Chapter 117
Zhou Chaosheng was prepared to die, but he never imagined that he would be controlled by others after his death and that his students would be stabbed in the heart.
Ultimately, there is only one reason why they ended up in such a tragic situation.
He failed.
Time flies, and years pass by. When Zhou Chaosheng and Pei Yuheng reunite, he suddenly wakes up as if from a dream, realizing the injustice that fate will inflict on humanity and the devastation inflicted on his old friend's son. His first reaction is anger.
What did they do wrong? Why should they be played like this?
Driven by impulsiveness and grief, Zhou Chaosheng made a rash decision to secretly travel to Fu's Pharmaceutical Company.
However, the rules proved to be unavoidable—even though Zhou Chaosheng was careful in his words and actions and did not give anything away, he was caught red-handed for the absurdly dramatic reason that "the patrolman on duty had a sudden urge to try the coffee in the leader's office."
While Xie Xubai and his group were searching for Zhou Chaosheng in the southern new district of the city, Zhou Chaosheng was subjected to a miserable trial, became a vaccine test subject, and suffered greatly, his will being repeatedly torn apart by pain.
After an unknown amount of time, just when Zhou Chaosheng thought he was about to go crazy, he suddenly heard a sharp sound of breaking glass in his muddled mind.
As if breaking through some invisible constraint, his body became very light, and the chains could no longer restrain his movements.
Zhou Chaosheng opened his eyes with great surprise, only to have a basin of cold water poured over his head. He was shocked to find himself floating in mid-air.
Behind them came the ecstatic cheers of the Fu Pharmaceuticals employees, because they had finally developed a vaccine! The mutilated limbs that served as the original vaccine samples were also sent into the culture vessel by them, unable to contain their greed.
If any players arrive at the laboratory before Xie Xubai and his group, they will receive a system notification the moment they discover the wreckage, which will awaken the resentful mini-boss Zhou Chaosheng.
At that time, Zhou Chaosheng was already consumed by hatred and had lost his mind. He would only regard any player who suddenly broke in as a lackey of the Fu Group, and thus engage in fierce battles.
If the player wins, they will obtain Zhou Chaosheng's remains, which will be used as a key item to incite Pei Yuheng to go berserk and mutate, and to unlock side quests.
However, no one expected that a variable named "Xie Xubai" would suddenly appear. Not only did he recruit most of the players into his own camp before the system could, but he also brought Pei Yuheng to meet Zhou Chaosheng ahead of time.
Upon closer examination, it turns out to be a kind of luck.
Zhou Chaosheng failed, but he also subtly broke free from his predetermined fate. After all, according to the game's script, even if he transformed into a monstrous being, he, consumed by resentment, could not escape the laboratory where he met his tragic end.
He could only wait for the players to enter in boundless agony, without having time to give his last words or clarify anything, before facing his second death—his soul was scattered.
Now, he is of sound mind and can freely travel within Fu's Pharmaceutical Company using his supernatural powers. He can exploit the loophole that allows players to play as Fu Zong to create a time difference and secretly take away the real heir of the Fu family, thus hindering the Fu family.
We should be happy and glad about it.
But no one could laugh out loud.
Looking down at the grief-stricken Pei Yuheng, Zhou Chaosheng felt as if he were holding his breath in a burning pain.
Perhaps Pei Yuheng's reincarnation was not accidental. After acquiring strange powers, Zhou Chaosheng also had a slight feeling that he had died more than once.
These are all secondary.
Now they stand at a crossroads once again, seemingly with many paths to choose from, but in reality, they have no other choice.
—Vaccines cannot be developed without the support of unorthodox methods. For the sake of the people's well-being, and given that he could not fight against the entire massive Fu Pharmaceutical Group, replacing Fu Zong was Pei Yuheng's only way out.
How utterly despairing!
Zhou Chaosheng, who had tried to defy the rules, no longer had the strength to shout; all that remained in his heart was desolation.
