Chapter 788: Chapter 786: "Su Ming’an, Why?

"Mu team! Su Xiaobi! Yeah! Respond to me!" Su Ming’an called out, looking again at Lv Shu and quickly averting his gaze, unwilling to linger on him for too long.

"You won’t even accept an illusion?" Lv Shu said, "Even if it’s just a beautiful dream, wouldn’t you want to continue it?"

"I can’t."

"Why? Not even a little bit?" Lv Shu asked.

Su Ming’an simply said, "I can’t."

He couldn’t afford to lose his "Rationality," nor would he allow himself to have a mental breakdown. If one day he truly were to lose Lv Shu, Yuanyuan, and the others, he would accept it after having tried his utmost to save them, and not remain stuck in place.

He had once hoped that he could truly become happy, but now he no longer thought about his own ending.

... This must be the Illusion Realm. To break out of the Illusion Realm, maybe he needed to return to his original state. Since he was supposed to have lost an arm, then...

Su Ming’an reached out, placing his hand on his shoulder, only hesitating for a moment before forcefully pulling, and with a "crack," he tore off his upper arm, blood splattering everywhere as skin and muscle hung in tatters.

Lv Shu held his tea, quietly watching him as snow-white data flickered around, zeros and ones blooming like flowers.

"Ah," Lv Shu sighed, setting down the tea bowl.

The next moment, Su Ming’an saw the scene before him begin to fade, including Lv Shu with his tea, and the surroundings shattered like glass.

"Haha..."

Su Ming’an laughed out:

"You are indeed an illusion! You really are..."

He laughed for a while, but his smile gradually faded, leaving only pain on his face.

... Why was he laughing?

... What was there to laugh about?

His mouth twitched, appearing to smile, yet it seemed like he was crying. Static noise flooded his brain, as if trying to snatch away his soul.

He clasped his head, squatting down, his mind in chaos, consciousness as if being torn and pulled by three people—a part belonging to Ya Sa, a part to Beili Sier, and a part to Lin Guang, engaging in a tug of war. Someone was trying to hold onto him, someone trying to push him away, and another trying to hurt him.

His temples throbbed painfully, pulsing constantly, as if a sharp awl was being driven into his brain, splitting him into three sections, his mouth as if filled with blood.

... Stop shouting!

Stop shouting those names!

Stop shouting Ya Sa! Stop shouting Little Bei!!

"..."

Since the moment the Emotional Resonance ended, those voices had always been there, only he had deliberately chosen not to listen.

But at times like this, the aftereffects completely burst forth.

His thoughts swelled like a balloon, the memories and emotions one can bear are limited—when he exhausted the lifespan of his soul, he too would head towards oblivion.

Su Ming’an covered his ears, repeatedly whispering his own name in a low voice, over and over, trying hard to remember who he was:

"Su Ming’an."

Save them—Save Zhai Xing—Save Ming Hui—Save Pulaya—Save all of Human Civilization! Win the bet!

"Su Ming’an," he muttered softly, reminding himself of his identity.

Save them—!

"Su Ming’an," he uttered again.

Save—!

"Su Ming’an."

Save—!

"Su Ming’an."

—!

"Slap slap slap slap slap—!!!!"

His vision spun and inverted. He buried himself between his knees, curling up in the position of a hedgehog, using the hardest bones of his body to shield his taut heartbeat.

Someone walked up to him.

"Listen well, this is the last time."

The person whispered low:

"Shoot me."

...

[（TE·Revival of All Things）Perfect Completion Progress: 80%]

...

Above him was the incessant sound of rain.

Su Ming’an awoke from a dream.

...It had been a strange dream. Shoot who? With what gun?

In the top left of his field of vision, HP had dropped to 430 points, with debuffs attached, "[Serious Injury: Lose 30 Health Points per minute]" and "[Impaired Arm: Temporary loss of arm control]."

He pushed through the layers of soft pipes with his shoulder and crawled out. The city-state before him was still shrouded in heavy rain, with system time displaying 11:23 PM.

The only warmth on his body was his blood. Several white birds perched on the bell tower flapped their wings.

The city-state was eerily quiet, with just some figures sleeping in the rain. Su Ming’an looked back; the lights of the central political building were still on, shining through the pigeon cage-like windows.

"Su Rin," he called out.

The torrential rain buried his voice.

"Noel?"

No response.

"Yuanyuan..."

No response.

"Lv Shu..."

Slowly, he braced his heavy body and stood up.

...He needed to leave this place first.

