Chapter 304: Since It

Amber swallowed the red fruit, slowly closed her eyes, her breath gradually steadied, and she fell into deep sleep.

Wu Chang waited on the rooftop for a while; seeing no sign of Amber waking, he took her and left first.

Of course, he didn't forget to take Grace and Mark with him when he left.

When the rooftop monster revealed its faceless ghost form, the two had fainted from sheer terror and now slept deeper than Amber.

He shoved all three into Mark's car and drove them back to Grace's house first.

He parked the car on Grace's driveway, left Mark in the driver's seat, and placed Grace in the backseat.

That way, when Grace's parents searched for her, they would immediately notice it was Mark who had taken her out to sneak away.

Grace was fine in every way except that she was reckless—left unsupervised, there was nothing she wouldn't do; this personality would eventually backfire, and her parents needed to give her some serious discipline.

As for the cross around her neck, Wu Chang merely glanced at it and did not take it.

It wasn't because his moral standards were so high that he refused to take things belonging to others.

Without exaggeration, a treasure like Tai Chu Ling Shu was worth any effort to obtain—even if that meant exploiting Grace's fondness for him, trading a lollipop for her worthless silver pendant.

But the problem was, once he obtained the cross, he couldn't use it.

Like the Ri Xian Yin, when he took possession of Grace's cross, no item description appeared before his eyes.

He tried having the Omniscent Crystal directly consume it, but the crystal showed no reaction—it desired the cross, yet not the cross itself.

Only after communicating with the Omniscient Crystal did he learn that Grace's cross was merely a gateway to the lingering Tai Chu Ling Shu within the instance plane, not the artifact itself possessing Tai Chu Ling Shu.

When mentioned, the Tai Chu Ling Shu within the instance plane caused the Omniscient Crystal to unusually activate, telling Wu Chang much.

Its general meaning was that the cursed instance plane contained a massive quantity of Tai Chu Ling Shu—at least five times the amount in the Ri Xian Yin.

These primordial energies gathered in one place, unused and unclaimed, only attracted and bound to certain objects by chance.

Like Grace's cross.

The Omniscent Crystal had already memorized the aura of Tai Chu Ling Shu within the cross; as long as it came close enough to that cluster of Tai Chu Ling Shu, it could locate it.

When speaking of that unused cluster of Tai Chu Ling Shu, Wu Chang could almost picture the Omniscent Crystal's emotionless electronic voice imagining a drooling pervert's expression.

That uncontrolled excitement, capable of shattering the Omniscent Crystal's absolute rationality, proved the immense value of that cluster of Tai Chu Ling Shu.

Even the Omniscient Crystal was astonished by the concentration of Tai Chu Ling Shu within the cursed instance plane.

According to it, if this world were left to grow freely, it could ascend to the Abyss Fourth Layer.

After returning Grace and Mark, Wu Chang took Amber back to No. 26 Flower Garden Street.

He placed Amber on the master bed, and Wu Chang and Ai Lin stood guard beside her, waiting until midnight, when Amber suddenly sat up with a scream.

Ai Lin wiped the sweat from Amber's forehead with a Mao Jin and asked, "Another nightmare?"

Amber nodded, then shook her head.

"It was a nightmare, but different from the ones before."

Wu Chang asked from beside her, "Is it related to the red fruit you ate last?"

Hearing Wu Chang mention the red fruit from the old classroom building, Amber's expression grew complex—a mix of fear and relief, laced with a fatalistic "better dead than suffer" resignation.

"That red fruit contained my past."

Wu Chang had already anticipated Amber's answer.

From Frank's resentment, he had seen the faceless ghost extract many things from Amber's body—her emotions, and other things he couldn't identify.

Combined with the faceless ghost's later actions, it wasn't hard to deduce those additional things included Amber's memories.

He knew that if he pretended nothing had happened, took out the warm dinner, and said, "Let's eat first," Amber might pretend ignorance and let the matter slide.

He also knew that pressing further might cause irreversible harm to Amber.

But he still asked, "Don't you want to remember those memories?"

He trusted Amber—he believed that when she swung her first uppercut at the faceless ghost, she had already resolved to face her inner demon.

The child had made her choice; as a guardian, he had to choose to believe.

Amber took a deep breath, sorted through her chaotic thoughts, and after fifteen minutes of silence, she spoke with the openness of someone confessing everything, describing her entanglement with the faceless ghost.

The story began with her second foster family.

At the time, she had a younger brother; like her, he was an orphan adopted by their foster parents.

The foster parents treated them well; under their care, the four unrelated individuals gradually became a true family.

Just as life improved, an accident struck without warning.

Her brother, who loved thrills and horror, wanted to explore the legendary old classroom building.

As his older sister, she didn't recognize the danger and followed him inside, even all the way to the rooftop.

She forgot how dangerous the old building was—students often fell and got injured inside—and neglected to watch over her brother.