—If reincarnation and rebirth, and going against the tide, are opportunities that Pei Yuheng and another group of people sacrificed a great deal for, then not being able to change their fate and walk towards the predetermined ending, doesn't that mean they were doing useless work from beginning to end?
—Then what is the point of struggling like this?
At the same time, the "rules," separated by more than twenty years, whispered a warning to Xie Xubai.
Fu Zong had to be played by Pei Yuheng because Xie Xubai had personally witnessed Pei Yuheng vomiting bloody chunks of flesh in the special detention room of the First Hospital, transforming from Fu Zong's appearance back to his original form.
The rule says: Even if you find loopholes in the rules, confuse others' perceptions, and create a false history, how can you deceive your past self?
Given Xie Xubai's meticulousness, he could easily overturn cause and effect, triggering the "grandmother paradox."
—Once he starts to have "suspicion" about the behind-the-scenes story of Pei Yuheng playing Fu Zong at the hospital, he will not directly confront the hospital's "rules," nor will he coincidentally travel through time and meet Pei Yuheng from twenty years ago. He will not then fabricate history to help Pei Yuheng overcome difficulties, leaving loopholes that ultimately cause his future self to have "suspicion."
Just as one cannot travel back in time to kill one's grandparents before one's own father was born.
The cause and effect are linked one after another, perfectly fitting together, leaving no room for error.
Xie Xubai stood upright, alone, quietly listening to the admonitions of the "First Hospital Rules".
Wenya's face was like a shadow cast by the laboratory, frozen and showing no emotion whatsoever.
His gaze fell on Pei Yuheng, who was screaming hoarsely, and then looked past the other's thin shoulders to stare at the inhuman corpse in the incubator.
In fact, by this time, Xie Xubai had already convinced the authority of the "First Hospital Rules".
Since it followed Xie Xubai to learn about history and discovered that he was the deputy director of the First Hospital and, along with Pei Yuheng, was its "biological father," it changed its previous attitude of aversion and disgust and inevitably developed a fondness for the young man.
Afterwards, Xie Xubai helped the clinic escape danger on several occasions and expanded its premises, which also increased the trust that the "hospital rules" had in the young people.
Above the rules for a single region, there are even higher rules.
[First Hospital Rules] It's likely that it was misled by the [Game Rules], which is why it couldn't recognize Xie Xubai.
But it doesn't matter. As long as Xie Xubai stops at this critical juncture and prevents the situation from changing further, even if the current outcome cannot be changed, when Xie Xubai returns to more than twenty years later, there will be a "First Hospital Rule" that wholeheartedly believes in him, crowning him and becoming an aid in resolving Fu Zong's situation.
Isn't this good enough? The past tragedy cannot be undone, but they can still embrace the future. The images and experimental records Xie Xubai holds are enough to clear Pei Yuheng's name.
[Hospital Rules] Gently comforting: Xie Xubai, you have done your best.
Therefore, there is no need to continue to force yourself to pursue that impossible feat of turning the tide.
Just then, a violent tremor suddenly came from the ground beneath their feet. This had a ripple effect, and alarms sounded throughout the entire industrial park, their sharp and piercing sounds cutting through the sky.
Xie Xubai felt an oppressive force for no reason. Not only him, but Pei Zhou and the other two beside him, including the players who were fighting fiercely outside and the employees of Fu's Group, all felt this unusual commotion.
Some players were caught off guard, stumbling and falling to the ground. They hastily rolled to avoid the monster's fangs, clutching their pounding hearts and cursing, "Damn it, who used their ultimate skill? Couldn't they have given us a warning beforehand?!"
The next second, another shockwave came from all directions, causing chaos on the battlefield and buildings to shake violently. Only then did people realize that something was wrong.
They looked up in horror and saw several scarlet cracks in the sky, with ferocious purple electric currents crackling and swirling around them. Through the cracks, they could vaguely see tall buildings.
