As her will commanded, Cyrene felt a faint humming emanate from deep within her mind.
Her originally chaotic thoughts seemed to be swiftly organized by an invisible hand, and the scenes she had just experienced—from the confusion of waking up to her current attempt—transformed into countless flowing ribbons of golden light.
The ribbons of light swirled and intertwined in the void of her consciousness, finally coalescing into a single golden page that radiated a faint glow, suspended silently within her mind.
“Hmm…
Is that it?”
Cyrene blinked her diamond-shaped azure eyes and tilted her head with some hesitation.
Aside from a fleeting sense of emptiness as a sliver of her mental energy was drawn away, the entire process was unbelievably smooth, with no dazzling special effects or physical strain.
“If it’s in my mind, can I take it out and look at it?”
She extended her right hand, palm up, her fair fingertips curling slightly inward as she tried to guide the page from her consciousness.
She encountered no resistance.
A subtle ripple spread through the air, followed by a point of golden light gathering in her palm.
The light swiftly expanded and solidified, and in the blink of an eye, a sheet of paper, as fine as silk and glowing with a faint golden light, floated gently onto her hand.
“Is this…
paper…
condensed from my memories?”
Cyrene curiously rubbed the paper’s surface with her fingertip.
The touch was warm and smooth, carrying a strange, gentle heat.
She eagerly brought the paper closer to her eyes, wanting to see what her memories had become.
However, in the next second, her face, once filled with anticipation, instantly fell.
“Huh?
What is this gibberish?”
The paper was densely covered with rows of golden symbols.
They were complex in structure, twisted and spiraling, resembling neither any human script she knew nor the Common Tongue from games.
Cyrene turned the paper horizontally, then vertically, and even held it up to the light.
In the end, she had to admit a tragic fact:
She was illiterate.
“I can’t understand a single word…
System, is this garbled text?
Or did my translation patch not install correctly?”
Cyrene puffed out her cheeks in frustration, her finger weakly poking at the “heavenly script.”
“If I can’t read it, doesn’t that make this ability half useless?”
Just as she was worrying over this useless piece of paper, a sudden flash of inspiration struck her mind.
But soon, a flash of inspiration passed, and a sudden idea abruptly appeared in Cyrene’s mind.
“This thing…
can I just tear it?”
She remembered a scene from the story where the Trailblazer fought Lygus, rewinding time by tearing a book.
“Tearing a book…
rewinding time…”
Cyrene muttered to herself, her gaze refocusing on the golden paper in her hand.
Although there was no book here, only a single sheet of paper, perhaps the principle was the same?
“It’s just a piece of paper copied with a bit of mental energy.
It won’t hurt to lose it.
Let’s give it a try!”
With that thought, the hesitation in Cyrene’s eyes vanished.
Riiip—
The crisp sound of tearing silk echoed through the silent bedroom.
There was no scene of paper scraps fluttering about.
The moment the paper tore, Cyrene’s vision went black.
An intense feeling of weightlessness instantly enveloped her entire body, as if she had suddenly fallen into a bottomless vortex.
When her vision cleared again, Cyrene found she was no longer in the pink and blue bedroom.
All around was a pure, boundless darkness.
And directly in front of her, a massive widescreen silver screen floated, as if she were in a giant IMAX theater with only herself as the audience.
At this moment, the screen was playing a scene.
A pink and blue glow, a messy bed, and a pink-haired girl sitting up, rubbing her eyes with a dazed expression.
That was…
herself.
So this is the place for browsing experiential memories?
How magical.
Cyrene floated in the void, watching the version of herself on the screen pinching her own cheeks in the mirror, her heart filled with novelty.
The feeling was subtle, like an out-of-body experience, observing her every move from a god’s-eye view.
Did I really look that silly when I first woke up…
She silently roasted herself in her mind.
Soon, Cyrene discovered a problem.
In this space, she seemed to have lost the concept of a physical body.
Besides staring at the screen before her, she couldn’t turn her head, couldn’t move, and couldn’t even feel her hands or feet.
Can only watch, can’t move?
That’s way too passive.
The moment the thought arose, the image on the screen suddenly sped up.
