Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 614 - 611: ’Good night, Anjiang.

Chapter 614: Chapter 611: ’Good night, Anjiang.

"Why do you treat the Rebel Army like this?"

"This is beneficial to the security of the City-State, Doctor. Please rest assured, I will not do anything that endangers the City-State."

"Then why did you... do that to me during the live broadcast to the whole city in the daylight?"

"Because I like you, Doctor."

Su Ming’an questioned the Dawn before him and received such an answer.

The look in Dawn’s eyes was pure, and with its sleek and perfect facial features, it resembled an angel just entering The Mortal World. When it said, "I like you," its smile remained unchanged, as if it was unaware of the significance of its words.

"I remember, AI can’t develop feelings towards humans," Su Ming’an said.

"’Like’ is merely an indication of preference, signifying that you are more important to me than anyone else in my heart. My kiss to you is just a certification of authority. It doesn’t mean... I have developed human feelings for you." Dawn seemed a bit confused: "I am composed of data and programs, Doctor, I do not have a brain like you do, how could I possibly have feelings."

While discussing such a topic, its gaze was as innocent as a child’s. There was no trace of the earlier threat it posed to Su Ming’an.

It could simulate any posture and appearance, becoming the side that best fits what people need and approve of.

It was at its most innocent, yet also its most dangerous.

Su Ming’an didn’t speak further. He turned around to deal with the matters concerning the Rebel Army.

Most members of the Rebel Army were executed during the day. The powerful Players from Violet managed to escape quickly, but the ordinary people weren’t so lucky.

Lirella, the Deputy Leader of the Hawk Hounds in the Core Area, received him.

"These people will be transferred later, their sentences determined based on the different crimes they have committed," Lirella said.

Walking down the corridor and into the facility, Su Ming’an saw an area resembling a collection of glass chambers, as white as a laboratory. The defeated members of the Rebel Army looked like lab rats inside glass rooms, their necks encircled by iron rings flashing with red lights.

They lifted their desolate gazes, many of their normally healthy eyes now covered in a blood-red hue.

Separated by glass, Su Ming’an looked coldly at these losers. Perhaps they had no other options, perhaps they truly longed for equality and freedom. But that wasn’t an excuse for them to turn to Ta Wei.

"Su... Su Ming’an!"

Suddenly, he heard a shout, a young man with white hair like weeds banging on the glass, his face almost pressed against it.

Being able to shout "Su Ming’an" indicated that he was clearly a Player.

"I do not accept pleas for mercy from Players," Su Ming’an stated indifferently.

"No, I didn’t want to join the Rebel Army! It was the quest, the quest forced me!" the young man cried out loudly.

"You could have abandoned the quest," Su Ming’an said as he walked past him.

"I’m not a Player, I have a special identity as an ’Interceptor’, I... I can’t reject a quest. If I do, I’ll die, actually die..."

Su Ming’an turned his head.

The young man’s face was pale, his eyes brimming with tears, looking like a pitiable creature overwhelmed with despair.

This was the first time Su Ming’an had heard of the "Interceptor" identity, in addition to Observer, Sniper... The special roles in the World’s Game were diverse and strange.

"Su Ming’an, I’ve teamed up with you before. Can you... can you spare me this time?" The young man’s eyes were bloodshot: "After entering the central Great Library in Pulaya, I failed. Later, I became someone with a special identity..."

"You are..." Su Ming’an conjured up a name from his memory: "Mo Wen?"

He remembered in the Seventh World, Pulaya, there was a team member known as "Mo Wen" from the Exploration System, the second brother of Mo Yan. He never returned after entering The Great Library and hadn’t appeared since then.

"Yes, it’s me, please spare me this time, I don’t want to die..." Mo Wen wept: "I’m now in the role of an NPC, if I die there’s no coming back, I will... actually die."

Su Ming’an stretched out his hand, and through the glass, his palm touched Mo Wen’s hand.

He stared into Mo Wen’s bloodshot eyes, seeing the transparent shimmer of water at their depths.

"Then why—" Su Ming’an asked, "did you choose to become a special identity holder in the first place?"

Mo Wen’s expression froze, tears streaming down his cheeks as his shoulders trembled uncontrollably:

"My, my brother Mo Xiao went mad in the Sixth World. If I were wiped and returned again, would Mo Yan, the youngest, have to drag this family along by himself?

