Chapter 54 Bai Ye: If Yang Yan can’t start over, what about Wonder? Is wonder possible?
Tanghongshan, Tanghong Shrine.
"...Yang Yan, did you already know that—"
Bai Ye, who was following behind Yang Yan, suddenly spoke. He did not give the red-haired boy in front of him any chance. He simply tore through the disguise that Yang Yan tried his best to conceal with his poor acting skills as if he was chatting about "how is the weather".
Yang Yan suddenly paused.
"The first question is, since you have been staying in the mountain shrine which is a certain distance away from Huangquan Town, how did you know that there was music playing in the town? This shows that you did not stay in the guest room last night."
"The second suspicious point." Bai Ye stretched out his second finger: "You seemed very sad when Suzuran mentioned the missing Miss Saotome Rin. This kind of sadness is beyond the normal state of a chance encounter."
Bai Ye did not stop, just as Yang Yan did not stop walking towards the shrine.
"Considering your attitude just now...Yang Yan, did you already know what happened here in reality?"
Yang Yan was still moving forward. He did not look back or answer Bai Ye's words, nor did he show his usual smile that was even more heartless than You Yu's. He just sighed in a tone that was totally unlike him, and turned to look at Bai Ye with determination. Before he could speak, he saw the other party close his eyes: "You don't have to make up your mind in a hurry. I just hope that, considering that we are both members of the Sun Law Enforcement Bureau, after finding Saotome-san, you are willing to tell me the part you can say."
The boy, who was always silent and indifferent, smiled, which reminded Yang Yan of the night when he met Bai Ye. He was also standing among the crowd like this, with an aloof temperament but gentle eyes.
That's why he dared to rush up and talk to the other person, and promote his idol at the same time.
After all, he really likes Wonder's fearless style. If he had been like that 8 years ago...
Unfortunately, the tragedy has already happened, there is no if in the world.
"...Okay, I will definitely tell you."
Yang Yan was stunned for a moment, but soon the simple smile that matched his character reappeared on his face.
"This expression still suits you. Now, let's go."
Bai Ye smiled, walked around Yang Yan who had stopped, and walked towards the main hall of the shrine.
The structure of this shrine is very similar to the Kara-ko Shrine, which has now become a world-famous tourist resource. It is almost built on the mountain, with blood-red torii gates and hand-washing houses with hot springs emitting hot water scattered on the mountain road. After entering the shrine guarded by fox statues, the magnificent main hall of the shrine hidden in the depths of the dead maple forest appeared in their sight. However, unlike what the Shinto Rakuko said, the main hall of the shrine can even be said to be empty.
"There's not many people here. Why did that boy insist that we come to the main hall of the shrine to take a look..."
Yang Yan scratched his head in confusion. In the main hall of the shrine, there was an exquisitely crafted statue of the red god. Surrounding it were some shrines and other shrines dedicated to other Shinto gods. What was strange was that in the entire shrine, not only were there no townspeople who came to worship, there were not even any staff members.
Looking around at night, the shrine was in a completely different state from the prosperous tourist town during the day; it seemed empty and abandoned.
"No, there's something different. Look here."
Bai Ye frowned and pointed at the model of the winding pond and rice field behind the sculpture of Tang Hongshen. Above the winding pond, wisps of mist rose quietly.
And in the mist, there was an obviously strange flame burning in the mouth of the fox statue.
"Bai Ye, do you feel that the flame looks familiar?"
Yangyan's voice was filled with panic. As soon as he finished speaking, the flames exploded suddenly, boiling the entire pool of spring water. A familiar laugh rang in his ears. Yangyan hurriedly protected Bai Ye behind him. A young man in a black robe emerged from the flames. Huo Gu stood in front of the hot spring model. Behind him, the demon Amy was holding an unconscious figure. Bai Ye narrowed his eyes, and it seemed to be the missing Saotome Rin.
"Why are you two here again? It's really unlucky."
Huo Gu stared at Bai Ye speechlessly. He looked around and confirmed that there were no other detective agency personnel around before he regained his good mood: "Yo Yo, it seems I came at the right time. I didn't expect that there were only two of you. You dared to come to this shrine? You are really overestimating your abilities..."
Relying on the Demon God Amy's support, Huo Gu arrogantly began to mock the two students who had caused him a great loss at Solomon College.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to feel proud for long. The burning flames rushed over like an overwhelming wall of fire. Huo Gu dodged quickly, but was still scratched on the cheek by the debris of the exploding flames. Yang Yan looked very angry. His eyes were reflected in a brilliant red by the flames. The baseball bat in his hand was still swinging, and he looked at Huo Gu viciously: "Don't overestimate your own abilities? Who is overestimating his own abilities?"
