Chapter 451 - 393: Brianna: Threading the Needle, Birth, Returning Home (2)

Chapter 451: Chapter 393: Brianna: Threading the Needle, Birth, Returning Home (2)

"Did I say that?" the Host’s voice rang out inside the car. "Love, not love... that sort of thing is so boring. To be honest, the thought of couples kissing and hugging is a little disgusting."

Brianna wasn’t angry—she was just stunned.

"I don’t care at all, let alone go out of my way to let her see you." The Host paused, then suddenly said, "Ah. But you’ve reminded me of something. There’s an important procedure we haven’t gotten to yet. And it has, more or less, something to do with your Morando."

"...What?"

The car’s engine started quietly. The indicator lights, the numbers on the display screen, and the headlights all came on at once, as if carving out a small mineshaft from the pitch-black storm.

The Host chuckled softly. "I know of an Illusion that not only allows people to see history, but even lets them reach in and change the past."

Brianna knew he was just getting started.

"What would you think if I told you that the timeline you’re currently in is, in fact, a new one that I created by changing history?"

"What did you change?" Brianna asked.

"You know what," the Host said with a smile. "I’m about to start today’s broadcast. Are you ready?"

’What? What is he—’

"Welcome to Nest 173 Radio. You’re listening to ’A Virtual Guide to the Infinite Illusion Realm,’ and I’m your Host," the Host said in a low voice. "Today is December 5th, 2026. We have a special guest on our show today, and her name is Brianna."

Brianna leaned against the seat, motionless. For a moment, a cold dread filled her stomach.

The car started moving, making a slow, silent turn in the rainy night. The headlights swept across a simple board fence—and as the beam flashed past, it illuminated a portrait on the wall.

It seemed to be a painting of a worker in jeans. The figure had its back to the construction site, peering out through a crack in the fence. As the car drove on, the portrait sank back into the darkness.

"In the last timeline, you took the radio, and Morando discovered you were still alive."

As if he could barely stand to do it, the Host twisted the knife with every word. "Do you know how she reacted? She saw what you looked like and knew you’d been in contact with Jin Xueli. She’s so clever, she understood your plan immediately. At that moment, she said—"

"Shut up!"

And so, on the night of December 5th, Brianna shouted the exact same words that, back on December 2nd, she had heard herself shout.

"For the sake of our listeners, could you please tell us what you originally planned to do with the radio on December 2nd, after you took it?"

’So that’s how it was.’

’The Host had used some unknown method to edit this conversation, send it back in time, and play it for my past self on December 2nd.’

’That was the only way to keep me from taking the radio three days ago.’

"Why didn’t you just threaten me not to take it?"

Brianna’s voice grew thick. She remembered that conversation between Morando and Jin Xueli. She imagined how close they must have been, their fingers briefly touching as they reached for a beer—she was so lost in the thought that she didn’t even realize the words tumbling from her lips were the exact same ones from the broadcast three days ago.

...It was like a cruel, absurd comedy that had already been written, and she had no choice but to play her part, step by step.

Brianna’s voice rang out, spanning the three-day gap between the Nest and the human world, finishing the prescribed lines—even as her mind grew hazy, not even knowing what she was saying.

It didn’t matter. Whatever she said, they were the same words she had heard back then.

"Your original goal was to win control, use the Nest’s power to completely transform into Jin Xueli, and then shut down the Nest, wasn’t it?" the Host asked.

’Huh?’

’That’s right, I had the same question back then—’

"Why do you say ’original’ goal?" Brianna immediately asked.

"No reason. Just confirming," the Host said with a smile.

Brianna’s heart started to pound—assuming she still had a heart. She always pretended she still had human organs.

She remembered that the last time she’d heard this broadcast, it had ended right after the Host said that.

The December 2nd broadcast had ended there. But now, on December 5th, the Host hadn’t vanished. He was still on the car radio.

"What do you mean?" Brianna pressed. "Why did you need to confirm that?"

The Host seemed to think for a few seconds.

"Turn around and look behind you," he said in a low voice. "Don’t move. Just keep watching... It’s about to start."

Brianna twisted around, leaning over the seat to stare intently out the rear window at the wind and rain in the darkness.

The part of her body that remained outside the car stretched out long behind it, like a dark white umbilical cord trailing the vehicle.

The other end of the cord was connected to the darkness she had crawled out of, to the massive, gaping hole in the residential building.

Brianna felt as if she’d been plunged into a dream, unable to wake up, unable to move.

The car drove farther and farther away, the construction site and the residential building shrinking in the distance. Just when she was beginning to suspect the Host was wrong and that nothing was going to happen, it began.

As if it could no longer withstand the pull, the residential building began to bend, dragged down little by little by the umbilical cord.

In the hazy blur of the rainy night, the bricks crumbling from its frame looked like softly scattering dust. Soon, it was snapped in half and collapsed.

It was like a starting signal.

One after another, the surrounding buildings cracked and crumbled, collapsing in successive waves that crashed to the ground, smashing the construction site’s fence before sinking heavily into the depths of the night.

"...See?" the Host asked softly, his voice trembling faintly, as if he were holding something back. "The human world is starting to collapse from the rupture... The Black Abyss Belt is being squeezed in."

Even though the buildings had collapsed, the black mist connected to the umbilical cord still floated in the storm between heaven and earth, growing larger and larger.

Brianna had so many questions, but she couldn’t make a sound.

"I told you, the Black Abyss Belt should really be called the Isolation Belt. It lies between the human world and the Nest. Even if a hole tears open in the human world, the Nest can’t get in."

’...Wait, the "Nest" can’t get in?’

’He—he doesn’t just want to let the residents in? He wants to let the Nest itself—’

"This problem has been blocking my path for so long. I just couldn’t find a solution."

The Host laughed, the sound like a trembling sigh. "Until one day, I found you... the most precious resident in the entire Nest, as far as I’m concerned."

"One end of you is in the Nest, but the other is in the human world. The Black Abyss Belt is helpless against you, because your mind, your consciousness, is clearly and firmly in the human world. Even the part of you that passes through the Black Abyss Belt won’t dissipate."

"You have finally connected the Nest and the human world."

"Connected them for real. In a physical sense."

"The Nest can enter now... The Nest is following you, entering the human world little by little. The Black Abyss Belt has nowhere to go, so it too is being squeezed in... Do you understand now?"

"You are my most precious ’line.’"

The Host let out a long, satisfied sigh. "I threaded you through the rupture... and sutured the human world and the Nest together."

He was not at all surprised by Brianna’s stunned silence.

In the night filled with storms and black rain, his voice was like a sleeptalker’s mumbling.

"Now... I can go home."