"Ding Dong!"
"You have reached the character ending for Beili Sier: HE·Ice Flower"
"[Ice Flower]:
"Our acquaintance sprung from deceit of chance."
"Our confessions of love also stemd from mistaken identities."
"And our parting, too, was sealed with a falsehood."
"Those who dwell in Eternal Spring with their companions are essentially the ice of perennial loneliness; I will guard this blue spring day for you."
"Even if it is now winter."
"A person’s life exists only for a fleeting mont in the expanse of ti."
"But that mont is my forever.""
...
"Main quest ’Revival of All Things’ progress (4/8)"
...
"The Ring of Ti (Purple Grade) has leveled up to lv.7."
"The Ring of Ti (Purple Grade, lv.7):
Spirit 35
Control Skills duration 0.5 seconds (cannot override power disparities for effect)
Special Skill (Ti Loop): Consus Mana Points to select a space within a certain range around you and revert everything within it to the state from three hours prior. (This skill cannot be used on living beings)
Current registrants of the Ring of Ti: Tretiya, Bi, Yao Wen, Noah, Sen Kylstia, Beili Sier."
...
"Obtained drop item (Ho Appliance Person’s USB Drive)"
"[Ho Appliance Person’s USB Drive):
Type: Technological Prop.
Function: Connects to a device interface to listen to ssages left for Beili Sier by the Ho Appliance People. This item can also be used as a regular USB drive.]"
...
Amid the icy landscape, the dical room lay in profound silence.
Ice-blue lycoris blood all over, flowers symbolic of death and despair, yet thriving like vibrant plum blossoms welcoming spring. The glass cabinets, dical kits, and operating tables... all frosted over with beautiful patterns, everything cast into a cavern of ice.
Su Ming’an released his tight embrace of Beili Sier, his hands showing faint signs of frostbite. He exhaled gently; mist spiraled into view.
Before him, the white-haired youth had turned into a beautiful ice sculpture. The youth’s head drooped slightly, arms extended, still in an embrace. Hundreds of ice flowers adorned his slender frosted form, beautiful as a painting.
His blue pupils were capped with a thick layer of ice, no longer revealing the reflections within. Su Ming’an stepped back, ice crystals falling from his body.
"Ding dang—"
A crisp sound, a red-light flashing USB drive fell to the ground. Su Ming’an steadied his stance, picked it up, and slotted it into his personal terminal.
...
"By the transferred privileges of Beili Sier, you have obtained the administrator access to Caius Tower of Beili Sier."
...
In the final monts, Beili Sier passed on the privileges of one of the Nine Thrones to Su Ming’an, who now also possessed the access rights to the tower’s rooms.
The USB was inserted; the terminal crackled, and the screen displayed a scene from a valley many years ago, where peach blossoms swayed amidst an eternal spring. A group of oddly shaped Ho Appliance People crowded in front of the cara.
"Little Bei."
A sowhat hoarse chanical voice emanated; they stared at the cara, their tone exceedingly gentle.
"This is likely a recording from before the Deity broke into the valley, back when the Ho Appliance People were still alive."
"Today is September 1st, 70 years after the Catastrophe, Little Bei, happy birthday. With only two years left until 72, we want to leave our words for you."
"The valley is not an absolute safe haven; sooner or later, as the world becos increasingly dangerous, we won’t escape the war."
"If one day we truly part from you, do not grieve. We, these beings, should have died in the wars many years ago; now, even if we inhabit the appliances, we are but ghosts with shells."
"How does humanity judge free will? By the flesh, by the brain, or by the ethereal soul? By human sentintality, compassion, or by the act of composing poetry amidst suffering? If a ship has had all of its parts replaced, is it still the sa ship? If human consciousness is extracted and infused into these ugly appliances, are we still ourselves?"
"Yet, even in the lifeless chanical bodies, our hearts that love you and care for you have never changed."
"Regarding Yasa Acto, we were once instructed by him to protect you when you entered the Two Dinsional world. It turned out, however, that it was you who ended up protecting us."
