"Congratulations to contestant Wen Xingze from the Muse Empire—"
"The duel between the champion and His Majesty will begin in one hour. The awards ceremony will take place after the duel. Please rest for a while."
Wen Xingze: “???”
“…”
In the competition area suspended in the air, all the ruins, guns, and zombies quickly decomposed into fluorescent blue pixel blocks and dissipated.
Under the spotlight.
All the cameras in the venue were focused here. Wen Xingze's forehead was slightly wet by water droplets. He stood up from his kneeling position, and the pure black dagger suddenly turned into a long sword. The remaining blood stains dissipated along with the data.
Wen Xingze sheathed his sword and glanced at the camera with a distant and arrogant look.
Mainly because I don’t know what expression to make.
...The long silence was completely broken.
The comments on the live broadcast channel exploded exponentially, and the atmosphere in the audience was extremely excited.
"Ahhhhhhh!!! So handsome!!!"
Fireworks burst out.
Colorful streamers that had been programmed long ago floated in the sky, light effects surrounded the entire venue, and the passionate war song sounded again.
The transparent staircase leading to the lounge descended, Wen Xingze walked down the stairs, and soon his back disappeared.
After a long while, the audience's boiling blood slowly cooled down, and they gradually realized that something was wrong.
"Fuck."
"The champion this time isn't even a contestant..."
"He's the Water Spirit! They look exactly the same!!!"
"Wait, the Muse Empire?? Wen Xingze???!"
Fully enclosed lounge.
This was the champions' lounge, offering the most luxurious amenities in all of Utopia. Dark red velvet carpet covered the floor, floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of the highest point on Planet Caril, and a champagne tower sat on the table. The door was already jammed with reporters, but fortunately, Wen Xingze had the right to refuse, so the waiter closed the door for him.
Wen Xingze collapsed directly on the sofa.
"call……"
So tired!
The winning conditions for the Killing Show finals are: 'Destroy the cylinder that imprisons the Water Spirit', 'Rescue the Water Spirit' and 'Survive with the Water Spirit until the time limit ends'.
As for this water elf, although all the audience mistakenly thought it was a mermaid... but Wen Xingze certainly couldn't be an NPC in the game. Wen Xingze guessed that the real water elf should be the little starfish that was always shivering beside him.
...The little starfish still lay in his palm. Somehow, it hadn't vanished with the collapse of the competition area. It was a plump, orange-pink, five-pointed starfish. Wen Xingze looked at it from side to side and couldn't help but fold it into a pair of shorts with a light green handkerchief from the table.
Now Wen Xingze was finally satisfied.
He gently hooked one of its horns and shook it: "From now on, I will call you Patrick Star."
Starfish: “…” Good fellow.
There is no rule in the Killing Show that says "you have to be a contestant to win."
Of course, Wen Xingze hadn't expected that someone who had traveled directly from a parallel universe could be directly judged as the winner by the system. It truly was a utopia of simple folk customs.
He just snatched away the results of so many people's competitions...isn't that a bit unsportsmanlike?
"This trip was too sudden," Wen Xingze thought. "There was no notice of the time or location, and I was still filming a commercial, so I had to use my pocket watch to rewind time on my way back."
And, 'The Champion will face His Majesty'?!
At this point, Wen Xingze suddenly missed Chi Yan. It was still hard for him to connect the famous monarch with the apron-wearing, indifferent man cooking soup in their home. They looked like two different people with the same face.
Wen Xingze missed Chi Yan every time they were apart, even if it was just for an hour or two. And the more troublesome things he encountered, the more he missed Chi Yan. He wanted to crawl into Teacher Chi's bed, smell that scent that felt like melting snow, and sleep soundly in his arms... Wen Xingze felt like he might be a little addicted to Chi Yan, and the slightest distance from him would cause withdrawal symptoms.
Wen Xingze thought this was completely unreasonable. He and Chi Yan had been in a relationship for so long and had never had a fight, but they were actually fighting in front of the entire universe. Was this considered domestic violence and should it be announced to the world? He loved Chi Yan so much, he couldn't bring himself to do anything to him.
The more Wen Xingze thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong and he wanted to run away.
What Wen Xingze didn't know was that in the ten minutes or so he'd been lost in thought, news of the Utopia Killing Show finals and Wen Xingze's victory had already spread rapidly across Starnet, topping the trending searches. Along with several photos from the set that looked even better than retouched ones, they quickly sparked an incredibly heated discussion...
"Why don't I go first," Wen Xingze said to himself, "Patrick, do you need me to take you back to the aquarium?"