The key point is that the buildings inside are very familiar.
The astute player reacted quickly, shifting their gaze downwards to compare with the buildings below the crack, where another towering building stood.
With the same jade-white diamond-shaped wall paint and fan-shaped glass curtain wall, the two buildings look almost identical from the outside.
No, they should be considered as a control group between the real world and the other world!
Why are there images of the real world appearing in the cracks, and what does this mean? Why do they feel the buildings are approaching?
"What's going on now? What's wrong with the dungeon this time??"
"System! System! Come out and explain, is there a bug in the dungeon!?"
As everyone was still discussing, the next second they heard a deafening metallic clang—the sound of glass scraping against the ground.
The building was so close to the crack that, after a moment, it appeared upside down, its pointed tip peeking out at the players in the inner world.
The player shouted in terror, "Damn it! That building is about to collapse! Everyone run!"
Before the words were even finished, the entire building was suddenly freed and plummeted at a speed that was impossible to see with the naked eye, just like a large meteorite!
The players below frantically fled, and as they took off, golden light fell on their legs, instantly making them move like the wind and barely managing to escape before the building collapsed.
--boom!
The buildings collided, and the steel frame and load-bearing walls simultaneously broke under the weight. Shattered stones and glass rained down in the violent impact, cutting through the grass, smashing the stone pavement, and raising clouds of dust.
The employees of the Fu Group only had time to look up in fear before they were smashed into a mangled pulp, blood splattering everywhere. A cloud of dust rose, drowning out the many agonizing screams.
In the blink of an eye, the entire battlefield was reduced to ruins!
The next step is "integration".
The building crashed down from the crack in the sky with the texture of a hard object, but when the players looked up, they saw that those hard and heavy stone bricks, after causing a massive impact, turned into a soft, gelatinous liquid in just two seconds.
They move like flowing water, searching for their own "patterns," fitting bricks and tiles, inlaying glass, and erasing jagged cracks as if wiped away by an invisible hand.
In the blink of an eye, a brand-new building, showing no signs of abnormality, was restored to its original state, standing tall in its original location.
The players who escaped unscathed didn't even have time to catch their breath, marveling at this absurd and bizarre scene, before their breath caught in their throats as they looked up.
They were horrified to see countless cracks in the sky, one after another, sliding out from the corners of buildings or other structures, their sharp tips pointing downwards, directly at the ground, like the muzzles of loaded cannons, densely packed, filling the entire sky.
The moment the commotion occurred, Zhou Chaosheng in the laboratory quickly pulled up the surveillance footage.
Some of the surveillance cameras were damaged, and the screens displayed distorted electronic snow. The few remaining cameras projected a scene of the outside world as if it were the end of the world.
Zhou Chaosheng said in a deep voice: "The two worlds are merging!"
He stared intently at the crowd of people who had been mistakenly injured on the monitor screen, his eyes revealing unbearable pain. He clearly hadn't anticipated that the fusion of the real world and the underworld would trigger such a devastating disaster!
But this is just the beginning.
Xie Xubai noticed that a person had fallen out of the crack.
Yes, it was just a person, an ordinary person walking their dog.
He fell horribly from the sky, dying before he could even scream, and then the bizarre process of restoration also happened to him.
Wisps of cold, white mist enveloped the gruesome corpse. As if a miracle had occurred, countless shattered bones were pieced together, the cracks disappeared, the damaged organs returned to their proper places, and they were given a healthy glow. The mangled head was restored to normal, revealing fair and clean skin.
The man who had been resurrected stood blankly on the street until a disgruntled bark from a dog snapped him out of his daze.
He jolted awake, looked down at the dog, then at the desolate and dilapidated surroundings, and acted as if nothing had happened. He rubbed the dog's head a couple of times, whimpering, and continued walking forward, leading the dog on its leash.
Midway through, the man tripped over half of the monster's corpse and almost fell. He cursed and ignored the strong smell of blood, then kicked the corpse hard.
