Chapter 191
A new timeline begins.
Xie Yuchun gave herself a mental suggestion in the previous timeline, but it wasn't until she advanced to an S-level player that her memories began to recover intermittently. She didn't dare to waste a second and hurriedly went to meet up with Xie Xubai.
The young man, who had no memory of her, was only slightly surprised, but he accepted her appearance readily, saving a lot of time on explanations.
It was at this moment that Xie Yuchun noticed that Xie Xubai's value had increased again compared to the previous timeline.
However, in the previous timeline, Xie Xubai never went into a dungeon. The only major event he experienced was the destruction of Earth.
A single event of destruction will not make a person stronger, otherwise Xie Xubai's friends would also become stronger.
This leads to the most likely variable: Xie Xubai became stronger because he looked up at the last moment.
Of course, the specific variable is definitely not the action of "looking up", because Xie Yuchun couldn't help but look up when the first loop failed, but her initial value did not change.
Xie Yuchun guessed that Xie Xubai didn't come knocking on his door in the first few cycles because the changes in the values weren't noticeable each time. He continued running the dungeon as usual, and like everyone else, he unknowingly faced defeat.
It wasn't until Xie Xubai suddenly discovered in the previous timeline that his power level was the same as his friend's that he realized something was wrong.
Therefore, Xie Xubai is a very stubborn person. Every time, he would defy the system's decision and stare at it head-on, refusing to turn back even after hitting a brick wall.
But perhaps we should be thankful for that—he always does this.
Subsequently, Xie Yuchun and other technicians discovered through experiments that the change in values was indeed unrelated to "looking up," or at least not caused by this action.
After a long and arduous verification process, they finally discovered the real reason for changing the initial values.
After a long and arduous experiment, it was finally possible to permanently grant people powerful abilities within a limited timeframe, laying the foundation for their souls through repeated cycles until they reached god-like status at the start, comparable to deities.
Unfortunately, those who have the qualifications to become stronger are extremely rare.
...
In the warm yellow light illuminating the living room of a residential house, a woman held her blinking child, her face blank, like someone listening to a storyteller under a bridge.
The man held a glass he had bought wholesale in Yiwu for 3 yuan, his expression becoming increasingly indescribable.
The water in the cup had long since gone cold, but he didn't bother to drink it. He opened his mouth and closed it again, then opened it again, struggling to organize his thoughts.
"So you mean you want to take our son away and have him undergo secret training with those who are qualified, so that he can fight against the game and save the world?"
Xie Yuchun nodded solemnly.
The woman's hair was streaked with white, her face was simple, her clothes were old, the hem of her cloak was stained with mud, and she was holding a commemorative water cup covered with abstract paintings.
The man paused subtly for a moment: "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom."
He stood up as he spoke, secretly giving his wife frantic winks, and then quickly walked towards the bathroom.
The wife understood her husband's thoughts and hesitated before speaking: "Honey, well..."
Xie Yuchun didn't turn around, but just sighed softly: "I know my story is outrageous, and it's hard to believe without seeing it with your own eyes... Mr. Xie, please don't call the police or contact the mental hospital, there won't be any signal... Asking the neighbors for help is the same, they can't hear anything."
The man's foot was stuck in the doorway, not because he heeded Xie Yuchun's advice, but because he bumped into the semi-transparent barrier.
What the hell is this thing?!
He stared wide-eyed, then slammed his fists down hard, making loud thuds, but the barrier remained unmoved.
Even the most ignorant person should understand that this is a completely surreal thing!
Meeting the man's terrified gaze, Xie Yuchun thought she probably needed to produce some more convincing evidence.
Before she could even speak, a sudden, thick, cold white mist spread upwards from the floor. Xie Yuchun's pupils constricted, and in a flash, she swiftly grabbed the woman and pushed her aside.
Bang!
A jet-black claw covered in bone spurs slammed down on the spot where the woman had just been standing, sending the sofa shattering with a loud crack and splinters of wood flying everywhere!
"Fen'er!"
The man felt a chill run through him. He rushed forward and shielded his wife and child in his arms. When he looked up at the attacker, the two of them were almost dumbfounded.
The unconscious killer disappeared, replaced by a completely mutated monster.
With its ferocious, bubbly appearance, long, bright red tongue, and a robust body at least two meters tall, it smashed through the ceiling light fixture.
Glass shards fell down with a clatter, the monster roared excitedly, its saliva stinking like the rotting, moldy corpse of a rat. Amidst the rumbling thunder, the lights flickered, and the two felt as if they had suddenly fallen from the real world into a horror movie!
