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Chapter 64 - 63 - "Tomorrow

Chapter 64: Chapter 63 - "Tomorrow

"Traveler from outside, you’ve seized such an opportunity. Will you not kill me?" Bai Xiong saw through the NPC guise of Su Ming’an at a glance. He turned his head as if the threat meant nothing to him.

"Killing you would be pointless," Su Ming’an said. "Not everyone’s story ends with their death."

His words seemed to please Bai Xiong, who smiled in response.

"Traveler from outside, you killed my bionic human in the hotel, didn’t follow the path I laid out for you—you must have seen my experimental journal, then. A pathetic ignorant human like me can only keep copying myself, passing down the will I cultivated in her... And yet, in the end, I fell in love with her."

"She was meant to be a fair and impartial city leader," Su Ming’an followed his lead.

"No, not that..." Bai Xiong sighed slightly. His face appeared too young, but his eyes seemed to hold an endless past: "Yiliya... the Goddess Mother told me before she died that she didn’t want White City to continue like this. White City needs a flawless ’substitute.’ Nuoliya was supposed to be the best candidate; she was meant to be the sacrificed, not the ruler. But I couldn’t bear to let her go."

Bai Xiong’s words were hard to comprehend, but Su Ming’an faintly felt that his guesses had been off.

He initially thought that Nuoliya was meant to be the "fair and impartial city leader" as per the Goddess Mother’s plan, and that Bai Xiong, the current ruler, was unwilling to relinquish power after the Goddess Mother’s death. He imprisoned Nuoliya, trying to make her his own possession, but faced fierce resistance. Therefore, he brought in an outsider to create a game to make her obediently return to his side.

This guess was too selfish but fit the malicious nature of humanity.

However, Bai Xiong said that she was supposed to be the "sacrificed"—which didn’t align with the prediction that she was meant to be the city leader.

Su Ming’an’s thoughts raced, but the situation with his clone was becoming more dire. After barely parrying the mechanical woman’s left blade, the clone’s leg was severed by a slash, sending his body flying out diagonally, blood spraying.

The barrage of comments exploded, and the audience, still believing that the clone was Su Ming’an, was frantic with "ah ah ah ah" messages flying across the screen.

"Su Ming’an!" Noel’s bowstring snapped as he wove through the blades of the mechanical woman, seeing the clone’s blood-streaked form.

When someone got hurt, the spectator seats erupted with deafening cheers.

A phantom pain sliced through his calf; when the clone was injured, Su Ming’an felt the same pain, but he dared not remove his fingers from Bai Xiong’s neck, whose smile continued unabated, as if he was not worried about his puzzle being solved.

"I told you early on," Bai Xiong looked at him with a smiling gaze. "You disrupted the loving path I set, and you didn’t gather all the clues. You cannot deduce the final outcome—your companions are on the brink of death, do you still have time to persuade me?"

Bai Xiong wasn’t afraid to die.

He had only his ideology in his heart; he replicated countless versions of himself, and as long as one existed, his belief would live on eternally.

"Maybe I should be grateful for the disruption," Su Ming’an pressed his hand against Bai Xiong’s neck. "If not for that, we would never have seen the experimental journal in Nuoliya’s room. I just believe that humans cannot engage in purely logical thinking; there’s always something that needs to be sacrificed."

"Whoosh!" Below, the clone, using a long sword for support, lost his left arm to the mechanical woman’s blade, drawing a long trail of blood. In that moment, he glanced up at the platform—Su Ming’an had yet to give the order to retreat.

"...Do you think my actions are right?" Bai Xiong asked him.

"There is never a design for a natural sacrifice, unless one is willing to step forward on their own," Su Ming’an said. "But civilization is above all, and individual sacrifice seems meaningful to most— even if that sacrifice doesn’t require their consent."

"Are you suggesting that you believe I’m right?" A sudden brilliance sparked in Bai Xiong’s eyes.

"You possess an eternally vibrant soul and thoughts, you’ve built your own sunlit city for your ideals, you’ve provided everything she should have... You will stay young and vibrant forever; you watch over your Lighthouse for a lifetime," Su Ming’an continued, staring into Bai Xiong’s eyes, bearing the pain with a smile: "Who am I to judge you? We’re very much alike."

Noel finally took a hit as well; the glowing blade sliced open his chest, spraying red liquid that shone brilliantly under the sunlight.

Cheers erupted in the spectator stands.

In the dazzling sunlight, the Colosseum’s ground was stark white with splashes of red, blinding in its brightness.

And the light in Bai Xiong’s eyes grew ever brighter.

"What you say makes me trust you; you have the quality that makes me want to confide in you," Bai Xiong turned to him, laying a hand on his: "May I share my thinking with you?"

"Your pursuit," Su Ming’an stressed.

"Yes, my pursuit," Bai Xiong’s smile shined incomparably bright for a moment.

Below, the mechanical woman’s blade fell again, and the defenseless clone was sliced open; blood sprayed on the ice-white floor, spreading into large, somewhat transparent patches.

"Nuoliya, she... is truly a good person," Bai Xiong seemed to reflect. "This city has been contaminated, and our fertility rates are dropping ever lower. The Goddess Mother was very anxious... but the residents, including myself, were already contaminated, hardly able to produce offspring... We began seeking help from outsiders, attempting to improve the situation by having them mate with city dwellers, but it failed."

[(Different Attitudes) Clue Connection!]

[Formulation of Hypothesis II·City dwellers hold hope and jealousy towards outsiders, daring not to harm them.]

