Location: Former Longhai Outskirts – Crimson Safehouse Omega
There was no more Orchid Protocol.
No more THREAD cities.
No more artificial peace.
And for the first time in twenty years, the world was deciding for itself.
But that didn't mean it knew how.
Inside the Safehouse
Lin Feng sat at the long wooden table, lit only by the pale morning. His coat still smelled of dust and code ash.
Across from him, Su Qingyue hadn't spoken in twenty minutes. Not out of anger—just… absence.
She was tracing her finger slowly along a crack in the wood. The world's quiet had followed them here, into this moment.
Then, softly, she asked:
"Was it worth it?"
Lin didn't answer right away.
He watched a kettle steam over an old gas stove. Listened to the birds outside—not drones. Just birds.
"Ask me again in five years," he said.
She looked at him, searching.
"We broke the chain. But we didn't fix anything."
"Fixing isn't the point," he murmured. "Letting them try is."
Lan Ke's Transmission
The screen flickered to life.
Lan looked exhausted. Older.
"Some cities are rebuilding under open council. Others are fracturing. I'm tracking twelve factions trying to seize territory once stabilized by Orchid Net. It's a mess."
She hesitated.
"But it's a human mess."
That meant something.
And nothing.
Later – Rooftop
Lin stood alone on the rooftop as the sun dipped below the Longhai skyline. No more data towers blinked in perfect synchrony. Just scattered lights, like fireflies.
Qingyue joined him quietly.
She offered him a drink—real, not synthetic. The burn of aged rice liquor. Neither of them spoke for a long time.
Then she said:
"You ever think we killed something that… maybe wasn't all evil?"
He didn't flinch. But he didn't lie.
"Yes."
She nodded.
"And you still did it."
He looked out at the uneven skyline. The unfamiliar future.
"Because anything that tells us not to change," he said, "eventually starts calling survival a crime."
Final Scene – A Letter Never Sent
Back inside, Lin opened a drawer.
Inside was a letter, hand-written in older ink.
To Xu Shanyue, it read.
He hesitated.
Then placed it gently back in the drawer.
Some ghosts don't need waking yet.