Chapter 428: Lin Jue (Ending One: Dislocated Spacetime) |
"The sky won't be getting light anytime soon, I imagine." Lin Jue leaned against a wall of ice, his gaze drifting up toward the vast, black expanse above.
The long night was starless and moonless. The oppressive sky and the rolling snow-capped mountains merged into a single, seamless canvas of black, so dense that not even a sliver of light could penetrate it. It felt like the darkest moment in a million years, a landscape so absolute in its gloom that it seemed to swallow souls, making it impossible to tell who among them was human and who was a ghost.
Fu Jue stood before Lin Jue and asked, his voice strained, "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I imagine you've already guessed. I'm going to die today." Lin Jue's voice was perfectly calm, as still and cold as a lake frozen in the heart of a glacier.
He paused for a moment, his words crisp and clear. "For people like us, this Final Instance was always an unwinnable scenario—a dead end. Fortunately, I hold the [Dark Judge] identity card, which gives me a chance to carve out a sliver of hope from this hopeless situation. If I do nothing, we all remain trapped here indefinitely. A highly inefficient option. But if I trade my life for everyone else's survival, it aligns with utilitarian principles."
The color drained from Fu Jue's face. He opened his mouth to protest, but Lin Jue silenced him with a raised hand.
The young man in the white suit gave a faint smile and continued, "The reason I sought you out before the end is because I've foreseen a part of the future. Someone told me that after my death, you will activate the power of your [Fallen Savior] card to resurrect me in your body. Is that correct?
He didn't wait for an answer, continuing as if talking to himself. "Frankly, I didn't need anyone to tell me. I understand how you operate; a conclusion like that was to be expected. And my choice to die, knowing full well what you would do, could be seen as its own form of selfishness—arrogantly incorporating your death into my plans. I'm telling you this now out of a desire for transparency. Perhaps you'll want to reconsider the choice you're about to make."
"You're not selfish," Fu Jue said, meeting Lin Jue's gaze. He spoke each word with conviction. "The Ark Guild's principle was never to cling to life or shy away from danger. Some sacrifices are necessary."
"But, sir..."
"Fu Jue, time is short. And in these final moments, I have one last thing to ask of you." Lin Jue lifted his wrist to check his pocket watch, a flicker of emotion finally coloring his tone. "After I'm gone, I fear the Ark Guild will fall apart. No matter which path you choose, don't let it be buried with me."
...
Not far away, Zhang Hongbin sat slumped on the ice, his gaze fixed on Lin Jue and Fu Jue in the distance.
All of them who had come from the Ark Guild held a special reverence for Lin Jue. He was the leader who had stepped forward to restore order back when they were new players, blundering through instances like headless chickens. He was the one who had led them out of one deadly trial after another, the player best suited to this twisted game, the one who helped them escape the clutches of countless horrors. For the longest time, he had been their hope—the one they believed would end the Weird Game and save them all.
And now, though no one spoke of it, the reality of their situation was clear. Their exploration of the Final Instance was on the brink of failure. The path that relied on Lin Jue could not lead to a happy ending, which meant he would have to trade his life for theirs. Whether it was self-destruction in the face of shattered ideals or a sacrifice to preserve the flame of hope for the rest of them, the conclusion was the same: he was going to die.
A bitter feeling settled in Zhang Hongbin's stomach, yet he could see no way out of this impasse. He cursed his own weakness. He had thought his high rank meant he could finally stand on his own two feet, but in the end, he still had to depend on Lin Jue's sacrifice.
What about stopping Lin Jue? Finding another way through? The words died on his lips before he could speak them. He had to admit it: he desperately wanted to live. He had a reason he had to make it out of the Final Instance alive, even if it cost Lin Jue his life.
The moment Lin Jue had proposed the plan, a secret, shameful relief had blossomed deep inside him. *It's fine,* a voice had whispered. *Lin Jue will save everyone again. I don't have to die.*
It was a disgraceful thought, but not an unforgivable one. He had a wife he loved waiting for him to come home, he thought. His daughter was still so young. She couldn't grow up without a father...
