Chapter 189: Everyone Has Secrets

Everyone Has Secrets

Reality. An uninhabited zone in some unknown province or city.

A bright moon hung in the sky, stars shifting, flickering on and off.

It was already deep into the night. The vast wilderness was utterly devoid of human presence; only a campfire crackled and popped in this silent night, adding a touch of warm vitality to the ink-cold picture of the moonlit scene.

Looking more closely now, one would discover that beside this burning fire sat three people — only the distance between the three was somewhat far; without focusing one's attention, these three figures seemed to have already melted into the night.

"Why didn't Lin Lin Renyu come?"

"Damn if I know. Probably dead."

"He didn't go lick that lord's boots again, did he? Are we waiting or not?"

"Damn it, like hell we're waiting. Coming or not, I'll say it first.

Finish early, sleep early.

Last round I ran into the Blind Woman. She said the prophecy had already come true — damn it, still one step too late.

How the hell is this dog-shit future so hard to find?"

"I told you long ago, there's no future stealing food from a swindler.

Setting that aside, 【Life】 got a new player, momentum's fierce, never seen them before — surname Hu, called Hu Xuan.

This person got their hands on a 【Birth】 brand somehow, hasn't stepped onto the proper path yet, but should be soon.

When you see them, give them a wide berth. If you fall, don't blame me for not warning you."

"Damn, when does a good thing like this ever land on me?

Old Hu, why are you as quiet as a gourd today? Say something?"

"The prophecy was fake. Got played by Did Zhen Yi. Bad luck. That's that."

"?"

"Damn, didn't I just say so."

A gust of cold wind swept through, scattering the three figures at once, snuffing out the campfire, and blowing the night back into cold silence.

Unknown. An unknown world.

The instant Bai Fei opened her eyes, she discovered she was floating in midair; everywhere her gaze reached was reality endlessly collapsing.

Boundless matter crumbled into ash, pouring down thunderously like a waterfall, gathering in the abyss-like shadowed place beneath her feet, and then rolling into the unknown void.

Destruction — cyclical, unending — occurred in every corner.

Bai Fei's gaze sharpened at the sight of all this, and immediately afterward, the brightest, most radiant smile bloomed across her face.

【Annihilation】!

The Patron had summoned her.

As expected, her offering had taken effect!

He had finally noticed her, and pulled her out from the tribunal of 【Order】.

And this was also her first time beholding a god!

She did not know where He was, but she did know:

【Annihilation】 is everywhere!

At this moment, as a fortunate soul summoned by a 【Divine Being】, Bai Fei ought to have expressed her piety appropriately.

But her temperament, cold as a glacier, made her unable to "face-to-face" speak such flattering words.

And so the scene continued in silence...

Until a heavy sigh emanated from deep within this world that was ceaselessly annihilating.

"Sigh..."

Bai Fei's body tensed; her consciousness was flung out of this world, back into reality.

Why did He sigh?

That was the final question she pondered before her awareness blurred.

Reality. A laboratory in some unknown province or city.

A withered hand picked up a notebook from the lab bench, and then another, plump hand tremblingly took up a pen and crossed out several names in the notebook.

Li Zhi.

Zhou Songming.

Wang Wang Weijin.

Yan Chun.

The owner of these two hands looked at the names, shook his head, and sighed bitterly.

"Tough, tough. Too many of the recent samples have died.

Time to bring in some fresh blood."

Saying so, he set down the notebook covered in slashes, and limped over to a massive transparent experimental container.

He used the long, curled nail on his plump hand to gently slice open his own temple, then slowly drew out a wisp of murky orb of light and tossed it into the container.

The instant this orb of light scattered in, the human body floating inside the container suddenly opened its eyes.

"You're awake. Do you still remember who you are?"

"I...

My name is... I..."

"You are Yan Chun, a warrior of Him."

"Yan... Chun, a warrior of... Him."

Yan Chun's dull, vacant eyes stared at this stranger before her — both young and aged — mechanically repeating the words from her mouth.

Reality. A residential home in some unknown province or city.

The moment Li Ziran opened his eyes, he looked toward the bed before him.

On that soft bed lay a little girl with a pale complexion. Seeing her brother return, she instantly forced back the tears in her eyes and struggled to pull a brave smile onto her face.

But the damp streak on the pillow was still seen by Li Ziran.

Or rather, the traces of those tears were too large to conceal at all — anyone who saw them would guess what had just happened.

