Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 227 - 224: "Indelible and Forever Burning

Chapter 227: Chapter 224: "Indelible and Forever Burning

He walked slowly into the large classroom, and the "people" inside remained perfectly still.

Rather than calling them people, it would be more accurate to say they were pitch-black human shadows.

These shadows of pure black, each with different stature and hairstyles, were sitting on the soft chairs. Some were heads down, copying something, some were lying on the desk sleeping, and some were leaning back in their chairs, seemingly resting with eyes closed.

He even saw two shadows very close to each other, gesticulating; they seemed to be communicating.

... All this, apart from the extremely dark vision and the twisted, inhuman shadows, looked just like ordinary students who stayed in a classroom after class.

The shadows of the trees outside the window swayed in the wind, like a shadow play against a backdrop of white paper, the dark branches undulating.

He moved closer to the communicating shadows and heard their voices.

"... Has Dong Xue not recovered yet?"

"Right, her condition is the most severe. She’s still the one with the worst mental state to this day."

"To actually be so immersed in an imaginary world... to even imagine a person to love, with such a level of daydreaming, it’s no wonder her parents sent her here."

"I often heard her talking to herself before. When I asked her, she actually said she was conversing with her lover... yet clearly, I saw her talking to thin air."

"Ah? To really love something that doesn’t exist, how strange..."

"Right? I find it weird too. It’s like she’s daydreaming. Once, to tease her, I even asked the name of her imaginary lover."

"What’s the name?"

"She said her lover’s name is Xia Luoyang... It’s hilarious. Dong Xue, Xia Luoyang, don’t you see? A ’winter snow’ and a ’summer sun’, they do match quite well, don’t they?"

"Hahaha, indeed, that’s priceless! This madwoman really has vivid delusions; her mind must be broken..."

"A madman is a madman, no matter how normal they seem usually, the moment she talks about her lover, she’s immediately not normal. We are not like her, right? At least we don’t daydream in broad daylight."

"Dong Xue is definitely the craziest among us. We are normal, aren’t we?"

"..."

Su Ming’an frowned as he listened to the exchange between the two shadows.

He wanted to hear more of their conversation, but the voices had already stopped.

A girl in a blood-red dance dress walked slowly into the classroom from the doorway.

She passed by the variously shaped shadows, walked past the rows of desks and chairs with an ethereal form and dance-like steps, carrying a graceful beauty.

In the dim, ink-like blackness, he saw this splash of striking red, as if witnessing a drop of blood melting into water.

She walked up to him.

The chatting shadows, at this moment, fell silent in unison, and their figures froze as if they had solidified.

But Su Ming’an keenly felt a destructive aura slowly rising from them.

The next moment, the shadows shattered like broken mirrors before his eyes.

The girl in the red dress retracted her hand, turned her head towards him, with tears in the corners of her eyes.

"... Am I abnormal?" she asked.

"..."

"They say I’m childish, accusing me of daydreaming, calling me a madwoman." Dong Xue looked at him, tears welling up in her eyes like pearls, yet not falling.

"Doctor, Doctor White Sand." She looked at him with an increasingly indifferent gaze: "You’re here to ’heal’ me, aren’t you? What do you think of my condition?"

"I’m not clear about your condition," Su Ming’an said: "— Because I don’t think you’re ill at all."

Dong Xue’s expression slowly brightened with renewed vigor.

"Loving someone has nothing to do with the gender, race, or background of the other person." Su Ming’an said: "Love is an attraction between two individuals; it’s a wonderful thing and a belief. When you have this feeling called ’love’ in your heart, then that’s love.

The other person could be your ideal, your emotional support, or purely your significant other.

But, no matter what, love is not something easily swayed by the words of others." Su Ming’an looked at her, his tone gradually softening:

"— Believe in what you believe, love whom you love, Dong Xue."

Su Ming’an spoke earnestly on this side, but the barrage had already seen through everything:

[Here it comes again. It’s starting.]

[It’s time for my favorite part: fooling the NPC.]

[If I hadn’t seen Ming’an’s performance before, I would have really believed what he said...]

[Indeed, these words cannot be what he wants to say. Su Lighthouse despises people who are immersed in fantasies.]

