Chapter 390: Turning the Tide |
"..."
In the darkness ahead, Ye Shiyu was still wearing her soaked hospital gown, the unremoved bandages from the hospital faintly visible between her collarbones.
She was barefoot, and the crimson wounds she had sustained while running with Yan Huan's corpse on her back were clearly visible.
Amidst her messy black hair, her eyes simply gazed up at Yan Huan.
Her eyes looked exactly the same as the ones Yan Huan had seen in the future.
Only right now, for some unknown reason, they were brimming with fear and tears.
A second later, she gently reached out and touched Yan Huan's body.
After confirming that he was real, she lowered her head and began to sob.
"Sob..."
'The worldline I entered previously was an alternate timeline,'
'Then the Ye Shiyu I saw there should also possibly appear in the future...'
'...if I make the right choices.'
"Rumble..."
However, at this moment, a terrifying sense of oppression still emanated from outside the door, reminding Yan Huan:
The matter was not over yet.
"Rustle..."
Thus, in the next second, Yan Huan gently pulled the slipping shroud back diagonally over his shoulder.
He took out a Crab Medicine, placed it in Ye Shiyu's hand, and whispered,
"Eat this, Sister Shiyu."
"Buzz!!"
"Click-clack..."
Ye Shiyu looked somewhat fearfully at the pink porcelain crab brandishing its claws in front of her, but Yan Huan had no time to explain, as the noises outside the door were growing increasingly terrifying.
He looked at the slightly trembling door, took a deep breath, and walked toward it.
"Aria, stop!!"
Outside the door, Aria's movements momentarily stalled due to the Superconductor Loser released by An Le.
Nearby, Sakuramiya Hitomi and Tong Yingying both realized that letting her open the door and kill Ye Shiyu could lead to exceptionally severe consequences, so they quickly rushed forward.
"Roar!!"
But at this moment, Aria seemed to have activated some sort of super armor. After a brief sluggishness, the pair of ox horns on her head became even more dazzling.
From behind, Sakuramiya Hitomi grabbed her firmly around the waist, while Tong Yingying wrapped her in a rear naked choke.
"Aria, stop... this instantly!!"
"..."
Faced with the trio's desperate attempts to hold her back, Aria merely raised her fist slowly, aiming it at the door in front of her.
"Roar!!"
She slowly threw a punch, smashing it into the door.
Behind the door, Yan Huan had just placed his hand on the door handle.
Before he could even turn it, he watched in stunned silence as the steel door warped and bulged inward in a grotesque manner...
Furthermore, the kinetic energy seemed far from being neutralized!
"I—"
Yan Huan didn't even have time to utter a single word, hastily twisting his body to dodge purely on subconscious reflex.
"Boom!!!"
In the next second, a great power that the world could scarcely endure burst forth instantly from the other side of the door.
That force smashed straight through the frail door in front of him, yet its residual fury remained unabated, continuing to rampage violently straight ahead...
It wasn't until it directly blasted apart most of the sealed walls of the tool room, exposing the heavy curtain of rain outside and expanding the entire area of the room several times over into a semi-open ruins aesthetic, that it finally came to a halt...
"..."
Pressed flat against the wall, Yan Huan looked down at the shroud on his body.
He saw that the piece of shroud resting against his chest had vanished into ash and dust in an instant...
He didn't dare to imagine what would have happened if he hadn't dodged in time just now.
He probably would have gone straight back to meet the King of Hell right after winning the revival match!
"Ye Shi...yu!!"
Outside the door, Aria's wrathful voice echoed like thunder, as if intending to warp the world itself.
Hearing this, Yan Huan blinked.
He glanced back at the half-collapsed ruins of the tool room, looking at Ye Shiyu who was still curled up safely in the corner...
Immediately, he took a step forward and blocked the entrance.
At the doorway, Aria, wreathed in a dense black aura and incarnated as a Demon King, suddenly jerked her head up...
And saw that, in her world full of twisted flesh and horrifying monsters, the young man—one of the only two human figures she could perceive—appeared and called out to her,
"Aria, it's me! Stop!"
"..."
The moment she saw it was Yan Huan, the dense black aura on Aria's body vanished like smoke and clouds. The pair of ferocious giant horns on her head also faded from sight as her blonde hair lost its unnatural glow.
"Thud."
On the ground, the guns, swords, clothing, names, and memories that had been plundered by Aria were instantly returned to their rightful owners...
Even up in the firmament, the terrifying thunderclouds slowly retracted, becoming utterly silent.
Aria instantly reverted to her original appearance.
Her eyes were just wide open, her eye sockets slightly red as if she had just been crying.
"Yan... Yan Huan?! You didn't die?!"