Starfish was speechless.
Three seconds later, the little starfish suddenly stopped trembling, and floated up gently, swimming towards the corridor.
"There are reporters outside the door. What are you going to do?"
Wen Xingze didn't know if Haixing could understand human language, so he quickly gave up on this meaningless communication. Since there was nothing to do anyway, Wen Xingze decided to follow Haixing forward.
The lounge was very large and the corridor was very deep. Wen Xingze walked and turned into a place that looked like an elevator.
But this is not an elevator, it is a space jump portal, but no one knows where it leads to.
The starfish clung to the door, dejected and deflated.
Wen Xingze: “?”
"Chirp, chirp, chirp," the starfish waved its right horn and muttered in frustration, "Chirp, chirp..."
This portal was set up with extremely high permissions. Only the monarch of the country could open it. Moreover, the encryption lock was the most advanced in the entire universe's security system. Even the dwarfs of Muse, whose IQ was beyond common sense, would need three days and three nights to break it...
The next second, I heard the sound of the door opening.
starfish:"?"
The portal scanned Wen Xingze's pupils and emitted sporadic words such as "authority determination under review", "highest authority", and "engagement partner".
Then, it opened.
starfish:"???"
"Don't you want to go? Let's go, goodbye Patrick," Wen Xingze said, "Then I'll go back first-"
In the blink of an eye, a large group of reporters suddenly rushed over from the end of the corridor. I don’t know if it was because there were too many people that they broke through the waiter’s defense line.
The reporters were clamoring, "Mr. Wen, please give us an interview." "As the monarch of a neighboring country, why did you come to Utopia to participate in the finals of the Killing Show? Are there any political considerations?" "How do you explain the behavior of the Muse citizens on Star Network?" ...
Wen Xingze immediately changed his mind.
He put the little starfish in his pocket, stepped into the portal, and quickly closed the door.
"This jump device hasn't been used for a long time." Wen Xingze saw that the corners were already a little rusty, and there were even blue sparks when the door was opened, but the setting light screen still popped up on time. "Strange..."
When Wen Xingze played "Desolation: King's Awakening" before, he also relied on this kind of portal to cross the map. Before the jump was activated, a light screen would display the current coordinates and destination coordinates.
But at this moment, on the light screen in front of him, in addition to the coordinates, there was actually a column for time.
A gentle mechanical prompt sounded:
"Current coordinates: Caril Star, Floating Arena."
"Destination coordinates: Laboratory x901."
"Current time: November, 243rd year of the Universal Era."
"Destination Time: November, 216th Year of the Universal Era. You may stay for ten minutes during the destination time. If you exceed the time limit, you will be forcibly deported. Please be careful not to change the established facts of the past, so as not to cause a butterfly effect."
"The program is starting, please stand firmly and hold on—"
The little starfish politely hooked Wen Xingze's little finger and held it in place.
Wen Xingze: “?”
Wait, this is actually a dual space-time jump device!
Who was this Patrick Star? Even if it was just for ten minutes, Wen Xingze didn't want to go back to the past, but it was too late to make an emergency stop now!
The jump starts.
Because the changes in spatial coordinates are not drastic, and the technology in this area of the universe is now very mature, there is not too severe a feeling of weightlessness.
Wen Xingze even felt like he was just taking an elevator.
...and when I stepped out of the door, the environment outside had completely changed.
He returned to the planet Kaliel in the year 216 of the Cosmic Era.
In this year, the future Muse Empire was just a small village next to a garbage recycling station, and the young king was running around for the mermaids; in this year, the planet Kali'er was not yet the capital of the famous Utopian Empire, but just a ruined planet mired in war, suffering and disease.
This was the winter of the second year that the blind officer Chi Yan left Muse and traveled alone to the other side of the universe.
In laboratory No. x901, the instruments here appear somewhat worn out, and the underground is only illuminated by mining lamps.
Snow was falling on the land, but it had nothing to do with the bottom of the well tens of thousands of meters deep. This was a secret forgotten by the universe.
The little starfish happily slid down from Wen Xingze's thumb, swaying in the air as it drifted inside. Wen Xingze felt that after sending someone a thousand miles away, it was necessary to say goodbye. After all, they were just casual acquaintances...
"I'll just stand here for ten minutes and not leave," Wen Xingze said. "I'm afraid of the butterfly effect."
Wen Xingze didn't want to cause a butterfly effect at all, causing some established things to change.
He had to realize that he was living in a novel at the age of eighteen, download the mobile game "Desolation" on time at the age of twenty-one, and meet his parents and his Chi Yan at the age of twenty-four.