But Xie Yuchun's actions were even more decisive and efficient.
Suddenly, she raised her hand, and a jet-black longsword materialized in her hand, swinging it with fierce power towards the monster's head!
In the blink of an eye, only a dazzling light streaked across the sky. The monster froze abruptly, and foul-smelling blood gushed out, splattering all over the ground. Its head and body separated, sliding down the smooth cut surface to the ground.
*Thud!* It rolled a few times.
The white mist, having failed in its attack, quickly dissipated, but Xie Yuchun, with a grim face, knew that this matter was not over, but only the beginning. He frowned and clicked his tongue, saying, "It came really fast."
"What was that just now?" The man finally found his voice.
The moment the question left his mouth, Xie Yuchun's stories, which he had dismissed as nonsense, flashed through his mind.
An infinite game, a system, an outer god, the chosen one, and the mission to save the world.
Is it really possible that something that only happens in novels and movies...?
A wave of overwhelming absurdity washed over him, and the man murmured in disbelief, "Are you sure you're not joking?"
“I swear in the name of the Executive Officer of the Global Supreme Federation that what I just said is not a lie.”
Xie Yuchun took out his ID from his pocket and handed it over: "This is my ID. I am currently employed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. My basic resume can be found online."
"If you still can't believe me, I can remove the interference barrier. After you call the police, you should be able to contact me at this time through these identification documents. But doing so will be very dangerous. The white mist that just turned people into monsters is the system's pursuer. It may come back at any time. We don't have much time left, so we need to hurry."
The man took the documents with his hands sweaty.
Although he had never seen the actual document, as a working professional, he could vaguely discern details such as the official stamp, watermark, and unique material of the document.
He actually believed seven-tenths of what Xie Yuchun said.
First, the fantastical reality was right before his eyes; second, Xie Yuchun, having revealed his position, simply eliminated the cognitive interference, and the aura that was unconsciously revealed in his speech was something he had only ever felt from the dignified and imposing Xie family patriarch.
He quickly glanced at the documents, his mind in turmoil, but as the pillar of his family, he had to remain calm.
He looked back at his wife and children, took a few quick breaths, and finally made up his mind: "In that case, can we go together?"
Xie Yuchun shook her head decisively: "No. As Xie Xubai becomes more and more powerful, the system will realize the threat he poses and will only intensify its pursuit of him. It will be dangerous for you to stay by his side."
"I will then arrange for you to be placed in an absolutely safe place, so that the system will think you are [dead]. Once everything is over, everyone will be reunited."
The man wanted to refute, but couldn't speak, because he read unspoken words in Xie Yuchun's eyes.
—This child will become the center of the storm in the future. If they insist on following the child, they will not only fail to protect him, but will also become hostages of the system that threaten the child.
Which is more important, the world or your own children?
The man felt that this stupid question left them with no choice: the world would end, everyone would die, including their children.
The child was only in his twenties when he died. How could they just sit back and watch their child die?
"..." The man hesitated and looked at his wife.
Before he could even offer any words of advice, the woman, seemingly sensing something, interrupted him: "No!"
The woman's face turned pale, and she pointed tremblingly at the monster's corpse on the ground, her voice shaking with disbelief: "Xie Huaizhang, are you crazy? You want our child to fight such a terrifying monster?!"
Fear, helplessness, and the unknown.
The woman stared at the speechless man, as if she had been suppressing her emotions ever since the murderer entered the room, and finally couldn't hold back any longer, she exploded: "He's only eight months old! Eight months! Ask yourself honestly, if you encountered that monster just now, would you have had the courage to rush in? And now you actually want your eight-month-old son to face all of this!?"
Xie Yuchun rushed forward: "Ms. Zhao, please don't be agitated, we will take responsibility..."
"Can you really take responsibility?!" The woman turned around, her eyes red-rimmed, and stared sharply at Xie Yuchun. "You can't even guarantee your own life, so how can you guarantee the safety of a child?"
These words, once spoken, were more deafening than thunder.
"You said that damn system will relentlessly hunt down children once it senses a threat. Actually, the hunt has already begun, not just against children, but against everyone involved! You were already on the run, otherwise you wouldn't be in such a sorry state!"
As the woman spoke, she felt like the sky was about to fall.
"I'm asking you..."
She grabbed Xie Yuchun's sleeve, tears streaming down her face—a question, but also an unspoken plea for help.
“If I don’t leave the child with you, he can at least live to his twenties. But if I do leave him with you, how long can he live? Huh?... Will he even live to that age?”
