Looking at the dejected Phainon before her, Castorice lightly pursed her lips, momentarily unsure of how to offer comfort.
To hold the existence of comrades in such high regard, with emotions so sincere and exposed... it caused a certain suspicion deep within her heart to waver.
She could not help but recall the Phainon—Khaslana who had struggled through countless cycles. To save all of Amphoreus, he had eventually been forced by fate and responsibility to swing his sword against his former companions time and time again, until his emotions were incinerated and his humanity erased, leaving behind only icy execution.
A person like that would find it almost impossible to reveal such pure and intense feelings for his comrades.
If Phainon before her truly were the complete entity carrying the memories of over thirty million cycles, there was no way he could still maintain this appearance.
Thus, the remaining possibilities narrowed down to two:
Either he was the Phainon of a specific cycle who possessed no memories of any prior cycles.
Or... he was a Phainon at a unique threshold, one who had unexpectedly crossed over to this world shortly after inheriting all the cycle memories, before the humanity and emotion belonging to Phainon had been completely ground away by endless repetition and sacrifice.
At that moment, Phainon raised his head again, looking at Castorice with a complex gaze.
"But what I didn't expect was that when I brought the Church of the Radiant Sun to crusade against the Evil God this time, I would actually run into you all, and... even get news of the other three."
"Sometimes, surprises come just that suddenly." Hearing this, Castorice also revealed a faint smile. "I also didn't expect to encounterLord Phainon because of this matter."
Seeing this, he nodded silently, agreeing with what Castorice had said.
"Let's go regroup with Miss Hyacine first. Regarding this matter... I need to explain it to her as well."
Having said that, he turned and prepared to walk outside.
"Please wait a moment, Lord Phainon."
At this time, Castorice's voice came from behind Phainon.
Phainon paused his steps and turned back to look at her, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes: "What is it?"
"Ever since crossing over to this world, we have all gradually come to understand one thing... I'm just not sure if you are already aware of it as well."
She paused slightly, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the grain of the wooden door, before finally speaking:
"That is—Amphoreus has actually experienced countless cycles."
"You..."
Phainon's pupils suddenly constricted. His Adam's apple moved slightly, but he made no sound, only staring at her blankly.
Seeing his reaction, Castorice already had her answer. He wasn't the Phainon of a single cycle who knew nothing; he remembered, he knew, and he carried the burden.
Seeing this, she took a deep breath and continued:
"I, Hyacine, Cipher, Cerydra... we have all met one another. Although Hysilens has only met Cerydra and Cipher, we all know one thing—each of us actually comes from a different cycle of Amphoreus."
"In other words, the 'me' standing before you right now is one 'Castorice' out of countless cycles."
She raised her eyes, her purple pupils calmly meeting his gaze.
"So... I might not be the 'Castorice' from your memory, the one belonging to your specific cycle."
Her voice softened, carrying a hint of apology.
"I understand how urgent your desire to find your comrades is, but... I... I'm not sure if I can truly become the 'comrade' you are looking for in your heart."
"I know..."
As Castorice's words slowly settled in the air, Phainon fell into a brief silence.
His eyelids drooped slightly, and emotions difficult to discern flowed within his golden pupils.
A moment later, he raised his head and gave Castorice a smile.
That smile was the same as before, containing a certain unshakable determination within its warmth.
"You're right about all this, I'm aware..." His voice was very soft. "In fact... what I know might be more than what all of you combined know."
Then, he paused for a moment.
"But what I want to say is, no matter how many times it cycles, you are still my comrades... and 'cycles'? Perhaps using 'restarts' would be more fitting..."
As he spoke, he slowly turned around, casting his gaze toward the moonlit woodland outside the door.
"No matter which cycle period you come from, your essence has never changed. You have only... temporarily forgotten those chapters we wrote together."
He stepped forward, his figure moving toward the outside of the house.
"I don't know if you can accept this explanation, but... I sincerely hope that you can choose to trust me, just as you have countless times in the past."
As his voice faded, his figure had already disappeared outside the door, leaving Castorice standing alone in the silent treehouse.
Castorice quietly gazed in the direction he had left for a long time before finally letting out a barely audible sigh.
A flash of complex emotion crossed her eyes.
"I really am selfish..."
She whispered to herself, her voice tinged with bitterness.
Afterward, she turned and walked back to the bedroom, sinking herself into the soft bed. She stared blankly at the ceiling formed by interlacing vines and wood, allowing her thoughts to drift between countless "ifs" and "possibilities."
...
Meanwhile, in a completely different world.
"Hey, Bartholos, do you think I should go to the Isekai to look for the Deliverer?"
Inside a room filled with a high-end sci-fi feel, Cipher was lying lazily on the bed. While boredly tossing translucent grapes into her mouth, she watched Bartholos in the corner, who was fully concentrated on playing a holographic game.
"Hmm? Big sis, you found the Deliverer's whereabouts?" Hearing this, Bartholos turned his head in confusion and asked.
"Yeah, I found him." Cipher flipped over nimbly, propping her head up with her elbow while her elegantly shaped lower legs swung casually in the air. "But, well, they seem to be in a rather troublesome Isekai. And once I go over, I won't be able to come back for a short while, so that's why I'm hesitating a bit."
"Eh?" Bartholos became even more puzzled and simply paused the game. "Big sis, didn't you use to just leave whenever you felt like it? Why are you hesitating for so long this time?"
Cipher did not answer immediately. In her mind's eye, several familiar figures appeared—those still struggling in Pit Bottom District, the team known as Ember Squad.
"Mainly... because I have 'baggage' I'm worried about." She flipped over again, lying flat on the bed and staring at the streamlined metal ceiling as she murmured to herself. "Little Ran, who originally took care of them, has already gone over there. If I leave too, and something happens to them where I can't see, that would be bad."
