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Chapter 689 - 686 - "Why.

Chapter 689: Chapter 686 - "Why.

Su Ming’an opened his eyes.

Light shimmered on the fragments of shattered glass, while endless white snow poured down on him ceaselessly, numbing his gaze as it fixed on the drafty floor-to-ceiling window, his thoughts seemingly frozen with the wintry chill.

"... Teacher?" Tretiya’s voice came from aside, her wheat-colored hair tinged with a layer of moist white light as she looked at Su Ming’an with concern.

At that moment, Lin Guang lay asleep in the rehabilitation pod within the room. The two of them stood at the doorway, having set the pulse bomb, waiting for Lin Guang to wake up and detonate it.

Leaning against the wall, Su Ming’an slowly stood up, taking one step after another down the corridor. He didn’t waste time talking to Tretiya, the anesthesia in his body making him wobble like a toddler taking its first steps. His every move was immensely difficult and painful due to his legs not having fully recovered, as though he was stepping on knives.

"Crunch, crunch," he stepped on and crushed the snowflakes on the ground, not looking back.

This timeline, he didn’t plan to enter the room with Tretiya. Just one glimpse of the "d-r-e-a-d" command would send her into a lost frenzy, unable to kill Lin Guang.

This time, Su Ming’an intended to reach the rooftop before anyone else.

Soon, he saw the figure of Yamada Machiichi, who always arrived every timeline, hurling a wheelchair that landed forcefully next to Su Ming’an’s feet.

"... Su Ming’an?" Upon seeing Su Ming’an’s eyes, Yamada Machiichi called out softly, "Are you all right...?"

Yamada Machiichi vaguely sensed something off about Su Ming’an, who resembled the way they were when they had fallen into illusions in the Eighth World, his gaze numb and indifferent, as if his mind had been controlled by an evil god.

Su Ming’an paid no attention to Yamada Machiichi; he reached out to grab the wheelchair, in an instant rushing into the night. The night wind lifted his black hair, his pupils lacking focus, as if frozen in ice, reflecting the ice-blue light saber that had pierced his heart in the previous timeline.

— With every minute and every second, he was racing against Death. Yuanyuan’s absence disease was not irreversible. All he could do was try his hardest to get to her earlier, to talk to her a little more. His Missionary Halo could heal her, and speaking more with him, the disease could be cured; she wouldn’t die.

As long as he was just a bit faster, just a bit faster...

Today was bound to be a joyous New Year’s Eve.

"Swoosh—!!"

He rode the wheelchair into the night, soaring upward, reaching the rooftop ten minutes earlier than the previous timeline.

Arriving at the nuclear blast control center, he swiftly manipulated Yeah’s invasion, data fluttering like snowflakes before his eyes. He evacuated the guards from the City of Gods’ gates, altering their patrol routes to shorten the time it took for his clone, Ming’an, to arrive.

"Beep—beep—"

The crimson warning light flowed before his eyes like blood, his vision blurry as if sinking into a cold river of blood.

In the upper right corner, bullet comments floated like snowflakes:

[There won’t be any problem, just stopping the nuclear blast is enough.]

[Lin Guang definitely won’t kill Su Ming’an, even if it ends in failure, it doesn’t matter, he won’t die.]

[Number One Player, Happy New Year’s Eve, Happy New Year~ Let’s celebrate the new year together~]

[I saw a sister in the street wearing a Demon Fox mask; she even moves like her. Could she be Lin Yin?~]

[...]

In a world seemingly unrelated to this, some were discussing the New Year’s Gala, others were solving riddles, and some were concerned about his almost immovable body, but most people believed that even if Su Ming’an could only move his hands, he would not lose.

He would never lose.

"Bang!" Suddenly, a gunshot rang out from behind, like a sharp blade cutting through the air, a searing pain surged through Su Ming’an’s hand for a moment and then quickly became numb, the warm blood flowing down was the only reminder that his hand had been pierced by a bullet, and he was wounded.

A silver-white bullet engraved with lilies and butterflies clinked to the ground, Su Ming’an turned his head and saw the white-haired youth who had come up to the rooftop. Yuan Guang gathered around the white-haired youth, like silver-white fish swimming through a patchwork of light and shadow, soft white lines assembled around Lin Guang, constructing a silver-white torrent of steel as towering as a mountain, safeguarding him in its midst, as if crowning the emperor of the City of Gods.

Lin Guang moved the gunpoint, aiming at Su Ming’an’s limp legs.

This first loop, Su Ming’an did not cooperate with Tretiya to wound Lin Guang, so Lin Guang’s injuries were limited to the blast wounds, and he moved without difficulty.