When she came to her senses, she saw him fall from the rooftop.

Here, Amber covered her face and sobbed; Ai Lin immediately pulled her into her arms, comforted her for a while, until the girl emerged from that painful memory.

Amber sniffled and said, "I couldn't believe what I'd seen. I couldn't face the mistake I'd made. I wanted to jump too—to end it all."

"But at that moment, something split from within me. It said it could solve this problem for me."

"All I had to do was give it all my memories of my brother, and it could make his fall never have happened."

"I agreed—but things turned out nothing like I expected."

Amber agreed to the monster's demand, but her brother didn't come back to life—he vanished completely from this world, as if he had never existed.

Everyone forgot her brother, except her foster parents.

Her foster parents frantically searched for their missing adopted son, yet couldn't find even a single piece of evidence proving he had ever existed.

During the search, everyone thought they were insane; under external doubt and internal anguish, her foster mother fell gravely ill and died within half a year.

On the day of her foster mother's funeral, her foster father shot himself.

Amber witnessed the entire family collapse, but having forgotten everything, she didn't know what had happened.

As if overnight, her parents descended into madness over nonexistent family members and died.

The matter ended there, until Amber entered the old classroom building a second time with friends.

The Faceless Ghost returned that memory to her, then, while she was stunned by the recollection, killed her friend right before her eyes.

After completing all this, the Faceless Ghost approached Amber and presented her with another choice.

Leave with both memories, or give both memories to the Faceless Ghost and pretend nothing ever happened.

Amber could not accept that her adoptive parents and brother had died because of her, nor could she accept that her friend had died because of the monster she had created.

So she chose to flee once again.

The same script repeated itself again and again.

Whether it was fate's cruel joke or not, every time she felt things were improving, someone would suggest visiting the old classroom building.

And each time she failed to stop it, leading to tragedy; after the tragedy, unable to face the growing weight of her shameful past, she fled again and again.

Until today.

Amber poured out everything in one breath, as if shedding a heavy burden; she looked at Wu Chang and said:

"This is my connection to the monster in the old classroom building. Many have died because of me, yet I have cowardly survived by fleeing again and again."

"Because of my flight, they were completely consumed by the monster—no one remembers them, and those close to them suffer endlessly."

"As the monster said, I abandoned many things to live in peace, and harmed many. I am the one who least deserves to live, and the most unworthy of redemption."

Watching Amber degrade herself, Erin did not know how to comfort her; she could only bathe Amber in holy light to stabilize her spirit, and looked helplessly at Wu Chang.

Now that Wu Chang had identified the root of the demon, it was his turn to act. Coincidentally, he actually knew the answer.

"Amber, your brother—was his name Frank?"

Hearing Wu Chang's question, Amber snapped her head up, staring at him in disbelief.

After she abandoned the memories tied to her brother, no one in this world should have known that name.

"Xiao En, how do you know?"

Wu Chang paused, then quickly constructed a truthful lie.

"Didn't you ask me how I found you? I said I felt you needed me—but that wasn't entirely true. I was also guided by a soul."

"He called himself Frank and showed me his life before death. When he entered the second floor of the old classroom building, his body was already taken over by the vine monster; the proof is that after being controlled, he no longer searched classroom by classroom for the building's ghost, like Grace and the others—he went straight to the roof."

These words awakened Amber's memory; she recalled Frank's behavior on the day of the incident and froze, as if struck by lightning.

Wu Chang continued: "The monster controlled his body and faked a fall, making you believe it was your fault, to trap you."

!

"As for your choice to forget Frank—at least in the memories he showed me, the vine monster had already manipulated you the moment he fell from the roof. From the very beginning, you had no choice."

"He wanted me to help you—help you break free from the monster's grip."

This final statement was not Wu Chang's lie—it was indeed Frank's final lingering words.

The impact of this revelation on Amber was no less than when she regained all her memories.

She murmured: "So the monster on the roof… wasn't born from my own avoidance?"

Wu Chang said: "Of course not."

"And your so-called avoidance—I don't consider it an unforgivable sin. Never mind that you were already controlled by the monster; even without control, avoidance is normal."

"Not everyone is a hero. Even adults evade and compromise when faced with problems. You didn't lure people into the old classroom building—you didn't harm them. Why shoulder all the blame?"

Wu Chang sighed, stroking Amber's head, and said:

"Those who died because of the Faceless Ghost… I'm sure they wouldn't want… sorry, I shouldn't lie—I don't care what those people felt. From my own perspective, I don't think you committed an unforgivable sin."

"If anyone disagrees with my judgment, I'll speak to them myself."

Amber received too much information at once and was momentarily dazed.

"Sorry, my mind is chaotic. I need time."

She wanted to return alone to the attic, but as soon as she stood, Wu Chang pressed her back onto the bed.

"Aren't you living here already? Where else are you going?"

