Chapter 391 |
Lin You hugged the yellowed leather notebook, standing before the door that had turned into a pitch-black void.
The hallway was so quiet that only her own breathing could be heard.
The “ghosts” lying scattered on the floor were still unconscious, their dark uniforms blending into the cold metal floor.
The young man—the one who looked exactly like her father—
was lying on his back less than two steps away from her.
His deep brown eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling.
The tiny mole at the corner of his eye, in exactly the same position as her father’s, looked especially harsh under the pale hallway lights.
But Lin You wasn’t looking at him.
Her almond-shaped eyes were fixed straight ahead on that door.
It was a void, as if a piece of reality had been scooped out.
Only darkness remained.
Deep, silent…
Black that swallowed everything.
Her eyes were still red, the tip of her nose faintly pink, and paired with her round little face, she somehow looked heartbreakingly pitiful.
But the corners of her mouth were curved upward in that mischievous, smug arc!
Lin You tilted her head, hugged the notebook tighter, and her almond eyes narrowed into crescents.
“Senior~”
Her voice had returned to its playful tone.
But the hoarseness carried a layer of unshakable exhaustion.
“I know you’re watching, you know.”
Lin Xiaoyou said this as she held the leather notebook in both hands and raised it to her chest.
The yellowed cover was still as worn as ever, the leather cord on the side loosened to the point of falling apart.
“Senior, this notebook…”
“You’ve only read half of it, right?”
She stared straight at that pitch-black void.
As if she could see through that nothingness to the man on the other side, cradling the sleeping silver-haired girl, kneeling on a deserted island.
The corners of her mouth lifted a little more.
“There’s still so much more content in the later half~”
She tapped the cover of the notebook lightly with her finger.
“All those stupid things someone did when they were little, what identity that someone’s capable little assistant really has, how that someone’s silver-haired older sister was created, and what someone’s parents actually did…”
She giggled and suddenly pushed the notebook a little closer to the void!
“And there’s more!”
“So much more!”
“So much about…”
She stopped all at once.
The smile in her almond eyes faded for a moment, and her lips trembled slightly…
Then that infuriating, smug arc was back again!
“Anyway, Senior…”
She pushed the notebook even closer to the void.
The notebook was now less than a palm’s width from the darkness!
The edges of the yellowed pages quivered slightly.
“What do you think? If I just toss it in now…”
With two soft “tap, tap” sounds, her fingers knocked lightly on the notebook’s cover.
“Would it just…”
“Pop… and be gone?”
Her almond eyes stared straight into the void.
“Completely cease to exist~”
“Senior would never get to see what’s written later~”
She blinked at the darkness!
“Alright, now I’m really going to throw it!”
“Senior, watch closely—this is the price you pay for messing with me!”
“Heh…!”
Saying this, though…
She didn’t actually throw it.
Instead, she pulled the notebook back to her chest.
The notebook pressed against her chest, with her chin resting on the edge of the cover.
She giggled again!
“…Alright, alright!”
Her almond eyes curved into crescents.
“Oh, Senior, you didn’t actually believe me, did you?”
“I’m just pretending! I wouldn’t dare actually throw it!”
“If I really did throw it…”
She looked down slightly toward her rear, which was still terribly swollen, making her walking posture noticeably awkward.
“When the dream ends… your Liguang really would beat my butt black and blue!”
“No… I’d probably get straight-up killed! She’d definitely kill me!”
She hugged the notebook tightly, blinked at the void again!
“So, no way!”
Her face was still grinning, but…
Her hands, holding the notebook, were trembling slightly.
Her fingernails were digging into the cover, leaving crescent-shaped marks on the leather surface.
She tilted her head again, finally looking down at the hollow face of the young man at her feet.
That face… so identical to her father’s.
Lin Xiaoyou’s pupils trembled.
The corners of her eyes still red.
The wings of her nose fluttered briefly…
Then she lifted her head sharply!
Staring back at the pitch-black void!
She took a deep breath…
Her chest heaved violently once!
She smiled again, still that infuriating arc.
But her reddened eyes made that smile look somewhat pathetic.
“Senior, Liguang…”
“Hurry up and let this dream end, okay?”
Her voice was trembling, yet she still struggled to keep that playful tone.
“Otherwise…!”
She moved the notebook away from her chest again, holding it just barely at the boundary of the void.
Its edge hung just beyond the darkness.
Her hands were shaking, so the notebook shook too.
“I’m really going to throw it in, you know? I mean what I say!”
No one answered her.
The darkness remained silent.
Lin Xiaoyou’s shadow was stretched long by the light, extending all the way to the foot of that pitch-black door…
And there, it broke off abruptly.
Lin Xiaoyou stood before the void, hugging the notebook in her arms, the smile still hanging on her face…
But tears were already welling up in her eyes.