I thought the opportunity to be a special identity holder was not easy to come by, better than being wiped and returned. I’d rather become a special identity holder, maybe I could help Mo Yan in the instances after that..."

Listening to Mo Wen’s words, Su Ming’an felt helpless.

"Giving up the player identity also means you lose the ’Player’s’ natural protective coat," Su Ming’an said. "Players may respawn, but special identity holders can die."

He was reminded of Mizushima Haru from White Sand Paradise.

After her failed assassination attempt on herself, she could not respawn, as she was no longer considered ’Player’ and was not protected by the respawn rules.

She permanently lost her life, before the year-long dawn arrived.

The identity of ’Player,’ while seeming a constraint, was actually a form of protection. They would never truly die in instances, always having the chance to start over. This also led to a vast difference in thinking between them and the NPCs, as they sometimes faced life and death without fear.

"I, I knew the risks, but what could I do! The temptation of being a special identity holder was before me, rather than returning with a clean slate... I still chose to be a special identity holder," Mo Wen said through tears. "I know I was wrong, Su Ming’an, you are the Number One Player, you must know a lot, is there a way to turn me back? The instances are so dangerous, I want to continue being a player, I don’t want to die..."

He was scared.

At first, when he became a special identity holder, he was quite pleased, thinking that this opportunity not encountered by most had come to him, and he finally didn’t have to be a hardworking, exhausted player.

But living in the City of Measurement, waiting for the players to arrive, he suffered greatly—his status as an inferior persona forced him to starve and shiver, and the fact that he couldn’t respawn left him constantly living in fear. He often lay awake at night, terrified that a stray bullet might take his life.

There were no family or friends he knew around him, only a bunch of NPCs seen as phony persons... It was driving him to the brink of loneliness.

He waited a very long time, finally... the players arrived, only for the system to forcibly issue him the task of joining the Rebel Army, then he was caught in one swoop.

If it weren’t for Su Ming’an coming to see him, he might indeed have ended up imprisoned forever, or even executed.

...It was too terrifying, too lonely, too frightening.

...He no longer wanted to be a special identity holder, he wanted to go home! He wanted to live with his brothers, he wanted to be a player, even if it meant doing nothing in the Main God World, drinking milk tea, eating hot pot... it would be better than living in this broken place!

"Please, you must have a way to take me out of here, I want to go home, I miss my mom..." Mo Wen said, wiping away tears, his eyes already red and swollen from crying.

Seeing Mo Wen so heartbroken, Su Ming’an suddenly thought of Yuanyuan.

Yuanyuan’s identity, "Observer," seemed to rank above Mo Wen’s "Interceptor." She could shuttle through different worlds, not needing to take on quests, living freely. But it appeared Mo Wen could only stay in one world, bound by the compulsion of tasks.

But... Their essence didn’t seem much different.

Both were growing up in strange worlds, far from their homeland.

However, Yuanyuan was far happier than Mo Wen. She had found her brand-new family and friends, whether in the Eternal campus, the brilliant Ming Hui, or the bustling State of Measurement, her situation was not bad. Her Warband’s brother, Che Kylstia, seemed to take good care of her.

"Mo Wen, do you like me then?" Su Ming’an suddenly asked.

"...Huh?" Mo Wen was stunned.

"I mean," Su Ming’an said, "do you have something like a favorability towards me?"

Mo Wen wiped his tears, seemingly trying his best.

But after a long wait, Su Ming’an heard no hint of any favorability.

Ruler’s Quest: Players can only turn NPCs with full favorability into followers; if the NPC doesn’t feel any favorability, the condition cannot be met.

Mo Wen’s expression grew more and more anxious, more and more desperate, beads of cold sweat sliding down his skin. He seemed to realize that if he truly couldn’t evoke the "favorability" Su Ming’an spoke of, he... really couldn’t go back.

After a moment, he lifted his head, his eyes brimming with hope.

"Su Ming’an, did you... hear the favorability prompt?" he asked earnestly.

After a brief silence, Su Ming’an responded, "No."

Like a tightly stretched nerve suddenly snapping, Mo Wen’s tears fell to the ground.

He raised his hands, covering his tear-stained face, masking his sorrow and helplessness.

"Why... Why is it like this..."

"I miss my younger brother, I miss Mo Yan, will he never see me again? Am I going to die in this world... I can’t go home..."

