Livestreaming: I am retarded, but selected to join the analoghorror game?!
Chapter 220 - 215 The Truth of Deserted Mountain Night

Chapter 220: Chapter 215 The Truth of Deserted Mountain Night

When Xiao Yi shouted that statement, a pure white suddenly filled the entire world.

No... more accurately, the entire world was moving away from Xiao Yi.

The world where Clements, Nania, and Liliana were located rapidly moved away from him, instantly turning into a tiny dot, and then... it disappeared completely.

Xiao Yi then entered a world composed of pure white.

This world... was like the blank space after a story ended, purely white.

Xiao Yi understood that he was leaving this story.

Then, his consciousness suddenly sank, and he couldn’t help but fall into a coma.

However, soon after, Xiao Yi’s consciousness became clear, and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Uh... where is this?"

Xiao Yi shook his head, feeling no dizziness, only a sense of satisfaction.

It was as if he had woken up from a very long, beautiful dream.

Xiao Yi noticed that the world around him was very familiar; it was the very Deserted Mountain he had been on before, but... there was no inn.

Nor were there... their figures.

The only presence was the unfamiliar figure beside Xiao Yi.

"You’ve finally... come back."

That was a stranger with a gentlemanly demeanor. He watched Xiao Yi wake up and let out a long sigh of relief.

Xiao Yi was also a bit confused and immediately asked, "...Who are you?"

"You must be very puzzled now, but don’t worry, it’s all over. Next, I will tell you what exactly happened."

He first reassured Xiao Yi a bit nervously, and then slowly revealed his own name.

"My name... my name is Lu Qiou."

"Lu Qiou? Who is that?" asked Xiao Yi, perplexed by the stranger’s unfamiliar name.

This man, Lu Qiou, continued,

"You must have realized that the world was actually a story, right? So, you must be able to understand this as well. I’m... the author of ’Deserted Mountain Night.’"

"You are... the author?" Upon hearing this, Xiao Yi immediately became energized.

He jumped up from the ground, "So you’re the author! Then you came at just the right time. How can you torture the characters you created like this? How can you still consider yourself human!? This punch is for Clements!"

"...Ah!?" Seeing Xiao Yi swinging his fist, Lu Qiou was genuinely startled and hurriedly said, "Wait! Wait! Don’t you misunderstand something? Clements isn’t a character I created!"

"...Misunderstanding?" Xiao Yi stopped his motion.

Upon reflection, this guy named Lu Qiou seemed to say he was the author of ’Deserted Mountain Night.’

"The world of the inn during the day should be a story called ’Flash’, and the night is the story of ’Deserted Mountain Night’. Does that mean the lives of Clements and the others have nothing to do with you?"

"That’s one way to put it." Seeing that Xiao Yi had no intention of attacking him, Lu Qiou relaxed and explained, "I just imitated the story of ’Flash’ in ’Deserted Mountain Night.’"

"Oh~" Xiao Yi finally understood, "So you were plagiarizing!"

"Uh...!" Lu Qiou clutched his chest as if he had been hit hard, "Your words... are too harsh for me."

"So why did you copy someone else’s work?" Xiao Yi asked.

"Can you not use that term?" Lu Qiou corrected somewhat helplessly, "I was merely imitating."

"Isn’t it all the same?"

"No, it isn’t ... Well, never mind that. Basically, I did it to make you notice the anomalies in the world and thus discover the truth of the world. That’s why I hurriedly imitated his work."

"I see." Xiao Yi nodded.

Indeed, thanks to that flawed world, he also noticed the truth of the world.

"But why did you imitate?" Xiao Yi asked again.

"Because... I had to finish the work ’Flash’." Lu Qiou sighed as he explained, "But I don’t have the talent. You can notice how different the levels of the two stories are. So, I couldn’t understand what the true meaning of the flash mentioned in the story was, let alone write a fitting conclusion. Therefore, I needed someone to gather the clues from the book to help me understand what the flash truly was."

Xiao Yi thought carefully about his experiences in both worlds and nodded emphatically in agreement.

"Indeed, there’s quite a difference, huh? Your story, how should I put it, is not only casual but also a bit... crude."

"I did that on purpose!" Lu Qiou quickly changed the subject, "Alright, getting back to the point, can you give me the pages of the book?"

Listening to him, Xiao Yi then realized he was still holding those four pages.

Eve had mentioned that someone was collecting these pages.

So it seemed that this person was indeed the Lu Qiou in front of him.

But knowing this, Xiao Yi’s doubts only grew.

"You said you had to finish it?" Xiao Yi asked, "But aren’t you not the author of ’Flash’?"

"Right, I’m not."

"Then where is the author? Why doesn’t he finish it himself?"

"He..." As Lu Qiou spoke, his expression turned sad, "Feister... he has passed away... I caused his death. So, I must atone, I must complete his unfinished masterpiece, ’Flash’!"

"... " This revelation left Xiao Yi momentarily stunned.

It seemed that outside the story, another tale was unfolding.

Xiao Yi thought for a moment and then asked, "So, you used me to enter that story to collect these pages for you?"

"No! Not at all!" Lu Qiou quickly explained, "Your experience was not my doing, the specific reason... please look over there."

