Chapter 139: The End — Humanity's Gravestone

Crack-crack-crack-crack!

The severed blue-steel head tumbled to the ground, an unknown blue liquid flowing from the broken opening. The battered mechanical body collapsed to one side, twisted parts scattered across the floor.

The base seemed to have been through a great battle — a scene of utter devastation, with electric sparks flashing wildly from the side.

"Calculation error — accidental factor leading to — extremely low probability event. —"

A broken, intermittent mechanical voice came from the chest cavity.

Ding Mo, wearing his mask, stood to one side; the cold mask, covered in cracks, revealed no expression at all.

Buzz-buzz!

The Destroyer's head, fallen on the ground, suddenly gathered one last piercing laser and shot it straight at Ding Mo's face!

But just like before — blocked by the mask!

The powerful laser struck the mask, but split into several beams as if hitting a prism, scattering outward and leaving several scorched-black holes in the ceiling behind Ding Mo's head.

And after withstanding this strike, the already crack-covered mask on Ding Mo's face gained yet another obvious crack.

Crack!

The pale mask shattered completely, dissolving into the air and revealing Ding Mo's young face.

This is one of the abilities of this "Prince Mask":

Death Substitution!

As the name suggests, all damage he receives is transferred to this mask. And before the mask shatters, theoretically nothing can harm him.

So, under this strike, he suffered no damage at all.

Meanwhile, the Destroyer, after this, finally could hold on no longer — the crimson glow of its single eye dimmed.

"—Bzzt-bzzt-bzzt—" The comms in his ear recovered as well. After issuing one order, Ding Mo stepped over blood that nearly carpeted the floor and left the place.

Boarding the aircraft carrier whose control had been recovered, several hundred kilometers away from the site.

As several shadows dropped at high speed from the clouds, several beams of intense light erupted behind them along with mushroom clouds — unprecedentedly powerful radiation and shockwaves raising towering waves—

Daning City, atop a tall building.

Having just landed, Ding Mo stood up and gazed down at this sediment-laden city, his thoughts drifting without end.

It took a full year, but the world was finally quiet.

He had gone city by city, country by country, clearing out these "Emulators" one by one.

Even though most of the time he didn't need to act personally — the "Faceless One" legion was more than enough to handle it — destroying that last military base still took over a year.

Now it had been over a year since he last returned to this city.

However, because his objective had been achieved, he had just now dismissed the existence of the "Faceless One" legion.

They had all vanished.

The desolate city, silent and still, seemed to be mourning in silence for its departed master.

Ding Mo let out a long breath and turned around.

At that moment, a passenger plane in the sky, as if out of control, plummeted down and crashed through two tall buildings.

That was the plane Ding Mo had taken to return here, but because landing was too troublesome and the Faceless Ones had disappeared, with no one operating it, the plane had ended up like this.

In the past, this would have been a major event worthy of human remembrance. But now, it no longer mattered.

Ding Mo unhurriedly went downstairs.

In this world, there were no more humans to remember anything. Time had lost its civilization—

Soon, he arrived at the outskirts of the city, at the pharmaceutical factory.

In a certain room within the core building, A Chu and the others were eating hot pot; Ding Mo pushed the door open and entered.

The rich aroma made Ding Mo twitch his nose.

"You're back, Ding Mo." A Chu waved at him.

Ding Mo glanced at the wax figures of his parents, standing clean and upright in the corner of the room, then was pulled to a seat by Zheng Qingyao.

"Don't rush — sit down and have some beef! This is wild beef — Gao Yue just caught it!" Zheng Qingyao said with a smile.

They were very warm toward Ding Mo, and the reason was none other than this:

During this past year, while destroying the "human world," Ding Mo had also had people analyze A Chu and the others' bodies, helping them extend their lifespans.

After all, the bizarre erosion they suffered shared the same origin as Ding Mo's power, so helping them prolong their lives wasn't as difficult as one might imagine.

In fact, if Ding Mo wished, he could grant them theoretically infinite bodily lifespans.

However, whether their consciousness could endure several hundred years of time was unknown. After all, no one had lived that long — Ding Mo included.

It was just that after doing this, there was no longer any need to maintain the lives of those few people in the medical room. At A Chu's suggestion, they stopped keeping them on that last breath and let those who should have died long ago finally rest.

—A moment later, after a few rounds of drinks, Ding Mo set down his chopsticks.

