Chapter 32: The Long Goodbye (Ending with an inverted V)

"You're so easy to guess," Li Ziyue said with a smile on his face. "There are so many hiding places in this house. Thanks to the fact that you and I share the same thinking pattern, I can guess that you would hide here without even thinking too much."

"Was it fun to guess my actions earlier? Were you happy when I followed your plan and fell into the trap?"

"I'm not happy at all," Li Ziyue narrowed his eyes, "but when I saw you struggling under me, I suddenly felt happy again. I'm rarely happy, thank you so much."

[Li Ziyue] was strangled and unable to speak. Breathing became increasingly difficult. Layers of snowflakes, like those on a black and white TV, appeared in front of his eyes.

"There is a six-year gap between you and me," Li Ziyue said coldly, "I remember every beating and injury I received in these six years."

"They take away all the edge and arrogance from me, if I were you, if I were in your free position."

Li Ziyue's eyes gradually turned red, so red that they emitted an abnormal golden light.

The light gradually expanded, and the heart of Li Ziyue under him suddenly tightened.

He looked at Li Ziyue in disbelief, who seemed to have suddenly become a stranger in front of him.

The golden light is an item from the system store. It can allow a person to rapidly increase his or her physical strength in a short period of time and become less afraid of pain.

However, there is always a trade-off, and this type of prop is classified as "borderline cheating", so the cost of using it is extremely high - it costs your life.

One minute of use will deduct one month of the player's life.

Infinite flow players have short lifespans, and those who can survive in a dungeon for ten years will be worshipped as gods. How many months do ordinary players have to spend the luxury of spending on this item?

Therefore, although this item does not restrict players from purchasing it, up to now, no more than five people have bought it.

[Li Ziyue] knew better than anyone how strong the man in front of him was in his desire to survive.

You hate me so much.

[Li Ziyue] His mind was wandering, with only this one thought swirling in his heart.

That’s great. I hate you too. We’re even now. I don’t have to suffer moral torture alone.

"First of all, I will be absolutely confident in the plan I have laid out. There will be more than one plan. I will design at least three escape routes, including success, failure, and unknown outcome. Secondly, I will not come here in such a dangerous way just for such a childish reason as to see the person I hate the most being hanged."

There was a loud thunderstorm outside, with lightning flashing between the clouds. The house was dimly lit, and the strong wind suddenly blew open the slightly opened window, and the whistling wind and sharp raindrops instantly cut through.

It soaked Li Ziyue's upper body.

The rain rolled down his face slowly, but he seemed unaware: "The biggest difference between you and me is that you are too crazy."

"It's hard to get rid of arrogance, especially when you are praised very highly and everyone looks up to you, arrogance will penetrate into your bones."

"It needs to be subjected to repeated bone-pulling punishments, needs to be trampled in the dirt countless times, needs to be loathed, despised, and ridiculed, needs to be reduced to a street rat that everyone shouts and beats, before this madness can be shed like a layer of skin being ground on the bones."

Ji Mingyun would not come to help. He positioned himself as the fisherman who watched the show while the snipe and the clam quarreled. At the moment, he was looking at the two Lis who were in a stalemate with comfort.

No matter who dies, it will only benefit him and not harm him.

However, Li Ziyue, who was originally on the winning side, suddenly shook and the hand that was pinching the person under him gradually relaxed.

He frowned, his vision blurred again, the whole scene seemed to be spinning rapidly, and the previous nausea came over him again.

His heartbeat was so fast that it was unbelievable. He could even feel the blood in his body rushing around recklessly. He felt like he was trapped in a giant steamer. All the heat was trapped inside his body and could not dissipate.

The next moment, the man under him immediately broke free from his restraints. Li Ziyue felt a sharp pain in his back again. The back of his head was hit hard, and his brain seemed to be in a mess. All his thoughts were instantly disrupted.

[Li Ziyue] Looking at Li Ziyue, who was like a spent bow and arrow due to the high fever, he held him against the wall with an arrogant smile on his face: "Hey, I know you can't die now."

Li Ziyue didn't say anything, but just kept his eyes closed.

[Li Ziyue] coughed several times in succession, and when he adjusted his breathing, his face was abnormally red, just like Li Ziyue who had a fever.

The two men faced each other, as if there was a mirror between them. If it weren't for the different clothes they were wearing, Ji Mingyun really couldn't tell who was who.

"Do you hate me so much? You pinched me so hard."

[Li Ziyue] slowly moved closer, and his warm fingertips gradually wiped across Li Ziyue's dry lips, upturned nose, and then to the slightly wrinkled brows.

