Chapter 187 - · TE · After the Wasteland (Part 2)

Chapter 187: Chapter 185 · TE · After the Wasteland (Part 2)"— Congratulations to you all."

The ponytailed girl gazed at all those who had once fought alongside her.

Among them, many familiar figures were no longer present, but even more newcomers perpetually emerged.

But after this, such grand scenes would no longer take place.

For everything would pass, all sufferings would be buried under the heavy snow, and what awaited these people was an exceptionally bright future.

The halo spread outwards.

In that moment when the light burst forth, it radiated outwards in every direction.

Without a single gap, it covered every piece of land, the sky included, enveloped in the lustrous white brilliance.

People lifted their heads, not yet understanding what this was, but soon, they witnessed an astonishing scene.

The snow stopped.

Flowers bloomed, the greenery was lustrous, as if all life burst forth in an instant, all the beauty vying to display itself.

But soon, with the next wave of energy, all this was swiftly obliterated.

The white snow quickly melted away, revealing the cracked surface of the square; the buildings groaned and then collapsed with a crash.

The vibrant leaves of plants disintegrated, and the soil, mixed with fragments of green, swirled into the wind.

Pillars fell, and the houses adorned with glittering gemstones rapidly broke apart. Within the mists, the tallest building also quietly melted bit by bit and then utterly vanished.

Stones flew, and the booming sound was incessant.

— Lv Shu looked through his eyes and saw this scene.

Everything was melting, everything was disappearing...

He did not know what the areas beyond the square had become; he only knew that within his field of vision, all the beauty was rapidly fading, and then, what was left was nothing but a silent, desolate wasteland.

But among the wasteland, he could sense the breath of new life.

It seemed as though countless sprouts of green were waiting to emerge from the crevices. And the swirling snow had already come to a complete halt at this moment.

In the midst of dazzling light,

He saw something splendid, which, with the appearance of the light, perished together.

Like the tears of a mermaid in a fairy tale, as precious and beautiful as diamonds, yet also the origin of all sorrow.

Amidst such a miraculous event, no one spoke.

They watched as the lavish square turned into a wasteland, as if watching an intermission CG, and saw the girl on the stage with closed eyes, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

"Congratulations to you, and congratulations to us," she said, gripping the crown in her hands:

"...congratulations to us, the Revolutionary Army, we have won."

The blood-red hair tie fluttered in a silent breeze.

She turned around, disappearing from everyone’s gaze.

At the same time, all surviving players heard the system’s prompt:

Everyone also suddenly discovered that their survival rate, which had been on the verge of falling below 10%, shot up to 100% in an instant.

Lv Shu stared at the 100% figure on the panel, and cold sweat slid down in an instant.

He knew that something very critical had just happened.

Otherwise, according to the original process, many of them would certainly have died in the just concluded phase.

He finally understood what the audience’s commentaries meant when they said that this world was extremely "Underworld."

...This was not merely a world divided by factions.

From the system prompt just now, there was a hidden condition in this World Replica before the tenth day.

As long as not a single one of the over ten thousand players in this World Replica could discover this condition and change it, then it is likely that when the tenth day arrives, the death mechanism would trigger, and the vast majority of players would die on that day.

"Congratulations to the player for completing all the storylines and escaping the mass death mechanism." Lin Yin scratched her head as she read aloud the panel, "...What’s going on? What death mechanism? Were we originally supposed to die? Which player changed the route?"

"It should be..." Lv Shu was about to speak when the system’s prompt hadn’t stopped yet:

"Damn it—!"

Lin Yin, pulling at her hair, exclaimed, "I was almost at 85% completion of my perfect pass quest— and now it’s failed. I thought I could really clear Ming’s name—"

Because they played different roles, each player had a different perfect pass route.

Lin Yin’s perfect pass route was to play the role of (Little Ming), lead the Revolutionary Army to victory, and then unearth the secrets of Little Ming’s family identity.

The dawn of victory was just before her eyes, only to be wiped out by a system prompt.

She sighed and looked towards Lv Shu, who was also looking at her.

In those drooping, dead-fish eyes was a sense of "as expected."

"I told you that you could not surpass Su Ming’an or complete the perfect pass before him," Lv Shu said, as if he had anticipated this scene: "If you were close to completing it, the first person to stop you would also be me, so give up."

"Kuso! So it is true; I will never team up with a dead suck-up like you in the next instance—!"

Lin Yin, infuriated, nonetheless quickly rushed with the crowd into the square, capturing the High Tower to carry on with the grand task of harvesting Contribution Value.

The azure Defensive Barrier had already dissipated, and as she rushed into the interior of a building, she did not see even one noble.

