The Awakening of the Ancient One
Xiao Lin presented the bound dossier to Professor Yue Taizhou. Seated behind his mahogany desk, the Professor perused the document repeatedly, his countenance a mask of stoic gravity.
"Is there an issue with the report, Professor?" Xiao Lin inquired, his voice steady.
Yue Taizhou offered no immediate reply. Slowly, he returned the papers to the desk surface. "Xiao Lin," he intoned, "I require your presence elsewhere."
The Professor led the way, Xiao Lin trailing in his wake. They descended via the lift, plunging deep beneath the earth until they reached that familiar, sterile corridor. At its terminus, the white door stood sentinel, its metallic plating gleaming with a soft, ethereal luminescence under the harsh lights.
Yue Taizhou gazed upon the barrier, his expression drifting into a melancholic haze. "Xiao Lin, I know not if thou canst bear the burden of what follows, yet it must be spoken. For it is a fate thou must confront."
A premonition of dread coiled within Xiao Lin's chest. As he approached the metal portal, the unease swelled into a crescendo. Before the threshold, he drew a steadying breath and pressed his palm to the scanner. A sharp electronic chime pierced the silence, and the heavy doors slid apart.
The sight that greeted him arrested his very soul.
Beyond lay not the chamber of his dreams, but a primordial, abyssal grotto. It was a vast cavern, a cathedral of stone pillars and hanging stalactites, where trickles of ancient water wept endlessly from the vaulted ceiling. The stone gate... had vanished. The mystical aura that permeated the dream chamber was gone, as if it had never been woven into existence.
Terrifying realizations began to boil within his mind. "What... does this signify?" Xiao Lin demanded.
Yue Taizhou ignored the query, speaking instead with cryptic gravity. "For the better part of this day, I was sequestered in the council chamber. At forty-two minutes past the fourth hour, I received a summons via the terrestrial line in my office. It was thou who called."
Xiao Lin's heart hammered against his ribs. He understood the origin of that call.
"Furthermore, Yu Shuang and Ai Sheng have vanished. Not merely lost, but erased from the annals of time. Their names exist in no registry."
Struggling to contain the tempest of thoughts raging within, Xiao Lin asked, "Professor, do these anomalies stem from my slumber? Did my dream trigger this?"
Yue Taizhou regarded him with eyes of profound complexity. "Xiao Lin, thou hast inverted the truth. That world is the reality. This... is but thy dream."
A cataclysm detonated within Xiao Lin's mind, consuming all in flames. Yet, strangely, he did not fracture. A preternatural calm settled over him, a silence so deep that the Professor's voice seemed to fade into the ether. He had long suspected the simplicity of his existence was a lie, yet the magnitude of this truth was staggering. He remained, as he had been for two centuries, solitary and ancient, facing a world alien to his own.
Yue Taizhou seized Xiao Lin's shoulders, his grip desperate. "Xiao Lin, I implore thee: close that gate. Save our world!"
"I know this burden is colossal, and the injustice is vast. But, Xiao Lin, thou art our sole hope."
Silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating.
After an eternity of seconds, Xiao Lin lowered his gaze. "Professor... I offer my apologies."
Images of Yu Shuang's demise flashed before his eyes, followed by Ai Sheng's final testament. "We face extinction, do we not?" he murmured. He felt no terror for the entities beyond the door, only a crushing impotence that rendered even the fear of death trivial.
"Is that so..." Yue Taizhou seemed to wither, though he forced a brittle smile. "I comprehend. 'Tis thy prerogative."
He looked at Xiao Lin with sudden intensity. "Regardless, Xiao Lin, thou must endure. I shall devote every resource to thy aid."
When Xiao Lin opened his eyes from slumber, he lay within his cramped quarters. The chronometer on the wall pointed to the ninth hour.
He rose, fixing his gaze upon the bedroom door. The pale grey barrier stood silent, offering no answer. Xiao Lin approached, grasped the handle, and drew breath.
With a click, the door yielded. The corridor beyond was a tomb of silence; the grand institute stood cold, bright, and utterly deserted.
He crushed the final ember of illusion within his heart, a sardonic grin touching his lips. "Welcome to the real world."
Yet, Xiao Lin now viewed his predicament with the equanimity of the ages. He returned to his chambers to perform his ablutions and don his raiment, partaking of sustenance in the mess hall before commencing his labors at the tenth hour. It was a regimen commanded by Yue Taizhou: maintain the vessel, preserve the routine.
He descended to the Zeroth Level. As foretold, the stone gate of reality had also dissolved into the void.
Yue Taizhou had spoken of the gate's formidable power; to seal it would be a Herculean task. Xiao Lin cataloged this phenomenon as "Dissolution."
He proceeded to the water bar, where he witnessed the phenomenon of "Reset." The coffee vessel he had used, the opened beans—all had reverted to their pristine state, the packaging unbroken, as if time itself had rewound. Upon his awakening, the institute had reset to the moment of his "return." If resources could be thus renewed, he possessed infinite coffee—a triviality in the face of eternity, yet noted nonetheless.
Next, in Yue Taizhou's office, he observed the third phenomenon: "Interference."
A missive left by the Professor the previous night, bearing the port and cipher of the security system, had been placed there by Xiao Lin's hand, accompanied by a silent will that it manifest in the waking world. And lo, it was there.
The third hypothesis held true. The dream and reality were threads that could be woven together, and he held the loom.
Dissolution, Reset, Interference. These supernatural attributes confirmed Yue Taizhou's conjectures. The resurrection of the institute was no accident; it was tethered to Xiao Lin's own arcane potency. How this power operated, and what ripples it would send through the cosmos, remained a mystery. He recorded these observations, capturing images to compile into a formal report.
He wrote until the twelfth hour, when his communication device vibrated. An alert from the security system.
The screen displayed the entrance. There stood Lin Niannian, clutching a tome of immense thickness, scanning the horizon with erratic movements.
Xiao Lin triggered the entry mechanism and strode out to meet her in the grand hall.
Lin Niannian adjusted her spectacles, scrutinizing him. "Hmm. Quadruped, bipedal locomotion, draped in woven textiles," she muttered. She flipped open her heavy book. "Egads, it appears to be a human."
Snapping the book shut, she beamed. "Greetings, human. I bear a cartography for Mister Xiao Lin."
"I am Xiao Lin."
"Impossible," she declared. "Mister Xiao Lin is no human."
A vein throbbed in Xiao Lin's temple. He had never imagined a day where he would be forced to prove his humanity.
"Shall I remind thee of the half-jin of coffee beans thou didst consume yesterday?"
Lin Niannian froze. "Hehe, good morrow, Mister Xiao Lin! Here is thy map."
Xiao Lin accepted the parchment. It was drawn with geometric precision, marking key locations, though sparse in detail.
"If there be no further business, I shall take my leave," Lin Niannian attempted to retreat, but Xiao Lin seized her by the collar.
"Art thou occupied? Wouldst thou object to serving as my guide for the afternoon?"
"I object greatly! I am but a frail maiden of delicate constitution, and I have labors to attend to..."
"I shall provide coffee."
"Gogogo! Let us depart!" Lin Niannian marched forward with renewed vigor.