Xie Xubai focused his attention on discerning the shape of his lips as he spoke.
The surveillance camera was covered in dust and there was some strange magnetic interference, making it impossible to pick up sound accurately and the picture was also unclear. But he could vaguely make out that the person was cursing: "...Where did this roadblock come from!"
In an instant, Xie Xubai realized that many ordinary NPCs, just like he used to be, were returning to their places in the game instance.
These ordinary NPCs are limited by their cognitive abilities and cannot detect anything unusual.
It's not that ordinary people become monsters after seeing the truth, but rather that they are corrupted and become monsters themselves, only then can they see the cruel reality of the world.
The eeriness has been there from beginning to end, as has the pollution.
Buzz, buzz...!
Pei Yuheng steadied himself by holding onto the table, the constant vibrations of his phone in his pocket bringing him back to his senses.
Originally, after the power outage and the destruction of the city's signal base stations, mobile phones could no longer be used. However, during the period when various investors moved in, the maintenance staff, who had become like monsters, returned to work, repaired the circuits, restored water and electricity, and all communication equipment was put back into use.
Upon seeing the caller ID, Pei Yuheng couldn't remain calm and quickly answered the call.
The next second, Dr. Li's shout came out amidst the background noise.
"...The call connected! Chief, Chief? Is that you? How are you? This world is completely bewitched! I submitted evidence of the Fu Group's crimes to the Alliance branch, and now the walls, tiles, and floors are all disappearing! The people aren't moving anymore, and I can't feel their heartbeats!"
In the real world, a cell phone displaying a call is placed on the cold floor. Dr. Li, while loudly explaining the situation at the scene, is performing CPR on the collapsed law enforcement officer, his brow beaded with sweat.
One, two, three...
The trembling hand pressed against the man's chest, making a loud thud, but the man remained unresponsive.
Dr. Li's hands and feet grew increasingly cold, and his lips began to tremble involuntarily: "Wake up! Ah! How could... how could she stop breathing! Wake up!"
Around him, the hall's facilities were like faded layers, losing their color and reality; apart from the ground beneath his feet, everything became illusory.
The law enforcement officers, who had been rushing around in a hurry, stood still, their pupils unfocused and their chests flat. The silent hall echoed with Dr. Li's shouts, but the sound of their breathing was inaudible, making them seem like wind-up puppets that had lost their power.
Dr. Li had never seen such an unbelievable scene before.
The man was beyond saving; he felt no trace of life on the cold body of the law enforcement officer.
Just over twenty minutes ago, this calm and reliable young man had greeted him, noticed his unease and wariness, poured him a cup of warm water, and smiled as he advised him to relax.
Dr. Li felt dizzy and suddenly felt like screaming.
Looking around at the absurd and bizarre scene before him, he finally stared blankly at the call screen, his weak voice tinged with suppressed sobs: "...Chief, Deputy Chief, what should we do now...?"
Domestically, law enforcement agencies are like beacons of light; as long as they exist, people know they have grievances to redress and powerful backers to rely on.
Even after experiencing a period of social disorder in the underworld, Dr. Li still harbored a simple hope deep in his heart, believing that as long as the higher authorities intervened, millions of people would unite and work together to overcome the crisis.
Unexpectedly, the game went too far, completely erasing the existence of the alliance's political system.
For ordinary people, even if the sky falls, it's nothing more than this.
...Where will those heroic souls who mysteriously disappeared go if the people forget them?
The situation has escalated to the point where Xie Xubai and his group are practically driven to the brink of despair.
But it seemed that Heaven wasn't satisfied with the severe punishment and wanted to drop the final straw on the backs of the desperate.
The magician's solemn voice came through the phone: "Pei Yu, are you next to me? Can you hear me?"
"To make a long story short, here's some bad news: that madman on the leaderboard is also in the current instance. That guy specifically targets good people to torture and kill them, and the special NPC Xie Xubai is within his hunting range!"