"Have they all fled?" She tapped the Priest’s Staff with a blade in her hand. She had originally thought she could kill a few to earn Contribution Value,

Kicking over an opulent chair in the room, she suddenly heard the sound of birds spreading their wings.

Turning her head, she looked out through the floor-to-ceiling window, where the blue-purple sky was radiantly colored, and below was the desolate wasteland.

Above in the high sky, the warbling birds were singing in circles.

The starry night sky, rebirth in the wasteland.

The turmoil did not turn the entire continent into wasteland; nearby, some cities were spared the disaster.

Boats along the riverside, lights bright and clear.

No longer facing the bone-chilling wind, Dan Shuang sat on the rooftop, looking at the townsfolk rebuilding their homes below, her hands clasping a pot of cold liquor, her gemstone-like eyes silent and misty.

Upon her, a faint black aura was surging.

Hearing a small noise nearby, she turned her head and looked at Su Ming’an, who had climbed up.

"How is it going?"

"Not bad," Su Ming’an sat beside her, "It seems that my thinking was correct; this method is feasible."

—It was when Hui Shuhang asked him if he wanted to die with her, that he proposed a new method.

All his thoughts were considered from the perspective of the game progress; since the perfect pass progress was already at 95% and the survival rate was 100%, the wasteland line couldn’t possibly bring him to a dead end forcing him to die. There must be a way to survive.

After that, he thought of the Shadow.

He inquired whether the malice could be transferred to a non-relative, Hui Shuhang answered that it was possible. However, because the bloodlines were not connected and it was not possible to suppress the malice as Holy Initiation did, the malice might erupt directly, leading to unimaginable consequences.

He chose to transfer the malice on him to the Shadow.

Both he and the Shadow did not belong to this world and would leave after the fifteen days were over—since malice could never be fully eradicated and could only be passed from one generation to the next, they, who could carry this substance and leave the world, were the game progress’s breakthrough point.

A very clear breakthrough point.

And, coincidentally, absorbing malice could increase the power of the Shadow, which was written in the skill interface from the start.

Therefore, he did not choose to rollback.

He tried, and indeed he succeeded, but the malice on Qin Wang was just too great, including that part from Holy Initiation; even being charred into charcoal wasn’t enough to absorb it all.

Hui Shuhang said she was willing to bear these burdens and then to die in their stead.

But Su Ming’an’s mission was to save her life, and he did not agree.

The "Ming" state was extremely repulsive to malice, he simply couldn’t bear it.

But at that moment, Dan Shuang, who had been on the verge of collapse, stood up.

She said, if there was no longer a second person in the world with strength like Holy Initiation, and if Chen Yang was already dead,

then let her, a Second Commander like her, carry it all.

"There are still regrets." Dan Shuang lowered her eyes, looking at him: "The Continent has still become a wasteland, the nobility are dead, and although those innocent powerless ones have been saved, but..."

"It’s alright," Su Ming’an said: "You will see the day when the results spread across the Continent. By that time, all the powerless will awaken their abilities, and malice will no longer exist."

"...Yeah."

"But I didn’t expect that at that time, you would make such a decision," Su Ming’an was referring to Dan Shuang at noon.

At that time, she had voluntarily shared his malice, allowing him to suppress it for the moment. Even if he left this world, the malice wouldn’t affect him, and the Shadow State significantly enhanced his strength.

But the price was that the Second Commander of the Revolutionary Army, who took on the malice voluntarily, would have a hard time seeing the light again.

Like Holy Initiation, she would lock herself in darkness, waiting for the malice to explode, and then die.

She became the Evil Dragon of this generation.

But fortunately, there would be no next generation’s Evil Dragon.

Because Qin Wang’s experiment was successful.

After her death, there would be no more sacrifices.

Everyone had a bright future.

The lid in her hand lifted gently, the scent of the wine spreading further and further away, and Dan Shuang’s somewhat flushed eyes curved slightly downward. Her gaze flitted over, passing him the wine jug.

"I’m no hero, just a survivor. Getting to this point is my contribution." She said: "Don’t talk about these depressing things, I have no regrets, let’s drink."

She knew her journey had been like a joke, leading a band of thugs like the Revolutionary Army, pillaging to overthrow so-called tyranny, only to end up with an outcome long written by others.

She was ready to devote her entire life to the Continent and when she learned that she could still be of use, that she could help others share the malice, she finally found a sense of value in living.

Even if she could no longer see light, even if she had to stay in darkness until she died, she didn’t care, her family and friends had long died along the way, leaving her alone. If this was to become the end for the sake of everyone’s future, she was willing to be the "sacrifice" she’d talked about.

But this time, it wasn’t the kind of forced sacrifice she hated; it was purely voluntary.

Voluntary sacrifice... there was nothing wrong with that, right? It wasn’t a slap in the face.

