Chapter 455: The Forgotten Plan |
On the summit of the Snow Mountain, the illusions of magma and molten fire had long since vanished. The fractured sky was whole again, seamless and pristine. As far as the eye could see, heaven and earth were a unified expanse of white, and on the mountain’s other side stretched a boundless glacier.
Fierce winds, driven by the stark temperature shifts between day and night, whipped up flurries of snow and shards of ice. A gray, hazy dust of frozen particles danced wildly in the air. Yet this place, the highest point on earth, reaching for the very heavens, was not lonely. Climbers, bent on conquering nature, were led by their guides, laboriously inching their way forward like snails in the footsteps of those who had come before.
Qi Si and Fu Jue sat on two raised snowdrifts, one on each side of the path, like silent, opposing sentinels. Overcome with boredom, they watched the endless procession of climbers pass by.
By some unknown mechanism, Xiao Fengchao and Chu Yining had managed to reconnect with the realm of reality. They had been escorted down the mountain by investigators who arrived later, leaving only Qi Si and Fu Jue on the summit.
Trapped in a parallel space, unable to interact with reality, they could only watch, never touch. The vast world seemed to have gone extinct, leaving them as the last two humans. If they wished for any interaction at all, they had no choice but to begrudgingly seek each other out.
When two people don't see eye to eye, even a single word can be too many. Qi Si had already considered himself thoroughly unlucky to be stuck with the three from the Ark Guild. Now, to be trapped alone with the impossibly stubborn Fu Jue, with whom communication was futile, was a new depth of misery.
He had to admit, fate must have a twisted sense of humor. It always found the most infuriating way to push him toward the most absurd and preposterous outcomes.
"Fu Jue, whether you want to keep sitting on this mountain getting blasted by the wind or go off and 'experience life' somewhere else, I think it's time we went our separate ways," Qi Si announced, hopping down from the snowdrift. He turned and started walking in the direction of Jiang City.
A four-thousand-kilometer journey was little more than a few days' walk for him in his current state. The trip would be mind-numbingly dull, of course. Coming all this way just to turn around and go all the way back seemed utterly pointless.
"I'm going back to Jiang City. As for my safety..." Qi Si paused and sighed. "Frankly, I think I'd rather die right now than spend another minute with someone so thoroughly marinated in collectivism and public decency."
Fu Jue replied earnestly, "Collectivism is one of the key strategies that allowed a species of weak individuals to endure throughout evolutionary history. Public order and decency are principles honed over millennia, proven to be the most suitable for human survival. Adhering to them is, in most cases, the rational choice..."
"Stop," Qi Si cut in. "You don't want me to start dredging up Lin Jue's dirty laundry, do you?"
Fu Jue seamlessly changed the subject. "After leaving the Snow Mountain, I will also choose to return to Jiang City. The city is unique, both historically and geographically. According to records, Jiang City has been the site of 1,724 supernatural incidents throughout its history..."
"I suggest you stay right here on the mountain." Qi Si stopped walking and turned to face Fu Jue, his expression serious. The excuse came to him instantly. "Remember when you picked up that piece of ice? You made a sound, and one of the climbers noticed.
"From that, we can deduce that your connection to reality has deepened since arriving here, just like with Chu Yining and Xiao Fengchao. By that same logic, if you just keep sitting on this summit like a statue, it's only a matter of time before you successfully return to the real world."
Qi Si's gaze was so earnest he looked as if he genuinely had Fu Jue's best interests at heart.
Fu Jue lowered his gaze, lost in thought. After a moment, he took a few steps back and settled onto the snowdrift once more.
His goal achieved, Qi Si turned with satisfaction to descend the mountain. He had only taken a few steps when a piercing shriek ripped through the air behind him, like monstrous claws tearing across the dome of the sky, or the agonized scream of an ancient ghost.
A cacophony of cracking, like shattering glass, echoed all around, as if some unseen behemoth were devouring the edges of the world. The sound bypassed flesh and bone to reverberate in his very soul, stirring an uncontrollable sense of agitation and dread.
A brilliant golden light flooded the space between heaven and earth. Qi Si whipped around to see the Snow Mountain cleaved in two at its peak. One side remained a world of transparent ice and white snow; the other had transformed into a raging sea of fire.
