Chapter 239: I want to... spend more time with you...

"...!!" x6

"The meaning of negation, you might not understand yet."

Everyone suddenly froze.

And as the magical girl of memory, Amber was the first to react, her eyes losing focus for a moment: "How could this be..."

Looking at her eyes that had already understood, Lin Guang said calmly, "Mm."

"To completely negate something inevitably requires total oblivion. This is part of the ritual."

"If I choose to leave, then I won't remember any of you, or anything that happened."

The moment those words left her mouth, the entire white void fell into deathly silence.

Lin Guang slightly lowered her eyelids, looking at her own palm:

"Whether it's Kazenari Town, or every single one of you, or all the encounters, efforts, and promises we've shared."

"Everything, everything, I will forget. There will no longer be anyone who remembers that you ever existed."

"That would be equivalent to abandoning all of you."

"When that time comes, I'll merely be... a Witch King descending upon that world with no knowledge of anything at all."

The cherry-haired girl looked seriously at every girl before her and said softly, "But, I want to become a true magical girl."

Everyone stood rooted in place, their gazes violently wavering.

They suddenly felt like they were seeing the Mengmengxiang of the past once again.

That Mengmengxiang who had burned out and been reborn in the Misty Forest, who had lost all her memories, who regarded the entire world with the wariness of a hedgehog.

Back then, she had just descended into this world. She hadn't been this powerful, and she certainly hadn't possessed such a Domain, yet those cherry-red eyes were still so clear and stubborn, as if they had never changed from the very beginning.

They had simply assumed that as the victor, Mengmengxiang could peacefully leave this illusory world after everyone's happy ending and step into the vast reality beyond.

But it seemed they had never considered whether this cherry-haired girl was truly willing to accept that lonely existence filled with oblivion.

The girl before them had never lived in the outside world. She had never had any bonds there.

Perhaps at that time, she would possess power at its absolute peak. She would be revered as a deity, feared as the Witch King, commanding the winds and storms, looking down upon all living beings from on high.

All of this might be what countless people dreamed of, but... was this what she truly wanted?

No matter how powerful she became, after losing everything that proved her existence, she would merely be a lonely, ignorant girl, born anew upon another land of suffering.

Next time, would she meet people like them again?

And Lin Guang looked at them, her gaze unwavering from start to finish.

If Utopia was a game about to be cleared, then the game was now approaching its grand finale, with two paths laid out before her.

One.

After playing the beautiful CG cutscene, she could seamlessly unlock the sequel, but the price was having to format all the characters she'd obtained in the previous game, all her precious memories, and the entire play experience of the whole game.

Two.

Deleting the save file, yet preserving her memories, and achieving the true Good Ending and the true final ending.

So as a true high-end player, what should Lin Guang choose?

The answer was of course...

Two.

Because...

As a player, Lin Guang played games for the sake of happiness.

If she had to discard all the experiences, emotions, and memories she'd gone through along the way... then the act of playing the game itself would lose its meaning.

And besides, who could guarantee that the so-called sequel would be more fun than this first installment?

Lin Guang had played too many sequels that were a sorry continuation of a great work. She'd seen too many.

It would get tiresome, wouldn't it?

However, the next moment, Zi Han's tearful voice rang out with fury: "Mengmengxiang!"

"What in the world are you saying?! Are you trying to make us forget you?!"

"If that's the case, then even after we get out, we won't be able to remember your existence! If we forget, then everything becomes meaningless!!"

Phoenix cried out, "Absolutely not!!"

"Life has no inherent meaning, but as long as someone remembers you, it gains meaning!"

"But conversely, a life forgotten by everyone, remembered by no one, is completely meaningless!"

"I will never allow Mengmengxiang to become meaningless!!"

"..."

Amber looked at her sorrowfully, speaking word by word: "Mengmengxiang."

"Please don't do this, okay."

In their long years, though in different ways, both Phoenix and Amber had upheld the creed of never forgetting as the conviction that carried them forward.

They had recorded the existence of everyone who had entered this world, including the magical girls who had been worn away.

But if this truly came to pass, then there was only one person who couldn't be remembered.

That was Mengmengxiang herself, who had saved everything, accomplished the inconceivable miracle, and sent everyone out.

How... how tragic was this? And how could anyone possibly accept it?

"No."

Lin Guang shook her head and said seriously:

"Once you all get out and Kazenari Town can exist, that proves what I did was meaningful."

"But... but why does it have to be now?!"

Tang Keren gritted her teeth, tears streaming down her face: "Even if we have to face this, why can't we stay a little longer in the New World? Why can't we wait until we've reached the absolute limit before talking about this?!"

"There are so many things I want to do! And there's so, so much I want to say..."

"Why does it have to be like this..."

Her voice choked to the extreme: "I just want... to stay with you a little longer..."

"..."

Lin Guang was silent for a moment.

She looked down at her Soul Gem.

At this moment, the gem was shining brilliantly, radiating a blazing crimson light like fire.

"Because the Pride Domain carries its own instinct."

"It's not something kind or harmless. It's a Domain born from absorbing the suffering and despair accumulated over three thousand cycles, belonging to a Forbidden Species, a Witch King."

"This world, too, has been pushing for the completion of the ritual at every moment."

"I've merely been suppressing it all along."

"The opening of the New World is equivalent to that process of negation having already begun."

"So, a decision must be made before that."

"..."

Tears streamed uncontrollably from Su Fang's eyes, impossible to hold back any longer.

Those emerald-green eyes were so blurred by tears that she could barely see anything, yet she still stared motionlessly at that cherry-red figure.

Su Fang's voice had nearly fallen apart: "Senior..."

"So... from the very beginning..."

She couldn't continue.

But everyone understood what she meant.

In truth, after that battle had ended, the girl before them perhaps hadn't been familiarizing herself with her Domain.

She had merely been suppressing the arrival of that final day as best she could, savoring every last moment she spent with them. Nothing more.

She listened to everyone's final words, accepted every promise they made, and felt every emotion they conveyed.

And all of that only made her conviction even more unshakable.