The Creatures That We Are
Chapter 1242: Trudging through the Night

Chapter 1242: Trudging through the Night

Gao Yang opened the door and stepped into the entryway. Turning on the light, he changed out of his shoes.

The first thing he did was to put the groceries he had just gotten into the fridge.

He then went to the living room and opened the windows to air out the space. Fetching a rag, a broom, and a mop from the restroom, he cleaned every inch of his home, leaving no nook or cranny untouched.

An hour later, his home was as good as new. It no longer smelled of decay.

Gao Yang turned on the television and increased the volume. With that as company, he returned to the kitchen to make a bowl of noodles with the fresh ingredients he had bought. He added a fried egg on top.

He settled down at the dining table, digging into the noodles.

The television was playing an energetic performance of singing and dancing, occasionally drowned out by the noises of firecrackers and fireworks. Looking forward to the New Year, the children in the community started releasing them early.

To adults, the New Year had lost its significance—if any of it remained, it could only be found in the laughter of the children.

Gao Yang used to eat quickly. Now, he slowed down and took twenty minutes to finish the noodles.

He washed the bowl in the kitchen, rinsing it three times before putting it on the drying rack. He watched the water drain and listened to the dripping sounds.

After some time, Gao Yang said in his head: System.

[Accessing system...]

A rudimentary system displayed his stats. Gone was his human-like system in the skin of the dorm keeper.

Gao Yang could now confirm that Lucky wasn’t as powerful a Talent as the version he had. The Lucky System was supposed to be a quantified display of the Talent user’s overall power. Lucky made one stronger the longer they lived.

And the dorm keeper was his real cheat, hidden under the guise of the Lucky System.

Without the dorm keeper, Gao Yang would have been no different from the members of the Tails. Lucky would have gotten stuck at level 3, and he would have hit his ceiling soon. He wouldn’t have the alert, Willful Power, Willful Heart, Luck Aura, Talent Pantheon, or the Wishing Fountain.

Now that the dorm keeper was gone, Gao Yang only had the rudimentary Lucky System left. Fortunately, he retained his Talents and stats; they had become part of him.

Ring. The doorbell rang. After making sure that there was no danger, he answered the door.

It was a deliveryman carrying two cups of coffee. “Your order, sir.”

“Thanks.” Gao Yang took the coffee and closed the door.

When he turned around, Baili Yi was already sitting on the couch. He gave him a friendly smile. “Are you free to have coffee with me?”

“Sure.”

Gao Yang sat down across from him and handed him a cup. “You calculated that I would seek you out, so you showed up early?”

Baili Yi didn’t answer that question. He took a sip of his coffee.

“You’ve already deduced the ending of the Battle of the Curtain Call.”

Baili Yi nodded. “As you’ve guessed, I could not tell you. In certain matters, knowing how it would end would change how it ended.”

“If you had known who would sacrifice themselves, wouldn’t you have tried to create a better ending? Things usually turn out worse instead.”

Gao Yang nodded. “Makes sense.”

“I didn’t tell a complete lie, though. I saw the possibility of you dueling Pride, but the result was unknown. I bet on that unknown.”

He met Gao Yang’s cool gaze. “It seems that I bet right.”

“What’s next?” Gao Yang asked. “Have you continued to deduce?”

Baili Yi didn’t say anything.

“The Mist is still there. The world hasn’t changed. Do we still have an enemy?”

No response.

“Is Dragon an enemy?”

No response.

“What can you tell me?”

Baili Yi gazed out of the window at the street view shrouded in darkness. “Gao Yang, I can only tell you that I do see further than you do, but I can’t see the ending. The real ending isn’t on my Chessboard of Causality.”

Gao Yang fell silent.

The pair quietly drank their coffee.

It was Gao Yang who broke the silence, “I said that I would tell you my secret after the Battle of the Curtain Call is won.”

Baili Yi nodded. “And I’m here for that.”

“I have a system,” Gao Yang said.

Baili Yi frowned. “System?”

“Do you know webnovels? That kind of system.”

Baili Yi understood immediately. “Must be part of Lucky. Many Talents evolve with time and manifest differently.”

“It’s not just Lucky’s mechanism,” Gao Yang said. “I had a stronger system, a little like a cheat. I only come this far thanks to it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Gao Yang told Baili Yi about his “transmigration” and the “dorm keeper”.

Baili Yi fell into thought.

The coffee went cold.

Baili Yi summarized: “So you think you’re not from this world but another one, but then your soul entered the body of the six-year-old Gao Yang in this world. Thus, you live until now as him.”

Gao Yang nodded.

“No,” Baili Yi said with certainty. “There is only one world.”

“It may be a parallel world,” Gao Yang said.

“Call it a parallel world or a multiverse, it’s all one world,” Baili Yi said. “The world is the sum of infinity. Even if you were from a parallel world, we still belong to the same world.”

Baili Yi thought of an analogy. “Even if you jumped from one mirror to another, both mirrors are in the same room, and the room is the world.”

Gao Yang understood what he was getting at. “You believe that the Gluttonous Snake is after the room itself. No matter how many mirrors there are in the room, those in the mirrors will never escape.”

“That is my understanding,” Baili Yi said.

“Then what is my system?” Gao Yang asked.

Baili Yi shook his head. “Apologies. I don’t have an answer. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

Baili Yi looked up at him with glinting eyes, “But does the system actually exist?”

Gao Yang couldn’t say anything.

Yes, he couldn’t prove to anyone that his system existed. No one outside of him had seen the system. Now that it was gone, not even Gao Yang could find evidence proving its existence.

Could it all be an illusion of his?

He suddenly remembered the first piece of advice Baili Yi had given him: “Delusion, greed, wrath, pride, life, and death are all meaningless. Life is short and nothing but a grand dream.”

Baili Yi didn’t say anything.

“Who told you that?” Gao Yang asked.

“My mentor,” Baili Yi said. “But he didn’t invent it. There’s no way to tell who said it first.”

The clock on the wall rang, announcing the arrival of midnight.

Baili Yi rose to his feet. “It’s late. I should go.”

Gao Yang stood up, too, asking the question he had been agonizing over.

“Baili Yi, do humans have a purpose?”

“Of course.”

Gao Yang was surprised by his unhesitant response. “Why?”

“You’re hungry because you’ve been full before. You’re in pain because you’ve once been happy.”

Gao Yang thought for two seconds, his eyes glinting. “My questioning our purpose proves that there is one.”

Baili Yi nodded. “I believe that if there is a flawless, absolute, eternal God, the ultimate purpose They assign humans will be seeking purpose.”

“The pursuit of meaning itself is the meaning of our existence?” Gao Yang asked.

Baili Yi smiled. “God is dawn. Meaning is the horizon. You and I are both trudging through the night.”

Gao Yang offered Baili Yi a hand. “Thank you. That’s enlightening.”

Baili Yi took his hand. “I should be thanking you.”