Chapter 993: The Dead

Chapter 993: Chapter 303: The Dead

The first ray of sunlight in the early morning slipped into the ruins, carrying a mild and light taste. Yi Xiaodong stared at the rising sun, collapsed in a pool of blood, not wanting to move at all, utterly exhausted after a night of fighting.

People kept emerging from the ruins to launch attacks on him, but all of them were covered in wounds. The battle went on until dawn before it finally ended.

It was as if the other side had finally given up.

He was still alive. He hadn’t really expected to survive; it was just that those bees were even more ferocious than he’d imagined. Even with so many Extraordinary, most of them still died.

“Sun, oh sun. The sun in this world is never that bright.”

He muttered to himself. Corpses lay all around him. Xu Jie’s body was right at his feet, eyes tightly shut, throat slit open, her beautiful face stained with blood.

He struggled to stand up from the ground, unscrewed the water bottle in his hand, and took a long gulp, feeling the coolness. His face was expressionless, yet in his heart he was crying without a sound, howling in grief.

In that moment, boundless loneliness surged toward him like the blade of night, with not a single star, and no moon.

He dug a shallow pit in the ruins and buried Xu Jie’s body in it. The blood on his body flowed back at a speed visible to the naked eye, like time running in reverse.

“What a pity that I met you like this…”

At that moment, he felt a strange vibration coming from his pocket.

“A phone?”

He was somewhat puzzled. He didn’t remember putting a phone in his pocket. The screen was lit and somehow still usable. A pop-up window appeared on it, dark red text that looked like bleeding.

[Mission completed: Break through the Darkness.]

[You have obtained official Player status. You may choose to leave, or continue with the missions. Continuing will grant richer rewards.]

“So that’s how it is.”

He looked at the information on the phone and let out a sigh.

In the morning light, a lone figure walked toward the depths of the ruins, his back unimaginably solitary.

…

A bright oil lamp was lit on the table, its flame high and swaying from time to time, giving off a heavy, greasy smell. This lamp had probably been burning for a long time.

The old man eased his body, sat back down on the chair, a pleading look appearing on his face as he turned to Chen Tiannan. “Even if they might never have existed to begin with, right now they’re living, breathing people. Lord Law Enforcer, could you spare them?”

“Once they’re dead, this gathering place probably won’t have any reason to exist either.”

Chem Tiannan watched the old man’s supplication, his expression not changing in the slightest, and said calmly, “You know that’s impossible. And they aren’t people. They have no past, appeared out of thin air, just a bunch of monsters.”

The old man let out a heavy sigh. After a moment of silence, he said, “Then why must it be that they are the false ones? What if the side that doesn’t exist is us? That’s something we can’t distinguish.”

“Lord Law Enforcer, isn’t it a bit too rash for you to be so eager to kill them?”

“Maybe.” Chen Tiannan spoke unhurriedly, “The Truth isn’t important. We only need to hold to one point: that we are real, and they are false. Thinking beyond that will only disturb the mind.”

“You’re already old, your head isn’t clear anymore, and you don’t need to think so much. Right now you should still be standing on our side, shouldn’t you?”

The old man nodded. “Of course. I always have.”

Chen Tiannan said calmly, “Good. Then go gather them. I’m in quite a hurry—I’ve already been delayed for too long.”

He could feel his will constantly fading, constantly being worn down by time. Once it completely ebbed away, he would become a living corpse, and his body would swiftly die.

Chen Tiannan had thought the people in the gathering place would resist, would ignore their leader’s orders, but to his surprise, everyone cooperated, even though the illusory people made up the vast majority.

They truly had no awareness of it, completely fused into this gathering place, firmly convinced they were part of it, holding absolute loyalty toward it.

This was their home in the apocalypse, something to be guarded together, maintained together.

Looking at the crowd standing in the square, Ximen Long yawned and sighed, “Endless killing really is exhausting.”

Liu Lilan reminded him from behind, “Captain, please don’t complain at random. It will affect the other team members’ morale.”

Ximen Long showed a helpless expression and nodded. “Fine, I was just saying.”

…

They stepped through the door.

There was the sound of flowing water.

It was unending Darkness.

In the distance, starlight flowed ceaselessly. The ground reflected that distant starlight, forming two completely identical mirrors. It was as if they were standing on an unimaginably vast mirror.

Or rather, on an unimaginably vast expanse of water, because their footsteps on the ground made the sound of water, yet there were no ripples to be seen.

Shen Jinxuan looked at the scene before her, tilted her head, dazed, her expression unconsciously cute. “I keep feeling like I’ve seen this somewhere before. Was it in a dream?”

Sean nodded, agreeing. “I also feel like I’ve seen it somewhere. It’s so familiar. I thought I was the only one having this illusion.”

Su Changxing gazed at the scene before him, lost in thought, also sensing a strange familiarity, as if he’d seen it somewhere before. This probably wasn’t a mere illusion, but something he had truly seen.

“Maybe, for some reason, our consciousness has formed a connection with this space, which is why it feels familiar.”