In the past, seeing this scene, Li Ziran with his 1400 points had no choice but to weep along.

But today was different.

There was not a trace of sorrow in his eyes; his face was written full of a hope he hadn't seen in ages. He threw himself onto the bed, grabbed his sister's hand, and shouted excitedly:

"I got it! A-Jing, I got it!

The Past Prosperity!

It's the Past Prosperity! You can be saved! A-Jing, you can be saved!"

He cheered and leaped for joy, but before he'd howled twice he suddenly stopped his excited actions and, with a tense face, took out from his personal space......

Two bottles of potion.

Each bottle of Past Prosperity only had half left — as for where the other half had been used......

The answer was, naturally, on himself.

In order to safely bring these medicines back to reality, during those three days Li Ziran had played the role of an utterly unremarkable vagrant in this city brimming with a thirst for knowledge.

He mixed in among a crowd of "lower people" who begged for a living, cautiously counting the hours as the days passed, and at the very last moment stabbed himself, to verify the effect and authenticity of these potions.

He didn't even dare to harm a single vagrant, fearing that the trial's end judgment might raise new complications.

Finally, heaven did not fail the diligent — he cleared the trial smoothly and brought back over a dozen bottles of potion.

When his trembling hands held the potions and poured them one by one into his sister's mouth, watching the power of 【Memory】 flow through her body, feeling the power of 【Prosperity】 spread across her — at that moment, Li Ziran's tears fell like rain.

"A-Jing! You're healed! A-Jing! You're better! You're better!!"

A-Jing clutched her brother tightly, feeling her limbs could move again, and sobbed beyond words.

"Brother! Brother!! Wah—"

This pitiful Miss had, once again, gained the right to make a sound.

The two embraced and wept, crying for a long time, until A-Jing, heart aching, grabbed her brother's hand and said between sobs:

"Brother, this round must have been really hard......

For A-Jing's sake, you've suffered......"

Hard?

Playing a vagrant was indeed very hard — they stank terribly.

Suffering?

Begging for a living was indeed very bitter — even the food was spoiled.

Li Ziran didn't know how to explain his good fortune to his sister. He thought for a long time, then decided to let his sister figure it out on her own.

So he took out that small pouch of Past Prosperity and dumped it all onto the bed.

Watching over a dozen bottles of Grade-A potions dumped onto the bed by her brother like a street vendor unloading goods, A-Jing was dumbfounded.

Her first thought was that her illness had not actually healed — that the hope of being healed had simply been so overwhelming as to produce an unbelievable hallucination.

"It's fake, right? You're lying to me, right, Brother?!"

Li Ziran heard these words and laughed helplessly.

"Setting aside whether these potions are fake or not, I have indeed said that exact line before.

You may not believe it when I say it, but although your brother only has 1400 points, he can also be considered someone who's played in the peak-ranked match......"

Reality. A street in some unknown province or city.

The city's starry sky was far from as brilliant as the wilderness's; the overcast night felt even more oppressive in these increasingly difficult trials.

And where there is oppression, there must naturally be release.

So, in this midnight hour after the vast majority of players had fallen asleep, a piercing shriek came from the street.

The sound was like a wild cat in heat — shrill and sharp — instantly shattering the peace of the entire block.

A few minutes later, lights flickered on in a few of the buildings on either side of the street, and shouts and curses rose one after another.

"Damned Zhang Zhang Ruyu, keep yowling and see if Laozi doesn't kill you!

You really think my gun's got no bullets, do you!?"

This roar came from a big fellow on the sixth floor. He shoved open the window and cursed for a while, then stormed furiously back into the room, pulled out a submachine gun, and squeezed the trigger at the street below as if venting.

"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—"

However, the gunfire not only failed to silence the catcalls, it made the wild cat in the shadows yowl even more happily.

"......"

"......"

The surrounding neighbors could stand no more and began offering their "friendly advice."

"I say, brother, give it up — you do this every single night, it's useless."

"Hey, the one in heat, why are you yowling so weakly today? All worn out?"

"Heh, I saw it long ago — that guy on the sixth floor opposite must be in love with this siren, otherwise why would he reward her every night?"

"I love your mother!"

"Mm, she is my mother!"

"I'll f*** your mother! Rat-tat-tat-tat—"

"Meow~Aaow~~"

The night was deep as water, and the spring air brimmed with vitality.