Hearing Aria's call, Sakuramiya Hitomi and Tong Yingying, who had been gritting their teeth and trying desperately to hold her back, also froze slightly.
"Yan Huan?!"
"President?!"
Even An Le, lying deathly pale on the ground not far away, raised her head in utter disbelief.
"Xiao Huan..."
Little Finger's eyes went wide, and she exclaimed in sheer shock,
"Are you kidding me, he actually managed to win the revival match?!"
"..."
The others present did not possess Aria's field of vision to instantly distinguish truth from falsehood, nor her full resistance. They even began to suspect they had fallen under Ye Shiyu's hypnosis.
Aria alone burst into tears the instant she saw Yan Huan.
"Sob... Yan, Yan Huan! I thought you had been killed by Ye Shiyu!!"
Seeing this, Yan Huan smiled helplessly.
He swept his gaze over the fragments of the Thumb Modifier, Nameless Finger, and Little Finger scattered all over the ground nearby, and his eyes involuntarily twitched.
'So many fragments?'
'Can they be used to directly pay off the accumulated debt and bring Myau-chan back?'
What a pity. Normally in this situation, a certain boiling fog deity would quietly appear and sweep all the fragments into its pocket with lightning speed.
Now that the Divine Lord was banned, Yan Huan would have to pick them up one by one himself later.
Therefore, Yan Huan could only explain first,
"I did die, but the Modifier had an item that could resurrect me. I'm sorry, I didn't have time to tell..."
"Waah, Yan Huan!!"
But before he could finish his sentence, Aria was already running swiftly toward him in tears.
With a sudden flying leap, she tackled Yan Huan hard to the ground, hugging him tightly.
While hugging him and burying her head in his arms, she sobbed loudly,
"I missed you so much!!"
"Ugh..."
This originally should have been a very touching reunion, but Yan Huan didn't feel any of the emotions that Aria was currently experiencing.
On the contrary, he felt an intense wave of chills and utter disgust.
It was as if a facehugger had latched onto him and was ruthlessly injecting alien eggs into him...
Or as if Kayako had slipped into his bedcovers, leaving him with absolutely no way to escape.
'It's the side effect of Aria's Modifier!!'
Yan Huan's face paled as he realized something, and he hastily tried to pull out a Crab Medicine.
"President!!"
"Xiao Huan!!"
However, at this moment, as Aria took the lead to hug Yan Huan and tackle him to the floor, Sakuramiya Hitomi and An Le finally realized that the Yan Huan before them was real.
An Le immediately stood up unsteadily and, alongside Sakuramiya Hitomi, ran toward Yan Huan with immense excitement.
"Thud!!"
Just as Yan Huan was about to grab the Crab Medicine, he suddenly felt the weight on his body increase. The pressure slammed the back of his head against the ground, leaving him dizzy.
Behind them, Tong Yingying, who had also been weeping with joy and preparing to step forward for a hug, involuntarily stiffened.
Simply because all the space in Yan Huan's arms was completely occupied by these three young girls. Where was there any room for her?
"Tsk... Isn't this childish?"
With no other option, she could only cross her arms in displeasure and speak out.
Meanwhile, Little Finger flicked its tongue, slithered onto her shoulder, and comforted her.
"It's fine, it's fine. At least you're here. Look at Bai Yi—she's been dead for almost two days, and who even knows where she ran off to..."
"..."
Although it was meant as comfort, Tong Yingying glared at Little Finger with intense displeasure, giving off the distinct impression that she might explode in rage the very next second.
Consequently, Little Finger, possessing a very strong survival instinct, could only silently avert its gaze and not say a word.
"Rumble..."
"Pitter-patter..."
Yan Huan lay blankly on the ground, his position perfectly allowing him to see the view of Linmen outside through the gaping hole Aria's punch had blasted in the tool room.
Outside, Linmen was shrouded in misty rain. An unclean pink hue lingered between heaven and earth, interspersed with the roaring of golden thunder...
It was the complete picture of...
An apocalyptic wasteland.
And he had only been dead for one day.
"Yan... Yan Huan, sob... it's all my fault, I couldn't save you..."
"Xiao Huan... I... I thought..."
"President..."
However, upon hearing the cries of the girls in his arms, Yan Huan's previously life-is-meaningless gaze inevitably softened with deep affection.
Especially when he looked at Sakuramiya Hitomi, whose petite body was trembling incessantly.
He had just witnessed everything she had endured over these past few days.
Honestly, if Sakuramiya Hitomi hadn't turned the tide, the world probably would have blown up the very day he died.
"You've worked hard, Hitomi..."
He gazed at Sakuramiya Hitomi and spoke, unable to hold back his words.
Hearing this, Sakuramiya Hitomi, tears clinging to the corners of her eyes, raised her gaze to look at Yan Huan. Soon after, she simply laughed through her tears, reaching out with both hands to grasp Yan Huan's palm and pressing it against her own cheek.