As he spoke, Lu Qiou pointed in a direction.

Xiao Yi followed the direction he pointed and noticed, not far away, a book floating in mid-air.

Moreover, the book was continuously emitting a profound darkness around it, as if it wanted to contaminate this world.

Lu Qiou explained,

"Feister’s unfinished work, for some reason, keeps pulling people into the story. Before you, many have fallen into the story and become forever lost.

I realized immediately that the book longed for an ending, but... Feister, he’s no longer alive. Therefore, as the murderer who killed him, I must atone by completing the story so that no more people get lost.

Yet, I lack the ability, no matter how hard I try, I can’t come close to matching Feister. God is quite partial. He gave all the things I yearned for to Feister. He was a genius, an undoubted genius far beyond my mediocre self.

Luckily, for some reason, ’Flash’ recognized my work... no, my will ’Deserted Mountain Night.’ It allows those absorbed in the story to temporarily transfer to my story.

Thus, I hastily mimicked a storyline in ’Deserted Mountain Night,’ so as to prevent people from drowning in the story, to notice inconsistencies, to question the whole world and hence to discover the truth, thereby obtaining these pages I needed. I must use despicable methods beyond ability to bridge this profound gap."

This explanation helped Xiao Yi roughly understand the situation, but he still had questions.

"...Will?" Xiao Yi asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just as the word suggests," Lu Qiou explained. "Originally, ’Deserted Mountain Night’ chronicled my entire life, I was planning to commit suicide after publishing this book. After all, I killed Feister, I must atone, and for someone who is already dead, the only meaningful atonement is an equitable, fair death."

...

Xiao Yi fell silent for a moment, then decided to end the topic there.

So, Xiao Yi handed the pages over to Lu Qiou.

"I think I understand now," Xiao Yi said. "So, take these pages and you can write the ending of the story, right?"

"Much appreciated!"

Lu Qiou, not wasting any time and visibly excited, began reading through the pages immediately.

However, he soon showed a sad and helpless expression.

"It’s no use... as expected, I just can’t do it. I still can’t understand what he meant by Flash, what he was thinking when he wrote this work. The gap in our abilities is just too vast. No matter how hard I try, some things just can’t be done."

"...You can’t understand the true meaning of Flash?"

Xiao Yi then remembered that he also had the task of interpreting the true meaning of Flash.

So, Xiao Yi thought for a moment and guessed,

"Could Flash possibly refer to the brilliance of human nature, like Clements and the others? Despite all the misfortune, they are still pretty decent people."

"That’s impossible," however, Lu Qiou immediately dismissed it. He said, "You don’t understand Feister, In his heart, there’s no concept of good or evil. In his view, good and evil are two sides of the same coin in human nature. It’s just... people selfishly, conveniently define good and evil based on their preferences, causing many to live hypocritically, life being very tiring.

Therefore, to reveal this, he always used the most despicable, most disgusting people as protagonists in his stories. Although this is his strongest point, it also led to his poverty.

For Feister, the characters in the book were born solely to express his ideas. Therefore, regardless of good or evil, he would rationally, equitably kill the characters in his story."

"Kill them..." At this, Xiao Yi became very somber.

Lu Qiou continued, "Feister’s previous works also featured many so-called good people, but without exception, they all died, and many were killed by the protagonist. For Feister, that shock penetrated deeper into people’s hearts. Also, you should still remember the name of the protagonist in ’Flash’?"

Xiao Yi hadn’t forgotten, he replied, "...Feister."

"Exactly," Lu Qiou nodded, "He used his own name for the protagonist’s name. Feister created this protagonist as an avatar of himself.

The visualization you first saw, that was Feister’s depiction of himself. A gentleman intertwined with a beast, a confusion of human and animalistic natures, rationality and instinct. Yes, he is a beast in rational attire.

Therefore, I don’t think Flash simply represents the brilliance of humanity; it undoubtedly has a much deeper meaning, at least not something I can understand."

"This..." Xiao Yi also felt somewhat frustrated.

But then, a thought suddenly struck Xiao Yi!

"Right! When doing reading comprehension, don’t we all consider the author’s biography?"

Speaking of which, Xiao Yi still didn’t know what kind of person Feister was, how could he possibly understand the true meaning of Flash?

So, Xiao Yi immediately asked Lu Qiou:

"Do you have Feister’s biography written in ’Deserted Mountain Night’?"

"Eh? There is, but it’s not very detailed," Lu Qiou said. "And, it’s just my subjective view..."

"No matter! Let me have a look!"

Understanding Feister’s story was all that was needed, don’t forget, Xiao Yi was a man who scored two hundred in his Chinese language exams.

It was time to demonstrate that horrifyingly profound reading comprehension ability!

In fact, Xiao Yi’s approach was correct.

The condition for passing was to investigate the truth behind ’Deserted Mountain Night’ and interpret the true meaning of Flash.

"So is that so? Well... okay then."

Lu Qiou nodded, took out a stack of manuscripts from his briefcase, the first page of which read... ’Deserted Mountain Night.’

"This is... the story of my life, my story with Feister," he said. "It’s a slightly long story."

And then, the truth behind ’Deserted Mountain Night’ unfolded before Xiao Yi.