"So it was because of that?" Bartholos rubbed his square chin, a thoughtful expression appearing on his purple face. "Then big sis, you can commission that Hysilens girl to protect them! I see you're quite familiar with her!"
"Oh right!" Cipher's eyes lit up, and she sat up abruptly from the bed. "How could I forget about them!"
But after that momentary realization, she immediately understood the root of her mental blind spot.
Despite occupying different bodies, they shared the same underlying consciousness.
This deep-level link caused her subconscious, when thinking about whether to stay or go, to instinctively view Cerydra, Firefly, and Cipher as a single entity that needed to be together, thus overlooking the option of seeking "external" assistance.
"Well done, Bartholos!" After figuring out the key point, she immediately returned to her usual vigorous style. She leapt off the bed, clenched her fist tightly, and an excited glow erupted on her face.
"Then it's settled! Once we finish this job at hand, we'll head to that Isekai and have some fun with the Deliverer!"
She beckoned to Bartholos with a clean, swift motion.
"Let's go, Bartholos!"
"You got it, big sis!"
Bartholos rose in response, his purple body beginning to rapidly shrink and deform, finally turning into a coin shaped like a one-eyed cat head. With a light "ding," it landed steadily in Cipher's open palm.
Seeing this, Cipher pushed open the door of the room.
And at that exact moment, she saw Lin Mingyu, who was wearing a somewhat cramped smile, waiting respectfully by the side of the door.
"Miss Cipher, regarding that cooperation proposal I submitted earlier, have you considered it?"
"I agree." Cipher nodded curtly, a hard-to-detect and somewhat playful, mischievous smile curling at the corners of her mouth. "I will represent the gene modification department of Genesis Tech in cooperating with you."
"Re... Really?!" Lin Mingyu's eyes instantly erupted with an uncontrollable light of wild joy, and his voice even rose an octave in excitement. "That's wonderful! Thank you for your trust, Miss Cipher! With your support, our plan is certain to be foolproof!"
He rubbed his hands together, the smile on his face almost overflowing, as he hurriedly struck while the iron was hot: "Then, when the time comes, I'll be relying entirely on you to deal with that troublesome Cifera!"
"Rest assured." The smile on Cipher's face deepened, a glint of cunning flashing in her pupils like a cat eyeing its prey. "You will receive a satisfactory answer."
She stood up, paced lightly to Lin Mingyu's side, and raised her hand to pat his shoulder seemingly at random.
The movement carried a hint of condescending intimacy.
Lin Mingyu's body stiffened slightly, then he straightened his back, feeling overwhelmed by the favor.
"Right now," Cipher leaned in slightly and lowered her voice, speaking in a tone used for sharing secrets, "I need to go 'leak' some important intelligence to that Miss Cifera. Once she has this intel, within a day, Cifera will definitely come here to steal it."
As she spoke, she stood up straight and looked at him meaningfully.
"You should make full preparations. Opportunities are fleeting."
After saying that, she no longer looked at Lin Mingyu's reaction, turned around neatly, and walked into the depths of the corridor with light steps without looking back.
Just as Cipher's figure disappeared around the corner, the humble smile on Lin Mingyu's face vanished instantly, replaced by a deep expression mixed with calculation and ambition.
He turned quickly and walked away in another direction, clearly going to arrange the "preparations" Cipher had mentioned.
"Jie jie jie jie jie—!"
Not long after she walked away, Bartholos's arrogant, villainous laughter exploded in Cipher's mind, making her eardrums itch slightly.
"This is killing me! Big sis, look at him! He's really being led around in circles by you! Still saying 'thank you for your trust'? Hahaha! If he knew that you are the very Cifera he's so dead set on dealing with, his expression would be absolutely magnificent! Jie jie jie!"
Listening to Bartholos's noisy commentary, the smile that was already on Cipher's face turned up a few more degrees, finally transforming into an immensely pleased, cunning grin.
"After all," she responded in her mind while walking with light steps, "every piece of 'evidence' he could think of to verify, I meticulously 'placed' there for him to see. ID cards, data records, personal resumes... I even 'created out of thin air' a photo of my 'teenage years'."
As she spoke, she subconsciously raised her hand to touch the fluffy cat ears on top of her head, a trace of subtle disdain crossing her face.
"Tsk, though that 'me' without ears and a tail looks a bit weird, for the sake of the effect, it's worth it."
As for why she set up this play? It all started from an anomaly she discovered while infiltrating the Apex Entertainment branch office to investigate after helping Lin Mingyu off the plane.
The entire building, especially the areas set with precision traps, was practically covered in "spores" made of hidden cameras. The quantity was so vast, far exceeding normal security needs, that it reached a point of insanity.
This eerie phenomenon had left her completely baffled. If it was to gather information on her, there was no need for that many cameras, right?
But until she linked it to the core business of a giant like Apex Entertainment—controlling media, entertainment, neural interface content, virtual reality... an extremely bold and absurd thought instantly hit her:
Could these people... be planning to record the entire process of her intrusion as a live-action reality show?
First, create a gimmick about someone who could rob Apex Entertainment single-handedly, then edit it into a paid program, a virtual reality experience pack, or an embedded advertisement, and so on... earning back several times the loss of being robbed?!
Cipher had sucked in a breath of cold air at the time. This operation... although it sounded a bit far-fetched, upon closer thought, it was very much in line with Apex Entertainment's "business"!
The more she thought about it, the more plausible it felt. Subsequent observations further confirmed her guess; the layout angles of those cameras were practically preparing for a multi-camera, immersive live broadcast!
"Since they want to use me to make money..." A shrewd light flickered in Cipher's pupils as an ingenious plan formed in her heart. "Then why don't I play along and cooperate with them in a good show?"