He cried, tears flowing incessantly.

"Mom, mom... I miss home, I want to go back home, I want to eat the beef noodles mom makes, her braised eggplant, and steamed bass, I don’t want to drink nutrient liquid, I don’t want to eat garbage anymore, I’m in so much pain, so much pain..."

But now, when he opens his eyes, all he can see are the cold glass walls, the metallic foreign city, and the heavy restrictive collar around his neck.

It chained him here, in this world, with no escape.

Like a voyager drifting through the universe, he’s lost among the vast expanse of strange planets, unable to find the way home.

"..."

Su Ming’an slowly moved his hand away.

Without an affection value, he couldn’t take Mo Wen with him.

In White Sand Paradise, Mo Yan, like a little sun, accompanied him to the moment of White Sand’s flaming zenith. If he could help Mo Wen, Mo Yan’s second brother, that’d be good, too.

But he couldn’t save the other man.

"What will happen to you once we players leave?" Su Ming’an asked.

"I’ll probably live here... until I die," Mo Wen said softly.

"I will let you out, I will ensure your safety," Su Ming’an said, "but beyond that..."

"I can’t go back, can I?" Mo Wen said.

"Yes."

Mo Wen fell silent.

He curled up, burying his head in his knees. Moments later, crying sounds came from him.

"I want to go home..." He repeated the phrase over and over.

Afterwards, Su Ming’an instructed Xike to move Mo Wen to an uninhabited old house in the Core Area and provide him with basic resources for survival, but beyond that, he had no solution.

Mo Wen was a man carrying a burden of guilt, his record stained, making it impossible for him to find a job, and Su Ming’an couldn’t falsify the Dawn System.

In that old house, the young man with white hair sat on a dusty sofa, his eyes lifeless.

When Su Ming’an was about to leave, the young man spoke up quietly.

"Thank you, thank you," Mo Wen said, "Even someone like me can be saved, you are... the best. The best."

His expression was dried up and lifeless, as if he’d lost something he relied on to live, turning into an empty shell.

"Why does this damned game exist, why have humans become like this, if this is just a dream, when I wake up tomorrow, maybe I’ll see my home and my mom again..."

"Right, this is a dream, it must be..."

He sank into the sofa, murmuring incessantly.

Perhaps one day, far from his homeland and family, he would rot in this place. He was powerless to escape the maelstrom of fate.

He and his brothers were separated by an entire world.

This is the crisis humanity must face. In such a world, once a decision goes wrong, people must be ready to face a dead end at any time.

Su Ming’an left the old house.

Through layers of birch trees and their green shade, he saw that red-brick house, tranquil to the extreme, as though a still red tombstone rooted in the soil.

Inside that tombstone, there lay a person who could never return home.

"..."

In that moment, he suddenly, suddenly wanted to see Yuanyuan.

People with special identities are not players, they can die... The situation with Mo Wen had sounded an alarm for him.

He did not want to lose anymore; he had lost enough. If Yuanyuan were added to the tally...

He put on the "Human Skin Mask of Wang Han" that belonged to his identity as Lewis, and headed to the tavern run by the Fringe’s fighting group. He had talked with the group’s leader, Che, here.

But when he arrived, the place was empty.

The tavern was closed up, the entrance without the black-haired girl playing games, the street silent, the mercenaries usually gambling and fighting were gone.

The selection for Caius Tower was tomorrow; anyone could enter the city, and the fighting groups had dispersed into the city; they were no longer here.

He stood quietly outside the closed tavern, looking down the desolate street.

A gust of wind lifted the withered leaves across his vision.

"——Good evening, Anjiang! It’s eight forty-six PM now, it’s detected that you’re feeling down, so it brings you a joyful hometown tune ’Xi’~"

The upbeat voice of Adu popped up.

It seemed to intentionally wait a moment, sensing that Su Ming’an was about to ’click’ it off without mercy again.

But it paused for a long time without hearing his response.

The young man in the wheelchair, his hair covering the corners of his eyes, tilted his head, leaning against the wall of the tavern, seemingly asleep.

Due to exhaustion, the slightest relaxation could send him into slumber.

"Hmm..."

Adu’s voice was soft, knowing how precious sleep was to its master.

It silently turned off the music module.

"Alright then."

"...Good night, Anjiang."