
> "Location of the First Forgotten: The Ruins of Whispering Moon."
It was a place Luo Fan had never heard of. Which made sense—after all, it technically shouldn't exist.
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A Long-Forgotten Land
The journey took time. The Ruins of Whispering Moon were deep in the void beyond recognized realms, where remnants of discarded worlds drifted in silence. Luo Fan moved cautiously, using his recently reawakened System Scan to check his surroundings.
> [EchoStar Scan: 12% Accuracy Restored.]
[Environmental Data: Fragmented. Ruin Integrity: 27% Stability. Anomalous Presence Detected.]
Luo Fan narrowed his eyes. "Something's here."
> "Wow, love that comforting level of vagueness."
The Ruins stretched before him—a shattered temple beneath a sky that was wrong. The moon above flickered in and out of existence, sometimes full, sometimes crescent, sometimes gone entirely. Faint whispers curled through the air, voices speaking in tongues long lost.
Luo Fan stepped forward, the ground crunching under his boots.
> "I hate to be that system, but… Boss, this place has major haunted vibes."
Luo Fan agreed. But he pressed on.
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The Forgotten One
At the center of the ruins, he found a single figure kneeling before a half-destroyed altar.
She wore tattered celestial robes, her hair flowing unnaturally as if caught in an invisible current. Her body flickered, like an image struggling to stay in focus.
> "Who…?"
Her voice was like an echo, distorted and uncertain. Luo Fan felt a strange pull, as if she existed on the edge of reality itself.
> "Welp. She's definitely Forgotten."
Luo Fan stepped forward cautiously. "Who are you?"
The woman's gaze lifted, eyes filled with fractured light. "I was… I am… I…"
A pause.
Then—her expression sharpened.
"I remember you."
Luo Fan froze.
EchoStar's alert flared.
> [Warning: Identity Recognition Anomaly Detected. Subject Should Not Retain Memories.]
The woman's voice steadied.
"Luo Fan… you defied the Reset."
Silence.
Luo Fan's grip tightened. "And you survived it."
A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "Barely."
For the first time, Luo Fan realized—he wasn't alone.
Others had resisted the Reset.
And now, the Forgotten were waking up.
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[Chapter End.]