1.7 The Memory of the Shattered World

"Then what does that make us?" the male player pressed.

"Perhaps not just us, but all VIP players cast into this place are 'memory units' of a shattered world, used by the Guardian to reshape reality and resist annihilation." His own recent experiences had brought Wu Chen to this realization.

"If they are the guardians of the world, they should be omnipotent. Why do they need our memories? Why not their own?" the male player asked, puzzled.

"Perhaps, like us, theirs were erased," Baili Yan suggested.

"Perhaps," Wu Chen sighed.

"That bridge ahead..." The female player could not hide her excitement.

"It leads to the land of redemption, the City of Fragments," Wu Chen confirmed.

"What are we waiting for?" Baili Yan was in high spirits.

The four set off once more. They paid one coin at the toll station and crossed the bridge smoothly.

As expected, there was another toll station on the other side. A coin was required for both entry and exit. The toll plaza integrated various functions, such as a service area and an observation deck. In the center stood a skyscraper piercing the clouds: the "Brotherhood of Fragments (Sci-Fi Branch) Entry and Exit Center."

It was a Brotherhood structure. Every player entering or leaving the City of Fragments had to register here.

Being a facility dedicated to the Sci-Fi branch, it was automated, convenient, and efficient. The lobby on the first floor was deserted.

As soon as Wu Chen stood before the terminal, the human-machine interface activated silently: "Please insert your VIP card."

Needless to say, his campus ID card served as his VIP identification.

The information was read and verified successfully. The smart terminal immediately granted access: "VIP status confirmed. Passage authorized."

The campus card ejected from the terminal now bore Wu Chen’s exclusive mark—the "Grip of the Skull." It was also known as the "Bone Picker’s Emblem" or the "Hand of Higher Dimensions."

It was just as Wu Chen had expected. Much like the red phone booth keychain that could enlarge itself and mint Shelter Coins, his campus card was a creation of the Shelter. After all, the "Purple Gold Rescue Package" carefully selected for him by Lord Zero contained extraordinary items: the campus card, the 2B pencil, and the keychain.

Baili Yan and the player couple also passed through without incident.

Retrieving their respective vehicles, the four of them formed a line and entered the gate. As they passed through the skyscraper, they could feel the fluctuations of a protective shield. Perhaps the skyscraper served not only as a processing center for players but also as a protective barrier for the City of Fragments, capable of resisting the erosion of annihilation to some extent.

"Whoa—" As soon as his vision cleared, Wu Chen heard an exclamation from Baili Yan in the car ahead.

As far as the eye could see, skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes were densely clustered, rising from low to high, spiraling upward until they pierced the sky. They converged into one colossal metropolis.

The silhouette of the City of Fragments resembled a giant, upright sea snail shell with its tip pointing toward the heavens.

Surrounding the complex were four densely packed, upward-spiraling "helical architectural belts," also known as the "Spiral Zones." The reason the distinction was so clear was that the architectural styles within each belt were entirely different. Upon closer inspection, they were the landmark zones for the four major systems: Xuanhuan, Fantasy, Magic, and Sci-Fi.

Floating islands and mirages of the Xuanhuan world; steam towers and Gothic mansions of the Fantasy world; obsidian castles and elven world trees of the Magic world; skyscrapers and anti-gravity spaces of the Sci-Fi world... The four styles spiraled and intertwined, converging at the city's peak. Airships, starships, flying swords, hovercars, pegasi, and magic carpets—a dizzying array of aircraft zipped between them.

This was what players in the City of Fragments called the "Four-System Spiral."

The four helical belts perfectly embodied the collision and conflict of four civilizations. The boundaries between the four major civilizations—Xuanhuan, Fantasy, Magic, and Sci-Fi—were not even delineated by entire streets or buildings. Within the same building, the architectural styles of different floors, or even adjacent rooms on the same floor, were completely different.

What was even more astonishing was that Wu Chen noticed that in the same skyscraper, the adjacent men's and women's restrooms were steampunk on one side and cyberpunk on the other. Ancient Xianxia and interstellar civilizations were separated by nothing more than a single wall. They were distinct yet coexisted in opposition, creating an indescribable sense of conflicting beauty.

