Chapter 362 - 359: A Brand New Future

Chapter 362: Chapter 359: A Brand New Future

Si Yang looked up at the ray of sunlight and sighed.

"I never thought someone would actually crawl out of a Hell Beast’s nest and return my memories to me."

The Machine followed its gaze toward the square opening.

"I’ve never seen a future like this, either. Everything is brand new..."

The two of them stared at the opening, a glimmer in their eyes.

The beam of light connected the two layers of the dome, casting a warm glow upon the ground. The smoke and dust from the battle had yet to settle, black motes drifting through the sunlight before scattering into the distance.

Only Li Luo walked over to Block, patting it gently.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

Reading the word on the digital screen, Li Luo let out a sigh of relief.

The moment she had taken off the black cloth and seen the hole in the white dome, she knew Block was responsible.

Hell Island was fraught with peril. It was only thanks to Block that she had remained completely unscathed.

Li Luo looked at Block and said earnestly, "Thank you."

Then, she lowered her head and asked quietly, "You must have seen them, right? My memories..."

Block quivered in affirmation.

Seeing this, Li Luo sighed. Her face filled with desolation, and she seemed to get lost in her memories once more.

Just then, the digital screen appeared again on top of Block.

Li Luo quickly looked. A line of text was written on it:

"Hush money: one bottle of coke."

Staring at the line of text, Li Luo froze for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.

She quickly pulled a bottle of coke from her bag and placed it on Block, and the bottle promptly vanished...

After this little interlude, Li Luo’s mood improved considerably.

Regaining lost memories wasn’t something one could easily move on from. The anguish that was hers and hers alone washed over her like a tide, and painful images constantly flashed before her eyes.

Although Li Luo did her best not to show it, the more she tried to suppress them, the more turbulent the memories became.

Sometimes, she even found herself thinking, ’Would it have been better if I’d never gotten these memories back?’

But looking at the Block before her, she cast the thought aside.

Just as Si Yang had said, her suffering wasn’t just a memory; it was a part of what made her who she was.

Those painful memories were also the reason she had always wanted to go to the Bottom of the Abyss.

She couldn’t lose that reason.

At this thought, she gently patted the Block before her again.

"Thank you, my lucky Block..."

...

Meanwhile, the Machine and Si Yang were still staring blankly at the opening in the dome.

"You’re not going to repair this hole this time," the Machine stated flatly.

Si Yang nodded. "The future you saw was correct this time."

"I’ve been wrong so many times."

It had been wrong so many times that the Machine was beginning to lose confidence in its own calculations.

"May I ask why? Though I can see the future, I can’t see into your heart."

"Of course," Si Yang said with a nod.

"Paradise Island probably won’t last much longer. Even the strongest structures eventually collapse."

"Those whitelight stones have run out of energy... Their light used to last the entire night, but now it only holds for a short time."

"You must know, right? Those little critters escaped a long time ago. They carry human suffering back to their nests and store it, nibbling on it bit by bit, just like ants."

"As a Guardian, I’ve long been derelict in my duties. It’s just that Paradise Island has been interfering with my thoughts, preventing me from realizing it."

At this, Si Yang spread its hands helplessly.

It gazed at the vast dome and sighed. "Perhaps in the near future, once these whitelight stones completely fail, this structure will lose its original function, and Paradise Island will be retired, its purpose served."

"You can see Paradise Island’s future, can’t you?" it asked the Machine, looking over with curiosity.

"I can," the Machine confirmed with a nod.

"What will it be like? Overgrown with weeds, completely forgotten?" Si Yang was not optimistic about Paradise Island’s future. "Whitelight stone is a non-renewable, scarce material that’s difficult to repair. Paradise Island will slowly fall into ruin, won’t it?"

Now, even its own creator was worried about Paradise Island’s future.

"Some functions must already be failing. The memory-correction function, for example. The false memories seem to be getting shoddier and shoddier; it’s becoming easy for people to notice something is wrong."

"Also, the fact that the hypnosis function now has to be activated at night shows that Paradise Island can no longer mask the influence of the Hell Beasts and has to resort to such drastic measures."

"These are all precursors to Paradise Island’s collapse. When the whitelight stones’ energy is depleted, this island will become nothing more than a useless ornament."

Si Yang shook its head in regret as it spoke.

"Collapse is the fate of every structure."

The Machine listened in silence, saying nothing.

But this only made Si Yang more curious.

"So what is the future you saw for Paradise Island?" it finally asked, unable to contain its curiosity any longer.

The Machine looked at it and shook its head.

"I can’t say."

"Why not?" Si Yang was taken aback.

"Because in the future I saw, I don’t."

"Why don’t you try saying it? Maybe the future will change," Si Yang coaxed.

"It won’t work. I can’t say it. You may find this hard to understand, but the future is a straight road with no forks. On this path, there are no other choices."

"You must be familiar with human novels. Every character in them has their path planned out. What they’ll say next, what they’ll do next—it’s all been set in advance. They can only follow the text, word by word."

"What we call ’time’ is nothing more than the pages of that book, an illusory sensation. You think you can change the future, but in reality, the future is already set, written out clearly on the very next page."

"If it’s not written in the book, I won’t do it. It’s useless for me to struggle, because my struggle is also written in the book. It’s already been determined. No matter what, I will not say it."

Si Yang had never imagined the Machine’s explanation could be so utterly hopeless.

"If you can’t change the future, what’s the use of knowing it?" it asked in confusion.

"To advance the plot," the Machine said calmly. "The novel needs a character like me who can see the future. Without me, the story can’t progress."

Listening to the Machine’s explanation, Si Yang felt increasingly unnerved. In all its travels across the world, it had never encountered such a being, nor had it ever heard such a bizarre philosophy.

"But didn’t you say you saw a brand new future?" it pressed.

"Not necessarily." The Machine paused to think, its gaze shifting to Block in the distance.

Its tone was as placid as ever, but its words sent a chill down Si Yang’s spine:

"What if this ’brand new future’... was also determined from the very beginning?"