A dense web of cracks spread across half the sky, spilling orange-red beams of light onto the land below. Crimson and golden flames rained down like meteors. The spectral image of a black-and-white card materialized, enveloping the entire world, only to be snatched in the next instant by a pair of colossal hands.
The hands tightened, bit by bit. As if sensing its impending doom, the card let out a series of low, mournful cries. Everyone was compelled to look up, to witness this irreversible act of destruction.
Black and white fragments rained down from the heavens, transforming into black and white feathers as they fell. The phantom of a colossal black cross appeared, spanning the sky. It slowly righted itself from its inverted position, and the figure nailed upon it walked down, step by step, merging with Fu Jue.
At that, Fu Jue's form was completely consumed by light and shadow. His silhouette was haloed by a blinding overexposure that caused a phantom pain in the eyes of anyone who dared to look directly at him. He stood before the cross, his body visibly fading, dissolving into nothingness...
Qi Si stared at the golden-red sky for a long time. Only when the last of the phenomena had vanished, and the heavens and the glacier had returned to their pristine white, did he raise a finger and tap his chin.
"Could he have actually returned to reality? Interesting..."
The combination of the black-and-white card and the cross was all too familiar to Qi Si. It was undoubtedly the Fallen Savior identity card, which had once belonged to Fu Jue and later to Lin Jue.
At the end of the Final Instance, Lin Jue had used the power of the Dark Judge to pass judgment on himself before taking his own life. This act had allowed the other players in that timeline to escape the Snow Mountain.
Then, Fu Jue, who held the Fallen Savior identity card, activated its ability: *to resurrect the soul of the deceased within the holder's body*. He pulled Lin Jue back from the abyss and into the world of the living, trapping himself in the past in the process.
But now, the Fallen Savior identity card had been destroyed. Its effect naturally ceased, the soul of the deceased returning to the abyss, and the holder's body returning to its rightful owner.
Very few beings were capable of destroying an identity card. The most likely candidate, Qi Si calculated, was Lin Jue—and a Lin Jue who possessed god-level power.
"So, has he finally chosen to become a 'god'?" Qi Si mused. "To become a god, and then pull Fu Jue back into his own body... what is he trying to circumvent? Is there something that 'Lin Jue' cannot do, something that can only be accomplished by 'Fu Jue'?"
Qi Si's eyes narrowed to slits. A single word surfaced in his mind: "Contract."
He had a vague theory about what had happened in the 2035 timeline. In all likelihood, Lin Jue had achieved his grand ideal of saving the world, probably through some sort of self-sacrifice. Humanity, after thirty-six years of torment, had finally reached its happy ending... The mere thought of what might have transpired in that other timeline was enough to give Qi Si goosebumps. To think that while he was stranded in this godforsaken parallel world, ten billion people were living their so-called happy lives... It made him want to find Zhou Ke and demand to know how he had so thoroughly squandered the hand he'd been dealt.
Alright, so the hand he'd left wasn't exactly stacked, but with the Fate Pocket Watch, Zhou Ke could have reset the timeline multiple times. Surely he hadn't used up every single chance without a single success?
Or perhaps... something had happened that prevented items like the Fate Pocket Watch from being used at all?
Just as Si Qi was, for certain reasons, at an informational disadvantage compared to Qi Si, Qi Si's own understanding of Zhou Ke was equally lacking. He didn't even know that Zhou Ke had started going by the name "Si Qi."
——They were completely ignorant of the events in each other's worlds, forced to make vague, half-correct guesses based on the faintest of clues.
"By the looks of it, Zhou Ke must be dead," Qi Si muttered. "In the one gamble where I placed my unconditional trust in myself, I managed to lose everything. I suppose that's one way to prove the conclusion that 'even you can't trust yourself'..."
With a vacant expression, Qi Si crouched down and casually scooped up a handful of snow. He rolled it between his palms into a ball and set it on the ground to form a snowman's body. Then, he gathered a smaller handful to fashion its head.
A question suddenly struck him. "Wait a minute... why *did* I trust Zhou Ke unconditionally? Given my personality, even in the most desperate situation, I would never willingly surrender all control over the future. I would never tie my fate to another person—even if that person was myself.
"I would have definitely left myself some kind of failsafe, a way to regain control, just like I did in the 'Dialectic Game' instance. My failsafe then was a weapon. What would it be this time? No... did I even leave one? Why... can't I remember anything?"