"The tracking tool indicates that the madman has left the real world. If I'm not mistaken, he should be on his way to find Xie Xubai. We must find Xie Xubai as soon as possible and protect him, otherwise the players will fall apart again!"
Distracted, Pei Yuheng suddenly looked up, like someone on the verge of exploding under unbearable pressure. His voice was hoarse and distorted, filled with icy anger: "What did you say? Who wants to attack Xie Xubai??"
A hand patted Pei Yuheng on the back and took his phone.
Xie Xubai said into the phone, "I understand. Be careful over there, and prioritize safety above all else."
The magician was slightly taken aback by Xie Xubai's calm tone. The dungeon was on the verge of complete collapse, and he hadn't expected Xie Xubai to be able to maintain his usual composure.
But it must be said that with the situation in such a chaotic state, it is precisely because of Xie Xubai, a pillar of stability, that people feel at ease.
How could someone like that remain unknown?
The magician was somewhat tempted. Maybe he could get the person's contact information after the dungeon ended and bring them into his guild...
He shook his head violently, shaking off those random thoughts, and reiterated on the other end of the phone, "Hang in there a little longer, I'm coming right away!"
As soon as the call ended, Pei Yuheng turned to Zhou Chaosheng, his eyes red and resolute, and asked, "Teacher, what do I need to do to replace Fu Zong?"
Finally, it came to this point. Zhou Chaosheng stammered, his throat feeling as if it were filled with sharp knives, scraping his mouth until it bled profusely and causing unbearable pain. He couldn't utter a single word.
During his time infiltrating Fu's Pharmaceutical Company as an undercover agent, he collected a lot of internal information, including a monster encyclopedia.
The painted-skin ghost that peels off human skin, the water ghost that seeks someone to die in its place, the ghoul that feeds on carrion... all of these can satisfy Pei Yuheng's requirements.
However, these monsters are all vengeful ghosts, and their birth is accompanied by a gruesome and appalling death.
If Pei Yuheng wants to become one of them, he will inevitably suffer the same torment as them, and die a miserable death.
Staring at the handsome young man before him, Zhou Chaosheng felt a surge of black resentment, which kept forming and churning. He experienced an unprecedented despair once again.
But at that moment, two warm golden lights enveloped them both, calming their restless minds.
rustling sounds.
Zhou Chaosheng heard a sound of rummaging through drawers and cabinets. He turned around and saw Xie Xubai moving as smoothly as a hamster, quickly finding several potions to restore mental strength and about to put them in his mouth.
Zhou Chaosheng was stunned and snatched the medicine bottle away, but Xie Xubai was too fast and there wasn't a drop left.
He yelled, his pale, corpse-like face turning bright red with anger: "What are you doing? You can't drink too much of this medicine!"
Pei Yuheng was also anxious, and unusually sternly said, "Fool, what are you going to do if you get an upset stomach?"
Xie Xubai casually wiped the medicine from the corner of his mouth: "It's nothing."
He feels great right now.
Xie Xubai reached out his hand, and golden light fell on the unconscious Fu Zong.
Pei and Zhou stared wide-eyed in disbelief. In their view, Fu Zong's appearance was changing little by little, gradually transforming into Xie Xubai's gentle and handsome features.
Xie Xubai casually conjured a golden exclamation mark and hung it on the head of Fu Zong, who was impersonating Xie Xubai. He adjusted it repeatedly before finally stopping, satisfied.
Pei Yuheng realized what was happening: "You want to use Fu Zong as a shield?"
Xie Xubai seemed to smile: "What's wrong with recycling waste?"
“And… Director, look at me.”
Upon hearing this, Pei Yuheng looked up and met Xie Xubai's calm and serene eyes.
There was no despair there, only unwavering perseverance and steadfast determination that remained steadfast despite countless obstacles.
Xie Xubai whispered as if prophesying, "This time, you will face a different ending."
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