"...Xiao Bai." Su Ming’an distanced himself.
He felt sothing amiss the next mont, wondering if Xiao Bai dared to close the distance because she was familiar with Cat Boss?
Xiao Bai seed unaware, pulling out a notebook: "I wrote a new IF line, take a look."
"IF line...?" Su Ming’an took it, seeing the text on the notebook:
...
[Ever since mom brought a little sister ho, Hui Ming’an’s days beca increasingly unpleasant.]
[He played a moving piano piece, hopefully looked at mom, but mom softly spoke to the sister, sending him to pick beans.]
[The beans buried in the coal ash were particularly hard to pick, after picking them, Hui Ming’an had to sweep the floor, cook, and wipe ash...]
[Until one day, mom was invited to a piano soiree, leaving Hui Ming’an alone at ho cleaning.]
[Suddenly, he heard a lodious voice—it was the legendary Bei Wang Fairy Cinderella! Upon seeing Hui Ming’an’s plight, Cinderella gave him splendid clothes and a pumpkin carriage to attend the piano soiree.]
[However, Hui Ming’an, driving the pumpkin carriage, did not head to the soiree. He raced freely under the night sky, laughing heartily, steering towards distant freedom, gradually disappearing at the horizon...]
[He left that gloomy ho, t many others—a white rabbit with a pocket watch, a Little Prince Su Liujin cloaked in gold foil, the poisoned Snow White Yuanyuan, Su Rin who traded voice with rmaids for strength, Alice who fell into a pit as a child, Little Red Hat Xiber hunting wolves in the forest, transford into Butterfly Liang Shanbo Lü Shu, suppressed under the tower White Snake Yisong...]
...
Su Ming’an was stunned.
...What is Xiao Bai writing?
"How is it?" Those ethereal eyes kept staring at him.
"Uh." Su Ming’an was speechless.
"Hmm." Xiao Bai seed satisfied with her writing, nodding. She paced, continually admiring.
Su Ming’an lowered his head, flipping through Cat Boss’s notes, understanding the situation.
—Radiant Mother God intends to overwrite the sole true tiline with the wrong IF line.
"World Book" records all events, "Soul Ferry" records all people; having both grants control over world construction rights in one’s hand. With a thought, lives change; even a forr emperor could be rewritten to beco a beggar... Should Radiant Mother God grasp the world’s "writing rights," She can give anyone any identity—for instance, writing Su Ming’an as Boss Rabbit, writing Xiao Bai as Hui Shuhang.
Thinking this way, "creative rights" are indeed terrifying; everyone’s personality, appearance, past, and entire life could be altered. Like his originally happy family being rewritten to include a sister.
"So the instance in the Disciple Ga: [White Sand Paradise], [Mingxi Campus], [Daylight Floating City]... are all IF lines?" Su Ming’an speculated.
"Of course, Daylight Floating City is Elisa’s story, when did Siyi and the new bride appear? Mingxi Campus is Wang Xingkong and Shen Xue’s story, when did Analog Horror appear?" Xiao Bai said, "Of course, they are IF lines, possibilities different from the original world."
Thus these instance disciples... are all attempts by Cat Boss and companions to create IF lines.
And Do Nightingale Clan... Perhaps Radiant Mother God is also trying to create IF lines.
It seems Cat Boss and others hope to write the perfect IF line to counter Radiant Mother God and the Awakeners behind Her.
"Finally found the critical clue..." Su Ming’an felt calm, grasping the thread.
He looked down, sowhat pained; this IF line written by Xiao Bai... was really not good.
Xiao Bai seed to sense his attitude, swiftly snatching away the notebook: "I know my writing isn’t good, can’t compare to you."
Su Ming’an said nothing. It wasn’t that the writing was bad; it had a strong inhuman feel, like a story written by an impersonator...
Xiao Bai turned to leave, planning to carefully edit her "exquisite story." Su Ming’an stepped forward, observing the Rin Clan in the glass jar.
Suddenly, soone knocked on the door.
"Knock, knock."
Inside ca a blond youth with blue eyes, a smile on his face.
"...Hui Bei." Su Ming’an was unsurprised to see him; Hui Bei was a ga staff.
"Cat Boss, sothing bad happened, the Kaidan went mad." Hui Bei said urgently upon entering: "Our constructed story can no longer hold them."
"Mad?" Su Ming’an was stunned.
He realized the Kaidan here have their own story backgrounds, like the bloody man who was once a teacher pushed off a building by security, dying in the [Mingxi Campus] story. The man’s story is fully accommodating, hence his existence.
So Kaidan background stories don’t fit [Mingxi Campus] well; when they sense story logic abnormality, smooth existence becos impossible.
Su Ming’an flipped through Cat Boss’s notes, a record of years of IF line testing, with limits on story fraworks, logic, character settings...
"Which direction had problems?" Su Ming’an asked calmly.