Qi Si placed the smaller snowball on top of the larger one, setting it straight. He then drew two small blades from his custom bracelet and stuck them into the sides of the top ball, giving the snowman arms.
Suddenly, a trembling voice sounded from behind him. "Wh-where did that snowman come from? It wasn't there a second ago. It just... appeared in the blink of an eye..."
Qi Si rose to his feet without a word and took two steps to the side, glancing toward the source of the voice. A climber in an orange protective suit was staring, terrified, at the snowman he had just made.
Qi Si realized that he could now affect the real world, that people in reality could see him. Was it because Zhou Ke was dead?
Chu Yining, Xiao Fengchao, and now Fu Jue had all returned to reality. Did that mean he could go back as well—back to the 2035 timeline?
The logic was a tangled mess, and for the moment, Qi Si couldn't unravel a clear thread of cause and effect. But a strong feeling suddenly washed over him: Zhou Ke's death was part of his plan. It was a necessary step to prepare for his own return to reality.
And he had forgotten that plan—most likely, he had made himself forget it. Now, no matter how hard he wracked his brain, he couldn't grasp the slightest clue.
Still, Qi Si had faith in his ability to strategize. If he had made such a plan, he would have certainly set up a trigger—something that would, at the right moment, allow him to remember everything.
...
December 31, 2014. Fragrant City.
For the eleventh time, "Yuan" failed to activate the power of his Calamity High Priest identity card. The disaster he tried to create couldn't lock onto any population. The system prompt repeated itself over and over: *There are no living beings in this spacetime that can be drawn into a calamity.*
He drew in a breath and let it out, silently putting away his identity card. He stood on the top platform of the statue that served as the city's landmark, gazing down at the bustling metropolis below.
At this point in time, the Balance Church's influence wasn't nearly as entrenched as it would become twenty years later. On the surface, Fragrant City remained a glamorous commercial hub. As dusk fell, orange-hued lights flickered on one by one, illuminating overpasses, shopping districts, and skyscrapers. The entire city was adorned in light, as bright as day, a symphony of noise and prosperity.
Anyone who had lived through the changes of the coming decades would look back on this city's past and feel as if they were seeing another world entirely.
"I joined the Balance Church twenty-two years ago," Yuan said without warning. "It was shortly after the Twilight of the Gods."
Dong Xiwen had spent the last six months trailing this leader on his wild goose chases. His body was still standing here, but his mind had long since drifted off into space. The sudden comment made him blurt out a questioning, "Huh?" while he inwardly grumbled, *What's this humanoid ape up to now?*
Yuan didn't look at him, continuing in a reminiscent tone. "Thirty-six years ago, when the first players entered the Weird Game, the grand narrative of the Ark Guild overshadowed a number of forgotten pessimists. They didn't believe humanity could win. They were drawn to power, and once they realized gods and aberrations existed, they immediately began to worship these supernatural forces. After encountering a certain evil god, one whose status was equal to a main god's, they began to worship him with feverish piety, hoping for his favor.
"I used to think that was incredibly foolish. If that god created the Weird Game, he must be filled with malice toward humanity. How could anyone hope for mercy from the very architect of their suffering? But before the Twilight of the Gods, I met a god in an instance. It was then I learned of the Rules. Both gods and humans are bound by them. They are the source of all evil and suffering, and the gods despise them as much as we do."
Dong Xiwen cut in. "So you joined the Balance Church and started worshipping gods, too?"
"No. I have never worshipped any god." Yuan shook his head, his voice calm. "In that instance, I made a deal with a god. I didn't understand the terms of that deal back then. It wasn't until I arrived in this timeline that I finally glimpsed a corner of his grand design."
Dong Xiwen's gaze drifted. "And so you dragged me all over the place, trying to activate the Calamity High Priest card over and over again?"
"Because for a very long time, I had no intention of honoring that deal." Yuan stepped back from the edge of the platform and walked toward the spiral staircase. "As I've said, I don't trust any gods. I preferred to find my own way to ascend to that level, to see the rules for myself. I imagine He anticipated that, which is why He allowed me, driven by my own arrogant ambition, to come to this timeline so recklessly."
A sudden sense of foreboding washed over Dong Xiwen. He rubbed his nose. "So, what are we doing next?"
Yuan descended the stairs, his voice calm. "I have no other choice. I must go to Jiang City at the appointed time and fulfill the promise I made twenty-two years ago."