"Excuse me... can I ask you something?" A young woman's voice sounded from behind him. Zhang Hongbin turned to see a girl who looked like a college student standing just behind and to his right, looking hesitant.
He remembered this girl. Her surname was also Zhang, a namesake. She was clearly with Zhou Ke's group, yet for some reason, she'd been sticking close to him. Perhaps Zhou Ke had told her to keep an eye on him.
The thought felt unlikely as soon as it crossed his mind; the girl's face seemed too open and kind for that. A jumble of conflicting ideas churned in his head, and for a moment he couldn't decide which to believe.
"What is it?" Zhang Hongbin asked.
The girl glanced around furtively before asking in a low voice, "Do you... by any chance, have a daughter named Zhang Yiyu?"
A cold dread snaked its way up Zhang Hongbin's spine. *How could she possibly know that?* Had they investigated him? But how? They were inside the Final Instance. What kind of incredible power would it take to dig up his real-world identity from in here?
The girl seemed to guess his thoughts. She took a deep breath and said timidly, "My name is Zhang Yiyu. I'm from the year 2035. I was just thinking... is it possible that..."
Zhang Yiyu didn't finish, but Zhang Hongbin understood. The players were all from different timelines. Theoretically, it was entirely possible he could meet his own daughter here.
But on an emotional level, he refused to believe it. Wasn't it enough that he'd been dragged into this nightmare? Why did his daughter have to be a part of it too?
Besides, if his daughter were a player, she would have grown up hearing and seeing things related to the Weird Game. He, as her father, would have taught her everything he knew. How could she be so unprepared?
Zhang Hongbin seized on this inconsistency, and the worst possible conclusion immediately formed in his mind. "In your timeline," he asked, his voice low, "am I already dead?"
Zhang Yiyu gave a small nod, her voice dropping as if recalling a painful memory. "Yes. When I was two, you said goodbye to Mom and me, and you walked out the door... and died in a car accident. We were heartbroken. We missed you so much..."
Listening to the girl's tearful story, Zhang Hongbin was hit with too much information at once to process it all. But one sharp, terrifying thought cut through the haze: if he died in the end anyway, didn't that mean Lin Jue's sacrifice was all for nothing?
He scrambled to his feet and lunged toward Lin Jue, but he was too late. The young man plunged a dagger into his own chest with both hands. A flower of brilliant crimson bloomed across the pristine white suit, spreading like a sunset.
A phantom of a judge with golden eyes and black robes materialized between heaven and earth, roiling black mist swirling at its feet. The pages of a great book of laws fluttered wildly before settling on a specific chapter.
Lin Jue's form abruptly disintegrated, the edges fraying into a shower of white feathers. The judge lowered its gaze and descended an unseen staircase, its spectral form expanding to fill the sky.
[JUDGMENT COMPLETE... SENTENCING SINNER LIN JUE TO EXECUTION]
The black cross above Lin Jue's head shattered into pieces. A gleaming identity card emerged from his chest and drifted slowly toward the heavens, followed by a line of silver text: [IDENTITY CARD "DARK JUDGE" HAS BEEN RECLAIMED].
At the same moment, a system announcement echoed in the minds of every player:
[MAIN QUEST: "KILL LIN JUE" COMPLETE]
[CONGRATULATIONS, PLAYERS. YOU HAVE CLEARED THE FINAL INSTANCE.]
*What... what just happened? Did we really just clear the instance... that easily?*
The Final Instance was over. The Weird Game was shutting down. Lin Jue, with his sacrifice, had saved them all once again. It seemed like the perfect ending.
Yet Zhang Hongbin felt an indescribable unease, a suffocating weight in his chest like being wrapped in layers of waterlogged cotton.
He instinctively glanced at Zhang Yiyu beside him. She, in turn, was looking toward where Zhou Ke had been, her eyes scanning the area for something.