[?? How many galgames has this person played? Why is he always so skilled??]

[Reasonable suspicion that Su Ming’an flirted with quite a few girls in high school.]

[The suspicion mentioned before is wrong. Ming’an’s background has been dug up by a bunch of people; he’s never been in a relationship...]

[Is this an example of ’Paper Strategist’? I got it, I got it.]

[Hey! I feel I’m being implicated here. What’s wrong with Mina liking virtual paper cutouts! Kuso!]

[Chills. When will the second dimension finally stand up?]

[...]

Dong Xue’s eyes became brighter and brighter.

She stood amidst a sea of shadows, like a striking cinnabar mole.

"Really? Doctor." Her eyes were bright, clear as water, "But others say I’m sick... No matter how many times I’ve stressed it, they will always say [You can’t live in the virtual world][That’s not real love][You should grow up]... But isn’t love a sign of maturity? I love someone so much, yet they want to send me here for ’correction’..."

"Doctor, but she has clearly become indispensable to my life."

"The white porcelain cup I bought for her at the counter, her short name that’s tucked away in the very corner of my notebook, difficult for anyone to spot."

"While doing homework, I’d unintentionally write her name on the draft paper, hum her favorite songs, and inscribe her name on every book. When shopping, I’d always think of getting something for her too."

"I would make coffee to her taste. I’m clear about all her preferences for drinks. I would change my behavior for her. Everything around me bears her presence."

"It’s like a space originally filled with only personal belongings, suddenly shares a part with someone else, and items that were once singular now bear another person’s signature for no reason, but this feeling of having my personal space invaded doesn’t make me feel annoyed..."

Dong Xue held her chest with both hands, her movements vigorous as though she was tightly embracing another nonexistent person.

As she spoke these long sentences, her faint words floated in the pitch-black classroom, tears slowly rolling down the corners of her eyes:

"I like her.

Just thinking about our names lined up together makes me happy.

It’s like seeing fireflies at night.

She has completely permeated my life. I like her; I like this brief and secretive delight."

Su Ming’an was stunned for a moment.

The NPC’s words were automatically translated into meanings he could understand, as if he suddenly learned a foreign language.

Therefore, Dong Xue’s pronoun was understood by him without any hindrance.

"She".

The Yang Xia that Dong Xue liked was a female.

At first, he thought that Yang Xia should be Xia Luoyang, since the two names were almost lined up together.

But now, Dong Xue’s way of addressing her told him that Yang Xia was a woman.

And she was a virtual woman created by her own imagination.

"I’m really in pain, in despair," Dong Xue said.

She hugged herself, her body trembling constantly, as if she were cold at night, or as if she were trembling in fear.

"I often talk to her, tell her about my life at school, and when I wanted to jump off the roof, it was she who held me tight and encouraged me to keep facing life."

"I often tell her I love her, and she responds with a smile. She knows everything about me and discusses all aspects of life with me. I love her. In this world that keeps dragging me down, I look up at her as if gazing at the night sky."

"... She is the star I can never touch."

"I fell into it and couldn’t extricate myself."

"I heard many voices full of malice or mocking laughter. Some people gave me strange looks during morning exercises, as if they were looking at a freak, while others laughed exaggeratedly behind my back."

"...In this society where such feelings cannot be exposed, I experienced an extremely long period of unrequited love."

Dong Xue lowered her eyelids.

Public opinion once tugged at her legs and maliciously trampled on her head.

The dark fire that came from the depths of time gradually spread throughout her body, burning those chaotic emotions like dead leaves into nothingness, also intensifying the unspoken love and desire.

[Indelible, yet never ceasing to burn.]

"—You are not wrong, Dong Xue."

Su Ming’an said.

Dong Xue lifted her head.

"What you feel for her is attraction, it is love," Su Ming’an scrutinized her gaze.

In the deep night, her eyes shone brightly, as if she were looking at the whole world.

"...Doctor, you are really kind," she said.

"I am just making the right diagnosis," Su Ming’an responded.

Dong Xue took a step forward.

She reached out both hands, as if to cradle his face, to confirm something closely.

"Doctor, I am really afraid of seeing..." She seemed like she wanted to take off his glasses but eventually retracted her hands.

