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Chapter 155 - 153: HE: The Silent Future

Chapter 155: Chapter 153: HE: The Silent Future

The neatly dressed little loli sat in her own room, with a nightingale-like bird calling by her side.

It was conveying His Majesty’s intentions.

She pulled open a drawer, where a dagger inlaid with a crimson gemstone lay quietly. When she drew it out, she saw her own youthful face reflected on its surface.

Holding the dagger, she slowly walked out the door, passed through the silent corridor, stepped over the scarlet carpet, and as she ascended the staircase, she heard the sound of something dragging on the ground.

Following the staircase, she saw the door of the innermost room wide open, with someone collapsed inside. Even in the perpetual darkness of the polar night, she could make out the blood spots scattered on the floor by the faint light.

She approached slowly, the ruby on the dagger gleaming, and as she walked down the corridor, her palace dress sweeping the floor, the friction sounded clearly in the quiet night.

The person on the ground lifted his head slightly, revealing a face covered in blood, and on his shoulder shone a blood-red pattern mark.

"Are you here... to kill me?"

Despite the blood all over his face, he still wore a smile, his tone as casual as if discussing everyday matters.

Hui Shuhang slowly crouched down, drawing closer to him.

"Yes."

"I thought you were going to take me away," he said. "After all, when I opened my eyes, it was you I saw."

"I have been by your side for over a decade."

"Is that so?" he said, blood tracing down the corner of his mouth, looking rather weakened: "Can you talk with me a bit before I die?"

Hui Shuhang gripped the dagger tighter, and then, she moved closer to him, sat down by his side, and threw away the dagger in her hand.

The dagger landed on the carpet, the gemstone flashing a cold light.

She watched the empty corridor silently, then turned her gaze to his shoulder.

There lay a blood-red pattern mark, which she recognized as the Curse Pattern Mark His Majesty had branded, which assured that any person marked with it would die within two hours.

... She didn’t even need to take action.

"How long have I been here?"

She suddenly heard his question.

"Have you forgotten?" said Hui Shuhang slowly: "You have been here since you were young."

"Have I never gone out?"

"Under my escort, there have been times, have you forgotten?" she said: "I’ve always taken care of you, I know everything about you."

"I really didn’t expect..." he sighed slightly: "I did so much for the Regular Army, and now when the experiments are nearly complete, the first person His Majesty wants to kill is actually me. I thought at least he would wait until I came of age."

"...Perhaps it’s because you went to see him today."

"What happened?" he immediately followed with his question.

"His Majesty... he was also hesitating. Perhaps something you said made him decide earlier," she replied.

"So it is." He nodded, seeming somewhat regretful: "... What could those words have been."

Hui Shuhang did not answer.

Perhaps it was because she was troubled herself.

"Tell me," she heard his voice: "Why does His Majesty want to sacrifice me?"

"—For the future," she also heard her own voice, like a puppet that could only respond, and perhaps too saddened, she didn’t feel what she was saying: "Your existence introduces uncertainties to the world, your bloodline... it’s the source of world catastrophes. You may be unwilling, wishing to change something through your experiments... but His Majesty can no longer wait for the day of successful experimentation. Eradicating the catastrophe beforehand is His Majesty’s choice."

"What am I?"

"You are the Evil Dragon; you are a child with the Evil Dragon’s bloodline," said Hui Shuhang: "You are a disaster, a devil, an unintended variable that should not exist, the Curse weighing down on all creatures. Whether alive or dead, the moment you are taken to the sacrificial altar, the world will find peace."

"... I understand."

Su Ming’an understood completely now.

His Majesty’s 95 points of Favorability were real.

Perhaps His Majesty really had feelings for him, allowing him to keep living until he was offered as a sacrifice. However, to that Ruler, maintaining the world’s stability was far more important than any single individual.

As soon as he realized that he might harbor thoughts of rebellion, His Majesty didn’t give him a chance to live the next nine days, but simply chose to exterminate him.

"So I am not the future." Su Ming’an said: "Killing me is the future."

"That’s right."

She heard the sound of his coughing up blood, the person in front of her was becoming weaker by the moment, and his life had only a few short minutes remaining.

"...And what about you?"

She heard his voice.

"...What if one day, you suddenly don’t want to offer me up on the altar anymore, and you want to take me and run away? What kind of situation would that be?" he asked.

Hui Shuhang pondered for a while.

"There won’t be that kind of situation."