"Of course it's you~"
Seeing that Amy had firmly blocked him, Huo Gu instantly breathed a sigh of relief and continued to be arrogant: "Your flames are nothing in front of the fire of hell. Beg me now, maybe I will give you a quick death later~"
"And now?"
A familiar, calm and steady voice sounded, and Huo Gu turned around suddenly as if he had PTSD. He saw that Bai Ye had supported Saotome Rin's shoulders, holding the girl's body steadily, and secretly ran to the shrine pillar next to Yang Yan.
That was an area that Kagerou's position could completely cover. Unlike usual, Kagerou's flames had covered a large area of the entire shrine, but the only area where Byakuya and Saotome Rin were located did not have any traces of fire.
"You are so arrogant... Bai Ye, I am getting more and more curious about you. If I am not mistaken, you are leaving this game world with the restriction ring of the Sun Law Enforcement Bureau on your hand, right?"
Bai Ye raised his head in pretended confusion: "Ah? What did you say?"
Huo Gu's face changed suddenly. He had never seen such an unreasonable madman. Before he could say anything harsh, Yang Yan rushed up with a baseball bat in his hand.
"Stop stirring up trouble there! Huo Gu, look at this!"
Yang Yan summoned the madly burning flames with a desperate momentum, and even his eyes turned completely red. Huo Gu took a few steps back in panic: "Hey! Why are you so crazy? You start burning souls right away?"
"You are the ones behind all the trouble in Huangquan Town. I have known this for a long time. No matter what, I have gained a lot by stopping your chance to cause trouble here!"
Yang Yan threw away all thoughts of hiding the reality that he was very familiar with Huangquan Town, and attacked Huo Gu with gritted teeth. Amy was still a certain distance away from her master. Huo Gu no longer hesitated, and rushed to the statue of Tang Hongshen in panic, pressing the bead mechanism in the mouth of the fox sculpture.
The next second, the ground in front of the worship hall suddenly opened to both sides, and underneath the steep shrine was a dark cave. Bai Ye, Saotome Rin, and Yang Yan lost their support in an instant and fell into the depths.
"You really are overestimating yourself. You even dared to go against the devil's apostle in the shrine..."
Huo Gu simply pressed the bead in the fox sculpture again, and the automatically moving ground closed again. Countless special jade formations flashed on the ground. Although he was ruthless in his words, he obviously breathed a sigh of relief.
"You two tough guys, just join those self-proclaimed noble men... and that girl, and become the fuel for this great subversion!"
Shrine, underground space.
The feeling of weightlessness in the dark space made it impossible to identify one's own position. Bai Ye could only try his best to keep Saotome Rin in a relatively safe position.
Fortunately, during the fall, Yang Yan's pair of fiery red eyes were very obvious in the darkness. He quickly identified the positions of the two people in the air, and hurriedly picked them up, one in each hand, and hung them around the waist on his arms, and landed on the ground relatively perfectly.
In order to relieve the force, the three of them rolled a long way on the ground when they landed. The dust raised made Bai Ye cough uncontrollably. He recovered from the dizziness of the impact with difficulty and found himself in a cave hall of moderate size.
Together, Yangyan and Baiye helped the unconscious Saotome Rin to lean against the protruding stone wall in the cave. The former used a baseball bat to hit a fireball, which floated beside the stone wall and lit up everything in the dim hall.
"You just used Soul Disintegration to overdraw your own soul particles."
Bai Ye looked disapprovingly at Yang Yan, who looked pale in the dim firelight, and condemned his desperate behavior just now: "Many things the DM system said are lies. We don't know whether what it said before that there is no death in the game is true. No one can be sure whether you will log out of the game or die directly after you really burn all your souls..."
Bai Ye sighed: "But there is nothing I can do. You have reasons that I don't know."
Yang Yan fell to the ground exhausted, breathing heavily for a while, and wiped the sweat from his forehead: "There's nothing I can do. After all... after all, Saotome Rin must not die. I promised at the time... that I would definitely save her."
Bai Ye squatted down to show that he was all ears.
The surrounding environment was safe for the time being. Apart from the darkness, no other dangers could be seen. Yang Yan was silent for a while, but he still explained: "Tanghong Mountain is the symbol of the Night Island City Circle and one of the most famous mountains in the surface world. Many people only know the beauty of its maple forests all over the mountain in autumn, but few people know that when you climb to the top of the mountain to the Tanghong Grand Society viewing platform in the autumn when the forests are dyed red, and have a panoramic view of the entire mountain range... its shape is exactly like a snake."
