It took some time to sail back from the Air Wall of Wave Mountain to the 【Beyond the Sea】 base, and it wasn’t until several hours later that Jian Xingyi reunited with Shanhai and the rest of the group. 

Once everyone was assembled, the two large ships set sail, heading toward Peaceful Mountain.

Like Peace Mountain, Peaceful Mountain is one of only two safe places across all current maps. With disasters raging across every other map, everyone must either find a way to coexist with the natural calamities, seek shelter, or relocate directly to these two places for refuge. 

However, the guild base could not be relocated. The destroyed buildings would have to be repaired sooner or later. Leaving the base to seek refuge on other maps would mean losing their homes and embarking on true wilderness survival—sleeping under the open sky—which was ultimately not a long-term solution. 

Da Qiao and the others realized this as well, so they reminded everyone to collect plenty of wood once they reached Peaceful Mountain, so they could repair their homes when they returned. 

That’s right—now that their homes had been destroyed, the system had activated a repair function. Just like with the walls, all they needed to do was collect enough materials, such as dawn coins and wood, to rebuild with a single click. 

Jian Xingyi asked them how much wood was needed to repair their homes, and upon hearing the answer, he was immediately stunned. So much… 

It’s almost as much as for the walls. 

“So we have to be careful about repairing it,” Da Qiao shook her head. “What if we finally finish rebuilding it only to have it destroyed again? We really couldn’t handle that.” It’s too hard. 

Since entering 3.0, things have really gotten tougher and tougher. 

Now, the general chat is full of lamentations. Earlier, people were wondering why a powerhouse guild like Grapevine Peak would choose to establish their base on the starting map, and some competitive players even mocked that the players on these two maps—other than Grapevine Peak—were all noobs. In the end, it turned out they were the ones making fools of themselves… 

The names “Peace” and “Peaceful,” along with the value of the newbie village… they’re real!

The ship sailed for a day, encountering a storm along the way, but since all the guild’s high-level players were present and there were plenty of people, it wasn’t a major issue. The journey was uneventful. 

Upon arriving at Peaceful Mountain, the players from Wave Mountain didn’t react much, but Jian Xingyi and Shanhai couldn’t help but be a little surprised. 

Peaceful Mountain is the map farthest from Peace Mountain, and since it lacks resources and dungeons, Shanhai had never set foot there before. Just like Jian Xingyi, he was taken aback—Peaceful Mountain looked almost exactly like Peace Mountain. 

However, upon closer inspection, although it looked exactly the same, it was actually… 

“A mirror image?” Jian Xingyi whispered to Shanhai. “It feels like the layout is almost exactly the opposite of Peace Mountain.” 

“Huh?” Shanhai was a bit taken aback. Did Jian Xingyi have that good of a memory?

Jian Xingyi gave a dry laugh. “Before I met you… I used to gather resources on Peace Mountain. And look, the most obvious difference is the direction of the peaks, followed by the entrance to the mountain.” 

Indeed. 

After safely arriving at Peaceful Mountain, the two thanked everyone from 【Beyond the Sea】 and went their separate ways. Jian Xingyi took a deep breath. 

Now… surely the time has come? 

Jian Xingyi turned to look at Shanhai, “I’m going to open the envelope…!” Finally!! 

Jian Xingyi tremblingly opened the envelope. 

【The entrance to the Forbidden Mountain is located where 01 and 02 slumber within Peaceful Mountain. If you haven’t found this place yet, it means the time isn’t right.】 

Huh? 

Jian Xingyi turned to look at Shanhai. “We already found the tombstones for 01 and 02, didn’t we? We even defeated the grave-guarding wolves, but that was on Peace Mountain… It shouldn’t have anything to do with this place, right?” 

Shanhai pondered, “If it’s a mirror image…” 

Ah…! 

That makes sense. If it’s a mirror map, then moving the locations of Tombstones 01 and 02 from Peace Mountain to their mirror positions here on Peaceful Mountain would lead to the entrance of Forbidden Mountain! 

So, finding the entrance to Forbidden Mountain actually requires a lot of prerequisites—for example, you have to have visited both Peace Mountain and Peaceful Mountain, which are at opposite ends of the map, and you have to find the tombstones. 

But they had already fulfilled all these prerequisites. 

“Let’s go.” 

Shanhai took Jian Xingyi’s hand and headed toward the mountaintop. 

Along the way, Jian Xingyi kept tapping to collect essence points. He currently had 7,355 out of 7,500—just a little short. But Peaceful Mountain was similar to Peace Mountain: the resources were relatively scarce, and there weren’t many essence points to be found.