Even in such a scenario, the little girl still maintained an elegant posture, sitting beside him with not a hint of blood on the hem of her dress. Under the faint light source, unwavering determination filled her wine-red eyes:

"Although I grew up watching over you and hold great respect for you, my mind was made up long ago. Everyone has their final destiny, and accepting it gracefully... that is the only thing we can do, being born in this world."

"I mean, what if?" Su Ming’an asked.

"..."

Hui Shuhang fell silent for a moment.

Bowing her head, she seemed to fall into deep reflection, and then, when she raised her head again, her eyes carried a hint of slight bewilderment:

"...Then possibly," she said slowly, picking up the dagger that had fallen to the ground.

The gemstone was shining beautifully.

"...Perhaps I have fallen in love with you."

She leaned close to him, whispering in his ear:

"Listen well—love is a very complicated thing. It is insane and incredible. If I could love you enough to betray all my faith and responsibilities for you, I would take you away at any cost, using every method possible—I would want you to live, even if I were to die."

Su Ming’an recalled Hui Shuhang from the previous loop, her gaze when she was determined to run away with him, so fervent and crazy, filled with an unprecedented longing when she looked at him, like a fire that suddenly soared, eager to burn her own past to ashes.

—So that was the moment when her full-value friendship turned into what’s called love.

"I understand," Su Ming’an said.

The Nightingale Bird on his shoulder started to cry out again, and Hui Shuhang, holding the dagger, spoke in an extremely gentle tone:

"Do you have anything else you wish to say?"

"I thought," Su Ming’an looked at her, "that you would say—’No one is born a sacrifice, and you are the future,’ something like that."

"If I believed that you being alive is more useful than you being offered up on the altar, I would say that," Hui Shuhang said in a very faint voice, as if telling a bedtime story: "The premise is, we all need to believe in you—that you can develop a way to change the Giant Dragon’s innate bloodline."

"But now it’s too late."

"Yes," Hui Shuhang said: "His Majesty has made up his mind in advance. We will send your corpse up to the altar, the experiments will continue, even if they may be slowed down, but you have traded for a moment of peace, you are our ’Future’."

"...Then I know what to do now."

Hui Shuhang listened to his words, observing the look in his eyes.

His eyes were so bright and dazzling, it was easy to overlook the pain in their depths.

...As if unaware that his journey was ending here.

"So," she reached out her hand, covering his eyes, "Goodnight?"

"Is there a chance to change your mind? For instance, if you save me now and let me leave?"

She smiled: "I haven’t fallen in love with you yet."

She smiled, but suddenly tears came bursting forth.

When she withdrew her hand, she saw that his eyes were fully closed.

She looked at the bloodstain in her palm, the blood was still warm. As she looked at the blood in her hands, an unusual emotion suddenly rippled across her usually stable heart.

—"Death is not the loss of life, but an eternity in time," she said: "Congratulations, you have become the ’Future’ you wanted to be."

She bowed her head slightly, kissing the forehead of the person on the ground, the kiss was feather-light, like a saint kissing a relic, like water disappearing into water.

Then, with that dagger, she slit her own wrist.

Blood dripped onto the blood on the ground, gradually mingling together, condensing into a strange pattern.

She closed her eyes, leaning beside him, her breath fading little by little.

...

Su Ming’an’s consciousness slowly gathered back.

Through this brush with death, he had come to realize that his identity might be the source of some catastrophe, and that the world could only find temporary peace if he were to die.

Qin Wang seemed to be conducting a study, researching methods of altering the Innate Bloodline, and if he failed to achieve results before being led to the sacrificial altar, he would have to die.

His conversation with His Majesty during the day might have touched on some trigger point, prompting His Majesty to act against him prematurely.

Su Ming’an had thought that when he opened his eyes again, he would be rewinding to a certain point in time—still on that golden-white plaza.

But when his consciousness returned, what he saw was a desolate land.

...There was no plaza, no servants carrying things, no Guardian squad, not even any buildings.

As far as the eye could see, the world was dead silent, as if he were in the midst of a wasteland, without a single living creature nearby.

He stood in the midst of a pool of blood-red liquid, his feet covered in fresh blood.

"...What’s going on."

He had yet to check the live stream—the best method to determine the time.

He then heard the system notification:

[Congratulations! You have successfully survived until the fifteenth day!]

[Perfect Completion Progress 50%]

[Achieved ordinary route completion·Regular Army route·(HE) Silent Future]

[Route rating: A (Excellent)!]

