As Elliot slowly opened his eyes, a boundless field of white came into view. This familiar space made his pupils widen in shock. He had nearly forgotten—the System still existed. With the System here, even tragedy might yet be reversed.
Thud.
He immediately fell to his knees, bowing again and again toward the towering presence above him.
"Please… bring Shenhe back. I'll give anything!!"
At that moment, a hazy silhouette appeared before him—like a virtual AI projected from an electronic screen. It slowly approached and stood before him. Elliot could feel its unseen gaze locked onto him.
"Please… as long as she can return…"
He bowed once more.
The figure did not speak. Instead, it extended a hand.
Elliot hesitated for a moment, then instinctively reached out to grasp the intangible, air-like hand.
In an instant, the scene around him spun violently. The once-empty space filled with countless new objects. And among all the clutter, one string of text floating in the air stood out sharply:
[To revive her, you must remove Teyvat from danger. When that happens, she will return to that continent with her memories, and you may reunite with her.]
Elliot froze as he finished reading, his breath tightening.
"How do I save Teyvat!?" he demanded immediately.
No response came. The line of text remained where it was—unchanged, motionless, unmoving.
"Answer me! How do I return to Teyvat!?"
Silence. No matter how he shouted, the System gave no reaction. The text did not shift.
Impatience gnawed at him.
Then, his gaze drifted toward the various strange items around him.
There were two rotating celestial bodies displayed on a screen—both unmistakably familiar. Earth. And Teyvat.
Without a moment's hesitation, Elliot reached toward Teyvat.
Instantly, Teyvat expanded at impossible speed, ballooning larger and larger. Or perhaps Elliot himself shrank—hurtling toward the world instead.
What filled his vision was a perfectly normal Teyvat, untouched by The Abyss. Everyone he knew still existed.
But strangely—Elliot could not sense his own presence. He could not see his hands or feet. He could not feel the ground beneath him.
It felt as though he were…
A god?
He existed like Celestia incarnate—able to oversee everything across Teyvat, while he himself did not exist within it.
[You have no right to intervene.]
Whenever he tried to touch someone in this world, that warning echoed directly into his mind.
He could not touch them. He could not speak to them. He could only watch—helpless, unseen.
Even The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles was within his scope of vision, yet utterly unaware of being observed.
A realization began to form.
With a single thought, Teyvat shrank rapidly, returning to its place on the screen.
This time, Elliot shifted his attention to Earth. Again, he saw cities and countless lives unfold beneath his gaze.
But that wasn't what mattered most.
What mattered was—he could filter.
[Male]
All females vanished instantly.
He removed the filter. They reappeared as if from thin air.
[Adult, Male]
Children and infants disappeared.
Elliot inhaled sharply and exited Earth.
"One, two, three… nine."
"Nine…"
He froze.
On that screen, Teyvat wasn't singular. It was scrollable—like a computer interface. Each swipe revealed another Teyvat.
There were nine in total.
He opened each one.
And when he reached the ninth—everything snapped into place.
Because the ninth Teyvat—its timeline existed in the early Archon War. The era of his ninth reincarnation.
He remembered the System's choice at the end of that life: Stay in the ninth world. Or enter the tenth reincarnation.
He had chosen the second.
Had he stayed—perhaps Teyvat would never have fallen to The Abyss. The Archon War had just ended. Khaenri'ah was still over a thousand years away. He would have had more than enough time to forge a new Teyvat using Three Thousand Worlds with One Thought.
If he had chosen to remain and succeeded in saving Teyvat…
Then—
The previous System would have succeeded. Its beloved would have been reborn. The System itself could return to that new Teyvat.
If that was true, then why had the System offered two choices?
Because—
Elliot's only thought then was: go back.
If forced to remain, he might never have willingly sacrificed himself for Teyvat.
Thus, the System had to present two options—
a test of judgment.
Choose wrong—
and fall into endless reincarnation.
Choose correctly—
and return triumphant, reuniting with the one you loved.
And the second option couldn't be terrible—not for someone as cautious as he was then. It had to be enticing. A lure—
to push him into questioning the meaning of the first.
"You failed," Elliot murmured.
"But I will succeed. Shenhe is still waiting for me."
He reentered Earth.
[Male, adult, loves Genshin Impact, gentle, attentive, intelligent, patient, exceptionally kind.]
Even with powerful filters, he searched for a long time before finding someone suitable.
A firefighter—
A man who, during a rescue, had reached two steps too late, failing to grasp a little girl's hand and witnessing her fall to her death. He had spiraled into severe depression, consumed by guilt, driven to the brink of suicide.
After the man died, Elliot erased his memories and brought him here.
"Where am I?" the man asked blankly.
[Ding! Congratulations on acquiring the Nine-Life Reincarnation System. After nine reincarnations, you will return to Earth.]
The story ends.
The End.