Jian Xingyi kept tapping all the way… 

【Collection successful, absorbed 【Essence】 x1】 

【Collection successful, absorbed 【essence】 x2】 

【Collection successful, absorbed 【Essence】 x1】 

Most of the plants hadn’t even been harvested yet. 

Jian Xingyi couldn’t help but sigh. It felt like he had returned to those days in Peace Mountain when he had just entered the game and knew nothing, toiling away at farming—and strangely enough, he found himself missing it. 

Jian Xingyi and Shanhai spent a whole day trekking to the mountaintop, collecting a total of 16 essence points. 

Upon reaching the cave, Shanhai led Jian Xingyi through the tunnels based on his previous memories, arriving at a familiar doorway. But there were no grave-guarding wolves here—only an ordinary door. 

Jian Xingyi and Shanhai tried pushing and pulling, but no matter what they did, they couldn’t open it. And there was a memory orb right by the door. 

Jian Xingyi and Shanhai exchanged puzzled glances. 

Memory orbs were their last hope; now, whenever they encountered one, they felt compelled to try it. Since this one was right in front of the tomb chamber, naturally… the two touched it simultaneously. 

Jian Xingyi opened his eyes to find himself back in that conference room from before. 

But this time, he wasn’t an observer—he had become “01” within this memory bubble. 

Jian Xingyi was somewhat surprised. He looked around and saw Yu Shen… no, the Doctor sitting across from him. “How is the research coming along?” 

Jian Xingyi realized he had actually spoken. He was even more surprised, because this wasn’t what he intended to say—his mouth had opened on its own and formed the words.

But it all felt so familiar—so familiar that… it was as if he was meant to do this, as if these were his own memories. 01… 

Jian Xingyi…… 

Jian Xingyi’s mind was in chaos, yet his body was still moving on its own. 

The Doctor nodded. “As we discussed, we’ll set the game to allow five restarts. However, there’s no way we can fully refine this—there are simply too many system glitches. We have no control over what remains after a restart—things like memories or supplies. We can only try to turn the progress made before the rollback into auxiliary systems, such as the Shop System, the Savior System… and so on.” 

Jian Xingyi—or rather, 01—nodded. “That’s right. Moreover, the ‘Snow Mountain Holy Son’ concept is essentially a glitch exploit. We can use him as our fallback memory repository, which serves as a safeguard. The second safeguard is the Memory Bubble. It exists across systems, capable of bridging reality and the game, memory and reality.” 

“Since you put it that way…” The doctor paused for a moment. “Actually, I have a bold idea.”

“Hmm?” 

“What if we turned everyone who entered the game into a program, and those who died became spirits—usable combat units? There’s a catch, though: anyone who died before the rollback can become a spirit, but if they died during the final battle or at the moment of the rollback, there’s nothing we can do for them.” 

Jian Xingyi froze. 

Huh…? 

The Doctor said, “The activation method is the Spirit Card.” Spirit… Card? 

“We could… give it a try.” 

“But if we’re rolling back, won’t the memories be lost? Someone has to step back from all this, acting as an observer to oversee the situation. That person…will either be you or me.” 

01 looked at the Doctor, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m prepared for this. I can stay.” 

“No…” The Doctor shook his head. “You’re the one who created the game; theoretically, it should be you. But I’m the more suitable candidate. Now that the program is already written, I can handle the remaining modifications myself. Of course, the most important thing is…” 

The Doctor chuckled softly. “I’m alone, with no ties. After all, the one stepping outside the game must remain in reality to coexist with the natural disasters, and my knowledge base is better suited to adapting to real-world conditions.”

01 paused, “But I…” 

The Doctor smiled. “If you stay, Lu Yan will be heartbroken. And… I believe that compared to me, you’ll be better able to unconsciously lead everyone to victory within the game. After all… you are the creator of this game, and you’re the spiritual leader guiding our actions right now…” 

01 had to stay in the game—that was the Doctor’s intuition. “I…” 

“Xinghe, trust me.” 

Jian Xingyi’s mind grew even more confused. Lu 

Yan… 

Xinghe…… 

It was 01, and it was also Jian Xingyi… 

Jian Xingyi’s head throbbed. He felt as though he was seeing more and more flashes of memory, as if 01 were merging with him at that very moment. He saw moments of his life with his young assistant, Domini, only for him to vanish and die in the rainforest… 

He saw the colonel, who, to protect them, had sacrificed himself by detonating explosives on the island to hold the fortress… He saw so many, many people. 