"Tier-based integration," Wu Chen remarked. Could it be that the City of Fragments housed every VIP player from all the Shelters?

"Yes, exactly," Baili Yan realized. "The four spirals are the power circles formed by the players of the four systems."

"And they are also the plot lines," Wu Chen added.

"Exactly. Using landmarks as carriers, they are the four main plot lines—Xuanhuan, Fantasy, Magic, and Sci-Fi—jointly formed by the VIP players of each faction," Baili Yan said, unable to hide his excitement.

"But there are far more than four types of players," the male player said, confused. "Where are the rest?"

"They were likely swallowed by the four systems," Baili Yan replied.

"No wonder it's called the City of Fragments," Wu Chen mused. "The city is pieced together from fragments of various plot worlds."

"Fragments of worlds," Baili Yan grasped the significance.

Wu Chen sighed. "I think I know where we are."

"Where?" the male player asked hurriedly.

"The back side of the Shelter's starry sky," Wu Chen said after a moment of thought. "Think of it as the system's Recycle Bin."

The implication of a system recycle bin was easy to understand. All files deleted by a computer system are stored in the recycle bin first. With a click of "Empty Recycle Bin," the "junk files" are cleared away. Therefore, to the entire Shelter world, the City of Fragments was a gathering place for "trash." Or perhaps, a gathering place for "negative assets." Every VIP player who had exhausted their resources was sent here, waiting for the ultimate judgment—either to be cleared away or to be retrieved.

Unlike a typical junkyard, this world, abandoned by the Architect and constantly on the brink of erasure, still had a Guardian who refused to fail—the massive shadow in the void. Thus, the Architect kept erasing, and the Guardian kept rebuilding. They struggled tenaciously, refusing to give up. Their mutual stalemate offered a glimmer of hope to the VIP players stranded here.

As long as one worked hard to manage, regroup, and become strong enough to no longer be considered a "negative asset" by the Shelter, one could turn the tables and return to the Shelter.

As the Architect of the Shelter, the omnipresent and omnipotent "Lord Zero" was someone against whom resistance was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. The Guardian's power was constantly waning. It had even "forgotten" what the world originally looked like and had to rely on the memories of players to reshape it.

This was the "Law of Symbiosis" between this plot world and the players.

Only by becoming a "memory unit" of the City of Fragments, remembered by the massive shadow in the void, could a player integrate into the spiral plot world before them, avoiding being completely forgotten or frozen on the 404 Ring Road.

In other words, every player who finished the 404 Road of Destruction and broke through the plot's stagnation became a memory unit of the City of Fragments. When necessary, their memories could be read by the Guardian to reshape the world.

This meant that every player entering the City of Fragments had to do their utmost not to be forgotten by the world. They had to constantly prove their existence.

And how does one prove one's existence?

Ultimately, by achieving something.

VIP players had no beginner guides; survival depended entirely on self-exploration.

Fortunately, Wu Chen and his group were not the only ones to reach the City of Fragments. For Sci-Fi players, the first place they reached after entry was the "Free Port," which served as the frontier of the City of Fragments. It was commonly known as the "Edge of the Rift." Here, plot "fragmentation" was extremely severe. Fragments from different plot worlds were constantly grinding, colliding, shattering, and annihilating each other. Success or failure happened in an instant.

As newcomers, the novelty was overwhelming. Only in time would Wu Chen truly understand what "fragments" meant.

Roughly speaking, "fragments" were shattered plot worlds and the branch plots carried by players. For the Guardian of the City of Fragments—the massive shadow in the void—they were segments of "existing memory."

Fortunately, the Free Port, which belonged to the Sci-Fi faction, contained creations that were all from Sci-Fi worlds. They did not conflict with or exclude Wu Chen and the others.

Movement within the Free Port was unrestricted.

The immediate priority was finding a place to stay.

While Baili Yan and the others were busy trying to gather useful information through their vehicle's smart terminals, Wu Chen's onboard AI had already taken the lead: "Master, I have located 'Mocha Coffee House, Unit 3C, 1st Floor, Block A, 9 Nathan Road.'"

"Where is that?" Wu Chen looked at the center console screen.

"A player gathering spot, relevant to the plot." The AI, Aiyi, pulled up the data on Mocha Coffee House and displayed it on the screen.