CH 62

Actors had no memory at the beginning.

Xie Ke didn’t remember what his past was. He seemed to be born like this, a blank person. After receiving the number of 027 and a system, one task at a time, the so-called past was not so important anymore and, anyway, it was indistinguishable.

But he remembered some things very clearly.

In the beginning, it was very difficult for the actors to survive; they had to figure out almost everything by themselves, carrying the risk of being wiped out. When they were assigned to the system, they were given an “Actors’ Handbook”, which was very thin and didn’t contain much content, just some basic rules and point rewards and redemption. The title page of the handbook contained a passage that was the most basic taboo of the actor and that was still in use to this day.

— No actor, in any mission world, under any circumstances, can reveal their identity as an actor, or they will instantly fail. The only way to pass is to see yourself as the character, to have a deep respect for the world of the mission, and to gain the recognition of the world.

There was also a line of small print of unknown meaning in the bottom of the title page, which said: True is not true, false is not false.

The handbook was still issued, but new actors didn’t read it. After all, there were now organisations of all sizes, and newcomers could easily join a group. It was better to communicate with each other in a group and share acting experience than to fight alone. The advice and explanation of the predecessors was much better than a dry manual.

Xie Ke couldn’t say that it was a bad thing; after all, he had started the first organisation, and the communication and cooperation between the actors allowed them to grow quickly, to have protection and to reduce the risk of being wiped out. But later, things seemed to start going in another direction that was out of control.

Over time, the Lord God began to be a little unable to suppress some of the actors and was adding management patches, but these patches couldn’t make up for the actors’ ambitions.

Xie Ke discovered that at some point most actors stopped calling themselves actors, they started calling themselves “players”. The passage on the title page now only contained the sentence “You can’t reveal the identity of the actor, otherwise you will be immediately judged to fail and kicked out of the world”. As for the later sentence “Respect the mission world”, it was forgotten a long time ago. 

It was easy to understand how this could happen.

Most of the actors played the protagonists, and even if they didn’t play the protagonists, they also had extraordinary and important supporting roles.

If a person, knowing everything that is going to happen in this world, also knows that he or she is destined to become the most important person in this world, and even has such features as blocking the pain, pulling the progress bar and exchanging points for optimised props, anyone will naturally develop a sense of pride of a master.

With this kind of perception that you and the aborigines were two different species, it was difficult for the actors to treat the people from the original worlds as equals.

No one would take the mission world seriously, just feeling that it was a game, having no respect for it.

The “players” began to become too smug.

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Xie Ke actually didn’t think so much. He was born to do missions. As he continued to do tasks one by one, he seemed to have naturally risen to the top. He didn’t need to rely on other things to gain a sense of superiority; he had always been superior.

But at the same time, a question gradually was born in his heart.

Where was the end of the actor?

It was actually meaningless to keep saving points like this. What you earned from one world was invested in another world. It was like spinning around, getting really boring after a long time. It seemed to be in an infinite loop, not leading anywhere.

When Xie Ke touched the boundaries of being an actor, he really felt a little different.

“I didn’t expect you to get this far. The points you saved have reached a critical value. After completing this world as required, you will truly have higher authority than all other actors,” the Lord God said, “Maybe this authority can give you the answer.”

This so-called new authority made all actors very excited. They were even more excited than Xie Ke himself. They said that this was progress for everyone, saying that he could only succeed and not fail, messing around and getting all kinds of news and props to pile up in front of him.

Xie Ke: “……”

Before entering the world, he had carefully read the introduction of “His Name Will Live On in History”. Although it was difficult, for Xie Ke, it seemed… not very difficult?

Just looking at the plot, he felt that it was similar to some of the advanced missions he had done before. The judgement rule that required more than 90 points was a bit difficult to handle. For the rest, as he looked at it, he didn’t understand what made this mission to be defined as a super-advanced mission.

The interference task that was inquired about in the organisation wasn’t actually something new. It had appeared before. It was one of the management patches on the side of the Lord God. It was mainly in the form of opposition to strengthen the difficulty and constrain the player.

But before entering the world, even the role of the interferer was found out, which meant the effect of this interference would be greatly reduced and the constraints of the Lord God seemed to have no effect at this time.

Xie Ke entered the world as planned. Everything was normal in front of him. Before meeting Fu Zhiyu, he had never received a prompt of point deductions from the system.

But after meeting Fu Zhiyu, everything began to change slowly.

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When he carried the person out of the ice lake, he knew that he had saved the wrong person. The system’s point deduction prompt came in due course. Xie Ke didn’t know how to remedy it. The accident happened a bit suddenly, and he didn’t understand why Miss Xue wasn’t here. Fu Zhiyu, who should have come into contact with him a few years later, appeared in advance.