This seemingly unremarkable woman possesses an incredibly sharp and ruthless sensitivity to emotions, to the point that even Xie Yuchun couldn't help but be taken aback.
The woman was right; the system was doing everything in its power to kill Xie Xubai.
[Time] is a rare power, an ability that only a supreme god of the [Creator] level and a very few life forms with talent can master. It is also the only thing that the system dares not interfere with too much at present.
Otherwise, the couple wouldn't live long enough to give birth to Xie Xubai, and they would be eliminated by the system as the root cause.
Xie Yuchun travels through timelines, attempting to interfere with fate, but of course, she has to pay an extremely tragic price—she sacrifices herself.
So when a woman says she "can't even save her own life," she's really hitting the nail on the head.
As for Xie Xubai...
To save Xie Xubai from the system's pursuit, they must find the legendary evil god and ask him to grant them a blessing and protection.
However, in the previous timelines, the evil god resided in hibernation tens of thousands of meters below the Immaculate Sea, and without exception, all those sent out to try to awaken Him were reduced to ashes.
Xie Yuchun could only take Xie Xubai to wander along the timeline, gambling on that one in ten million chance.
Will it succeed? Uncertain.
Will they survive? Uncertain.
But what does it matter?
From the day they joined the plan, everyone risked their lives. Amidst numerous doubts and hesitations, life and death were the last things they needed to consider.
Xie Xubai and his group all shared the same thought: what a worthwhile deal it would be if they could exchange their own deaths for the dawn of tomorrow for humanity.
But Xie Yuchun, who was thinking this, paused when she looked up at the woman's tear-filled eyes.
The woman is an artist, but her paintings lean towards artistic realism and have nothing to do with science fiction or horror.
She hadn't attended school for long, and it was only after she started working that she had the opportunity to learn more characters. The most magnificent and splendid building she had ever seen was a large shopping mall in the city center.
She couldn't understand anything about terms like "timeline," "cycle," or "energy entropy."
They have no concrete understanding of "infinite games," "saving the world," or "human extinction."
Her lifelong wish was simply to have an ordinary home, to live hand in hand with her husband, and to watch her children grow up slowly in the long, leisurely years.
Now she's being asked to hand over her eight-month-old, still-breastfeeding child and send her down that thorny path.
Xie Yuchun lowered her eyelashes.
Compared to those cunning and shrewd politicians, the woman before her was as innocent as a little white rabbit. She could use words, tactics, and some vague lies to get the woman to hand over Xie Xubai.
But can she do that?
In the face of a greater cause, must everything else—justice, fairness, respect, order, equality—give way?
Xie Yuchun moved her lips, but before she could speak, she suddenly heard the crying woman ask in a hoarse voice, "If you hadn't come today, would my husband and I have both died?"
"We...we can't help in any way. Coming here specifically to rescue us is probably useless to you." The woman's eyes were blurry with tears. "Did this child make some kind of promise with you?"
As it turns out, Xie Xubai's extraordinary emotional perception was not unfounded.
Woman: "So, he did it because of us..."
Xie Yuchun originally didn't plan to bring this up, knowing that becoming a burden to her child in the future would be a significant blow to any parent.
She vehemently denied it: "No. I could tell the boy did it because he wanted to. He found those paintings you sold, and then..."
It was an ordinary afternoon. Xie Yuchun didn't see Xie Xubai in the base's repair room. She went all the way to his house and found that Xie Xubai's training injuries hadn't been fully healed yet. The young man had just run out so carelessly, not taking his body seriously. Xie Yuchun was so angry that she wanted to curse him.
"I know this isn't good for my health, but the training is too tiring. Please let me take a short break after this, Executor." The young man tilted his head, smiled pleadingly, his clear eyes glistening with tears in the sunlight.
He was very diligent, and his learning efficiency increased dramatically after his stats improved. In addition, almost all the elites in the base spared no effort in teaching him, so Xie Xubai quickly learned how to deal with different people.
Xie Xubai only needs to play the victim when dealing with Xie Yuchun.
Xie Yuchun was at a loss with him. She turned around and saw Xie Xubai holding a palette of paints and painting something.
There was a reference painting next to her, and almost as soon as she looked at it, Xie Xubai spoke up, his tone proud and gentle: "That was painted by my mother."
“My dad didn’t leave anything behind, but luckily my mom is a painter. Every time I see her paintings, I can feel how much she loves this world.” Xie Xubai said with a smile without hesitation, “What a coincidence, I’m just like her.”
"So you don't need to worry, I will never damage my body carelessly. Because the Executor said that if the plan goes smoothly, Mom and Dad will also survive, and I look forward to seeing them. Until then, I must do my best to live until the world is back to what it should be."