Amber met Wu Chang and Erin's gazes, and asked uneasily:

"After hearing all this, Xiao En, Erin—do you still want to stay with me?"

Wu Chang sighed and said: "Learn more from Grace—think less. Sometimes, it's better for your mental and physical health."

"Dinner's already ready. Now that it's come to this, eat first. Think about the past after you're full."

Amber had intended to avoid Wu Chang and Erin until she figured things out, but the hunger in her body and the faint aroma drifting from outside made her unable to hold out.

At this moment, she truly understood Wu Chang's words: anyone, when faced with problems, will compromise and flee.

People are iron, rice is steel—this is truth.

Over dinner, Wu Chang asked casually: "Amber, do you remember how old you were when it happened?"

Amber did not evade the question: "Many of the memories I merged are unclear, but I recall I was in second grade."

"Only second grade? Then it's even less your fault," Wu Chang said.

Second grade.

But in Frank's resentment, the Amber he showed was clearly in sixth grade.

Even without his ability, he could easily tell Amber was not lying.

Frank's resentment could not lie either.

It seemed Amber held many more mysteries waiting for him to uncover.

Under Wu Chang and Erin's persuasion, Amber spent two days reconciling with her past self—at least preliminarily.

Wu Chang knew Amber's mental state because of the information now appearing before him.

"You successfully protected Amber, uncovered the truth of that year, freed her from survivor's guilt, and enabled her to face her former cowardice in avoiding danger."

"You have gained partial approval from Amber. Amber's current approval rating for you is: 60 points."

"You have gained an additional 10% attribute liberation."

Wu Chang's current attribute panel is:

Health: 48

Strength: Base: 48 / True Self: 128

Agility: 33

Endurance: 36

Energy: Base: 154 / True Self: 91

Inspiration: 66

Willpower: 91

Gaining another 10% attribute liberation brought Wu Chang's attributes to 40% of their original state.

Especially the two primary attributes—Strength and Energy—due to the barrier of the Wasteland Realm, the current values even exceed 40% of the unrestricted state.

Who could have imagined that in a cursed instance where everyone's attributes were compressed to 10%, someone's single attribute could reach 154 points?

While marveling at his own attributes, Wu Chang looked at Amber's approval rating and realized once again that Amber still had two more troubles like the Faceless Shadow.

He wondered what Amber had done to attract so many troubles for herself.

Why not learn from Grace—take things more lightly?

That night, Grace and Mark were caught and received a stern scolding from their parents.

Later, Grace asked Amber what happened in the old classroom building; Amber claimed she drove off the monster with Grace's cross and called Wu Chang to rescue several people. Grace did not doubt it—her attention was entirely on whether Wu Chang had carried her in a bridal carry when he saved her.

Learn from them—let past events stay in the past; cherish what's before you.

As Wu Chang sighed, Amber and Ailin had already pushed their suitcases out of the master bedroom.

Amber said, "Xiao En, Grace and the others have arrived. We're leaving."

Since the incident in the old classroom building, Amber and Grace had applied for three days of leave; today was the last day.

Now was the time of year when sunlight in Sigef City was at its brightest—perfect for sunbathing. Conveniently, the seaside area lay in the city's northern district, far from the southern region engulfed in flames, making it ideal for people to visit the beach.

As a sporty girl, Grace seized the last day of her leave to invite Amber to a beach party.

She heard that Grace's mother, Mark's mother, several other students' mothers, and a few retired teachers from Knox Elementary would also be attending.

Wu Chang had wanted to join, but Amber said it was an all-ladies gathering and forbade him from attending, so he had Ailin accompany Amber instead.

As he saw them off, he noticed a car parked by the roadside; Grace, in the front passenger seat, rolled down her window and waved at Ailin and Amber, inviting Wu Chang to join them too.

Before Wu Chang could respond, Grace's mother, behind the wheel, gave her clumsy daughter a tap on the head.

Watching the four depart, Wu Chang shook his head—having a daughter like Grace was indeed no easy task.

Not being able to attend the beach party was fine anyway—he still had work to do.

He stretched, turned on the TV, and the news showed the latest progress of the Ised Mountain fire.

As the fire situation escalated over these two days, the local power brokers in Sigef City could no longer withstand the pressure and began to accept his terms.

At last night's press conference, the great philanthropist Mr. Peace had been appointed by the mayor as the head of the firefighting operation.

A philanthropist leading firefighting efforts might sound unreasonable—but in reality, it was extremely reasonable.

Because Wu Chang had publicly promised to cover all expenses for this firefighting operation.

In Sigef City, money was the law.

Fortunately, today he had gained Amber's approval and liberated another portion of his attributes.

Everything was in place. All that remained between philanthropist Mr. Peace and councilman Mr. Peace was for him to perform the ritual to summon rain and extinguish the mountain fire.

(End of Chapter)