Chapter 155: Named

(Originally this chapter's content was appended to the previous chapter, godparents, please scroll up.)

In the shattered world, Zhang Jie watched the figure in his arms slowly fade, his heart filled with sorrow.

"You personally killed Yu Xiaomo and voluntarily handed over the Genesis Permit, which is useless to you, to Bai Zhou. As for what you want to do yourself, no one would probably understand."

"But you merely wanted your death not to be so... boring."

"How sad... how sad..."

"A tragic calamity, an illusory oddity, the Nameless Legend of the Real World."

"Is doing all this really worth it?"

"Another mysterious being questioned him; the Nameless Legend's heart was filled with grief, but this was his fate, and he could not defy it."

"I am not human, nor am I a calamity."

"I am an anomaly of the False World; in reality... there is no harbor where I can stay..."

"Zhang Jie gave a bitter smile; the collapsing world around him mirrored his current mood."

"He had no parents, born as a foster child from a machine cultivation vat, an inhuman, non-nightmare anomaly."

"Perhaps he once truly had parents and a family like anyone else, but all of that was a lie."

"In his mind surfaced the embarrassed expression of his parents confessing the truth; thinking of being unable to endure his mother's call as he left, Zhang Jie grew ever more silent."

"Interesting! Interesting!"

"What made you choose this path, little thing forcibly crowned with the name of legend?"

"Yet another mysterious being posed a question to you, his tone full of teasing, seemingly very interested in your choice."

"Give up being human, choose to become a Nightmare; give up living in the False World, choose to bear the legend's name alone."

"Even though you are not a leader in this life, why do you still make such a choice?"

"Who are you then? What does my choice have to do with you?"

"This is my own choice."

"Even if everyone forgets me?"

"Even if everyone forgets me."

"How interesting; as a reward for answering these boring questions, I'll give you a little surprise."

"Don't thank me; this is what you deserve."

"The world shattered, and the Ultimate Game World completely vanished."

"Come out."

"With a single sentence, in the surrounding void, countless Nightmares were dragged from various Dream Worlds in, looking bewildered, and then controlled while still bewildered."

"This action, however, dragged all the Nightmares of the entire universe into the Dream Realm, nearly causing the Dream Realm Synesthesia System to collapse from overload."

"The familiar twisted Nightmare calamity appeared, the space filled to the brim, all of them Nightmares under Zhang Jie's control."

"After this battle, the world will have no Nightmares left."

"Zhang Jie muttered to himself, gathering endless Nightmares together to form a colossal twisted monster."

"His eyes deep, he seemed to see Bai Zhou, who had obtained the Genesis Permit, using it to arm the remaining humans, then fully resisting his own image."

"Against the entire world."

"This too was Zhang Jie's final madness."

"His, the most lavish, most tragic, most grandiose funeral."

"He would bury the whole world with him!"

"Dream Management Bureau."

"At this moment, Bai Zhou, who had obtained the Genesis Permit, was like a god, continually reviewing the database of the Dream Realm Synesthesia Device."

"In an instant, he sensed a massive influx of cosmic-level IPs entering the world; without a doubt, this was Zhang Jie exerting his strength."

"What he is doing now is trying to find a way to restore humans killed by Nightmares."

"But unfortunately, those turned into blanks are no longer in this world; Bai Zhou could never find them, no matter what."

"However, even if they cannot be found, it's fine."

"The Genesis Permit can do much more."

"The next moment, a huge number of virtual account IPs were created, and what's more astonishing is that all of these virtual accounts are of god-tier level."

"Bai Zhou looked at tens of thousands of virtual accounts and frowned."

"The server was filled to capacity, unable to hold more data."

"I don't know if this is enough."

"Bai Zhou seemed to sense something, gazing into the distance, locking eyes across space with Zhang Jie in another realm, and seemed to see the smile on Zhang Jie's lips."

"The news that Bai Zhou had obtained the Genesis Permit spread, and the official also issued an announcement of an impending war against vast Nightmares, prompting much speculation."

"The next day, countless Nightmares invaded the Dream Realm, like an apocalypse, while Bai Zhou distributed the tens of thousands of god-tier accounts he had created to civilians; humanity and the Nightmares launched a world-shocking epic war, vast numbers of humans with god-tier accounts were turned into blanks, the world population dropped from 6.1 billion to 5.3 billion, but the Nightmares are endless, impossible to eradicate."

"Four months later, the world population fell to 4 billion; as the Nightmare King, Zhang Jie was attacked by many players wielding Genesis equipment, but none succeeded."

"Six months later, the world population dropped to 3.1 billion; Bai Zhou, who held the Genesis Permit, confronted the Nightmare King in an unprecedented struggle, the Dream World bearing countless Dream Builders' efforts continually collapsing; each time a game world vanished, a large number of Nightmares were deleted simultaneously, and the numbers of both humans and Nightmares were sharply declining."

"In the eighth month, administrators of the game worlds appeared, cooperating with the Dream Management Bureau to jointly resist the Nightmares; they destroyed large numbers of Nightmares in their respective domains, human morale surged for a time, but the situation remained far from optimistic."

"In the twelfth month, all the defense lines humanity had built in the Dream World collapsed entirely; human numbers sharply declined again, dropping to 1.3 billion, but because those killed become blanks, humanity's fighting spirit remained high, yet this also hastened their extinction."

"In the fourteenth month, under the endless onslaught of Nightmares, humanity entered the countdown to extinction...."

"In the fifteenth month, all game administrators died, and humanity had no power left to resist."

"In the same month, the Ultimate Player Bai Zhou waged a near-year-long war against the Nightmare King, being slowly worn to death by the endless Nightmares; thus, the last human perished completely."

"Bai Zhou died, all humanity perished; before his death, he used the Genesis Permit to initiate the apocalypse protocol, all data began formatting, and the Dream World together with 'reality' continually vanished."

In a world of emptiness, the Nightmare trapped here kept wailing, frantically scrambling, but no matter how also could not find a way to leave this place.

The nightmares' data were erased one after another, their unwilling wails eventually fading into nothing but void.

At this moment, Zhang Jie sat upon a throne floating in the void, watching these wailing nightmares with an expressionless face.

He ate a skewer of grilled lamb, took a swig of beer, and gazed vacantly at the can in his hand.

The can was exquisitely packaged, the drink hard to swallow, while the lamb skewers were lightly charred and tasted just right.

Everything seemed real, but could their taste really be like this?

This question will never have an answer.

"I really wish I could taste a real-world lamb skewer..."

Zhang Jie muttered to himself, watching the surrounding space continually dissipate.

The throne was crumbling, the meat in his mouth had somehow lost its flavor, and his data had begun to be deleted.

In a daze, Zhang Jie recalled the past—a day not so ordinary—when Yu Xiaomo had posed the question: What would his future ideal be?

His answer back then was to create a game world with infinite possibilities, but now it seems... that wish may never be fulfilled.

He had once pondered in his spare time how the game should exist, what gameplay should dominate, and whether it should be more realistic—but none of that mattered anymore.

Humanity had perished, but Zhang Jie knew they had merely gone to another world, one he could never reach.

That was a better game world—more real than Dream Online, harsher than Dream Online, yet still offering infinite possibilities, infinite playstyles, and infinite limits.

And this game world was called: 'Reality'.

It was true reality.

"Simulation Ended"