"I have the same face as you," he said in a low voice, "my dear, 'brother'."

"Let me think, what do you hate about me?"

"Hate me for using this face to deceive everyone around you? Hate me for cutting them into pieces in front of you?"

"Hate me for letting you fall from a great height? Hate me for teasing you until now?"

[Li Ziyue] grabbed the hair on the forehead of the person in front of him that was completely wet with sweat. There was no other expression on his face, but his eyes were cold.

"Don't be so hypocritical, 'brother'. You know better than anyone."

Li Ziyue bit his lips impatiently, but even so, a bright red blood flowed out from the corner of his mouth.

Clear what?

He didn't ask, but he did understand it better than anyone else.

"From the moment I was born, I knew that I was you and you were me."

"The evil thoughts in you will be infinitely magnified in me. Although there are differences between you and me in degree, we cannot completely deny our similarities. Every cruelty in my character and behavior is reflected in your shadow, Li Ziyue."

"Do you think you have been raised into a pure and innocent saint by the protection and love of your companions for two or three years? Do you think you have said goodbye to the despicable you of the past forever?"

"You seem to have forgotten forever how you were chosen to become a dungeon player. How many names of people lost their lives forever behind the quota you occupied?"

Li Ziyue's breathing became very slow.

It was so slow that he seemed to be unable to feel the existence of his own body.

His consciousness seemed to be immersed in warm sea water. When he opened his eyes, he saw another him floating on the distant, mirror-like sea surface.

And that person was sleeping in the mirror of the sky which he could never reach.

From the beginning to the end, he understood that what he hated most was not the [Li Ziyue] in front of him.

But himself.

[Li Ziyue] was right, he was born from him. If Li Ziyue really had no cruelty in his heart, then the high-level pseudo-human copy would not be able to contaminate [Li Ziyue].

[Li Ziyue] will always be honest and kind.

But... Li Ziyue forced a curl of his lips.

Yes.

He is not a kind person at all.

He sucks.

Every bad thing about [Li Ziyue] is closely related to himself.

He hated himself more than anyone else, and wanted to kill himself more than the [Li Ziyue] in front of him.

During these six years of agony and torture, it would be more accurate to say that he was waiting for the day of his death rather than gathering strength for revenge.

He has been trapped in the time gap for a long time, and the people who could pull him out have been brutally killed by "him".

However, the saddest thing is that despite being so "unforgivable", he loves many people.

He couldn't give up the virtual world left for him by his seniors, and couldn't watch the people in it die because he couldn't hand over the points.

But he also hated himself for being shameless, so much so that on countless nights, he looked at the infected and burning wounds on his body and had only one thought in his mind - let me die.

People like me.

His throat was choking.

How can a person like me be qualified to love others?

How can others want to accept such despicable and worthless love from me?

The torture from others and his own guilt were all like the rain burning him.

Li Ziyue closed his eyes and gradually could no longer hear his own heartbeat.

His face was as white as paper and he looked lifeless, as if he had been dead for a long time.

His brain became increasingly confused, with many fragments of past memories popping up randomly, as if many people were blaming him. He returned to the time four or five years ago when he was knocked unconscious and thrown into the edge of a trash can.

Everyone was scolding him.

But Li Ziyue remembered that he had never harmed any of them.

Why is this happening.

This was an answer he could not come up with no matter how he calculated.

He can see the movement of objects at a glance and understand complex geometric models in an instant, but he can never understand the complex emotions behind people.

In a trance, he felt someone holding his cold hand.

A little precious warmth came from there, making him feel that he was truly alive for the first time in a long time.

He couldn't see the man's face clearly, he just heard him calling him with a smile.

[“Brother, do you have a fever?”]

【“Brother, do you want to lean on my shoulder?”】

[“Brother, winter is passing so slowly. What will you be like in spring? Will you still act so cold and indifferent like you are now?”]

Li Ziyue felt that his consciousness was gradually becoming clearer. The dark emotions that had devoured him like a beast before were now being dispelled little by little by these words and the warmth of his hands.

There was a sound of rain outside the window and a chaotic noise outside the house, as if someone was running. The candlelight inside the house was trembling faintly, and the three of them were silent.

Through the corner of his eye, Li Ziyue saw that his hand, which was pressed on the cold ground, was covering the palm of [Li Ziyue] in front of him.

The warm feeling before was not an illusion, but came from him, from the person who made Li Zi fall deeper into the vortex of pain.

Coincidence? His fingers curled slightly.

Li Ziyue looked at the person in front of him quietly.

[Li Ziyue]'s eyebrows and eyes were more immature than they are now. His eyes seemed fierce, but in fact they were empty, like a bluffing kitten.