"Because a batch of players poured in... a person nad ’Phoenix’ pacified the Kaidan with words, guiding them to doubt the story, discovering it was just an IF line not their true life... wanting to return to their real story, thus going mad." Hui Bei spread his hands, lightly said: "A bunch never satisfied! What’s bad here, eternal campus, eternal story, a Utopia without prejudice and discrimination!"
Su Ming’an quickly flipped through Cat Boss’s notebook, reading: "When story characters doubt story authenticity, wanting to rebel or leave... best solution is making them believe they’ve left."
He closed the notebook:
"Hui Bei, we need to stage a ’successful escape from campus’ play."
In that mont, he felt dazed.
In the White Sand Paradise instance, he once undertook an "escape line," finding that escape was just an illusion, needing to burn down the campus to end it. This ti, they must give Kaidan an escape dream.
"Understood, I’ll write imdiately." Hui Bei said.
...
Lü Shu clenched the blade edge, staring at the maddened dancing Red Butterfly ahead.
[WARNING-009 Red Butterfly], previously was a white-haired boy who died from illness in the woods, lacking money for treatnt, eventually covered in sores and dying, his corpse devoured by insects, transforming into a beautiful Red Butterfly. Fighting this Kaidan requires writing "Good Person" on skin.
"What is this..." Lü Shu bit his teeth, writing two words on his skin, feeling trapped by one story after another.
Yet even after writing the words, the maddened Red Butterfly showed no signs of sparing them. Amid the screams of several contestants, the Red Butterfly fluttered closer.
"Here!" Suddenly, a heroic female voice ca from outside the woods, a blond, orange-eyed woman waved her arm, signaling them over.
The group grabbed the lifeline, rushing into the laboratory.
"Bang!" A loud noise as the blond woman hurriedly closed the door, blocking the Red Butterfly.
People, still shaken, gasped against the walls, Geng Lan suddenly scread, pointing ahead.
Following her direction, they saw a skeleton with flowing blond hair sitting in the lab, small in figure, eyes hollow.
"This is also a Kaidan! It’s [WARNING-005 Lab’s Blond Skeleton]!" Geng Lan scread in fear, clinging sweetly to Lü Shu: "Brother Lü Shu, we’re trapped front and back!"
The heroic blond woman coolly said: "Shut up! 005 is harmless, as long as it’s not actively hard, it won’t harm anyone, that’s why I brought you here for temporary refuge!"
This heroic woman bore resemblance to Fairy Noel from before. So familiar with campus layout, she didn’t seem like a newcor contestant.
Grraa—Grraa—
The blond skeleton’s hollow eyes stared at the crowd, even the bones filled with surgical scars.
"Ugh! Such scary Kaidan, really wonder what sins it committed alive." Geng Lan waved disdainfully.
Before she could cry coquettishly again, "Boom!" she was kicked to the wall by Lü Shu, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"Get lost!" Lü Shu pointed a blade at Geng Lan, who imdiately paled in terror, spitting blood while crawling into shadows.
The crowd fell silent, fearing calamity from speaking, none dared disdain the Kaidan ahead.
Lü Shu guessed the origin of this Kaidan, and no matter what, it wasn’t for an outsider to judge its rits.
Suddenly, the blonde woman’s expression stiffened, and she grabbed Lü Shu’s sleeve: "...We’re in trouble, I feel so kaidan are crossing boundaries, this place is not suitable for staying long, we need to keep moving."
She raised an oil lamp, the light seemingly dispelling the gloom. The contestants were like frightened chicks, protected behind the mother hen.
Lü Shu had so guesses about the blonde woman’s identity, perhaps she was so sort of "Player Protector"? He didn’t expect such a good person in the bloodthirsty and cruel Disciple Ga.
The sky gradually turned brighter, the dawn faintly visible, and the iron box-like school building was coated with a layer of soft, brilliant gold foil. A group of people cautiously circled to the back of the school building and entered the corridor.
"The school building is relatively safe now... I know the kaidan here like the back of my hand," the blonde woman said cautiously.
They climbed up the corridor, and saw in the shadow at the end of it, a middle-aged woman playing a ga with her head down, not looking up, without legs, drifting towards them.
"That’s [WARNING-006 · Middle-aged Woman Playing a Ga]," the blonde woman warned: "Answer her ga question, and you’ll be safe."
"Is she a ga addict? Such an age for a ga addict is rare," Zhou Sheng whispered.
"No," the blonde woman’s answer puzzled Zhou Sheng.
The middle-aged woman kept her head down, but sound floated out from her mouth:
"...Do you know... how many layers of diamonds are commonly found in gas...?"
"10~12 layers," the blonde woman replied.
Thinking they had passed, the middle-aged woman asked another question: "Do you know... where my child... went...?"
She slowly raised her head, revealing a blood-stained face:
"He was playing gas, I scolded him, he left the console and never ca back... I continued playing the ga he hadn’t finished, hoping one day if I finished this ga... he would co back... My child... Su Liujin..."
Blood flowed incessantly, she smiled and extended her hand.
