Chapter 154

Chapter 154

In darkness deeper and more viscous than thick ink, with not a sound to be heard, a small figure walked through the silent blackness, moving more gracefully and nimbly than a cat.

“She” was like a ghost with no known origin or destination, wandering aimlessly through this endless night. Around her were boundless darkness and endless void.

Bai Yi had already been wandering in this black night for three days.

He could see nothing, had not encountered a single living being, and even the beasts and monsters supposedly lurking in the deep darkness were nowhere to be found, as if the entire world contained only him.

—— Under such conditions, even a few hours, let alone three days, would be unbearable for an ordinary person. Prolonging it would drive anyone to the brink of collapse.

While Bai Yi was not on the verge of collapse, he was inevitably frustrated. He grew lazy and lay down on the ground, rolling left and right. “Really... boring, boring, boring, so boring! This is the most boring instance opening I’ve ever played!”

“...Walking for three days without encountering a single NPC, unable to even catch a couple of monsters to play with. Despite spending so many game resonance points to generate this instance, how did it end up looking like it was already completely looted and destroyed!” After a period of awkwardness, Bai Yi had completely stopped minding the body of a different gender. He complained in the sweet, tender voice of a ten-year-old girl, “If I ever find the culprit who ruined my gaming experience...”

Here, he stretched out the end of his sentence, striking the ground heavily with a little girl’s fist, puffing out his cheeks without any sense of dissonance, his tone growing more sullen.

“...I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be able to punish Them.”

—— How infuriating!

Hammering the ground again in frustration, the little girl lying on the ground unknowingly fell into a strange silence.

...If the cause of all this were not a conscious being, but the rules of the universe, what could he do?

...How could a world already dead be saved?

—— This was a hypothesis that would make anyone abandon hope, but Bai Yi was certain it was infinitely close to the truth.

Although he was well aware that all nightmare fragment instances were remnants of worlds long dead, the nightmare fragment instances he had previously seen often presented themselves as they were before world destruction, with every wisp of the dead’s residual consciousness vividly existing within, unaware they had died along with their world, more like being in a beautiful dream.

But this nightmare fragment instance was clearly different.

—— Even manifested in the nightmare, it was infinitely close to the edge of death and destruction, with every remnant consciousness in the nightmare cycling endlessly in an unceasing purgatory.

—— This was a true nightmare.

How could he save the obsessions that, even after death, still endured torment in nightmares, struggling in endless cycles?

Perhaps what the “people” in this world needed was not false redemption or illusory dreams, but genuine liberation?

‘Sun’...

A non-existent thing symbolizing liberation and harboring hope?

“So, what a childish fantasy!”

Bai Yi, who had been lying like a dead fish on the ground, suddenly rolled over and stood up, seemingly reinvigorated.

“No matter what, there’s no instance in this world that the strongest player can’t clear! It’s just a little girl’s wish. I’ll reluctantly play the role of a god who fulfills wishes!”

Just then, Bai Yi’s ears slightly twitched.

He faintly heard whispers from the depths of darkness.

Bai Yi quickly suppressed his breathing, controlled his heartbeat, and his entire aura instantly became as thin and ethereal as air.

He seemed to transform into a ghost non-existent in the present world in an instant, merging with the surrounding darkness, silently moving towards the dark depths from where the sound originated, more professionally stealthy than an assassin.

Whoosh!

In the night, it was as if a sharp lightning bolt had streaked across.

The javelin, with an incredibly surprising speed and tremendous force, carried Bai Yi’s “trash elimination special attack” intent, piercing through the monster on the ground like thunder without mercy.

Following the “javelin” was the small figure descending from the sky. As “she” landed heavily, both hands pressed forcefully on the “javelin”—

Splat!

Like penetrating a blob of jelly, the “javelin” heavily pierced through the monster’s body, firmly nailing it to the ground, immobilized.

“¥%#*&¥%...”

The monster seemed to feel no pain, no sense of being attacked, and showed no intention of counterattacking, only continuously emitting incomprehensible, chaotic whispers.

As Bai Yi approached, the sound grew louder in his ears.

It was like an endless stream of cement directly prying open his skull, then pouring in a jumbled mix of unidentifiable garbage, messy filth, and large chunks of blood-tinged black mud...

—— Compared to this “crazy garbage dumping” happening right before his eyes, the pollution unconsciously emitted by those trash beings in his past decade of life seemed like child’s play, almost gentle.

If Bai Yi’s essence had not begun transforming towards the non-human, he might not have withstood this mental pollution assault. In other words, if he had first encountered this nightmare in this instance, Bai Yi would have likely gone mad by now.

“Truly an instance quite unfriendly to players,” Bai Yi quipped, the curve of his mouth growing deeper.

He bent down “looking” at the monster on the ground, but his gaze was not as coldly cruel as when he used to look at trash on his cleaning list, nor was it particularly disgusted. Instead, it was overlaid with an inexplicable compassion. His tone was almost tender.

“...Please be quiet, okay.”

Saying this, he endured the mental pollution right before him, slowly extending his hand downward, touching the monster.

The moment he made contact, an incredibly intense, distorted malevolence surged towards Bai Yi’s soul. He remained unfazed, continuing to reach down, sinking into the soft mud.

Bai Yi’s expression blanked for an instant.

“...A mud monster?”

He recalled the soft mud-covered ground he had lain upon when first entering the instance, remembered the mud-laden land beneath his feet now, and a suffocating speculation emerged in his mind.

...Had the surface of this continent already been covered with the corpses of “mud monsters” that had died?

...And before becoming “mud monsters”, what was their true essence?

Even for someone like him, who felt little emotional response to human death, he now experienced an indescribable feeling.

Bai Yi slowly withdrew his hand and stood up.

Pulling out the long “javelin” again, he hung his head, gazing at the mud monster on the ground.

“Sorry, let me verify something, okay~”



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