Among them was Shanhai, dressed in a military uniform. Though his demeanor was somewhat different, the look in his eyes—just as it was now—was filled with tenderness and affection.

Memories surged in like a tidal wave. Jian Xingyi wanted to scream out loud; he felt terrible, but at that moment, his body was beyond his control.

The Doctor spoke to himself, “I will build a fortress in reality. That will be our only reality that won’t be absorbed by the game.” 01 lowered his head. “I… don’t know what to say.” 

The person left behind was so lonely. And because resources were limited, they couldn’t leave too many people behind. The Doctor, however, smiled and said, “It’s okay. At least you’ll remember me, right?” 

The scene began to shift, and everything before his eyes became distorted. Jian Xingyi clutched his head and whimpered in pain.

His mind was flooded with images, but those… were supposed to belong to 01. 

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in yet another place. However, he had been to this place before. 

In a dimly lit room—neither too large nor too small—the middle-aged doctor raised an eyebrow upon seeing Jian Xingyi. “Oh, Xinghe’s here,” he said, watching Jian Xingyi closely to gauge his reaction. Jian Xingyi stumbled and sat down on the floor, stammering, “Doctor… no, Yu Shen… am I… 01?” 

The doctor paused for a moment, then chuckled softly. “Oh my, it seems you’ve… finally made it this far.” Jian Xingyi pushed himself up using the chair, sat down properly, and tried to calm his emotions and the dull ache in his head. 

The Doctor said, “Many, many years have passed since then. Our first attempt failed, and we’re just about to begin the second one. But thanks to that, I’ve managed to fix even more system vulnerabilities.” 

Jian Xingyi remembered. He remembered everything. 

He had created *Dawnbreaker*, hoping that one day a true dawn would arrive. He and the Colonel, along with the Doctor’s team, had spent a long time researching it. Eventually, they gathered enough energy, and before the world was completely destroyed, they all entered the game and worked hard to advance the fusion. But during the final fusion— the third Zombie Tide event—they were wiped out. 

Everyone had died. 

Those who died before the Zombie Tide became spirits and could not be saved, but those who died during the Zombie Tide triggered the rollback system and were redeemed. But Jian Xingyi had no memory of what happened after that. 

“Yu Shen, you…” 

—Are you okay? 

Before Jian Xingyi could finish the question, the scene shifted again. 

“Xinghe？” 

Jian Xingyi opened his eyes. The same room, the same Doctor. But the Doctor looked even older. 

Gray hair had begun to appear at his temples, and his eyes looked even more silent and desolate. When he saw Jian Xingyi, he paused for a moment, then smiled gently. “Which timeline did you come from this time? Do you recognize me?” 

Jian Xingyi looked at the even older Doctor and guessed that several more years had passed. That meant… 

Jian Xingyi asked, his voice trembling, “Did the first attempt fail? And the second one too?” 

The Doctor’s movements faltered. “Yes. We’re preparing to enter the third attempt now, but… this will be our last.”

“Why?” He remembered there were a total of five chances to restart. 

“Xinghe, although the system has been accumulating data and I’ve been fixing bugs with each reset, it’s already enough— there’s nothing left to fix. But with every reset, we also lose a great deal—memories, for instance, and the fact that everything starts over. Rather than drifting further and further away with each reset, it’s better to give it our all one last time.” 

The Doctor hesitated, not mentioning what had happened during the second reset, and Jian Xingyi had no recollection of it either. The Doctor showed Jian Xingyi his computer. 

Jian Xingyi hadn’t understood it the last time he visited, but this time, the programs on the screen… he finally understood them. 

—The Doctor had turned the remaining two chances into a safety mechanism, designed to activate if it detected a crisis for the players. 

The system had already triggered once before—just before the second zombie horde—when it adjusted the resources required for the perimeter walls. Moreover, the Doctor didn’t want to stand by and watch everyone here march toward their doom. 

He had already watched it twice, witnessing twice how all his companions had failed and met a gruesome end, so this time… whether they succeeded or failed, he would enter the game and face it alongside everyone else. 

This was the Yu Shen that Jian Xingyi encountered—a man without memories, lost in the rainforests. 

The Doctor asked curiously, “Since you’re from the late stages of the third cycle of Xinghe, did you see me? Am I… doing well?” Jian Xingyi replied, “Very well. You have companions, bonds, people you care about, and people who love you.”

The Doctor continued, “So will we succeed this time?” 

Jian Xingyi was silent for a moment, then said firmly, “We will.” 

We definitely will.