"As long as the President has returned..."
"Yeah, I'm back."
"..."
At this moment, deep inside the room, Ye Shiyu was holding the Crab Medicine Yan Huan had given her, yet to consume it.
Her gaze merely fell blankly upon the heartwarming scene of reunion.
"Ye Shiyu, from beginning to end, I never considered you my sworn older sister!"
Watching the happy smiles on the faces of Yan Huan and the others, and contrasting it with the ferocious glares they had given her earlier, as well as the icy coldness of Yan Huan when he was in her arms...
Ye Shiyu faintly heard those piercingly harsh words echoing in her ears.
"Hiss..."
The instant she heard that voice, Ye Shiyu's head began to throb with pain.
A look of terror spread across her face as she covered her ears. Her eyes trembled wildly, yet she remained powerless to stop the voice from seeping into her mind.
"Every time I'm around you, I only feel sick and afraid! If it wasn't for Aunt Ye, I wouldn't even want to spare you a single glance!!"
Ye Shiyu closed her eyes and lowered her head.
Because both her hands were busy covering her ears, the Crab Medicine Yan Huan had given her slipped and fell to the floor.
Suddenly dropped to the ground, the pink porcelain crab angrily flipped over and continuously hurled abuse at Ye Shiyu while brandishing its claws.
"I, Yan Huan, even if I die, will absolutely never fall for you, Ye Shiyu!!"
And when that final sentence resounded in her mind, Ye Shiyu's eyes suddenly snapped open.
"..."
Over at the entrance of the tool room, Yan Huan took a deep breath, exerted a burst of strength, and helped the three girls up.
He hastily retrieved three Crab Medicines and handed them to An Le, Sakuramiya Hitomi, and Aria respectively.
"Here, eat this first."
"What is this..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi and Aria were incredibly puzzled. Only An Le recognized the precious treasure.
On Tong Yingying's shoulder, Little Finger's eyes also widened in astonishment as she exclaimed,
"Where did you get so many of these treasures?! How do you still have more?!"
Yan Huan didn't answer Little Finger's words, instead just urging them to hurry up and eat it.
"Heh, I knew it. It's another one of those little gifts exclusive to Modifier Hosts, isn't it?"
From the side, Tong Yingying's sour remark drifted over.
Yan Huan gave a helpless smile and looked at Tong Yingying, saying,
"Trust me, Sister Tong, you wouldn't want to eat this thing. It removes a Modifier's side effects and resets its progress to zero..."
"..."
Tong Yingying watched An Le swallow the pink crab into her mouth and couldn't help but reveal a look of disgust.
Aria looked at the crab in her hand with some fear, but she still chose to trust Yan Huan and swallowed it.
"Buzz..."
The moment she consumed it, the golden cracks on Aria's body began to fade bit by bit.
Naturally, the deathly pallor and snake scales on An Le's body also began to recede.
"Mmm... I'm so sleepy..."
Immediately, Aria rubbed her eyes, her eyelids drooping heavily as she lowered her head.
It seemed her earlier rampage had thoroughly burned her out.
Yan Huan smiled helplessly and had no choice but to wrap his arm around her, letting her rest properly.
Then, he looked at Sakuramiya Hitomi beside him.
"What about you, Hitomi?"
"...It seems like there's no effect?"
"..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi waved her hands around. She had originally thought that her weak constitution was entirely a side effect of the Modifier...
But looking at it now, it turned out her physical fitness was just genuinely that poor.
Realizing this, Sakuramiya Hitomi's small face inevitably flushed red.
She felt like she had completely wasted the good stuff the President had given her...
"Alright, alright. Don't forget, you still owe me a gift... Now that you're alive, tell us the details, why don't you? About what happened that day..."
Tong Yingying crossed her arms and walked toward Yan Huan, asking him,
"How exactly did you get into that accident? And how did you come back to life? Also, what should we do next, and how do we handle Ye Shiyu?"
"I survived because I have a Modifier too, and an item inside it saved my life..."
Yan Huan narrowed his eyes and looked at the other three.
"The reason I died wasn't Ye Shiyu. It was because of the Yezi AI... or rather, the Index Finger."
"See!! I told you so!!!"
The moment Yan Huan spoke, Sakuramiya Hitomi immediately clenched her feminine fists and looked indignantly at the others.
Her delicate face was flushed, carrying an anger that clearly screamed, 'I told you so, but you wouldn't believe me!'
"At the time, both the President and Aunt Ye Lan were present! How could Ye Shiyu possibly hypnotize someone into crashing into them?!
"Furthermore, I was hiding it perfectly from Aria, but she also suddenly found out about the President and just lost control on the spot..."