"We support your continued wait for him, no matter what, for it is your wish. Life itself is but a long dream, so parts beautiful, so ridiculous; death is just awakening from the dream. We also wish to bestow our blessings."
"Additionally."
"[We still volunteer as test subjects within the box, for you to complete this round of Three Dinsional simulation. Hopefully, to achieve a more perfect ending. It is not only for the survivors but also for a wider world and future... Even if there’s only a tiny glimr of hope, we are willing to try, as perhaps, this is the very essence of humanity, even if we’ve beco the electric sheep in the box, still yearning to leave more grass for the flock.]"
"These topics are rather heavy, we usually wouldn’t ntion them while spending ti with you."
"But if one day, you discover this USB hidden in your pocket, please be certain that, "[For us, life and death don’t signify an end, but rather, could herald the start of sothing new.]"
"So please, keep smiling."
"Don’t feel sad, don’t cry, don’t lose yourself in the decay of your soul."
"We love you, we love you, we love you."
"If one day, spring truly arrives and we are no longer here."
"[We would still wish you alone, to dwell amidst the springti.]"
"If you want us to co back, you can go build the Ship of Theseus and let our consciousness and bodies be reborn in the virtual world. You can call this plan ’Eden.’"
"Or, Dream Making."
...
The screen flickered, and the USB drive finished playing everything.
Su Ming’an put away his personal terminal, shifted his footsteps, and heard a "click" sound from behind as the scarlet tubes fell off due to the extre cold. Beili Sier, with the last Strength of the "Source" burst forth from his life, helped Su Ming’an break free from the emotional resonance predicant.
Without the tubes pulling at him, Ming’an imdiately used Spatial Displacent. The scene around him changed, and he arrived at the corridor directly above the dical room.
The corridor was pitch-black, nearly impossible to see in. He propped up a Spatial Concealnt domain, walking through the corridor invisible as a ghost. Below, the sounds of smashing continued; it must be Deity and the others trying to break into the dical room—Ming’an’s ti for free movent wasn’t much; if Deity discovered that Ming’an was no longer in the dical room, they would certainly search the entire building extensively.
Ming’an opened his personal terminal and granted AI Yeah the Nine Thrones rights of Beili Sier to help him find the key places within the building.
"Doctor, we have two places we can go." Ten seconds later, AI Yeah responded: "One is underground in the building, the other is the hall near the rooftop. The entry permissions for both places are of the highest level, but what’s inside, I can’t explore due to the limited ti—I can only let you see for yourself. Where do you choose to go? Our ti might only be enough for one place."
"Like that," Ming’an said, "let’s go underground first."
AI Yeah expressed admiration, "You are indeed a Doctor, so decisive in the face of such a two-choice question. A slight misjudgnt could have endangered the fate of the entire world, yet your decision was so resolute. You must believe that the priority of the underground is the highest, hence you decided to go there first. Could you tell the basis of your judgnt? May I learn from your thought patterns?"
Ming’an, maintaining his Spatial Concealnt, went down the outside of the building, stepping on the air conditioners all the way down.
"I guessed," he said, his expression unchanged.
AI Yeah didn’t speak any longer.
Clearly, it found that there was nothing in this thinking pattern worth learning.
Two minutes later, Ming’an reached the entrance to the basent. With the dual skills of Spatial Displacent Spatial Concealnt Barrier, plus AI Yeah’s monitoring assistance, he moved through the building as if it were deserted.
While waiting for his Mana Points to recharge, Ming’an stood at the entrance to the basent and heard Bi’s clear voice from outside the window. She was still broadcasting to the world, her voice unceasing.
Lu had told her that in this world broadcast, she could talk about any topic she wanted. The more emotions she could pour into her words and the more heartfelt, the better. Once her voice reached people’s ears, Lu could begin decrypting the resonance.
"...Humans have always liked to watch things full of twists and turns, things that are exciting and interesting, always far from real life. Because their own lives are too dull, they yearn for such scenes, for fun and excitent." Bi’s voice trembled a bit, but her pronunciation was very clear:
"But I am a dull person, I have never longed to write any legendary stories beyond my hard life."