"Bang!" Another gunshot rang out, and Su Ming’an activated his wheelchair shield in time, the brilliant blue light blocking the bullet’s advance. Lin Guang stopped shooting and instead triggered the artillery mounted on his body.

"Boom—Boom—Boom—!"

In that instant, artillery fire resounded as one, golden-red like the sun’s light converging at the uneven gun barrels, like the sound of particles colliding—sweeping past in a rush, the shells flew out, exploding in brilliance as if to mirror the bright day.

[Defense Value: 39000 points]

[Defense Value: 37000 points]

[Defense Value: 35000 points]

[...]

The shield flickered, its defense value falling rapidly, as if the entire glass building trembled violently under the barrage of artillery fire. Su Ming’an was bombarded furiously, but his attention was solely on the nuclear blast control panel before him.

The key to racing against time was how fast Cloning Ming’an could arrive. Su Ming’an had tried in previous loops that Spatial Vibration couldn’t kill Lin Guang; Lin Guang’s laser combat suit was clearly designed to counter Spatial Vibration, and would be ineffective without someone else’s cooperative strike.

"Beep—Beep—" The shield around the wheelchair slowly dimmed, under this intense, unreserved artillery strike, the wheelchair shield, a target that didn’t know how to dodge, wouldn’t last long.

Su Ming’an checked Cloning Ming’an’s position and found he could arrive a full ten minutes earlier than the previous loop.

With this in mind...

"Bang!"

The shield shattered, the wheelchair was instantly flipped, and in an instant, Lin Guang rushed to his face, "click" twisting off the wrist wearing a watch, the flesh ripped apart revealing the stark white bone protruding, emitting a chilling cracking sound, and blood surged out in an instant.

"Lewis, why—why—why!!" Lin Guang roared in madness, his skin peeling and flipping, half of his body charred black with explosion wounds, his whole body stained with red and black fluids; these bloody substances even stuck to Su Ming’an, dyeing him blood-red as well.

Because the wheelchair was kicked over, Su Ming’an uncontrollably fell backward, landing in the snow, as the wheelchair was kicked three meters away with a clang.

The pristine snow was quickly dyed a vivid red.

Lying on the ground, Su Ming’an’s gaze swept past the ferocious expression of Lin Guang and caught sight of the great snow fluttering in the night sky. The pure black curtain of night had today been obscured by the white snow, with neither stars nor moon, only the color of snow cascading down like a myriad of stars. For a moment, the pain in his wrist became numb; the extreme cold seemed to freeze his senses, and his body felt like a piece of ice without any sensation.

...So cold.

A crisp "crack" sounded once more. He heard a sound of undue strain coming from his right leg. Lin Guang’s hand rested on his right ankle.

"I think the anesthetic isn’t enough. It won’t be sufficient until the bones are completely broken. What do you think?" Lin Guang gritted his teeth.

"..." Su Ming’an didn’t care in the slightest.

His wheelchair was still there to aid his movement; it didn’t matter if his whole body was useless. As long as he could speak, he could save Yuanyuan, who was suffering from the absence disease. Once the war was over, his bones could be put back together—this was hardly a price to pay.

A "crack", another crisp sound of bone breaking, this time from his left leg.

Su Ming’an hardly made a sound. The pain, unbearable for most, had become routine for him. Because the anesthesia in his system hadn’t worn off, he even felt numb, as if it was merely a branch that had snapped, not his bones.

The pure white expanse of snow became thoroughly soaked in red, spreading out like blood-red plum blossoms. His blurry vision could just make out firelight in the distance growing more intense, with dozens of shadows engaged in fierce battle suspended in the air. At this moment, everyone was caught in the torrent of destiny. Whether it was the soldiers and civilians far away on the battlefield or the two blood-covered individuals on the rooftop of the City of Gods.

—The strongest Agent of the Deity Faction and the highest leader of the Freedom Faction, they were the origin of destiny’s torrent.

From the moment he saw Lin Guang, Su Ming’an knew Lin Guang was not to be trifled with. Even when Lin Guang, playing his flute, invited him for a walk in the deep of night, Su Ming’an was still on full alert. Now his premonition was confirmed; during the key moment of the Dawn War, his opponent was indeed Lin Guang, no one else.

Innocence and naivety were merely masks Lin Guang wore. The gentleness Lin Guang displayed was limited to when others obeyed him. As soon as Su Ming’an attempted to defy his will, bullets would fly furiously.