Seeing this, A Chu and the others exchanged glances and all said:

"Do you need our help?"

"... —Thank you, but no need."

Ding Mo rose silently and looked at the wax figures in the corner.

Even now, he could not resurrect the dead—

Qingting Mountain Range, Qingting Mountain.

This was a tall mountain right next to Daning City, and the highest mountain in the surrounding area. Surrounded by peaks, with a long history — long before Daning City even existed, it had stood here for a thousand years or more. One could say it gathered all the spiritual essence of ancient time upon itself.

In modern times, it was also one of the most famous tourist attractions in the area; Daoist temples and immortal shrines built across the ages sat upon the mountain, magnificent and imposing.

But now, those Daoists had all "ascended" as well.

Carrying his "parents" on his back, Ding Mo arrived at the spot with the best feng shui on the mountain, set the two elders down, and turned his head to look.

From this place, the entire Daning City could be taken in at a single glance!

Leaning against the great mountain, among the ancient trees, after burying the two elders with dignity, Ding Mo fetched a boulder several meters tall and erected a tombstone on the spot.

And at the very end of the tombstone, he carved a line of large characters:

"The last 'person' of this world, erected by their child!"

Creak, creak—the carved stone rubbed on, the characters gradually becoming clear.

Although biologically speaking, he was no longer considered a person, in terms of cognition, he still possessed a "human heart."

In a certain sense, he could be considered a "person."

After setting the two tombstones upright and carefully carving every stroke of the inscription, the sky had already darkened.

Ding Mo simply sat before the tombstones, keeping vigil for his parents.

A night passed.

At dawn, dew dampened Ding Mo's collar as he stood up. The morning sun fell upon the stone tablets, the characters upon them clearly visible.

"Dad, Mom, your son has already set this world right—can you rest in peace now—"

Ding Mo murmured to himself for a while, but no one answered. This was the most important reason he had destroyed this "human world"! Otherwise, with his parents, relatives, and friends all dead, and nothing in this world worth lingering over, why would he have stayed here, spending over a year to utterly destroy the original culprits?

It would have been meaningless—even if everything were destroyed, it couldn't bring anyone back.

So beyond revenge, he simply wanted to give his parents a peaceful world, a world without clamor, where they could rest, where they could slumber quietly in this place forever.

And no "thing" would come to disturb them.

Nothing more than that.

·—After a long while, Ding Mo was just about to turn and leave. But turning around, he saw A Chu and the others had appeared behind him.

A Chu, Zheng Qingyao, and Gao Yue, the three of them holding wildflowers picked from who knows where, nodded at Ding Mo.

"..."—Ding Mo silently stepped aside.

A breeze lifted the tips of their hair, carrying the scent of flowers.

The three placed the wildflowers before the tombstones, brought wine and food, and sat with Ding Mo before the tombstones, chatting.

The warmth of the morning sun parted the fresh air the grass had produced overnight, turning it into mountain mist that lingered beside the tombstones, serene and profound.

After chatting for a while, A Chu suddenly set down his chopsticks and spoke:

"Ding Mo, are you going back to the Processing Bureau?"

At this question, the air instantly fell silent. Zheng Qingyao and Gao Yue, who had been teasing each other nearby, also looked over, seemingly quite concerned about this as well.

"I—" For a moment, Ding Mo didn't know how to answer, and finally could only raise his head and say:

"Aren't you planning to go back?"

Hearing this, the three exchanged flickering glances, and in the end it was Zheng Qingyao who sighed and said:

"Although that is the world we were born in, that world is far too dangerous. Since the dangers here have already been cleared away by you—

"If we start over in this world, perhaps—"

As Zheng Qingyao spoke, she stole a glance at A Chu beside her. The latter's masculine face brought a faint blush to this young girl's cheeks. "Starting over, perhaps it's not so bad—"

"Mm." A Chu didn't notice this at all, just smiled and said:

"We—don't really want to go back. Ding Mo, you could stay here too, like us."

Silence, like ancient stone in the early morning. Ding Mo gave no response. Seeing this, A Chu just smiled and didn't press further, instead eating on his own.

The clatter of chopsticks drilled into his ears, then slipped away unnoticed.

Ding Mo sat on the ground, silently turning his head to gaze at Daning City shrouded in the morning mist in the distance—

The Daning City storyline ends here, and this book can only go this far.

Everyone, if fate allows, may we meet again.

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