Li Ziyue suddenly remembered that Ji Mingyun had said that they were brothers. Thinking carefully, the [Li Ziyue] in front of him was six years younger than him, and could barely be considered a half-brother who didn't know much.

Li Ziyue's eyes suddenly became gentle.

[Li Ziyue] was slightly stunned, and the strength that was pinching Li Ziyue gradually relaxed.

Such a look.

As Li Ziyue swallowed the nauseating taste of blood in his mouth, he seemed to be looking through the person in front of him to see another self in time and space.

"My time has passed, and your time..." He couldn't help coughing twice, and his face turned pale.

But he still looked at Li Ziyue very kindly, as if he was looking at his beloved child.

“Stay in the moment of being watered by love.”

…

The sound of rain stopped and then continued, and the raging waves of midsummer turned into a continuous and quiet spring rain.

Unbearable heat and pain came over his body layer after layer, the rain burned every inch of his skin. He was pressed against the wall, and tiny, crystal clear raindrops fell on his long, thick eyelashes.

The corners of his eyes were tinged with a fragile pink, and the liquid flowing down his face might not just be rain.

Li Ziyue's words had been corroded by the fever to the point that they were almost inaudible.

But Li Ziyue in front of him understood.

Even if Li Ziyue just looked at him and didn't say anything, he could understand what Li Ziyue wanted to say to him.

Two identical heartbeats overlapped.

"Plop, plop."

Two figures in different time and space met again in a special way. The pendulum of time stopped instantly. The person in front stopped, turned around, and stared at himself behind for a long time.

He opened his mouth slightly.

"You know what I hate most is myself."

"And as for you..."

He lowered his eyelashes to cover his misty eyes, and his long eyelashes fluttered in the night wind like the wings of a butterfly.

"I envy you."

26-year-old Li Ziyue said to 20-year-old Li Ziyue.

I envy you very much.

I envy you for still having good intentions, I envy you for your spirit that has not been suppressed, I envy you for still having the opportunity to make mistakes and the way out of stupidity.

Envious that you are not alone.

[Li Ziyue] was distracted and heard the ringing of a huge bell among the clouds in the distance.

“Boom—”

The voice was heavy and distant, penetrating through layers of rain and fog, peeking in through the window, and falling into everyone's mind.

With a "buzz" sound.

The spiritual consciousness was cleared in an instant.

And the next moment.

"Well!"

Li Ziyue, who had been leaning quietly against the wall, suddenly regained his strength. His eyes were like matches that burned in an instant. The dazzling golden light engulfed his eyeballs. He stuck [Li Ziyue] who seemed to have not yet recovered from his slumber to the ground, and heard a familiar sound coming from outside the house.

He waited a long time for the voice of someone speaking.

[“The murderer is inside!”]

[“Catch him! Hang him!”]

[Li Ziyue] opened his eyes wide and looked at everything in front of him in disbelief.

The offensive and defensive situation was reversed in an instant, and he had never expected this unexpected turn of events.

After all, a lot has changed in those six years.

"Are you touched by what I said to buy time?" Li Ziyue's eyes were cold. "You knew I was not a good person, so why did you still believe me?"

“Forget it.” He pressed his tiger’s mouth against [Li Ziyue] under him, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. “Otherwise, how can I say you are naive.”

He stood up from the ground, and the next second, there was a dull thud of a heavy kick to the flesh, and Li Ziyue was kicked directly to the door of the house.

"I've lent you my fan for so long, isn't it time to return it to me?" Li Ziyue chuckled, "Remember to bring the fan with you next time we meet. You can't beat me without it."

[Li Ziyue] made an impatient "tsk" sound.

Behind him, the people outside seemed to be about to break in.

Li Ziyue stood outside the wide-open window. The cold rain was blown in by the chilly night wind. The hem of his clothes was swaying in the wind, making rustling sounds.

At the top, his bony hands lifted the black hair that was blocking his vision in front of his forehead and pushed them back, revealing his pair of bright and slender peach blossom eyes with an obvious smile.

Below him, countless zombies surrounded the wall, scratching the building with their long nails, their eyes bloodshot as they watched Li Ziyue who was about to fall from the window, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths.

"Hiss..." They roared excitedly, one sound after another, like waves of wheat swept by the wind.

Li Ziyue took a last look at Li Ziyue who was huddled against the door because of abdominal pain, and gave an ambiguous smile.

Then he pushed off the ground with one foot, his body suddenly leaned back, and fell out of the window.

His lips moved slightly.

【Li Ziyue】Heard the last words he said.

"Go to the hangman, Li Ziyue."