Xie Xubai looked at the painting in front of him, his fingers touching the smiling face on it, carefully stroking every line. His eyebrows were gentle, but his eyes were firm: "May everyone be able to reunite in such a world."
...
Xie Yuchun told the woman what Xie Xubai had said.
The woman's tears, which she had barely managed to hold back, burst forth again. She pressed her face against her husband's chest, sobbing uncontrollably.
She looked at her child, her precious darling.
Fearing the child would be disturbed, Xie Yuchun used a calming item, so the baby was not bothered by the monster's bloody smell at all and remained curled up in his mother's arms, sleeping soundly. He seemed to be thinking of something delicious and couldn't help but smack his lips.
The woman recalled how, not long ago, this little glutton had sneakily stuffed lemon slices into her mouth when they weren't looking, her face scrunched up from the sourness, and she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
As she laughed, tears welled up in her eyes again. She looked up at Xie Yuchun and asked, "May I ask you a few questions?"
Xie Yuchun nodded: "Yes, please ask."
Woman: "Did he know that he would leave us when he was young and what he would face in the future?"
Xie Yuchun: "He had the highest level of authority in this plan, and he was fully aware of it."
Woman: "Was everything he did voluntary?"
Xie Yuchun said, "With us here, no one can force him. He did it voluntarily."
"Then one last question." The woman forcefully wiped away her tears with her sleeve, asking sharply and clearly, "When faced with monsters he couldn't defeat, or when he was about to give up, did he ever succumb to the temptations and threats of his enemies?"
Xie Yuchun never expected her to ask that question.
The man couldn't help but hug his wife tightly from behind, while the woman, choked with sobs, stared stubbornly at Xie Yuchun and pressed, "Can you tell me the truth?"
Did he ever yield?
Xie Yuchun opened her mouth, then closed it again, an unexpected emotion surging violently in her chest, until a sense of respect arose spontaneously.
She suddenly gave the woman a proper salute.
At the same time, he raised his head and looked up at the sky.
In that instant, Xie Xubai felt that Xie Yuchun's gaze was penetrating.
It seemed to sense its own existence, passing through the couple's bodies, through distant time and space, across countless timelines, and looked at him with kindness.
Others may not know about the countless struggles Xie Xubai has made, but she, who has touched the law of [Time], can see them.
Xie Yuchun seemed to be answering for Xie Xubai, who was unable to speak, with a firm and resounding voice: "He has never yielded, he has always remained steadfast."
The woman stared in amazement, then burst into joyful laughter, her whole body trembling with delight. She showered her child with affection, kissing his forehead and cheeks repeatedly. "Is that so? I knew it! My son is wonderful!...So wonderful! Bye-bye, baby..."
She couldn't help but look at the man, sharing his excellence with the child's father. The man, also with tears in his eyes, smiled and affirmed, "Yes, our child is wonderful."
Before parting, the defiant man gently patted his child's head and said that his parents would hide it well, and that he could do whatever he wanted without worry.
The woman, who often talked about her child's future success, kissed him and said, "It's good that you're safe and sound."
[Date]
No one knew that an ordinary young couple living in an ordinary residential building in a typical neighborhood had made a difficult decision.
They solemnly handed their own child into Xie Yuchun's hands, thus continuing a future for all mankind.
*
A cold wind slipped through their fingers, and the couple's obsession vanished like smoke, leaving Xie Xubai grasping at nothing.
Just before he was about to fall, Brian caught him with lightning speed and landed him safely on the ground.
Captain Xu rushed over and, upon checking, found that Xie Xubai's mental energy was almost completely drained. He anxiously shouted for the logistics team to quickly bring him some replenishment supplies.
"What happened? What's wrong with my freshman classmate?"
"Hey buddy! You absolutely can't get hurt, buddy!"
"Stop messing around! Does anyone have hot water?! Get some hot water and energy candy! He seems to have low blood sugar!"
Xie Xubai remained silent, drank water, ate candy, and raised his head amidst the noisy crowd.
The shop owner walked out unharmed, seemingly unaffected by the injuries sustained during the game.
He was furious at losing the game, but he was still alive, thinking that as long as he was alive, he could always make a comeback. The shop owner said with a grin, "Ah, congratulations to everyone for winning the game and qualifying for the competition. Does anyone else want to participate?"
Just as Captain Xu was about to answer, he suddenly heard a young man's hoarse voice behind him.
"Yes." Xie Xubai stood up and looked directly at the shop owner. "Let's continue the game."
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