Chapter 1658: The Correct mory
Days slipped by quietly, one after another.
Of course, in the moir warehouse, there was no distinction between day and night, and mories didn’t follow a 24-hour cycle. Ah Quan could only keep track of ti using an electronic display that showed AM/PM. At “night,” he would put on an eye mask, pretending to sleep in the darkness. As a resident of the pocket dinsion, he didn’t need sleep and couldn’t even fall asleep. Instead, he would imagine the kinds of dreams he might have had.
The three living people—or a.s.suming they were all still alive—were different from him. They spent half of their ti behind closed doors in their respective rooms, sleeping.
Ah Quan worried they might be plotting sothing. He felt it would be inappropriate to check on Lin Sanjiu, so he looked in on Ji Shanqing and Yu Yuan instead. He found them both sound asleep, sprawled out in undignified positions. When they woke up, they didn’t seem eager to leave; instead, they acted like they were enjoying a leisurely vacation at the resort.
This behavior didn’t match their previous urgency, which struck Ah Quan as odd.
However, what if, just maybe, they had changed their minds and were now content to retire here?
Ah Quan held back his urge to bring them new moirs to keep things fresh.
A month had pa.s.sed since the snow-white s.p.a.ces.h.i. p suddenly broke through the warehouse barrier and fell inside. Now, a new posthuman had been sent into the pocket dinsion.
Like every posthuman sent here, this plain, serious-looking woman with brown skin was certainly not to be overlooked.
Ah Quan had learned to expect this: anyone sent here for mory alteration always possessed so exceptional skill or ability. Wu Yiliu had a sharp mind; Xie Feng excelled in combat and killing; even the peaceful, una.s.suming bookstore owner had deep insights into the peculiar business networks of the world of doomsday.
Ah Quan sat on a pile of bricks, holding a cup of tea, and glanced at the woman approaching from the end of the alley.
He didn’t mind when the pocket dinsion activated. It was his only chance to “open his eyes” and observe the surroundings and people. Each activation seed to take place in a different area—always sowhere within the Twelve Worlds Centrum—so he eagerly antic.i.p.ated it.
Once he read their mories, the newcors felt like old friends. Yet, just as he got to know them, it was ti to say goodbye forever. Even if they t again, they wouldn’t be the sa people anymore.
Like most posthumans, this woman didn’t realize that the casual man sitting in the alley, sipping tea, was a pocket dinsion.
In fact, from the mont she laid eyes on Ah Quan, she had already entered the pocket dinsion; she just didn’t know it.
The woman cast a quick, cautious glance at Ah Quan as she walked by.
Ah Quan looked up and gave her a warm, friendly smile.
“Do I… know you?” She suddenly stopped, frowning in confusion. Her skills were strong, so she stayed calm, unlike lower-level posthumans who might have reacted like startled rabbits. “I feel like I’ve seen you sowhere before.”
This was the first sign: the boundary between mory and reality had started to blur.
Ah Quan had gone through the sa process countless tis before. He knew it by heart.
You see, every person is shaped by a mult.i.tude of experiences. So of these are pivotal, playing a decisive role in shaping who a person becos. Others are mundane, trivial, yet continuous, subtly molding a person’s underlying character.
No matter the type, Ah Quan could reach into any of them. When there was a qualitative change in a person’s mories, the person themselves changed quietly along with it.
For instance, soone who believes they were bullied at school is fundantally different in character from soone who rembers being the bully. A loved child who cos to believe they were unwanted can exhibit two completely different personalities in just ten minutes.
“When I was twelve…” the brown-skinned woman began, her expression almost bewildered. “I was separated from my mother. They took her away.”
Ah Quan placed a hand over hers, shook his head, and said with a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice, “You don’t have to say it; I know.”
The woman nodded, her lips trembling. The stern, serious façade of a capable adult lted away, revealing the face of a little girl struggling to hold back tears after being wronged.
In the trembling silence, Ah Quan sighed.
This was the core experience that had shaped her character, giving rise to a nearly obsessive, unlikable stubbornness. It was no wonder she’d been sent to him.
Modifying her mory wasn’t difficult. It didn’t require drastic deletions or fabrications, sothing beyond Ah Quan’s ability. He couldn’t make a beggar believe they were once a queen. Instead, he only needed to snip away certain details, blur impressions, erase what needed forgetting, add what hadn’t existed, and mix up nas. Then voila, the “corrected mory” would be complete.
In this case, he altered the final exchange between the brown-skinned woman and her mother before they parted. He added a few non-existent phone calls after the separation.
With these small changes, she would now despise the mother who had once protected her with her life.
Ah Quan watched as the woman walked away from the alley. He stood there for a mont, dazed. This was a cri, an unforgivable one. What little he could do to make ands felt like nothing. It wasn’t even close to raising the gun barrel an inch higher.
What did it matter that he kept a backup of the original mory if it never returned to its owner?
Ah Quan didn’t want to dwell on it. He knew he had a weak character. Holding his teacup, he sat back down on the stack of bricks and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, as he had many tis before, he expected to be back at his fruit stand. The original mory’s backup would be carefully poured into a blank container, forming a new moir for the brown-skinned woman.
At least, that’s what Ah Quan thought would happen.
This ti, when he opened his eyes, he found himself back at the fruit stand—and he wasn’t alone.
Lin Sanjiu stood before him with her arms crossed, bending over to study his expression.
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