From their first encounter, they began testing each other—to the garden villa, to Zone Eleven, to the Beacon gathering spot, to Doomsday City, and finally to the City of Gods... Lin Guang was a mountain in his path that he couldn’t climb over, unless he toppled the mountain. Otherwise, this war would never end.

Only they were qualified to face each other. Most others were but skeletons, chess pieces, ashes in the war, or a brief note in history. Back when they were at the Beacon spot, someone said they didn’t wish "for one man’s triumph to be built on the bones of many." They refused to become cannon fodder in history just to achieve Su Ming’an’s success.

—However, when it comes to "one man’s triumph", isn’t the "general" the one who bears the most? If defeat in war is inevitable, who would want to take up the mantle of general? If the general eventually fails, the "bones of many" may not even be named in history books, becoming ashes in a nuclear blast, with human civilization ending in the year 49 on Fuyuan Festival.

If even the general cannot "triumph", how can there be "bones of many"?

If it weren’t for Su Ming’an becoming that "general", an ordinary person without the technology of the Three Domains, humanity could never have won. The next generations of the "bones of many" would all die in destruction.

"Crack" "crack" "crack", three sounds of bone breaking passed, and Su Ming’an could only move his right hand.

Glancing at the location of his Cloning, Su Ming’an knew he had won.

"Swoosh!" At that moment, a long sword fell from above, piercing through Lin Guang’s body, out from his chest. Blood rained down like droplets, adorning the front of Su Ming’an’s chest, its warm touch like a cozy rain amidst the heavy snow.

Lin Guang’s expression turned from anger to confusion, a "Judgment" blood light twinkling above his head. Su Ming’an’s instant shot blocked his space to dodge. Ming’an’s Cloning at the back spun the sword, splattering a copious amount of blood.

Lin Guang stared blankly at his chest for a second, losing strength, collapsed forward, almost pressing down on Su Ming’an’s body. The Cloning quickly extended a hand, pulling Su Ming’an to the side. With a "plop", Lin Guang fell onto the cold snowy ground. His pale cheeks faced down, buried in the thick blanket of snow, a copious amount of blood seeped from his chest, unreservedly spreading outward.

"..." Lin Guang didn’t utter a word and didn’t even have the strength to lift his head.

Su Ming’an summoned back his wheelchair and rushed toward the night without stopping for a moment.

"You can’t move anymore, original body, your injuries are too severe—," Ming’an’s voice trailed from afar.

"All you need to do is to stop the nuclear explosion," Su Ming’an said.

This time, he was a full ten minutes faster than in the last loop. When he passed by the battlefield where Che was, he didn’t stop, heading straight for the Blood Pool following the traces left by the army.

"Su..." Edward barely had the chance to speak before seeing Su Ming’an.

With only his right hand remaining, Su Ming’an raised it slightly, and the next moment, a crimson scale-like glow rose above the heads of the Deity’s army. Intense spatial vibrations swept across the land like a hurricane, grinding bones, flesh, and fabric... into bits and pieces as if thrown into a blender.

Edward’s blond hair lifted high, akin to wheat growing in the wind under the sun, his expression frozen at the moment of shock, unable to fathom how Su Ming’an managed to arrive in time.

This time, Su Ming’an’s heart was even more undisturbed, as if in his eyes, Edward was just an NPC destined to die.

Having killed Edward, Su Ming’an plunged into the Blood Pool. By the edge, formed of coal-gray corpses, lay a black-haired girl, her messy hair strewn about on the ground. Hearing the sound, she slowly opened her eyes.

Since Su Ming’an arrived a full twelve minutes early, her burns were obviously lighter.

"There’s no need to save me..." she said.

Su Ming’an switched to Bright State and pulled her up with his only remaining hand. He didn’t even have the strength to move himself, his body leaning to one side, almost hanging from the armrest, comically resembling smoked meat on a grill.

His injuries were much more severe than in the previous loop.

But her injuries were lighter than in the previous loop, and that was enough.

He would save her, just as he had saved Lv Shu, who perished with Edward at the end of the Fourth World, just as he had saved Noel from the enchantment of the Sea Monsters in the Seventh World of Pulaya. They were all saved by him, and she surely could be too.

—He would save her.

"Can you talk to me for a bit?" Su Ming’an said.

He turned his head to look at her, who was slumped in the wheelchair just like him, both unable to sit upright, hanging on the wheelchairs like chunks of roast meat, looking utterly ridiculous.

If it were any other time, she would surely laugh, saying that he was sitting all crooked, but now she didn’t even have the strength to smile.

"Mhm," she responded softly.

"So, what do you want to hear me talk about?"

"After I left the First World..." Yuanyuan said, "can you tell me what you’ve been through?"

"Sure."