...He had been chased by Lin Guang before and had fallen from the tower to this place; he didn’t know when Lin Guang would catch up.

"Step, step." Su Ming’an stepped down from the pipes, took a few steps, and nearly tripped.

He thought it was trash—after all, the rain was so heavy that litter was washed all over the ground.

But when he looked down, he saw what had tripped him was actually a corpse.

A wretched, filthy corpse that seemed to have lost all its color.

...

All he could hear were the pattering raindrops.

Rain poured down his field of vision, soaking the corpse and the disheveled white hair that lay in the pool like wilted lilies.

Su Ming’an slowly squatted down and turned the body over.

He brushed aside the person’s white hair, revealing a penetrating wound on the forehead.

In that moment, it was as if all his thoughts were swept away like the wind, his plans, his next steps, his countermeasures—all seemingly forgotten.

Su Ming’an silently kept his posture of lifting the hair, frozen for a long time.

Moments later, he finally spoke, his voice barely audible in the raging storm.

"...How could you die?"

Aren’t you the villainous BOSS?

Does a villainous BOSS die before the final battle with the Brave?

A few strands of white hair slipped from Su Ming’an’s fingers, fluttering back into the water.

The young man with white hair lay in the rainwater pool.

He had his eyes closed, as if ambushed, his fingers still in a digging position, as though he had been digging for something even in death.

Lin Guang’s features really resembled Lv Shu’s, the similar brows, the pale complexion, always with a touch of blue-gray beneath the eyes, lips devoid of color, like a chronically ill patient.

Though he lay on the surface of the pool, it seemed as if he was at the bottom of the sea, about to dissolve into the water. His chest cavity was open, the heart within gone.

It felt as if a very long time had passed.

It seemed like only an instant.

"...Lin Guang." Su Ming’an finally spoke up.

It sounded like a prolonged farewell. His voice trembled at the end, and he was speechless for a while as if all his strength had been drained.

Even though he had always longed for Lin Guang’s death, when this man actually died...

"Lv... Lin Guang..."

Su Ming’an withdrew his hand, letting the white hair cover the dead man’s face.

Only a low breath could be heard in his throat.

"...Goodbye."

The withered lily was left on Lin Guang’s chest, stained with blood. The shadow of trees appeared illusory in the torrential rain, and their neon light reflections flickered in the puddles. The young man with white hair’s face, smeared with blood, was gradually diluted by the rain, like blood-stained tears flowing down.

"..."

Su Ming’an squatted in the rain, silent, as the sound of the rain suddenly stopped around him.

An umbrella was opened above his head.

The faint scent of lemon reached him, and Su Ming’an knew who was holding the umbrella for him; at a time like this, there was only one person who could move freely in the city-state where everyone had collapsed.

"You’ve always despised him." The deity’s voice came from behind, still with an elegance soaked in red wine, "I’ve avenged you, no need to thank me."

"Yes," Su Ming’an said, "I indeed despised him."

"A traitor of mankind, an agent of the deity, a lackey of Ta Wei, an executioner who killed countless people, a demon hated by everyone, not even a thousand cuts would suffice," the deity spoke in a low voice. "He’s dead, you see, he’s dead— From now on, all is peaceful and in order."

"Is that so?"

"Now that you see him dead, don’t you feel a sense of satisfaction, as if a great vengeance has been fulfilled?" the deity squatted down next to Su Ming’an, "But looking at your expression, you don’t seem too happy."

"There’s still one thing I want to do," Su Ming’an said.

"Hmm?" The deity responded with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Suddenly, Su Ming’an stood up and, while the deity was still squatting, he delivered a roundhouse kick, advancing— and fiercely kicked the deity!

The deity, with a smiling expression, was kicked away violently.

"Bang!"

With a loud noise, the deity was thrown like a parabola, crashing heavily into a nearby pile of trash. Immediately, banana peels, rotten vegetables, soda cans, and the like were sent flying, making a clamor and causing a horde of rats to scurry in panic.

Three seconds later, the deity crawled out from the pile of trash, patted the dust off himself, removed the instant noodles from his head, and looked down at the second shoe print on the white lab coat.

"Alright," the deity sighed, "if that helps you cool off, I don’t really mind."

"Why did you kill Lin Guang?" Su Ming’an asked, "You must have promised Lin Guang that as long as he restrained me, you would spare both his life and mine, right?— He did it; he threw me off the building and even tore my arm off. Why did you go back on your word and kill him?"

"Hm..." The deity pondered for a moment, "Because he kicked me once before?"