[(HE·Silent Future): "What I face is a future of silence.

I have just woken up, still knowing nothing.

I shall wait here until I am celebrated by all."]

...

[Outcome recorded, will be included in the final evaluation]

...

Su Ming’an stared at the system interface, feeling breathless.

A sensation of suffocation surged over him in an instant, as if a giant hand was squeezing his heart. His body felt numb as if electrocuted, and in front of his eyes, everything seemed to be covered by a veil, all blurred and indistinct.

Death rewind would not rewind to a time point that he had never experienced.

—And the unfamiliar scene before him suggested that on that very night, he had not died.

Instead, time continued its passage, and on some day, he who had not died completely was suddenly awakened to confront this inexplicable ordinary HE.

...Why did this happen.

He felt increasingly short of breath—as if he had not truly died that night, but had fallen into a feigned death.

This meant that now, at some point in the future, he had suddenly awakened, and the rewind point might have been buried in the past sleep.

[He might be stuck at a roadblock].

He had previously considered the thought of "what if I’m stuck and can’t perfectly pass," but he hadn’t expected to actually encounter it.

...He didn’t know if he could still rewind back to the initial point of time, but there was no time to deliberate.

...Just in case, just in case he couldn’t rewind back to the crucial time point...

He felt as if the entire world was turning upside down. He immediately pressed his fingertip to his temple and rewind instantly.

...

His eyes were open.

He watched the bright scene in front of him, still engulfed in a feeling of suffocation.

The girl nibbling on a chocolate bar was pushing the door open, leading him out.

"Feya."

He slowly exhaled.

...He had returned.

He didn’t know where Death Rewind had come from, but it seemed that each time it pulled him back from the brink of collapse.

The [key time points] might not change with time, but rather depended on his experiences.

He had always been exceedingly confident in this skill... just as he was confident he would keep perfectly passing. If even this last resort couldn’t pull him back, he really didn’t know how he would go on.

Infinite rewind, up until the point of collapse?

He looked at the familiar scene before him.

Knowing everything could still be redone, the sinking feeling in his chest slowly dissipated.

"...What’s wrong?"

As he contemplated life after his narrow escape, Feya’s hand reached out to him.

She touched his forehead, then looked into his eyes:

"You suddenly look very tired... Haven’t you been sleeping well? There are blood vessels in your eyes."

"It’s nothing." Su Ming’an moved her hand away: "Take me to His Majesty."

He needed to repeat the process of that night.

"..." Feya looked at him, then suddenly "crunch" snapped the chocolate bar in her mouth.

"I remember you often stayed up late before the game started." She said: "If you want to play the game properly, you should rest well."

"You are right." Su Ming’an said: "This too is a game, just a more hardcore one."

"...So you mean you’re still going to play this exhausted?"

"I will rest, but not now."

Feya sighed: "I can never persuade you."

She said it and led him outside.

On the way, Su Ming’an recalled the progression of the previous loop, harboring a hunch.

In the following, he went to see His Majesty as he did before, and the conversation didn’t vary by a single word.

The only difference from the last loop was that he did not use the Ruler’s Skill to raise the Favorability from 95 points to 100 points with the other party.

He felt that the problem might not lie in the content of the conversation.

When night fell, he returned to his room, sat at the table, and waited for the Curse to take effect.

He sat there all night.

It was only after the period of deep night gradually passed and the faint light of the plaza lit up that his somewhat vague thoughts suddenly became clearer.

—He had survived.

This time, he had not been targeted by an instant-kill Curse.

That is to say, the reason he almost failed to Perfectly Pass was precisely because of the Ruler’s Skill he used.

...The previous time, it was because he used the Ruler’s Skill on Shuhang that led to death.

This time, it was because he had used the Ruler’s Skill on His Majesty that caused him to suddenly achieve an ordinary ending.

...This was a trap.

If he did not have Death Rewind, he might have been forced to accept the reality of a failed Perfect Pass.

Su Ming’an looked at the three words [Ruler’s Skill] in his taskbar and suddenly laughed out loud.

"It’s kind of funny."

He laughed, feeling a mixture of irony and absurdity.

"Really... it’s pretty funny."

A surge of overwhelming tiredness washed over him.

He looked at the sky outside the window, watching the never-ending stream of barrage in the upper right corner of his vision.

He closed his eyes, and under the daylight’s faint glow, he fell into a doze.

...

[Regular Army route·Future line·Perfect Completion Progress: 20%]

[Survival probability: up 3.25%]

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