It was as if someone had pressed the fast-forward button; the Cyrene on screen moved with comical speed, like an actress in a silent comedy.
Huh?
I can fast-forward?
Cyrene focused her mind and tried thinking “pause.”
The image instantly froze.
Cyrene was staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror, mouth agape, her goofy expression perfectly preserved on the screen.
Rewind.
The scene began to play in reverse.
Skip to the end.
The scene instantly jumped to the moment she summoned the golden paper.
After some experimentation, Cyrene excitedly discovered that in this space, her thoughts were the ultimate remote control, allowing her to freely manipulate the playback progress and speed of this memory.
After replaying the short memory back and forth several times like watching a movie, Cyrene’s novelty wore off.
That’s about enough.
How do I get out of here?
The instant this thought popped into her head, the image on the screen automatically paused.
A line of glowing text appeared in the darkness.
[Infuse remaining unviewed memories?]
Cyrene froze for a moment, then realized what it meant.
Is it going to shove the parts I didn’t finish watching back into my head?
Yes.
She silently affirmed in her mind.
Cyrene felt a slight pressure in her mind, and immediately, the memory from tearing the page to the present was imprinted vividly in the depths of her consciousness, as if she had just experienced it all firsthand.
“Ugh…”
In the real world, Cyrene’s eyes snapped open.
The feeling of weightlessness was gone, replaced by the solid sensation of her feet on the ground and the lingering touch of the now-vanished paper in her hand.
She subconsciously shook her head; aside from the memory feeling more deeply ingrained, she felt no discomfort.
“Wait…”
Cyrene suddenly realized something, her azure pupils constricting slightly.
She whipped her head around to look at the digital alarm clock on her desk.
The numbers on it were quietly changing.
“System, how much time has passed since I tore the page?”
[5 seconds.]
The System’s cold voice responded instantly, delivering precise data analysis.
[However, of those 5 seconds, nearly 4.9 were spent from the moment you opened your eyes to when you asked me about the time.
According to my observations, the interval between you tearing the page, your consciousness entering that space, and your return to reality was merely an instant, approximately less than 0.1 seconds.]
Hearing this exact figure, Cyrene’s heart skipped a beat.
Less than 0.1 seconds!
What did that mean?
It meant that while she had spent ages in that “movie theater,” replaying the memory several times and even spacing out for a while, time in the real world had practically stood still!
Cyrene’s breathing quickened, and the frustration she’d felt from not understanding the text instantly vanished.
This wasn’t just “reading a book.”
This was clearly a disguised “Hyperbolic Mind Chamber”
“If I encounter a difficult problem, I can just imprint the current memory, tear the page, and go inside to think…”
Cyrene grew more and more excited as she thought, unable to stop herself from pacing around the room.
“Inside that space, I’ll have plenty of time to review, analyze, and find a solution.
When I figure it out and come back, only an instant will have passed in reality!”
It was like being in an exam where everyone else was racing against the clock, while she could just press pause, leisurely consult her books, and even take a nap before resuming the test!
In combat or strategic games, this ability was practically a god-tier cheat!
“It seems this ability is far more useful than I imagined.
It’s not just eidetic memory; it’s an absolute Domain of Thought!”
Cyrene gazed at the [Memory Imprinting] icon in her ability bar.
Now, it looked incredibly pleasing, practically glowing.
“Should I get Phainon to try this amazing thing too?”
Just as Cyrene was wondering whether to pull Phainon in to experience it.
“Beep beep…”
The computer speakers on the desk suddenly emitted two crisp notification sounds.
The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet room, instantly breaking Cyrene’s train of thought.
“Hmm?
Did the forum get a response so quickly?”
Cyrene raised an eyebrow, immediately refocusing her attention.
She had specifically set this unique notification sound to play only when a reply post on the forum passed the keyword filter and applied for the bounty.
This meant someone had taken the job.
“Looks like the power of money really can’t be underestimated.”
Cyrene strode to the computer, pulled out the chair, and sat down, her fingers gripping the mouse slightly tighter with anticipation.
The screen’s glow illuminated her delicate face, reflecting a curious light in her diamond-shaped pupils.
“Let’s see who found a suspected Xeno…”