"As a child, I wasn’t likable. Dad treated like a money-making tool; he wouldn’t let go to school or let work in the Inner City because it was too expensive, he disagreed. He always complained about , saying my mom died too early to give him a son, and he couldn’t find a new wife, fearing our family line would end with ."
"I wanted a Wishing Machine that could grant any wish, I wanted a carefree childhood, yet all I had was unchanging ti, no matter how much I fantasized, it wouldn’t give wings to fly into the sky."
"In my teens, I found so storybooks in the garbage dump, and I started fantasizing that I could save the world, or that one day I could liberate The Fringe, allowing everyone to live freely and equally..."
"But nothing changed; everything was just a monotonous repetition."
"I think even if a crisis erupted and doomsday ca, I could never be a superhero. I’d just be the lowest of the low, the kind of cannon fodder that gets kicked to death by a henchman. I never thought my wish would co true."
"As for dating, that’s for the handso n and beautiful won. My youth has never been that colorful. Even if it happened, I’d be deceived, I’d discover that reality is never the sa as the dream..."
"Now, I just want to find a job, but it seems like everyone doesn’t like . I want to go out to relax, but I realize I don’t even have the ti or money to rest. I want to relax and take a break, yet I’m always tortured by guilt and pressure. I want to be healthy, but I keep staying up late every night. I want to chase dreams, but reality always bears down on ."
"To be able to talk to you all like this now, I’m actually very happy..."
"When I was very young, I was driven out onto the streets and had to wait for people to pass by at night. Back then, I contracted lung disease, always coughing, and had no money to buy dicine. Who cares about the illness and misfortune of those with inferior personas? They only cared about my face..."
As Su Ming’an listened, he had not expected Xiao i to speak such heartfelt truths. This was a live broadcast being heard by hundreds of millions in the Ruined World, yet she laid bare her grueso past for all to see, so openly and so brutally.
Although people from the Two-Dinsional world might not understand terms like "The Fringe" and "City of asurent" that Xiao i ntioned, it was enough to convey the hardships of her life.
Confronting one’s own painful past isn’t sothing pleasant; it’s even excruciating, especially when one willingly opens up those hurtful scars.
"Mu, tell her that she doesn’t need to go into such detail about so things," Su Ming’an said.
In just that mont, he even heard Xiao i start to talk about the things she used to do at night, things that were her nightmares. She was actually able to speak about them. Perhaps Mu’s instructions had been misconstrued by her, thinking that the more honest she was, the more people she could save from the resonance phenonon. To her, it didn’t matter if the whole world heard her tales of woe and filth.
In the end, she would be the one discussed, the one despised, the one who felt inferior and in pain. As long as everyone else was alive, that was good. That’s what she thought.
Xiao i really was a foolish girl.
She had no understanding of the world’s cruelty; even though she revealed these details to help everyone, they would still secretly despise her past filth and criticize her family background.
No one understood this better than Su Ming’an.
"..."
The text box in front of him flickered for a while.
...
[Mu (23:06): Her speaking such heartfelt truths is beneficial to the situation, it aids in breaking the resonance, I won’t dissuade her.]
...
"You’re even more cruel than ," Su Ming’an glanced at the blue band, enough Mana Points for Spatial Displacent. He imdiately teleported into the basent.
...
[Mu (23:06): You don’t need to be cruel, you can have compassion, I’ll be cruel for you.]
[Mu (23:06): Into the basent, silence.]
...
The basent was pitch dark, and Su Ming’an groped along the wall as he moved forward, but as he passed an open door, he heard a buzzing sound.
"Click—"
With a crisp sound, the area lit up. In the center of the crescent-shaped table in the basent sat a chair, with its back to Su Ming’an. There was a shadow on the chair. Su Ming’an imdiately beca vigilant, stepping back and clenching Spatial Vibration in his hand. He had been silent the entire way; logically, no one should be sitting there waiting for him.
The chair creaked as it slowly rotated, changing its angle from being back to Su Ming’an until the shadow was directly facing him—
In the astonished gaze of Su Ming’an, the shadow spoke with a smile:
"Welco."
"Hello."
"I am Yasa Acto."
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