Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Su Nian's reckless embrace was like a block of ice thrown into boiling lava; instead of evaporation, it caused an instantaneous, almost eerie stillness. Xie Chen's body, trembling violently from the clash of multiple fragments and on the verge of collapse, stiffened abruptly the moment she pounced on him. The raging, chaotic energy currents around them, seemingly ready to tear everything apart, also seemed to be paused, remaining at an extremely dangerous yet temporarily balanced critical point.

Su Nian's face was pressed against his chest, and she could clearly feel the disordered, frantic beating of his heart like a war drum, and the stone-like hardness of his muscles due to extreme suppression. He exuded the scents of different worlds—the chill of ice and snow, the sweet stench of blood, the smoke of the battlefield, and even a hint of the plastic feel of a gaming keyboard—these chaotic smells almost suffocated her.

She didn't know how long her embrace could maintain this fragile balance, nor did she know whether she would be torn apart by the raging energy or pushed away by him in the next second. She simply clung to him instinctively, as if he were the only piece of driftwood she could grasp in the storm of souls.

[Host... Energy reading... stabilized by 0.1%?!] 088's broadcast was punctuated by incredulous stuttering. [What... what is this? The power of love?! This system's database is about to go haywire!]

A long few seconds passed, but the expected outburst or being pushed away did not occur.

Instead, an extremely suppressed gasp, as if squeezed out from the depths of the soul, rang out above Su Nian's head.

"……let go."

Xie Chen's voice was so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable, carrying a tense tension as he forcefully suppressed his pain, and... a trace of extremely faint, almost panicked helplessness.

Su Nian didn't let go; instead, she hugged him even tighter. She could feel that as her embrace intensified, the stiffness in his body seemed to ease slightly.

"I won't let go." She buried her face even deeper, her voice muffled, carrying a stubbornness that seemed determined to go all out. "What if you break again if I let go?"

This childlike remark, like a feather, gently brushed against Xie Chen's chaotic core of consciousness. The screams and roars of the fragments seemed to weaken slightly at this moment.

"You..." He seemed to want to say something, but his words were interrupted by another, more intense conflict within him. The resentment and yearning for companionship of the e-sports god fragment clashed violently once again with the domineering demand for absolute submission from the tyrant fragment!

"Ugh!" Xie Chen let out a painful groan, his body trembling uncontrollably again, and the turbulent energy around him seemed to intensify once more.

Su Nian could clearly feel the pain he was enduring, which was not just physical, but a torture of having his soul torn apart in different directions by countless forces. A strong, bitter feeling welled up in her nose, and she looked up at his face, which was distorted by pain, yet still stunningly handsome.

Looking at the rapidly shifting, frenzied light and shadow in his eyes, belonging to different worlds, and at his tightly pursed, bloodless lips, a thought surfaced with crystal clarity in her mind—she could no longer simply passively "soothe" or "cope." She had to do something, something that could truly help him.

"Xie Chen!" She cupped his face, forcing his chaotic, flickering gaze to focus on her. Her eyes no longer held fear or calculation, only a pure, almost desperate determination. "Look at me! Listen only to my voice!"

Her fingertips were icy cold, and when they touched his burning hot skin, they sent a slight shiver down his spine.

“Didn’t you want my ‘approval’?” She looked directly into the tyrant’s crimson eyes. “Then I will approve of you! I will approve of your power, I will approve of your uniqueness!”

This statement clearly boosted the resonance of the Tyrant Fragments.

But she immediately turned to that stubborn, defiant light belonging to the e-sports legend: "Didn't you want me to 'stand shoulder to shoulder' with you? I'm right here! I've never left!"

The commotion surrounding esports fragments seemed to subside for a moment.

Finally, her gaze seemed to pierce through all the chaotic appearances, looking straight into the deepest, frozen darkness belonging to the source of darkness: "And you... didn't you want a complete 'me' that belonged only to you?"

Her voice trembled slightly, yet remained exceptionally clear:

"Then stop! Stop and look at me properly! How could someone like you, shattered into countless pieces, possibly obtain a complete me?!"

"How could someone who is broken into countless pieces possibly obtain a complete me?"

These words, like the final gavel, struck heavily against the final barrier of Xie Chen's consciousness!

All the screams, roars, and conflicts reached their climax at this moment, and then—came to an abrupt end!

