Chapter 387 |
All around, ethereal blue code fragments still drifted through the air.
They were like a swarm of homeless fireflies, floating and sinking in this void that seemed stripped from reality itself...
Some brushed past Fang Qi's hair, others skimmed the hem of Liguang's dress, and a few swirled around their feet...
Biting into the metal floor, bit by bit, devouring it into pitch-black nothingness!
Fang Qi stared blankly at Gu Xi.
...What did she just say?
He had stolen...
What?
Rules?
Me?
Wasn't I just...
a guy who played galgames?
Her hand was gripping his tightly.
The force was so intense it felt like it might crush the bones in his hand!
He could feel the faint tremble in her palm.
She was using every ounce of her strength to hold something back!
And as for him...
He had no memory of that.
He hadn't even known that Gu Xi was his "trusted deputy" from childhood until he read it in that notebook just minutes ago!
But now Gu Xi was telling him...
He wasn't an innocent traveler who had been dragged into this world. He was...
someone who had done something deliberately?
He had "stolen" something for the original inhabitants of this world?
And that thing...
He lifted his head again, staring dazedly at Gu Xi.
That stream of blue code still poured endlessly from her eyes,
dissolving this room.
Consuming her emotions.
"...Ha."
Gu Xi was still smiling. A faint smile.
Now, it seemed to be the only expression she had left.
Like a muscle memory or some kind of... residual instinct.
"It's just a pity..."
Her voice was utterly calm.
"This method can only be used once."
She lifted her head slightly, her light brown eyes, now nearly hollow, met Fang Qi's again.
The stream of blue data still spilled from the corners of her eyes. Like tears. Drifting into the air.
"Fang Qi."
Her lashes fluttered faintly, and her voice seemed to carry a trace of...
a faint, faint bitterness.
"I... am going to become like them, too."
"This is..."
Her voice had gone completely flat.
"My last time helping you."
Fang Qi opened his mouth but found he couldn't say a word.
In this world slowly being swallowed by code, his vision quivered. He...
"Fang Qi...!"
Gu Xi's voice suddenly rose!
Her gaze was struggling!
In those hollow light brown eyes, a faint, tiny ripple surged!
Something was forcing its way out through the gaps in the dense streams of data!
Her speech quickened!
So fast it felt like she was racing against time!
"Remember, don't open that door!"
Gu Xi's eyes, which had regained a glimmer of life, locked onto Fang Qi. Her lashes trembled violently!
"At least not now!"
Her voice was shaking!
"Wait until you feel that door absolutely must be opened—then open it!"
That was her emotion!
That was Gu Xi herself! The policewoman who could rage, plead, mock, and break down!
She was using the last of her own will to fight for control against the blue code devouring her!
"This is, this is the plan you set in motion by entering this world!"
Her speech grew faster and faster,
as if she were desperately forcing out every word before she completely lost her emotions!
"This is the plan we all offered our souls to help you complete!"
Fang Qi's gaze trembled violently.
What is she saying…
What on earth is she saying!!
"Remember!!!"
Gu Xi was almost screaming!
But her voice had completely lost its tone, becoming mechanical.
It seemed she was using the last remnants of her willpower to forcibly drive her vocal cords to produce sound!
"Your parents divided the 'authority' into nine parts!"
Hoarse! Raspy! On the verge of collapse!
"You must gather them —!"
Sudden silence.
Her words just stopped abruptly.
As if an invisible hand had gripped her throat.
Fang Qi watched helplessly as the last struggling glimmer in her eyes…
faded away in an instant.
In her eyes, the last trace of reality was swallowed by the ghostly azure code.
Her lashes no longer trembled. Her lips no longer moved.
Two azure ribbons of light still slowly flowed outward from her eyes, dispersing…
Scattering into the air.
In her light brown pupils, the last point of focus completely dissolved, turning into a pair of hollow, glass-like doll eyes —
Nothing.
"...Gu Xi?"
Fang Qi murmured.
…No response.
The ghost sister still sat on that metal chair, bound, her black hair in disarray.
Her face was now illuminated by those floating codes.
Those azure codes that had been gently drifting around Gu Xi…
abruptly froze in midair.
Like a dense, enormous net suddenly locked in place.
The nearest strand of code was less than half a meter from his face.
Gu Xi had lowered her head, staring vacantly at the metal floor beneath her feet.
That expression, that utterly frozen posture…
was exactly the same as the ghosts lying outside.
Exactly the same as the young Lin Zhouyuan from the last loop, the one who didn't even flinch when Fang Qi shot his eye out.
…Had she become one of them?
Had she…
offered up her "soul"?
Turned into a wooden, hollow…
"puppet" stripped of all emotion.
Fang Qi's gaze trembled.
For some reason, his heart suddenly ached.
Something surged up in his eyes —
Something hotter, more stifling, more painful than tears!
He…!
"Master —!"
A sudden scream yanked him back from his brief trance!
Liguang's voice, sharper than ever!
"These data streams are about to break loose —!"
Before she could finish —
Complete chaos erupted!
The azure light flew wildly again!
Those codes frozen in midair…
had suddenly gone completely out of control!!
In this space that was almost entirely swallowed by the void, they twisted and flew chaotically!
Raging, reckless!
No longer following any pattern, no longer keeping any direction…
No longer showing any awareness of avoidance!
One streak of code grazed past Fang Qi's ear,
instantly turning a few strands of his hair into nothingness.
Another streak swept behind Liguang,
dissolving a lock of her silver hair into a stream of data in a flash!
The entire space had become an azure, lethal eye of the storm!
Liguang's amber pupils were flashing wildly with azure light!
"Master, watch out!!"
"Zzzzz —!"
The crimson laser blade at her fingertips slashed through the air!