A few seconds later, her eyes widened in alarm. "Where... where did Zhou Ke go? When did he disappear? Oh, this is bad. That Humanoid Evil took off on his own. There has to be a trap, doesn't there?"
...
After stepping through the mirror, all pain and discomfort vanished. His body felt weightless, as if suspended in warm water, drifting through a boundless void.
Qi Si moved forward, flanked by a whirlwind of flickering phantoms. Figures in ancient robes, faces from foreign lands, men, women, the old, the young... thousands upon thousands of faces materialized and dissolved, turning into motes of light that merged back into the void as he approached.
Everything was peaceful and silent, a serene acceptance of death. It was a farewell to destinies both tragic and beautiful, a merging into the greater fabric of spacetime. Where did the universe begin? Where would it all end? When viewed from the cosmic scale, the joys and sorrows, the very life and death of an entire species, seemed utterly insignificant.
Qi Si walked for a time, then paused to rest. The dark expanse wasn't completely devoid of light; it was studded with brilliant, multicolored stars that blossomed into the shapes of chess pieces, crosses, and feathers as he moved among them.
A grand, ancient temple rose from amidst the symbolic phantoms. Further on, he saw a colossal arena, a quaint town, a fog-shrouded hospital, an old school, a scarlet theater...
A figure in a white suit approached him. A large bloodstain spread across his chest, but the young man's face was gentle and composed, his eyes clear.
Upon seeing Qi Si, the young man started slightly, then spoke to himself with an air of sudden understanding. "I've often had a feeling lately... that from birth to death, everyone is a prisoner of fate. An individual's choice, when set against the vastness of spacetime, is like an ant trying to shake a tree. We can never truly change anything. It's just as it is destined that someone must die; the only difference is who gets put in that position."
Qi Si stopped and studied the young man. He'd seen him before, in a video played at a guild conference in the Sunset Ruins. He smiled. "Lin Jue. A pleasure to finally meet you. To be honest, I've never understood why people like you get so tangled up in simple problems. It's biological instinct to ensure your own survival, to let others die in your place. That's the choice most people would make, isn't it? If 'I' no longer exist, what reason is there for the world to exist at all?
"But if you have something to say to me, perhaps you could be more direct. After all, in another timeline, you and I did reach a... cooperative arrangement."
"And I, in turn, cannot comprehend extreme egoism and pure malice," Lin Jue replied, shaking his head slightly. "I'm already dead. Any words I leave behind are merely the ramblings of a man out of time. I was just wondering... you knew I would die, and I knew my death would be for nothing. Does that mean our fates were sealed from the start? That no matter the detours, we were always destined to converge at the same point?"
The words seemed to carry a hidden warning. Qi Si narrowed his eyes, realizing he had somehow wandered into a manor overrun with wild roses. Cold vines snaked around his ankles as a torrential rain began to fall, freezing into ice and snow just before it hit the ground.
He snapped his head up, and the world around him instantly crumbled into dust. Then, just as quickly, it reassembled into the starless, moonless night and the endless glacier.
Zhang Yiyu and Dong Xiwen, who were standing nearby, nearly jumped out of their skin. "Holy crap!" Dong Xiwen exclaimed. "Zhou Ke, where did you come from?"
Qi Si remained silent. The familiar system interface materialized in the upper-left corner of his vision, flickering to life like a rebooted screen. Lines of text began to scroll into view:
[JUDGMENT COMPLETE... SENTENCING SINNER LIN JUE TO EXECUTION]
[IDENTITY CARD "DARK JUDGE" HAS BEEN RECLAIMED]
[MAIN QUEST: "KILL LIN JUE" COMPLETE]
[CONGRATULATIONS, PLAYERS. YOU HAVE CLEARED THE FINAL INSTANCE.]
[AUTOMATIC TELEPORTATION IN THREE MINUTES.]
It was over. As unbelievable as it was, the story of the Weird Game had apparently come to an end. By swapping places with Zhou Ke, he had returned to a past timeline and cleared the Final Instance. And according to everything they'd been told, that meant the Weird Game would now shut down for good.