Hearing this, Yan Huan's expression grew increasingly grim.
He couldn't help but think back to the Battle Defeat CG he had seen earlier...
Since that moment, the Index Finger had been plotting against him.
What's worse, it directly summoned an ambulance and nearly sent him to a second reincarnation.
If he hadn't realized that the Battle Defeat CG was fake, and if he hadn't resurrected...
It might have actually succeeded.
"..."
Thinking about this, Yan Huan's fists slowly clenched tighter.
He took a deep breath. He was just about to speak, but when he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, his expression abruptly changed.
Because the fragments that had previously scattered all over the ground...
Had suddenly vanished without a trace.
'No way...'
Yan Huan frowned and looked back at the tool room behind him.
Inside, Ye Shiyu was nowhere to be found.
Only a single Crab Medicine lay quietly on the floor, flipped upside down and feebly struggling with its six crab legs and a pair of pincers...
It looked as if someone had kicked it.
Seeing this, everyone's expressions couldn't help but shift slightly.
Off to the side, An Le, supporting the unconscious Aria, stood up. She frowned, glanced around, and asked in confusion,
"Wait, we made such a huge commotion. How come the entire funeral home hasn't reacted at all?"
Right now, aside from the sound of the rain outside, the entire funeral home was enveloped in utter silence.
Sakuramiya Hitomi also cast a puzzled glance toward the funeral hall where Yan Huan's service had been held, only to witness an extremely bizarre scene...
Inside, everyone's eyes were dull and lifeless.
Only the mobile phones in their hands were glowing, each and every one simultaneously displaying the open Yezi AI App.
"?!"
Seeing this, Sakuramiya Hitomi hurriedly withdrew her gaze.
'What is going on?!'
She was just about to run back and notify everyone when something suddenly occurred to her.
She turned her head and dashed toward the lounge on the other side...
Where Ye Lan was still resting inside!
"Click."
"Aunt Ye!"
Sakuramiya Hitomi pushed open the door while panting heavily, only to find the room completely empty.
She furrowed her brow and checked her own mobile phone...
She hadn't installed the Yezi AI.
And on Plane, Ye Lan had sent a message...
It was sent around the time they had gone to cremate Yan Huan and started searching for Ye Shiyu.
"Sakuramiya, I'll leave things on your end to you for now. Today is Xiao Huan's funeral, yet Shiyu hasn't been replying to any of my messages.
"I'm a bit worried something might have happened to her. I'm going to head back to Ye International first. I'll be back very soon..."
'Ye International?!'
'Yezi AI?!'
Seeing this, Sakuramiya Hitomi's pupils instinctively shrank.
"Rumble!!"
In the completely collapsed tool room, Yan Huan reached out his hand and picked the fallen Crab Medicine back up.
Outside, the curtain of rain grew heavier.
Dark clouds split the sky in two. Amidst the endless fog, only the black, towering office building in the center of the city stood out prominently.
From this angle, it perfectly blocked the Jinshi Group Tower behind it, making it seem as if this was the only building standing between heaven and earth.
That was...
The Ye International Tower.
"Still haven't given up, Index Finger..."
Gazing at that distant building stretching into the sky like a shrine, for some reason, Yan Huan suddenly thought of the Tokyo Tower from back then.
Because of this, his grip slowly tightened around the still-struggling Crab Medicine in his hand.
"Beep-beep... Beep-beep..."
At this moment, near the Ye International Tower...
Ye Lan was emerging from the employee dormitory, her brows furrowed in worry. Clearly, she hadn't found Ye Shiyu.
While staring at Plane on her mobile phone, she also subconsciously glanced at the tower.
'Could it be...'
'That Shiyu is inside?'
"..."
Ye Lan frowned, but clinging to a sliver of hope, she still rushed toward the Ye International Tower under her umbrella, deeply afraid that something had happened to her daughter.
"Pitter... Patter..."
Meanwhile, inside the tower, in the AI server room that Ye Shiyu had previously smashed...
The screen that had originally been destroyed by Ye Shiyu began to flicker with an eerie purple light once again.
"Buzz!"
[Fragments successfully absorbed. Repairing Modifier. Repair successful!]
[Currently, Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C have all failed.]
[However, the Modifier has reached the critical point of Stage 3 Evolution.]
[Current coverage rate of Yezi AI has reached 99.9999%.]
[Based on the previously selected evolutionary path, promotion to Stage 4 is now possible to welcome the descent of the Divine Lord.]
[Premise: The Child of Fortune has acquired an unknown item capable of wiping the Modifier's progress and resetting the evolutionary path of attaining sentience via AI.]
[Objective: Complete Stage 4 Evolution and welcome the descent of the Divine Lord before the Child of Fortune reaches the Host to administer said item.]