Its edge pulsed with scorching heat, carving streak after streak of crimson arcs amid the rampant azure light!
And those azure codes…
scattered like a swarm of insects fleeing the blade!
A streak of eerie blue, flying straight at Fang Qi’s face, swerved abruptly the moment the laser blade swept past—
Springing away on its own before the blade’s tip even touched it!
As if...
Forced away by a magnet of the same polarity!
It slid past Fang Qi’s cheek in a curving arc!
Another streak! And another!
“Zzzzt—!”
The laser blade at Liguang’s fingertip kept swinging!
And those eerie blue code fragments, before the blade’s deadly edge, scattered out of the way—dodging instinctively the moment the crimson beam swept toward them!
The silver-haired girl’s laser blade was already moving so fast it became mere afterimages!
Her left hand never loosened its iron grip on Fang Qi’s wrist!
Her right hand, with the laser blade at her fingertip, slashed and hacked through the air in wild, continuous strokes!
The hem of her white skirt flapped violently with every movement, her silver hair whipping through the air!
She was frantically driving the code back!
“Master, stay behind me!”
She clung tightly to Fang Qi’s right hand!
But they... those code fragments were drawing closer!
They had completely lost control!
No longer deliberately avoiding Fang Qi and Liguang as before—just flying around wildly!
But in this shrinking space, random flight meant—
A streak of eerie blue code grazed Fang Qi’s shoulder at lightning speed.
It felt light, like a feather skimming his skin.
But the fabric on Fang Qi’s shoulder—
In that instant, dissolved into scattering data streams!
Fluttering wildly through the air!
Beneath the torn gap, his skin was exposed to the air—cold, bare.
Fang Qi stood frozen, taking in everything around him.
What was he... supposed to do now?
“Master—!!!!”
Liguang’s scream tore through the entire space!
Fang Qi had never heard her scream like that!
It was pure terror!
A panic so raw it seemed ready to tear her vocal module apart!
In her amber pupils, the eerie blue light exploded in that moment—so blinding Fang Qi couldn’t look directly at it!
The laser blade slashed wildly through the air! Her left hand squeezed his wrist so hard it might snap!
But...
There were too many code fragments!
From every direction!
Overwhelming, sky-covering!
No direction, no pattern—
Just rampaging chaotically through this tiny space, crashing into everything!
And Fang Qi...
He looked at the silver-haired girl shielding him with her own body.
His lips trembled.
The severed ends of her hair—cut by the code—were dispersing into flakes of data in the air.
At the nape of her neck, the interface port protecting her skin was leaking an increasingly piercing eerie blue glow.
Her native core was calculating at maximum power, desperate to find a way to break through the code storm.
Tendrils of white steam rose from the top of her head, the result of overheating.
And in front of them...
Gu Xi still hung her head, staring at the ground.
The most violent code fragments swirled around her in frenzy! Her black hair whipped wildly in the gusts of air!
But she remained motionless.
Expressionless. Like a doll.
Ah...
She had offered up her “soul.”
Surrendered her emotions, her memories—
Surrendered everything that made a person “human”...
To help him carry out a plan he couldn’t even remember?
Fang Qi suddenly found it... somewhat laughable.
Not Gu Xi laughable.
No—it was himself who was laughable.
They were all helping him.
In ways he didn’t understand, for goals he didn’t know.
...But what about him?
What could he do now?
He stood right behind Liguang, behind the woman he loved most…
And he was being fiercely protected.
His crazy wife was using her own body to shield him from danger!
Facing those—those phantom blue specks that could tear him apart into streams of data at any moment!
And he could do nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Until just a moment ago, he had been thinking…
Wife is so strong!
Wife is way too strong!
So strong that all he needed to do was stand behind her and shout, “Wife is so strong!”
But now…
His wife’s cooling system was smoking!
The tips of her hair had been severed by code fragments!
She was screaming with a fear he had never heard before…!
Yet, what else could he do besides be protected?
What else could he do?!
… Nothing at all.
A loser.
A complete and utter loser.
He was still that same…
Loser who chose to die by the sea and start over.
The moment this thought exploded in his mind, Fang Qi suddenly grew calm.
Since he had already accepted the reality, then…
Let’s do it all over again.
He abruptly tightened his grip on Liguang’s hand.
“Liguang.”
His voice was nearly drowned out by the howling storm of code.
“Let’s… not panic.”
His tone was so steady that even he felt a little surprised.
“Gu Xi… she won’t hurt us.”
He wasn’t entirely sure about that himself.
But he had to say it. He could only say it.
“So…”
He looked at Liguang’s slender, desperate back, still fighting.
“This time, let’s stop struggling.”
The figure of the silver-haired girl froze!
Around them, the phantom blue data streams gathered again!
Yet she raised her laser blade once more!
And slashed through the blue light!
Fang Qi tightened his grip on the hand Liguang was holding.
That was it.
This was all he could do.
This was his only ability.
Reset.
The only thing he could do to help Liguang.
After all…
Liguang knew they could reset.
After all, they had countless chances to start over.
… Then let’s start over.
He didn’t want to watch his wife hang on like this for his sake.
It pained him.
But his ability was only good for this much.
“Maybe we should wake up from this ‘dream’ too——”
“No——!!!”
Liguang’s scream cut him off!
She swung her blade again, scattering the blue light!
Then she whipped her head around!
The amber in her iris still flickered wildly with phantom blue!
But the red iris had already dimmed, nearly lifeless!
“Master…!”
Her voice trembled!
“If Master is killed by these phantom blue dots…”
Her lips shook violently!
“Then he will never wake up again——!!!”
As she said this, she swung her blade fiercely toward the space behind Fang Qi!
“Wooooom——!”
The laser blade skimmed past Fang Qi’s cheek.
Scorching.
Blazing crimson lit up his stunned face.
…?