"Run!" The blonde woman shouted upon realizing they couldn’t counteract, and everyone dispersed in panic.
Lü Shu was fast, running upstairs by himself, wielding the Black Blade as he walked alone, waiting for a mont before realizing the kaidan hadn’t caught up.
Considering the main group had scattered, it was perfect for him to look around. He pushed open doors one by one, searching each classroom.
Suddenly, approaching a piano room, he heard piano sounds from the side. Without thinking much, drawn as if by attraction, he pushed the door open.
Morning sunlight flooded the piano room, the black and white keys glistened with gold edges, light points danced in the air, a dim shadow was playing the piano.
"Ding-dong—ding-dong—"
Sound like spring water, it was Debussy’s "Moonlight."
The kaidan were all going mad, but this kaidan was particularly serene, the piano sound brought peace.
Lü Shu watched the dim figure play, yet he seed to see this figure play day after day, night after night, as if it would never end...
Illusions echoed by his ear.
"Mom, did I play well?"
"Mom, can you praise ?"
"Mom, don’t hit ..."
When he snapped back to reality, Lü Shu had already grabbed the shadow’s wrist, the piano sound abruptly stopped.
He didn’t know why there were so many familiar shadows here, as if they turned into kaidan on an IF line. He wanted to say sothing, but knew clearly the kaidan before him was rely similar, not soone he knew.
Suddenly, the piano shadow smiled:
"Don’t mind who we are."
"Cinderella is calling us, we should leave..."
It released Lü Shu’s hand, seemingly seeing a pumpkin carriage, and with a clattering sound, the carriage wheels turned, the shadows in the room seed to fade.
Lü Shu pushed the door open, finding that there were no more shadows of kaidan around. Their weary footsteps were heading out of the campus, disappearing from his sight.
...
[...Lü Shu pushed the door open, finding that there were no more shadows of kaidan around. Their weary footsteps were heading out of the campus, disappearing from his sight.]
Hui Bei penned this story’s developnt, guiding mad kaidan to leave.
Suddenly, his wrist buzzed, "beep," the communicator transmitted Hui Cheng’s anxious voice: "Hui Bei! WARNING-004 refuses to leave, she was too deeply influenced by Phoenix, convinced this is an illusion, she wants to return to a real life! I can’t subdue her!"
WARNING-004... Zhao Mingming?
"This is troubleso," Hui Bei murmured: "A kaidan too out of control, I can’t guide it."
Su Ming’an imdiately said: "I’ll go take a look."
He left the underground, rushed to the bathroom in the school building, and indeed saw Zhao Mingming in a red dress, her black hair fluttering without wind, her expression gloomy.
"Su... Su Ming’an." Zhao Mingming saw him, seed to recognize his aura, her eyes lit up, stumblingly said: "How is dad... Why didn’t he co with you...?"
To stabilize her, Su Ming’an quickly said: "He’s well, just didn’t get selected into the ga."
Yet he was puzzled, how did Uncle Zhao’s daughter turn into a kaidan? She clearly died before the World Ga began...
Zhao Mingming was silent for a mont, suddenly clutching her black hair, hysterically screaming:
"You lied to !"
"You lied to !! You lied to !!"
"Dad is already dead!! He sacrificed himself so your life could be better, so you could have a future with piano and detective novels, so you could develop your interests instead of working day after day—he gave up healing!"
"He sold parts of his health, sold his corneas, leaving the money to you—otherwise he could have lived longer!!"
"It’s as if you devoured his blood and flesh to survive! How dare you beco a Brave, Hero, Savior! You brat! Bad kid! It’s your existence that took away his life! You cursed captain!"
"Anyone who approaches you will fall unlucky, no one will beco your family again! You jinxed your two dads to death!"
Su Ming’an’s expression blanked for a mont.
He briefly recalled that figure rushing towards a truck, then the silent figure heading to the hospital.
Their silhouettes overlapped at so instant, planting an indelible seed deep in his heart.
Zhao Mingming went insane, her long hair reached out, trying to strangle him.
Yet a snow-like figure approached, fingers ford a seal, talismans suddenly appeared, sealing Zhao Mingming.
"Swoosh—!"
The long hair was wrapped up, Zhao Mingming stood still, blood dripping all over.
Li Mingyue erged from the shadows, dressed in a white robe, like a Tianshan Snow Lotus, holding talismans between two fingers, his fingertips flowing with complex characters and golden light.
"He’s not a bad kid," Li Mingyue protected Su Ming’an, said calmly:
"He is now my child."
Zhao Mingming let out a miserable laugh, seemingly carrying countless bitterness, Su Ming’an watched the snow-like figure before him, yet suddenly felt the surroundings grow cold.
From behind, ca a sinister voice:
"You finally ca... Su Ming’an... I’ve been waiting for you... so long..."
Shen Xue, with disheveled black hair, erged from the shadows, as if crawling out of sludge, her head tilted, covered in thread-like scars, reaching for Su Ming’an’s legs.
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