[Perfect Completion Progress: 50%]

"Our lives, once contaminated, will not last long; I too am about to die. Later... the Goddess Mother came up with a method. That is, to pass on the rule in another way, to replenish the population... "

"And so Nuoliya came into being," Su Ming’an tapped his palm. "I see, she wasn’t created to be a fair and impartial future ruler but was meant to be a victim, a breeding machine."

[(Special·Bionic Person)(Experimental Subject Observation Journal) Clue Connection!]

[Inference Three: Nuoliya is a victim in a low-fertility world. She refuses to become a birthing machine as fate intended and is beloved by the ruler Bai Xiong, who wishes to shape her into the future ruler of White City.]

[Perfect Completion Progress: 60%]

"Swoosh!"

A cold glint of a blade flashed, and other than Qin Ze, the last mobile Noel exploded into a spray of blood, collapsing to the ground, his cheek slightly turned as his gaze fixed upon the stage.

Qin Ze gripped his hands tightly, watching everything with fear, having nowhere to escape.

"That’s right," Bai Xiong said softly as he looked at Su Ming’an, his eyes incredibly bright, "I simply love her, and so I wish for her to live in the sunshine. She deserves to take over the White City that I control, deserves to become the next Goddess Mother. She is a bionic person, originally incomplete, but it doesn’t matter..."

A vivid red appeared before his eyes.

In Bai Xiong’s hand appeared a bright red paper flower, which he held devoutly in the palm of his hand, his eyes brimming with a bewitching gentleness:

"Fortunately... the Goddess Mother made a sacrifice and died on the operating table.

I transformed the goddess into the Guardian God of White City—she will forever be Nuoliya’s support."

[Special Clue: (Mechanics’ Internal Liquid)(Goddess Mother Figure)! Link established!]

[Inference Four: The mechanical woman is a transformed creation by the city’s founder, Goddess Mother. She willingly sacrificed in hopes of becoming a "great" birthing machine, but died on the operating table. Bai Xiong used her organs to perfect Nuoliya.]

[Perfect Completion Progress: 70%]

The mechanical woman below, with a sharp blade in her hands, walked step by step towards the dismembered Cloning, drops of bright red blood falling from the blade.

In the face of Bai Xiong’s profound gaze, Su Ming’an let out a sigh through his pursed lips.

...He had understood the entire situation.

The Goddess Mother and Bai Xiong were the original creators of White City, initially just two ordinary people.

But the people had been tainted, and the fertility rate had declined.

To improve this, the Goddess Mother voluntarily went to the operating table and died. Bai Xiong became the city’s leader, and he cultivated [Nuoliya], hoping to make her the pure white "Source of Fertility", but he ended up falling in love with her. He decided to make her the ruler of White City.

To save her from becoming a victim, he captured the women from Outer City and transformed them to replace Nuoliya’s mission.

If not mistaken, the green liquid must be Bai Xiong’s way of controlling the Mechanics. The red marks on the back of people’s hands are targeting signs, and those marked are captured and "transformed" into beings like Eli—because Nuoliya was rescued from being a birthing machine, many more needed to pay the price to replace her, becoming the new "Hope of White City"—the ridiculous hope of being a birthing machine.

They were propelled forward by public opinion, becoming White City’s "successful women" in the eyes filled with expectation and "great" sacrifices made for the continuation of civilization.

The women captured from Outer City, the transformed Eli, the families in Inner City closing their doors... Bai Xiong offered his life and soul for his love, shattering all plans laid by the Goddess Mother and exchanging more lives and freedoms for Nuoliya’s "tomorrow".

A "tomorrow" as the future ruler of White City.

For this purpose, he abandoned his responsibilities and prospects as the current ruler, joyfully nurtured her, sacrificed countless people to sustain this sick city, and then, with utter devotion, waited for her to kill him and take over White City’s scepter and "tomorrow".

Su Ming’an remembered the last sentence in Bai Xiong’s diary.

...

[—I’ve imprisoned her for ten years. Will there come a day when she, my dear one, will kill me?]

...

"Now, I think you understand," Bai Xiong said, tilting his head slightly, the paper rose between his fingers exquisite and beautiful, and his eyes, infused with light, fixated and intense. He gazed at Su Ming’an before him like a seeker who had been walking by foot for a long time, yearning for confirmation:

"...Though almost all your companions are nearly dead, you are one of the few who can affirm my existence. I am willing to keep you, to witness the growth of dear Nuoliya together with me, and to guard the "tomorrow" of White City... My dear, traveler from the outside world, would you walk this path with me?"

[A special plot point has emerged, and the ending takes a turn.]

[Do you accept Bai Xiong’s invitation to become an [Observer]? (As an Observer, you will leave your player status behind and exist separately, no longer returning to the Main God Space, and continue living as a native resident of the world. An Observer can shuttle between other worlds and become a fortunate individual distinct from the game.)]

The temptation before him was enthralling.

Combining Nuoliya’s player identity and the fact that Yuanyuan hadn’t returned after death, Su Ming’an realized that aside from being a player, there might be other identities... The World Games were not merely games, perhaps just one of the many journeys they, these individuals, took in other real worlds.

Parallel universes, or something else, it didn’t matter to Su Ming’an.

...For to become "Lighthouse", one must inevitably walk the path as a player.

He glanced below, where only the young Qin Ze stood alone, looking up at him, standing amidst the blood of his companions.

Su Ming’an stepped forward, but in front of Bai Xiong’s smiling face, he suddenly raised his foot and viciously kicked the opposite man in the chest.