But... was it really that simple? Qi Si mulled over Lin Jue's final words, unable to decide if they were a genuine warning or merely fearmongering.
He tilted his head and waited patiently. His vision dimmed, inch by inch, until it was plunged into darkness. Then, a moment later, a sliver of light appeared.
"Egg-filled flatbread, hot off the griddle!"
"Say goodbye to 2013 and hello to 2014! Citizens marked the final night of the year with dazzling fireworks and joyous chimes, ringing in a new year full of hope..."
"Hey, Auntie Lan, did you hear? A building over in the Near River District is supposed to be haunted..."
The calls of street vendors, the drone of a news broadcast, and the murmur of idle chatter blended into a chaotic symphony of city life. The vibrant energy of the marketplace washed over him as crowds bustled past, with Qi Si standing motionless at the center of it all.
He had returned to January 1st, 2014. Before him stood a familiar breakfast stall. The owner, face gleaming with sweat and oil, worked the griddle with a spatula while his wife sat beside him, calling out to passersby as she nursed a baby.
Qi Si strolled over and said with a smile, "Two egg flatbreads, no sausage."
"You got it!" the owner replied, slapping a round of dough onto the griddle. He then grabbed a sausage and tossed it onto the flatbread with a sizzle.
*Does no one listen?* Qi Si's eyebrow twitched. He repeated, "No sausage."
The owner ignored him, deftly wrapping the flatbread, slipping it into a plastic bag, and holding it out. His hand passed straight through Qi Si's body as if it were empty air.
Qi Si glanced behind him. A middle-aged man was reaching out, taking the bag with a smile and a word of thanks. There was no reflection of Qi Si in the man's eyes.
He reached out to touch the man, but his fingers passed through him just as easily. He was a ghost. A phantom. They couldn't see him, couldn't feel him, couldn't perceive his existence in any way.
The morning market was always a riot of life. Grandmothers with shopping baskets barreled through the crowds, vendors shouted their daily specials, and the clatter of spatulas on hot pans filled the air. The scene was overwhelmingly vibrant, but none of that vibrancy was for him.
He tried to touch the ingredients on a table, but his hand met no resistance. He tried to touch a wall, and his fingers passed through the solid brick. It was as if he existed on a different plane from the rest of the world; whenever they occupied the same space, they simply passed through one another.
This was becoming rather troublesome. While Qi Si was adept at entertaining himself, a one-man show could get terribly dull. He couldn't even play a game on a phone, let alone kill an innocent bystander for a bit of amusement. A truly pathetic state of affairs.
"Am I still in the instance? Is this a bug? Or... some kind of new mechanic?" For the first time in a long while, a sliver of cold apprehension touched Qi Si's heart. It was a fleeting sensation.
Today was January 1st, 2014—the day he had been born, twenty-two years ago. He was the incarnation of Qi, a spirit cast into the mortal world. On a day of such significance, "He" was certain to appear.
—As long as he could see Qi, he would have a way to break this deadlock.
Qi Si dredged his long memory, sifting through fragments of conversation for the information he needed. His parents had mentioned the hospital where he was born. Now, he set off toward his destination.
In his current state, he felt no fatigue. He covered the dozen or so kilometers with ease and ascended to the floor with the surgical ward.
A faint scarlet glow flickered in the void, imperceptible to human eyes. A long-haired figure in red robes stood outside a door, a pale, faint smile gracing its lips.
Qi Si approached, a smile on his face as he looked at the figure. "Qi. We meet again. Perhaps we could chat about the Final Instance."
There was no response. Qi stared straight ahead, seemingly oblivious to his presence.
Qi Si reached out to touch Qi, but his fingers passed through the crimson form without causing so much as a ripple.
His smile vanished. For the first time in a long, long while, he felt fear. It was the isolating terror of a tiny creature lost in the vastness of the cosmos, the feeling of being the last intelligent life form in existence.
Right here, right now, he had become a prisoner trapped in a bygone era. A man who no longer existed.
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