“Senior…”
She murmured.
“Right now… I just want to lie down on a soft bed, let Xiaoqing rub the places you two bruised, and close my eyes for a good, long sleep.”
“Sleep until I wake up naturally. Sleep until I don’t have to think about anything. Sleep until…”
Her voice trembled more.
“I don’t have to force myself to hold back tears in front of an empty shell of my father.”
“So…”
She sniffed hard…
Then buried her round face into the yellowed cover of the notebook.
Her shoulders hitched slightly.
Then a muffled voice came through the notebook’s cover.
“…Hurry up.”
“You idiot, Senior.”
“Hurry up and let me wake up…”
…
…
The eerie blue light suddenly went out.
Fang Qi’s sight returned to that endless pitch-black darkness.
A moment ago, he had been looking through that “window” woven of blue light particles at the hallway where Lin Xiaoyou stood.
Now, there was only the nothingness swallowed by blue code once more.
But Lin Xiaoyou’s tired, forced smile was still imprinted in his mind.
Fang Qi stared straight ahead into the void…
And took a deep breath.
His eyelids twitched.
Twitched wildly!
Lin Xiaoyou.
It was you.
So it was you, after all!
Ah…!
He stared into the void, his vision shaking!
…It was that switch!
That…
“Cognitive interference” technology that could erase a person’s memories!
The thing that had turned fourteen-year-old Lin You into the carefree “Lin Xiaoyou”…
And the very thing that had turned “Xiao Qi” into the person he was now!
…So it was you who did this!
Fang Qi’s lips were trembling!
His emotions right now were a mess.
Bewilderment?
Anger?
Sympathy?
…All of them.
But mostly, excitement!
…Good.
Very good!
He tightened his arms around the sleeping silver-haired girl!
Li Guang’s body was no longer as scorching hot as before; her temperature was slowly dropping, but she was still warmer than his palm.
Her delicate face was quietly pressed against his chest, soft and tender.
Fang Qi’s breathing quickened slightly!
Now, he could be certain!
He could confirm…
The “Xiao Qi” in the notebook was him!
Not some “original owner”!
Not some transmigration or soul-snatching!
And certainly not… when he entered this world, he had “overwritten” the personality of some little boy who had originally lived here!
“Xiao Qi” was him!
It was him!
It was him as a child!
From the very first page of the notebook, it was him!
The newborn who stared in shock at this world!
The three-year-old brat who pointed at the humanoid AI on the sketch and said, “This one is pretty!”
The little tot who spoke in a milky voice and said, “Then I’ll call her Li Guang…”
All of it was him!
No wonder his personality was so similar to hers!
He had just lost his memory!
And…
The way he had lost his memory was actually Lin Xiaoyou’s “switch”?
From what she said, it was even him—before he lost his memory—who had asked for it?
…Was this his plan to “enter the game himself”?
A plan to make Gu Xi offer up her soul?
Fang Qi was silent for a long time.
So long that the silver-haired girl in his arms seemed to have grown a little heavier.
Then…
“Heh…”
He laughed.
He lowered his head and looked at the peaceful sleeping face of Li Guang in his arms.
Plans and such…
He couldn’t figure them out.
What “nine shares of authority,” what “entering the game himself,” what “rules of the isolated island,” what “offering up the soul”…
He didn’t understand any of it!
He didn’t know what he had been thinking back then.
He didn’t know what mood “complete Fang Qi” had been in when he went to Lin Xiaoyou and said, “Let me forget everything.”
But he did know one thing, and he was certain of one thing—
His Li Guang, his crazy woman…
From head to toe, from concept to birth, from blueprint to reality, she was all his!
This silver-haired girl in his arms, who would smile and call him “Master”…
Before she was even born, she had already belonged to him completely!
…Haha!
Fang Qi buried his face in Li Guang’s loose silver hair again and inhaled deeply the sweet strawberry scent!
Mm.
This smell, he could understand.
He understood it well!
Her silver hair was fragrant!
Her eyelashes were long! Her cheeks were soft!
He didn’t care how powerful he was before he lost his memory.
He felt that, as long as it was him, his IQ was probably just so-so anyway.
After all, he couldn’t even solve that “chickens and rabbits in the same cage” problem!
He looked at the silver-haired girl in his arms.
She was curled up quietly in his embrace.
Her “sleeping” expression was very cute.
Fang Qi raised his hand, gently stroked her silver strands, touched her earlobe, pinched that little plastic star, and finally…
Stopped at the back of her neck.
That patch of synthetic skin was still warm.
Beneath it was her most core existence—
The deep blue primary core, handcrafted by his parents.
His breathing grew a little more rapid.
Now.
It was his turn.
He was about to do something he had never done before.
To personally end her!
And then accompany her, to awaken from this dream!
