Chapter 1418: Glimpsing the Past |
"The terror came so savagely that every fear I'd ever felt in this absurd game, combined, paled against it.
I often asked myself: why me?
And now, I seem to have found the answer.
Ha.
Sometimes, there's only the thinnest paper screen between you and the truth. The instant you poke through it, you discover the truth was always this simple — always right beside you, unseen.
I saw it. And so I began revising my experimental design.
Since the time left to me was limited, there was no reason to wait for the Cheng Shi inside a single experiment to fail before resetting the whole thing. I could build more — identical experiments, running in parallel instead of in series, accelerating the exhaustive search!
I had enough raw materials to support this. And those materials wouldn't simply be consumed. Failed experiments could be recycled, their materials becoming the seedbed for the next round...
I didn't need to confine the experiment's temporal backdrop so narrowly either. Perhaps pushing the timeline further back — to the arrival of the Faith Game or even the dawn of the Void era — would generate changes that could alter the experiment's evolutionary trajectory.
But Change couldn't be unchecked either. My ultimate goal remained finding a road to the future. If every answer lay behind me, the experiment would have lost its purpose.
So experiments that strayed down dead ends should be accelerated toward collapse. Experiments that pointed toward Fixed Destiny's goal deserved protection.
And to protect the experiments that might yield results, I had to ensure the experimental environment was free of the slightest interference. Any variable — internal or external — that threatened to disrupt the experiment would be eliminated, until I obtained the answer I was looking for...
Sound familiar?
Do those words ring familiar?
Perhaps not to you. But they're devastatingly familiar to me.
Virtually everything I'd experienced and witnessed was mirrored in the experimental steps I just described. Granted, it was my experiences that guided me to this design. But when there are enough horrifying coincidences, I couldn't help but grapple with a question that filled me with dread:
Was Fixed Destiny in the process of becoming 'Origin'... or had Fixed Destiny always been Origin?!"
Cheng Shi snapped his head up. Bloodshot eyes stared straight at Wei Mu. He wanted to find an answer on the puppet's face — and feared finding it.
Wei Mu remained silent. He handled it perfectly: no affirmation, no denial, no comfort, no encouragement.
In that instant, the light left the puppet's eyes. He looked like a true puppet, staring blankly at Cheng Shi — as though his soul had departed his body and wandered far away.
Cheng Shi was trembling from head to toe. Fighting to suppress the shaking, his voice raw, he continued:
"The resemblance is too perfect. Truly too perfect.
The moment I stopped 'pitying' the Cheng Shi inside the experiment for the sake of my own future, I realized I had, in a sense, already drawn close to Him.
Approach and distance. Harmony and unity.
Every time I thought I understood what Time had told me, reality showed me that the truth He meant went far, far deeper.
So what am I doing...
Endlessly fabricating new experiments, endlessly distorting the present's time, using my own heartlessness and the ruin of countless lives to chase an answer that will never come?!
And yet I've already guessed the answer."
Cheng Shi let his arms fall limp. A wretched laugh escaped him. "Folly truly was the Universe's supreme intellect. He was right. This world never had an answer.
I thought I could foresee the future. Now it feels as though I've glimpsed the past instead.
But that isn't even the most helpless part. What leaves me powerless is that Deceit may have guessed everything long ago.
He knew far more than I did, in far greater detail. Countless pieces of evidence pointed to the strong probability that Origin was Fixed Destiny's archetype. Even if He'd never entertained the hypothesis before, after the Audience Meeting...
It was at the Audience Meeting that the idea of the experiment first occurred to me.
He peered into my heart with the truth of Fate. He would have connected every dot — and realized that the so-called Fixed Destiny was nothing more than the ruthlessness Origin had shed in order to find a way out.
Then how would He see me? How would the Fear Faction see me? How would the friends who walked beside me, who still looked to the future with hope — how would they see me?!
How am I supposed to tell them that I, Cheng Shi, might very well be the Origin they despise!
That I am the one who made all of this with my own hands!
All of it is my fault!
Every fall, every departure — because of me!
How do I tell them?!
How do I say it..."
Cheng Shi broke down into sobs. Even as the Pact's Proxy — the most powerful voice in the Universe — in this moment he was as helpless as a child.
Wei Mu should have stayed silent. But faced with this, even someone whose very foundation was wisdom and reason was moved.
He knew he had to say something — pull the Universe's Fixed Destiny back from the brink of destruction. Otherwise, if the collapse continued unchecked, everyone's efforts in this era would turn to dust.
They would become one of the Creator's experiments that had strayed off course — even though the experiment was one step from its conclusion.
The Universe might have no answer. But the beings living beneath it did.
A cry hurled from within an inescapable cage — that was the most resolute answer they could give.
The little puppet drew close to Cheng Shi, reached out a wooden arm, and patted him on the head with a smile:
"What comes next will be a foolish act.
Folly hated foolish acts. But I am not Folly.
I can't advise you on your situation. Let me talk about myself instead.
If the world learned the truth about Folly's Authority, Wei Mu's halo would probably shatter before their eyes.
They'd think the only reason Wei Mu climbed this high was by riding on Folly's Authority — not through mortal wisdom.
To which...
I have no objection.
I cannot choose whether I am Folly's Authority. I can only say that before I knew the truth, every hypothesis, every deduction, every decision I made came from my own heart.
That has nothing to do with whether I am Folly's Authority. It's simply because I am Wei Mu.
Granted, I cannot deny that Folly's Authority may have influenced me in every way and given me countless advantages without my knowing. But what I want to say is this:
To use unknowingly is no sin. To know and refuse to use — that is the foolish act.
The identity of Folly's Authority may be my 'stain.' But it is equally my 'weapon.'
Making full use of every tool at your disposal — that is true wisdom.
Without all of this, at the very least, today, here, I would not be meeting a Lord Yu Xi who is brimming with feeling for this world.
Those feelings may have few anchors — but they are firm."
The puppet withdrew his hand and stepped back, a trace of wistfulness crossing his features:
"Courage will never be hidden by confusion. Because confusion is fleeting, and courage is eternal.
Deceit sheltered you well. Unfortunately... He wasn't very kind to Himself."
"..."
The words hit Cheng Shi like a physical blow. He trembled violently and clenched his fists until they turned white.
'Right. If the Universe has no answer, then what answer did Deceit go to the Real Universe to find?'
Wei Mu wasn't sure whether Cheng Shi grasped his meaning, but he knew the man needed a moment to compose himself. So he fell silent once more.
Cheng Shi said nothing for a long time, gasping for breath. After a while, the trembling gradually steadied.
He clenched both fists and stood upright again. A flash of resolve crossed his eyes. Looking at the little puppet before him, his face an unknowable mix of emotions, he said:
"I'm sorry..."
Wei Mu smiled.
'Perhaps this is Fixed Destiny's greatest charm — he can bind anything and anyone to walk alongside him.'
'But what a pity. There's no place for me on the road ahead.'
"You don't need to apologize to me. A curtain has always been the screen that separates the stage from the audience — not one of the actors on it.
When needed, the curtain falls. When not needed, the curtain rises.
Now I have committed a foolish act, and I must face the same charge He did.
Farewell, Lord Yu Xi.
Don't feel sorrow at my departure. I will be waiting in another world — for your answer."
With that, the little puppet closed his eyes. His mechanical body stiffened in an instant — and at the very same moment, a pale-white radiance drifted up from the position of the puppet's heart, floating gently toward Cheng Shi and hovering above his head.
Folly's Authority had returned.
And yet, within the Authority... there was still no answer.
...