Chapter 79 The Ultimate Dilemma
This is an open outdoor platform.
The black tower beneath my feet has turned pure white.
In the very center, a boy in white is suspended by semi-transparent chains of light, his limbs and neck bound together.
His face was contorted in pain, as if he were enduring endless torment.
Upon seeing the white-clad boy's face, Ning Shuyin suddenly felt—
I think I've seen him before.
The boy in white gave her a strange sense of déjà vu.
Golden energy guided the threads to wrap around him.
Her senses told her that he was her target.
Robert's voice, crackling with static, came from behind:
"He is the Zero Power Donor. Go kill him, and our suffering will end."
Ning Shuyin thought hard for a moment.
Her intuition told her something was wrong, but the urging voices behind her kept coming.
Her brows were furrowed as she walked step by step toward the boy in white.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters...
Something's not right.
She reached out her hand.
Hesitate for a few seconds.
But he deliberately touched the switch of the chain that locked the boy.
At that very moment.
A sharp chill came from behind her.
Ning Shuyin felt a chill on her neck.
She turned around and met Robert's cloudy, deep purple eyes.
"You still found out." He grinned maliciously.
With his right hand, he slowly removed the cloak from his body. Over 70% of Robert's body was composed of mechanical structures.
It was his mechanical left hand that gripped her neck: "Now, go and complete your final mission, kill him."
Ning Shuyin tried to break free.
But the robotic arm remained completely still.
“Kill him, and I’ll let you go,” Robert whispered in her ear.
My palm felt cold as a black dagger was shoved into it.
The only way out?
Ning Shuyin did not believe him.
She gripped the dagger tightly, refusing to move forward an inch.
Seeing that she refused to comply, Robert used the sharp metal edge of the mechanical arm to pierce her skin.
A sharp pain and suffocation came from my neck.
Just then, a clear voice drifted into her ears.
It was that white-clad boy with his eyes tightly closed.
Don't listen to him, he's just using you.
Ning Shuyin realized that the boy hadn't said a word, but his voice reached her ears.
The young man in white continued, "He and I are both from this world. The rules prevent him from killing me; he can only do it through you."
“I am the city’s power supplier, Zero. If I die, the city will shut down. An exit to the outside world will briefly appear before you. Theoretically, you can go out.”
"But all thoughts trapped here will dissipate."
Ning Shuyin understood.
Once the Zero Power Donor dies, Situ Linchen and all the movie theater audience members will become walking corpses.
That was Robert's goal.
The boy seemed to sense her thoughts and continued speaking in her ear.
“If you want to save them, there is another option. Open my chains, I will be free, and I can release all the souls.”
"However, you have broken the chains, and you will have to pay the price..."
"You need to take over from me here and become the successor power provider. You can never leave."
Two choices.
Release the boy, and everyone will be saved, except her.
She killed the boy, escaped, and the others died.
The pain in my neck became increasingly excruciating.
At that moment, another elegant young voice, filled with anxiety, suddenly rang in her mind.
It was Zhou Zhiheng's voice.
But at this moment, Ning Shuyin no longer recognized him.
"Ning Shuyin, I've located you. The switch to the virtual world is right in front of you. Destroy it, and the exit will open."
Zhou Zhiheng repeated his words three times.
Hearing this unfamiliar voice, Ning Shuyin felt as if it confirmed the truth of the boy's words.
However, Ning Shuyin gripped the dagger tightly and refused to stab forward.
Both paths before us lead to dead ends.
But really... is there really no other way?
"Hurry! Kill him!"
Robert was getting impatient.
The robotic arm released an electric current. The arc struck Ning Shuyin's neck, which was bleeding from being gripped.
She felt as if her whole body had been run over by a truck, and she was in excruciating pain.
"Kill me." The white-clad youth's clear, spring-like voice reached her ears, as if he couldn't bear to see her suffer.
Ning Shuyin's vision was blurred by blood and tears.
She activated her senses to the fullest, searching for any glimmer of hope.
It wasn't killing.
It's not a release either.
She looked down at the city that had been revitalized.
She realized—it was healing.
So that's how it is. Why do we have to follow their script? Why do we have to choose between two options?
She insisted on trying a third path.
The golden thread that had been fiercely guarding the name "Situ Linchen" in his mind was pulled out.
She decided to take a gamble.
If she fails, she will forget everything.
Once the golden thread is no longer protecting him, the name Situ Linchen will be mercilessly erased by this tower.
But what if you bet right?
A faint green energy emanated from Ning Shuyin's body and slowly flowed into the white-robed youth's body.
"You bastard! What are you doing!" Robert exclaimed in shock and anger.
He hadn't expected that this "empty shell," whose memories he had drained, would dare to disobey his orders.
The boy in white was equally surprised.
He hadn't expected that this girl, in dire straits, would make a choice that wasn't defined within the framework of this world.
The moment he received the healing, his pained expression disappeared.
The light chain melted away in an instant, like ice and snow melted by flames.
Robert felt a deadly threat.
He tightened his grip on Ning Shuyin's neck. He wanted to kill her immediately.
But it was too late.
His body's mechanical structure seemed to have betrayed him.
With a "crack" sound.
The mechanical arm that was gripping Ning Shuyin's neck twisted backward in the opposite direction of the joint.
His scapula was torn apart.
"Ugh!" Robert groaned and fell to the ground.
Ning Shuyin was freed from her restraints and took deep breaths of fresh air.
It seems she won.
She created a way out of a desperate situation in her own way.
Robert collapsed to the ground, his eyes shifting from surprise to anger, and finally to sorrow.
That half of the mechanical body was slowly melting away, like a lit candle.
"Ha ha ha ha……"
His purple eyes were filled with resentment.
“I’ve been enslaved my whole life. All the missions I’ve carried out have been successful… but I’ve never received a single reward,” the mechanical boy gritted his teeth. “Just one failure… and I’ll die in this game.”
His cloudy eyes were fixed on Ning Shuyin.
"you……"
He struggled to raise his other hand—the human side of his hand.
Suddenly, he exerted force with his fingers and dug them into his own chest.
“They’ve always called me ‘it,’ and I actually dared to dream that one day I would be recognized…”
Robert actually managed to dig a crystal that shimmered with black light out of his body.
"This is my... final value. The power contained within is enough to control those high and mighty beings. I'll leave it to you; consider it my... betrayal of my master before my death."
With a clang.
The crystal was left at Ning Shuyin's feet.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