"That’s your reason for breaking your promise?" Su Ming’an asked.

The deity was still slapping the dust off himself.

But the smile that had always been on his face suddenly disappeared. In its stead, there was a seriousness and respect.

"Compared to the destiny of an entire civilization, my personal reputation is trivial," the deity said, "I suspected he had a backup plan, so to be safe, I killed him, just in case he really had one."

"A backup... plan?" Su Ming’an asked.

Aren’t you two on the same side? Like two peas in a pod.

Lin Guang had always acted against humanity, where could he possibly have a backup plan?

The deity finished patting the dust off and looked into the distance with a solemn gaze, his facial expression almost betraying a hint of shock:

"As it turns out, I was right. He really did have a backup plan, and it came so close, just a bit more... and I would have lost to you in the end. Luckily, his plan didn’t come to fruition," the deity remarked with emotion.

Su Ming’an stood in the rain.

He sensed a touch of absurdity.

A cold wind seemed to sweep through his chest.

"He actually... set up a scheme that lasted two thousand three hundred cycles of the Caius Tower simulation, with everything connected... too terrifying. He truly was the most trusted person by Ya Sa before his death; Ya Sa didn’t trust the wrong person. I almost... lost to you at the very last moment. However, fortunately, his scheme failed to activate," the deity reflected.

Su Ming’an looked towards the white-haired corpse in its sorry state.

"What?" he said softly.

Such a fool, Lin Guang.

What kind of scheme could he lay?

How could he possibly have laid a scheme?

"Swish——" A gust of cold wind blew by, and the flute hanging on Su Ming’an’s waist swayed slightly, its inscription "A gift for Lewis in the future" buried beneath the dripping blood.

Several scattered sheets of flute music floated among the puddles, the ink long gone, leaving no clue to the carefully notated music that once was.

Suddenly, Su Ming’an remembered many years ago when he had entered a dream of Lin Guang’s, where Lin Guang seemed to have always been guarding a secret.

Could that have been... the scheme in the making?

Impossible.

Why.

"It is thanks to you, the people of the Ruined World, that I sing praises. Your act of turning against your own hero is always commendable. Even though this time, you yourselves do not realize that the one who died was a hero, not a demon," laughed the Deity.

It was a laugh full of pity, irony, and malice, as if mocking the failed Ruined World, mocking every unseen effort Lin Guang had made.

"What a pity, just a bit short... too bad, in the end, the hero could only be a demon and could not be vindicated."

"..."

Su Ming’an stood still, his white hair brushing against his ankles in the water.

The myriad lights of the City-State continued to shine warmly, but his vision was blurred, unable to distinguish anything clearly.

At his feet, the white-haired youth lay dead in the torrential rain of the City-State.

Just like a dead dog.

"It’s okay, you’re just too young. If I were your age, I probably couldn’t have done any better," the Deity said cheerfully, patting Su Ming’an’s shoulder, "Since you’ve lost this time, in the days to come, I’ll slowly mold you into someone as interesting as me. You’ll gradually understand Zhai Xing is nothing. As for the scheme he laid out, I’ll tell you about it slowly..."

"..."

Su Ming’an’s gaze drifted into the distance.

Incomprehensible murmurings coursed through his brain, and he saw, in the multitude of sprawling puddles across the City-State—

It seemed filled with the undaunted reflections of those who had died in the battles of the Ruined World.

Not one had surrendered to the Invaders.

The broken-winged birds plummeted madly, descending into the torrential downpours showering the Utopia for the two thousand three hundredth time.

...

The demon died.

His name was Lin Guang.

...

"Su Ming’an." At that moment, a dark shadow of a fox appeared on Su Ming’an’s shoulder; it was the elusive little love returning.

Looking at the scene, she was silent for a while before saying:

"Su Ming’an, doesn’t it hurt?"

Hurt?

Su Ming’an’s gaze dropped to the deserted half of his body—like an ax-split old tree, its sinewy crimson flesh and bones torn apart due to his previous leap from the high-rise break not only the bones of his arm but even the muscles of his waist and abdomen.

A pain that was slow to register exploded throughout his body, only then did he realize the severity of his injuries.

...Yes.

...Does it not hurt?

But it seemed that the physical agony couldn’t compare to the void inside his heart, his heart curling into a dark spec, its beats barely audible.

With a nearly tearful expression, Little Love reached out to smooth the messy hair on his forehead:

"Can you no longer feel even pain?"

"Su Ming’an."

"Why, why..."

...

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