Chapter 96: The “Future” I Saw Is Not the “Future” I Want

Chapter 96: The “Future” I Saw Is Not the “Future” I Want

Inside the Quantum Control Room.

“Hahaha! Caroline, what kind of expression is that? No, I have to take a picture! Then I’ll show it to everyone else!”

Looking at Caroline—clearly crying her eyes out, tears like falling pear blossoms, yet still forcing a smile—“Tendou” looked like a child whose prank had just succeeded.

He raised his hands, forming a gesture like a picture frame, aiming it straight at Caroline’s tearful, half-smiling face.

And as he made this childish move, the hologram actually cooperated, simulating a camera shutter click, along with continuous flashes of light.

This idiot…

Caroline looked at the “Tendou” before her, who was darting around like a paparazzo, constantly shifting angles and positions.

The corners of her lips rose uncontrollably.

Just a moment ago, she had still been drowning in gut-wrenching sorrow.

Yet now, she was somehow being annoyed into wanting to laugh by this guy who never played by the rules.

Just like countless times in the past.

Thinking of that, Caroline took a deep breath.

Then, with reddened eyes, she shot a fierce glare at that ever-unpredictable figure—exactly like the scenes that had played out between her and Tendou so many times before.

Everything seemed as if nothing had changed.

And yet… everything seemed to have changed.

After Caroline finished glaring at Tendou, his hologram lightly leapt onto the control tower beside the computation pod and sat down on the edge.

He slowly put away the smile on his face.

The humor and playfulness vanished, replaced by a gentle, serious tone.

“All right, Caroline. Wipe your tears. I know you have a lot of questions you want to ask, and a lot you want to say.”

“But before that… can you listen to me finish first?”

Caroline nodded and listened quietly.

Through Tendou’s explanation, Caroline finally understood everything that had happened at the base—and the choice Tendou himself had made.

It turned out that as early as two years ago, right after Tendou completed the Star Core surgery, because he still hadn’t fully adapted to the Star-Eclipse Eye, he often saw things that were never visible before.

And among those things… were fragmented visions of the future.

At first, Tendou didn’t think they represented the future at all, so he didn’t pay them much attention.

But when those fragmented futures began to manifest in reality, one by one, Tendou understood.

They weren’t illusory “dreams” at all, they were realities on the verge of coming true.

And from that moment on, Tendou changed.

“Caroline, the future I saw was not the future I wanted. So I had to change it.”

“Otherwise… ‘seeing’ it would have had no meaning at all.”

“I just didn’t expect changing it to be this difficult.”

At this point, Tendou’s hologram suddenly let out a sigh.

But his tone quickly grew excited, and his expression visibly brightened.

Before long, Tendou’s hologram leaned right up close to Caroline, like a child waiting to be praised.

“But none of that matters, Caroline, because I succeeded!”

“I not only managed to change everyone’s future, I also found an ending where everyone can be happy.”

“So? Caroline—am I amazing or what?”

Yet after hearing all this, Caroline didn’t show any sign of understanding.

Instead, she silently lowered her head, her fingertips digging deep into her palm.

In a trembling voice so soft it was almost inaudible, she said:

“So… this is why you erased yourself from the future?”

There was no response.

Because this was only a recording—a pre-recorded image left behind by Tendou—and so the Tendou in the projection continued his monologue.

But at this moment, Caroline couldn’t hear anything anymore.

“What kind of joke is this?!”

Caroline, who had always been known for her rationality and composure, now erupted in an unprecedented, emotionally charged fury.

She slammed both hands hard against the transparent protective glass of the computation pod where Tendou’s real body lay.

As her fingers curled, her sharp nails scraped across the surface, leaving several clear scratch marks on the glass.

She stared fixedly at Tendou lying inside the pod.

Silent tears fell onto the glass, her eyes filled with rage and a fierce, burning kind of hatred.

“Tendou, you keep saying that the future you saw wasn’t the future you wanted—but did you ever think about how others would feel?!”

“You’re always like this—so overbearing, so unreasonable!”

“You only ever do what you want to do, and you never care about what consequences those actions might bring.”

“You keep saying we’re the best partners, but why didn’t you tell me about this? Why didn’t you ask what I thought?!”

“You call this being a partner?!”

Caroline suddenly raised her hand, looking as though she was about to smash the glass in front of her.

Yet that raised hand, upon seeing the calm expression on the face behind the glass, ultimately fell gently back down.

“I hate you, Tendou. I hate you!”

“Because whether it’s Chen Xing, Instructor Tachibana, or anyone else—their lives or deaths don’t matter to me at all. I don’t care!”

“Whether their futures are good or bad has nothing to do with you, Tendou!”

“I don’t believe you couldn’t find a way to keep yourself in the future. You’re just too selfish—so selfish that you can only accept the outcome you want, without caring what that outcome means for anyone else!”

At that, Caroline suddenly took a deep breath.

She forcefully wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, and her gaze became calmer than ever before.

At the same time, her hair turned into long, silver-white strands, lifting and flowing without any wind.

It was obvious—Caroline had entered the Machina’s Overclock state, diving into a massive torrent of data in search of a possibility that would allow Tendou to remain.

“There has to be one… there has to be a way…”

After an immense round of data analysis and countless simulations of possibility, Caroline bit her nail, convinced she had found a method to make Tendou “stay.”

“Cybernetic conversion—yes, as long as we perform an immediate Machina modification on you—”

Before she could finish laying out the plan, a voice tinged with apology suddenly sounded from behind her.

“I’m sorry.”

Caroline turned around in shock, only to see Tendou’s holographic projection standing there, looking at her with that expression she hated the most—gentle, and painfully sad.

And that expression instantly stirred a terrible premonition in Caroline’s heart.

“Caroline, I know that after I say all this, you’ll not only be furious, but you’ll also resort to unconventional means to keep me alive at all costs.”

“But for someone like me—who has already become a Trait Type Starbearer—undergoing Machina modification without a new Star Origin would amount to nothing more than forcibly imprisoning my soul inside a pile of scrap metal.”

“And to me… that would be a punishment far crueler than death. So—”

Seeing that Tendou had actually anticipated her thoughts in advance, Caroline’s pupils shrank sharply.

Because she had already guessed what Tendou was about to do.

Without the slightest hesitation, Caroline instinctively tried to stop him.

But before she could act, “Tendou,” with a conflicted expression, spoke the words Caroline least wanted to hear—

“Machina Type Starbearer · Caroline Gorynych, initiate Exclusive Protocol No. 3.”

The moment those words were spoken, Caroline felt a searing pain explode inside her mind.

Immediately afterward, she heard a voice echoing within her consciousness—a voice that had existed within her body for a long time, yet had never once surfaced before.

【Exclusive Protocol No. 3 activated】

【Machina personality online】

As a special quantum program forcibly suppressed the thoughts of her primary personality, the Machina persona completely took over Caroline’s body.

Moments later, the humanity vanished from Caroline’s eyes.

In its place appeared the cold rationality unique to a Machina Type Starbearer.

At the same time, Caroline’s voice became mechanical—rigid, emotionless, devoid of even a trace of feeling.

“Protocol No. 3 is active. Please issue your instructions.”

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