It wasn't suppression, it wasn't being swallowed up, but rather a kind of... ultimate silence, as if all sound had been drained of its power by that sentence.

The rapidly shifting, chaotic light and shadow in Xie Chen's eyes froze. In the end, all the colors disappeared like the receding tide, leaving only the deepest darkness, a darkness that seemed capable of swallowing all light. But that darkness was no longer boiling, no longer raging; instead, it became a kind of... extreme weariness, a kind of hollow calm.

The turbulent energy around him seemed to be smoothed out by an invisible hand, slowly calming down. The ear-piercing buzzing in the room disappeared, and the flashing photos on the wall returned to normal. Only the pale blue energy field continued to flow silently, but it seemed to have lost its previous aggressiveness.

He lowered his head, looking at Su Nian who was so close to him. Her face still bore traces of tears, but her eyes were surprisingly bright, reflecting his pale and silent shadow.

He raised his hand, his movements slow and deliberate, carrying the weariness of someone who had just completed a long journey. His cool fingertips brushed gently across the corner of her moist eyes.

"The complete...you?" he repeated in a low voice, devoid of any emotion, only a bottomless probing.

Su Nian's heart trembled slightly at his touch, but she did not flinch and continued to look at him firmly.

“Yes, the complete me.” She said, word by word, “I can cry, I can laugh, I can be afraid, and I can also… be brave. I’m not a bird locked in a cage and lost its soul, nor am I one of those frozen images in your memory.”

Xie Chen fell silent. His gaze, like the most precise scanner, swept over her face inch by inch, as if trying to etch every detail of her at this moment into the depths of his soul.

After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse:

"What if... even when you are 'whole', you still choose to leave?"

This question was no longer a veiled, threatening interrogation, but rather revealed a... a fragile, deep-seated fear. It was an unease etched into the very marrow of the body after a decade of fruitless searching.

Looking into his dark eyes that seemed to draw people in, and seeing the almost imperceptible glimmer of light deep within them, as if awaiting judgment, Su Nian knew that this was the most crucial moment.

She opened her mouth, the prepared answer, full of reassurance and lies, rolling on her tongue. But looking at him like this, she couldn't bring herself to say those words.

Instead of answering directly, she asked in return:

"And what about you? What would a 'complete' you be like?"

Her question was like a ray of light, piercing through the silent darkness.

Xie Chen was stunned. He seemed to have never thought about this question before. All his obsessions over the past ten years had revolved around "finding her" and "locking her in," while what a "complete" version of himself should look like was an unknown territory that he had deliberately ignored.

He looked at Su Nian, at this woman who had repeatedly shattered his expectations, pulled him back from the brink of madness, and then pushed him into an even more complex vortex of emotions. The previously restless fragments within him now fell into a strange stillness, as if they too were waiting for an answer.

The torrent of fragments has subsided for the time being, but a deeper and more fundamental question has been raised by Su Nian, standing between the two of them.

He is complete, and she is complete.

This seems to be an unsolvable problem, or perhaps... the only path to the exit.

Xie Chen didn't answer her question. He simply looked at her deeply, his gaze complex and unreadable, containing too many unspeakable emotions. Then, he slowly straightened up and broke free from Su Nian's embrace.

He made no further attempt to imprison her, nor did he mention the fragments of "comfort" again. He turned and walked back to his "throne," a symbol of power and solitude, his steps still steady, yet seemingly carrying a heavier weight than before.

He sat there, eyes closed, as if caught in a long, internal struggle.

Su Nian stood there, looking at his silent profile, and breathed a sigh of relief, but her palms were covered in cold sweat.

She knew that the most dangerous storm had temporarily passed. But she also knew that their relationship, from this moment on, had entered a completely new and more unpredictable realm.

The answer she couldn't say, and the response he couldn't give, became an unknown sword hanging over their heads.

[Host...] 088 whispered, [This system feels that your relationship... seems to have upgraded from "imprisonment and resistance" to "mutual interrogation at the soul level"? Isn't the difficulty level jumping a bit too fast?]

Su Nian did not answer.

She just looked at Xie Chen, her mind in turmoil.

The animal trainer seems to have finally touched the beast's softest spot, but what should he do next? Soothe it, or... will he face an even fiercer backlash?

(End of Chapter 159)