…sure enough, he was an interferer who didn’t play cards according to the rules and was able to make him lose points as soon as he appeared.

Xie Ke suddenly became serious; he planned to go all out as he waited for the interferer’s next move.

He knew that the interferer was different from the actor. The actor’s requirements were based on the script, whether it was the process or the result. However, the task received by the interferer was relatively free. As long as it didn’t destroy the stability of the world, he could deviate from the character and choose his own means and methods.

This interferer actually chose to play the emotional card and take Xie Ke by surprise; he really came prepared.

While Xie Ke tried to straighten the plot, he carefully observed the interferer’s every move.

Although he was in charge of a huge organisation, most of the time he only communicated with a few regular old friends and had long since stopped interfering in much of the management work, only instructing the people below him what to do.

Xie Ke, who spent most of his time on missions, had long been accustomed to various emotional routines. To be honest, when you already know the development of the plot, everything the other party does in the relationship, any emotion and shock will be greatly reduced. It seemed boring, and he had never been touched.

But Fu Zhiyu in front of him was different.

He clearly knew that the other was the actor, and everything he was doing was to interfere with his task, but Xie Ke sometimes looked at Fu Zhiyu and gradually lost his focus.

What Fu Zhiyu gave him was completely different. It was the kind of meticulous kindness that was beyond his expectation.

It was not that Xie Ke had not been treated well by others. However, Fu Zhiyu managed to turn his surprise into amazement, and gradually Xie Ke could not help but fall for him. 

He was a huge contrast with Fu Zhiyu in the original work, and he didn’t completely revolve around himself. His own story line was very complete. Even if he deviated from the original work, he still had his own style, which showed the particularity and excellence of this person. He was a brilliant, naturally attractive person.

All of this converged into a gradual uncontrollable temptation.

When Xie Ke set out for the Qianyuan Battle, he felt that his own mood was different. At that time, he was walking the plot with Miss Xue in Aiwan Pavilion, but his heart was full of Fu Zhiyu.

Will he come to see me, he thought absent-mindedly. According to the plot, the Qianyuan Battle would take more than a year, and he… he missed Fu Zhiyu.

Fu Zhiyu really came.

Xie Ke couldn’t describe how happy he was to see him at that time.

It turned out that the heartbeat was like this; it made him happier than clearing any mission.

How could there be such a lovely person in the world?

Xie Ke was sincerely grateful that Fu Zhiyu was the one who received this interference task. Not only did they meet, but Fu Zhiyu also allowed Xie Ke to see his true side that wasn’t bound by the plot.

When they stayed with the old shepherd couple, Xie Ke was even more sure that the person in front of him really liked him. He enjoyed the moment when Fu Zhiyu said that he loved him with indescribably tenderness in his eyes. But that was really not the right time.

Just wait for this mission to be completed. When he had the authority, he could give Zhiyu whatever he wanted.

Xie Ke tried to hint countless times and give Zhiyu a sign about his current situation, but every time he only saw a blank look in Zhiyu’s eyes.

This blankness gradually turned to disappointment, and then to dead silence. The well-trained Xie Ke understood these as the discomfort of having failed most of his interference tasks. He ignored the instinctive feeling that something was wrong.

It was okay, it was okay, he comforted himself. After the mission was over, there would be opportunities to explain and compensate Zhiyu.

But when Fu Zhiyu left this world, the one who was in a daze was Xie Ke.

He was still walking the plot. After Zhiyu left, no accidents happened again, and he hadn’t heard the system’s point deduction prompt for a long time.

But he became restless and impatient. The further he went, the more he felt that without this person what he was doing was meaningless.

He originally did this mission to find an answer; becoming the actor who broke through the bottleneck and had the brand new authority might be part of this answer. What if these were actually not important in the first place?

What if… Zhiyu was the answer?

Xie Ke felt as if he was caught in the trap he had set up, and he couldn’t figure out if he was putting the cart before the horse.

The new authority, the expectations of the organisation, and everything else were intertwined. He couldn’t tell what was what. He just felt that his mood was getting worse and worse. In the later stage, he had to work hard to suppress his impatience before he could reluctantly go on with the task. 

The only thing that kept Xie Ke going was Fu Zhiyu, who appeared in his mind in his midnight dreams.

Zhiyu had already left this world, and he couldn’t look back. He could only continue to go forward. After success, he would explain. He couldn’t wait to tell Zhiyu that he was strong enough to protect him now.

And… he missed Zhiyu, missed him so much.

After he succeeded, he could be with Zhiyu for a long time, right?