"Afraid of seeing what?" Su Ming’an asked.

"..." Dong Xue shook her head: "It’s nothing."

She walked past him, brushing his shoulder, and her red dress gradually vanished into the darkness, dissolving like water into water.

Su Ming’an immediately followed, but he could only watch as her figure faded away, never to be seen again.

He heard the system prompt.

[NPC (Dong Xue·Night), Favorability: 50 (Basic Favorability) +20]

[Current Favorability Evaluation: Admiration]

...Good.

From this increase in favorability, Su Ming’an could roughly confirm a speculation.

The White Sand Paradise by day and the White Sand Paradise by night might be different.

The daytime’s Dong Xue, number twenty-nine student, according to Mo Yan, was just an ordinary girl wearing the same blue and white patient uniform as them, without the dangerous nature of causing death by contact during the night, and she seemed very quiet and reserved, not the type to suddenly open up.

But at night... this Dong Xue wearing a red dance dress and white dancing shoes looked quite special.

He glanced at the barrage of comments.

He had finally discovered the use of the comments: frequently watching these people talk would wake him up from being too immersed in the instance stories, preventing him from falling into madness too easily.

They were like a flock of noisy ducks, although their chattering was useless and annoying, they always managed to wake him up.

[Poor Dong Xue...]

[I feel her dependence on a virtual lover has exceeded a certain degree. She’s already started talking to herself... That’s definitely a sign of a mental disorder.]

[But regardless, correcting her in this kind of hospital, her parents are really bold.]

[I empathize, it reminds me of my unrequited love during high school... It was really tough. I wonder how he is doing now, whether he has been selected for the game...]

[Let’s keep watching then, at least now we know Dong Xue’s backstory. Let’s see how she behaves during the day.]

[...]

After Dong Xue left, the classroom returned to quietness.

Su Ming’an walked out from the classroom with no clues and went to the canteen again.

The canteen looked like there was nothing peculiar, so he left and visited the laboratory, which he hadn’t visited during the day.

On the experimental platform were several overturned test tubes and measuring beakers, while various hermetically sealed bottles were placed in the locked cabinets. The curtains were drawn tight, and the room was anomalously dark.

Su Ming’an picked up a test tube and suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.

Inside this clear test tube, he vaguely saw a purple liquid, swaying like potassium permanganate.

Large palm-sized bloodstains appeared on the walls, and the air had a smell of disinfectant.

He seemed to hear a little girl’s fairy tale singing.

He blinked.

Everything returned to normal before his eyes.

He put the test tube down and walked along the edge of the desk to the window, pulling the curtains apart.

"Shush—"

Outside the window, there was silence.

Through the white base of the background, he saw the gloomy trees below. There was even a small garden, completely enclosed by a high iron fence.

Looking into the distance, he could see a desolate mountain range, the uneven forest, and a fine river flowing coherently through the dark green, but all of this was blocked by a heavy iron gate on the outside.

...This place seemed to be located in the suburbs.

He pushed the window, but it was locked. He tried to unlock it with his powers, only to receive the prompt [This area is temporarily inaccessible].

...Not letting him out for now?

He drew the curtains closed again, and suddenly saw rows of small writing on the back of the curtain.

[I have lost my creativity.]

[I’ve become confused, ignorant, indifferent, rigid, and cold-hearted.]

[I was once so full of spiritual energy, like a newly grown sapling.]

[But upon truly growing up... I only feel lost.]

[...We are in a world pushed along by others.]

[I tucked away the balloons that soared into the sky, put away the notes where I wrote my dreams as a youth.]

[I gradually stopped caring about the outside world, becoming a qualified cog.]

[...I became a victim of the times, one of the many growing shadows in the dark, an uninspired shell unable to resist.]

[I was sent here, afterward numb, lost, suffocating.]

[Have I gone mad?]

[I haven’t.]

[If assimilation means normal, I’d rather be an awakened "madman".]

...

[Obtained Clue No.7·Words behind the Curtain]

[Words behind the Curtain: White Sand Paradise, is a place that collects "madmen".]

...

[You have entered the Perfect Pass Route·Intelligence Route]

[Perfect Completion Progress: 25%]

...

[World Game·Remaining "Normal" Players: 229,879,389 people]