I told him

System: [But I don't know what the point is. Although it's offensive, most hosts won't care about the original owner's wishes. They are already dead, and missions, to them—are just a comfort. There's no fairness to it.]

"...There is essentially no difference between one life and another." Xu Shiqing didn't know how to explain the weight of life to a string of data.

He and the original owner had never met before. Without the system, there was no chance of their encounter. Even with the mission, their encounter was only brief. But his soul and his body had already been connected.

Xu Shiqing inherited Xu Shiqing's body, and Xu Shiqing inherited Xu Shiqing's soul at this moment. Without words or a meeting, they shared the same soul and body at this moment.

When a person dies in front of his eyes, he has a sense of mission in his heart, an obligation to prove to others that his life exists.

"This is human nature." Xu Shiqing finally told the system.

[It's profound, I don't understand.] System 021 said it concisely, but after a moment, he added thoughtfully, [But I may understand why the system assists the host's activities.]

We can indeed collect a lot of samples from you.

The sun is setting. Xu Shiqing destroyed the entire institute, but this is just one. It still exists in other places, just like the sun will rise again tomorrow.

He thought of those experimental subjects, most of whom stopped breathing the moment they left the nutrition chamber, and Xu Shiqing did not find any individuals similar to himself.

[The rest of your life is yours.] The system asks, [What do we do next?]

Xu Shiqing narrowed his eyes. The pile of rubble was not so harsh because it was covered with ice and snow. He looked at the figure slowly approaching.

"Perhaps, there's no need to think about it?"

[What?] 021 froze for a moment, then re-accepted the information flow and screamed, [Why is the protagonist here?!]

…

When Gu Yi arrived at the scene, clutching a large bunch of daisies, a blue "ocean" was dazzling under the rosy glow of the sunset. In the center of the waves, a young man sat up, a cold ice cone already in front of him, ready to strike.

He was exhausted.

This is the conclusion Gu Yi came to.

He was an escaped experimental subject.

This is the reality that Gu Yi saw.

The two men confronted each other across an ice cone. After a long time, Gu Yi showed friendliness first. He took a step back and noticed that the boy's eyes fell on the bouquet in his arms. Inexplicably, perhaps because of the visible wounds on his body, he pulled out a white daisy and gently placed it on the slightly trembling ice cone.

He was stunned by this kindness.

After a long while, Gu Yi heard him say in a hoarse voice: "...I am, Xu Shiqing."

The original owner had 'stolen' the name from a researcher, his name.

"Gu Yi, my name."

The protagonist of the world replied to him.

So, the story begins.

…

A white daisy, a piece of kindness.

Xu Shiqing thought that Gu Yi had thus proved the nobility of his soul and his still intact heart of compassion.

And it was already the seventh year of the apocalypse, a year in which almost everyone admitted that they deserved to go to hell, a world in which everyone acknowledged and practiced the dark law of the jungle, everything belonging to civilization was easily covered by barbarism, and morality and ethics were in jeopardy.

He was fed up with the indifference of the people chatting and laughing in the laboratory, the experimental subjects beside him whose necks were casually cut off, their stomachs ripped open and all their organs taken out to be made into specimens or something else -

They deserve to be punished by being skinned and tormented in hell for their crimes.

Xu Shiqing unconsciously raised his eyes to look at the bouquet of daisies on the table, which were as pure white as when he first saw them.

That was the first ray of hope.