Yang Yan smiled bitterly: "A dead snake."
In the deepest archives of the Sun Law Enforcement Bureau, which are classified as untouchable secrets and listed alongside the Ten Commandments, in the archives about the four demon kings at the top of the other world, Tang Hongshan is the place where the Serpent of Eden died.
According to legend, thousands of years ago, Susano, a hero from Night Island who was listed as one of the "elders" with the highest honor in the confrontation between humans and demons, fought a fierce battle with the demon king Eden's Serpent that was wreaking havoc on the world, and eventually succeeded in killing it together with him, nailing the giant snake to death in the body of Tanghong Mountain.
This legend gradually evolved into the Shinto mythology of Yoshima, and the Eden Serpent was locally transformed into the "Yamata no Orochi" because it had eight heads.
The blood of the Serpent of Eden penetrated deep into the mountain and underground hot springs, successfully transforming the hot spring water of this dormant volcano into a spring with special properties that can keep people young and prolong their lifespan. However, human desires never end. The ancestors of the townspeople of Huangquan Town who first discovered the special properties of the springs contracted these springs, and under the drive of many big men with the same desires, they chose to unite with the devil's apostles, hoping to find a way to restore the devil's power through these springs.
"You also saw last night that everyone in this town is crazy, and this shrine is the source of all evil, because this is where the elder Susano once killed the snake. However, eight years ago, the Sun Metropolitan Police Department found clues and sent a large number of ninjas to Huangquan Town. In the end, the purpose of the person behind the scenes was not achieved, but now..."
Yang Yan threw the baseball bat to the ground in self-abandonment. "To be honest with you, brother, it was after Huo Gu showed up at Solomon College with those familiar puppets without flesh and blood that I realized that the masterminds would not miss this great opportunity of the reunion. That's why I participated in the reunion in order to return here, to Huangquan Town."
Yang Yan looked at Bai Ye, but his sight passed through Bai Ye and looked at some corner of the shrine in the sky: "In the superimposed space, if the devil apostle and his gang of lunatics succeed, the situation here will overlay the reality... Giving such a terrible guy a chance to start over, allowing the mastermind to be infinitely close to victory again. The DM's game is not a game at all, but a killing."
Yang Yan sighed. For the first time, the guy who was more optimistic than You Yu showed a sad expression, like a dog with its tail hanging down. "Anyway, I hope that there won't be so many participants in the season when we meet again. Now it seems that almost all of them are lies told by the DM."
"It has torn off the illusion of its neutrality." Bai Ye nodded. He knew very well that there was relevant information in the future that t173 mentioned. This reunion was different from the last time. The dead players would not really die, so many people wanted to get a piece of the pie. The Sun Law Enforcement Bureau was not without precautions against this, but even though the Sun Law Enforcement Bureau issued a ten-thousand-word long article to advise, no one listened.
Unfortunately, once the reunion begins, there is no other way to end it early unless you collect the Ten Rings and end the season game in advance.
"And Saotome Rin..."
Yang Yan looked at the girl who was still unconscious beside him and covered his head in pain.
"Do you know why I feel sad? Bai Ye, because Saotome Rin... is the only person I know in this Yellow Spring Town, and the companion who crawled out of the hell with me in the past. But once again, I still failed to protect her and let her fall into the hands of the devil's apostle."
"Except for Saotome Rin...among my companions who were used as soup ingredients...no one is alive anymore, so I sometimes wonder."
Yang Yan covered his head in pain.
"I wish I were Wonder. Then I could steal all the suffering here. I could... create a miracle."
The nearest subway station to the abandoned town is White Fox Station, and the first person to go to that station was Saotome Rin. In a sense, it was actually Saotome Rin who brought them into this underworld that has been completely deleted in cyberspace.
Bai Ye knew that Saotome Rin was no simple person, but she was chosen by the devil apostle with great care and was brought into the game space even if it meant blowing up a tram... What was her relationship with the future silhouette provided by t173?
Bai Ye inevitably felt the same powerlessness as Yang Yan. Even if it happened again, even if Yang Yan had become a reserve member of the Sun Law Enforcement Bureau, he was still unable to protect his only companion.
So what about wonder? Can wonder do it?
Bai Ye didn't dare to make a promise, because he didn't know to what extent the game production team represented by t173 would achieve in order to make it impossible for him to save anyone around You Yu.
They have all been entangled in the thread of fate, unable to break free, and the wish promised by the season when they meet again has become the bait they must take.
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