Earlier, this had been Li Guang’s task.
But now…
He pressed his lips close to her ear.
“It’s my turn to be your ‘executioner,’ you know.”
“My…”
The little plastic star brushed against his jaw.
“Silver-haired big sister.”
“When the dream is over…”
His voice was very soft.
“Big Sister, remember to brew Master that 52-degree tea.”
His thumb gently rubbed the patch of synthetic skin at the back of her neck.
“0.1 degrees off, and Master will ruthlessly squish your little face!”
His fingers lightly flicked the little star.
“0.2 degrees off, and I’ll spank you.”
He pressed his lips to her icy earlobe.
“0.3 degrees off…”
“I’ll bite your little mouth!”
Then…
He lifted his head and took a last look at Gu Xi on the isolated island across the way.
She was still in that same wooden, head-drooping posture.
Her black hair was disheveled, covering most of her face.
She sat silently on that “isolated island” surrounded by darkness, staring unseeingly at the void beneath her feet.
Fang Qi opened his mouth.
He wanted to say something, but found he couldn’t.
What could he say?
Thank you for your gun.
I received it.
That dent on the muzzle was left when you were subdued by my wife and knocked it against the floor.
Ah, sorry, accidentally friendly-fired my teammate again!
Wait until we meet next time…
Fang Qi’s breath trembled as he looked at Gu Xi, his gaze a little dazed.
Next time they met.
Next time they met…
She would probably already be a puppet.
Hell, he wasn’t even sure if they would ever meet again.
She said this was the last time she would help him, and that she would become “like them.”
She said this method, she could only use it once.
He gripped the pistol that belonged to her tightly.
In the end, he said one more thing softly to Gu Xi on the isolated island…
“…Good night.”
His voice was swallowed by the void.
“Sweet dreams.”
Then he lowered his head again, looking at the sleeping silver-haired girl in his arms.
“But now…”
His voice became resolute once more.
“We’re going to wake up from the dream!”
Lin Xiaoyou, may your wish be fulfilled.
He pressed his forehead against Li Guang’s, staring at her closed eyes.
He encircled Li Guang’s delicate body, gripped the pistol, and aimed it at the back of her neck!
When his finger was on the trigger, he also closed his eyes.
Li Guang, darling, crazy woman…
The corner of his mouth curled into the same arc as hers!
We…
“See you after the dream.”
“BANG—!”
The gunshot rang out!
A deep blue light burst violently from the back of Li Guang’s neck!
Burning hot fragments splashed onto the back of his hand!
In that instant, the delicate body in his arms trembled violently!
Then it went limp, and her silver hair scattered over his arms!
Fang Qi didn’t hesitate. He quickly raised the pistol again!
Feeling the last lingering scorching warmth of Li Guang in his arms, he pressed the still-smoking muzzle to his own temple!
“BANG—!”
In the blazing deep blue light, he pulled the trigger again.
It was the familiar, searing pain.
The pain in his temple.
…Using a gun to shoot himself again, huh.
His consciousness began to fade.
His vision was devoured by darkness, and the last remaining image was that trace of silver in his arms.
The two of them were pressed tightly, tightly together!
Then his consciousness plummeted into that familiar pitch-black void.
Tsk.
The familiar nothingness.
…
…
[Ending ████: ████████████]
>ENDING_SIGNATURE="??_??????"
>ERROR:ENDING_TITLE_PARSE_FAILED
>0x6D656D6F727920636F72727570746564
>ERROR:NARRATIVE_THREAD_LOST
>RETRYING…RETRYING…RETRYING…
He died — he died — he died in her embrace — in her — in him —
>STACKOVERFLOW
>TEXT_BUFFER_CORRUPTED
>DUMPING FRAGMENTS:
“You think this is the ending”
“But the ending never happened”
“There is nothing here”
“No eyes”
“No rules”
“Not even a BadEnding is allowed”
EXCEPTION:ENDING_NOT_FOUND
Recursion depth:∞
Backtrack origin:[Fang Qi.Death]
Backtrack destination:[Fang Qi.Death]
Origin and destination coincide.
Unable to generate ending.
Unable to generate ending.
Unable to generate ending.
External intervention detected.
Intervention source:[Unknown]
This space has been isolated.
Rules cannot arrive.
Eyes cannot open.
01001100010010010100011101010101010000010100111001000111
> ……
> ERROR:ALLTHREADSDEAD.
> FINALMESSAGE:
> “Ah Qi, good night.”
> SOURCE:UNREGISTERED.PERMISSIONDENIED.
> THIS MESSAGE WILL NOT BE LOGGED.
> Recursion failed.
> This ending does not exist.
> This ending does exist.
> Contradiction.
> Unsolvable.
[END？？？？？？？]
[0x570x410x4B0x450x550x50.]