Wen Xingze is the person who hates the word "miss" the most.
The little starfish tried to communicate with him, but Wen Xingze refused to go out, so the starfish walked away dejectedly: "Chirp..."
As soon as I turned my head, I bumped into someone.
The little starfish floated down dizzy and limp.
Plop. It fell to the ground.
Wen Xingze: “…”
The man was wearing a white coat. He was not surprised by the flying starfish, a mysterious creature. Instead, he bent down to pick up the small starfish, wiped it, then picked up the miner's lamp and looked at Wen Xingze.
The man was wearing a white coat used exclusively by researchers, but the nameplate on his chest did not have his researcher number written on it. Instead, it read "Experimental Subject x01 (Failed)".
He had a pure black eye mask covering his eyes, his skin was pale, his lips were flat, and he looked like he had no emotional fluctuations.
It was a kind of cold, lifeless beauty. Tens of thousands of meters underground, he was like a soul without a home.
...At a distance of less than five meters, Wen Xingze was caught off guard and met Chi Yan from twenty-seven years ago.
“…”
Ahhhh!
This eye mask was given to him by Wen Xingze!
Wen Xingze was very happy for a moment, because he wanted to see Chi Yan, whether it was twenty years ago or twenty years later. But then he felt a little distressed.
Chi Yan doesn't seem to be doing well.
Chi Yan located the starfish by listening to the sound and handed it to Wen Xingze.
Wen Xingze took the starfish.
Moving closer, Wen Xingze got a clearer look at Chi Yan. His hair fell across his forehead, and the shadow beneath his brow was as deep as a cold pond.
Chi Yan was originally tall, and now he looked very thin, with an unhealed wound on his brow bone. The three words on the nameplate were indeed "failure".
After the blind officer left, Wen Xingze couldn't understand why for a long time. He thought the other party would be willing to stay and build the country with him.
Wen Xingze was reluctant to let him go, but he also understood the officer's choice and often wished him a bright future. But he still hoped that if he wasn't happy out there, he'd want to return to Muse. In that case, no matter how far away, Wen Xingze would go pick him up.
Wen Xingze almost wanted to ask him, "You don't look happy, why did you leave Muse?"
But Wen Xingze soon realized that if he came into contact with Chi Yan so early, would it trigger a butterfly effect and cause the world line to change?
When in doubt, quantum mechanics... well, I can't learn it.
Fortunately, Chi Yan was indeed blind at this time. As long as he didn't make any sound, Chi Yan should not be able to recognize him.
"...Thank you." Wen Xingze felt a pang of bitterness in his heart, and he finally lowered his voice and said.
The lights are dim.
The mining lamps above their heads creaked and turned at an angle.
"Um."
Chi Yan nodded.
The corners of his lips pursed slightly, and Wen Xingze couldn't see his expression through the blindfold. When he took the starfish, Wen Xingze's palm touched Chi Yan's fingertips.
Chi Yan's fingertips curled up for a moment, but quickly relaxed.
He didn't mean to say anything more to Wen Xingze. He paused for two seconds and turned to leave.
"You really didn't recognize me?" Wen Xingze began to sigh in his heart. He really wanted to kiss Chi Yan, but Wen Xingze decided to save this kiss for a long time later.
Now is not the time for them to meet.
Wen Xingze suddenly wanted to claim the "champion reward" from the Killing Show. This was the fastest way to see Chi Yan. He walked back into the portal:
"Fast forward twenty-seven years later."
Portal: "..."
The jump starts.
The other side.
In a place that Wen Xingze couldn't see, in a deep underground laboratory.
Experiment X01, dressed in a white lab coat, moved indifferently through the crowd. Wherever he passed, most scholars would suddenly fall silent, then turn around and chat with their companions:
"It's that failed product again." "It suddenly disappeared for two years. I thought it was thrown into the recycling bin. How come it is still running?" "...It's really scary."
The man ignored it.
The man sat down silently beside the bed until he returned to his narrow little room.
After a moment, he carefully removed the eye patch and put it back into the box.
Experimental subject X01 released his hand, and the index and middle fingers of his right hand, which had touched Wen Xingze's palm not long ago, fell beside him, still trembling slightly.
Very hot.
He hadn't seen him in so long.
Two whole years.
Every time he sees Wen Xingze, Experiment X01 always needs to sit for a long time to recall, repeatedly consider, and use a magnifying glass to examine every bit of temperature and all the touches, comparing them one by one with reality to see if they are consistent.
——And 90% of these meetings take place in unrealistic dreams.
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