The familiar taste of the wine awakened her distant memories, and the wind facing her carried a hint of redness, gradually restoring the soulful expression on her face.

"Everything is being arranged, I’ve already bid farewell to my subordinates, I won’t deal with these affairs anymore, they all understand," Dan Shuang said: "We are still reorganizing. By tomorrow, we will disseminate the truth of the matters, along with the Talent Awakening Formation, first thing. You all are heroes of the Continent, we remember that."

"Including Holy Initiation?"

"Of course, why not?"

"I thought that to hide your embarrassment, you’d forcibly alter history as the victors, painting Holy Initiation as the big villain," Su Ming’an said with a smile: "Such things are all too common."

"We did indeed lose to him, both strategically and in terms of the bigger picture," Dan Shuang said, gripping the wine jug irritably: "...but I have to admit, both you and that guy are terrifyingly great."

"I’m not great," Su Ming’an said.

"You’re great."

"I’m not," Su Ming’an said.

Seeing the girl’s irritation, he thought for a moment and added:

"You should have noticed, Hui Shuhang noticed too, I’m just a successor, a passerby. The truly great ones are already dead, like Holy Initiation, they died before the final victory."

Dan Shuang smiled.

As she smiled, the wine jug made a clear tinkling sound.

"—Then how are you different from Qin Wang?"

Su Ming’an fell silent for a moment.

"Pioneers are indeed great, but their achievements can easily be lost in the long river of history, or be exploited by the intentional... Those who refine and pass it down, witnessing the future of the entire Continent, also have an indispensable role," Dan Shuang said, her chin propped up, looking at the people below diligently rebuilding: "Like me, I also don’t think I’m not great. For the sake of the whole world, confining myself, I feel like I’m about to die of greatness."

"You’re very direct."

"I’m straightforward." Dan Shuang looked at him, "I don’t think our journey has been worthless. Everyone who has worked for the future of the whole Continent, whether they are alive or have sacrificed themselves, whether their contributions are significant or trivial, all of us are great people."

"—Of course, I have to admit." She immediately added, "The three of us are a bit greater than the rest."

She laughed, then suddenly stopped, "Are you going to drink or not? My arm is getting tired."

Su Ming’an glanced at the wine jug she was holding, "I don’t drink."

"No way, you are drinking!" Dan Shuang slammed his shoulder with a force like a bear; she seemed somewhat drunk, her tone carrying a bear-child-like wilfulness, "If you don’t drink, I won’t transmit the results, and you can forget about anyone singing at your graves."

Su Ming’an sighed, took the wine jug, wiped the mouth of the bottle with a cloth strip, and then drank.

His obvious disdain made Dan Shuang very annoyed, but soon, something new caught her attention.

She turned her head and saw the sky filled with beautiful fireworks.

It seemed to celebrate the take down of the Regular Army; the night sky suddenly lit up with brilliance.

The fireworks exploded in a star sea amidst cheers suddenly erupting from the crowd.

Stars surrounding, fire glittering, the daylight in the light and shadow merged, making the entire darkness as bright as day.

Her gaze froze in the sky full of fireworks, still holding the remnants of the light spots when her eyes shifted away.

She heard the cheers of the people, all kinds of cheering voices, although not clear, but she could feel the almost tangible joy emanating from those ragged-dressed individuals.

In these people, she saw the shadow of herself as a child.

"...It’s beautiful."

Her eyes were slightly sore:

"...Really worth all the effort we put into saving this world."

Below the cascade of light, for an instant, there was a dreamlike sense of voidness.

As she watched this scene, she felt that even the cold wind today was scorching, and even the usually stable wine jug was gradually becoming hard to hold.

Under the splendid cascade of light, she turned to see two extremely bright points remain in her vision, just like his eyes.

Then, she felt it, a sudden heaviness pressing down upon her.

She suddenly realized, and then vomited gorgeously.

As if all the burdens were suddenly lifted, when facing the Sage Master she once respected, her words were remarkably straightforward:

"I’ll be damned... you really don’t lie; just one sip and down I go!

—Get up, hurry up, for God’s sake, I don’t want to carry you back in the middle of the night..."

The bursting fireworks exploded.

Swirling tails of light, like fierce birds dancing in the sky, brought waves of piercing sounds cutting through the air.

The people rebuilding their homes on the Wasteland looked up.

Under the blue-purple starry river, the white warblers followed a line and went far away, gradually merging with the light.

The High Tower collapsed, the glass shattered.

The sky they gazed at was now brilliantly illuminated.

[(TE·After the Wasteland): "No one is born to be sacrificed."

—And we all are the future.

Above the Wasteland, rebirth anew.

And the future, like a gentle breeze, belongs to all living people.

All happiness is now within reach.]