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Chapter 692 - Six Hundred and Eighty-Nine: ’Do Not Advance, Do Not Advance, Do Not Advance.

Chapter 692: Chapter Six Hundred and Eighty-Nine: ’Do Not Advance, Do Not Advance, Do Not Advance.

A ludicrous scene unfolded.

The city lord, who was leading the Dawn War, stood in the medical room, laughing hysterically at a young man. The young man was caught up in the laughter, too, though no one knew what they were laughing about.

"Haha, hahaha..."

The city lord and the young man laughed together, their voices growing louder and louder. Laughter is contagious—it gradually spread outside the hallway, and everyone involuntarily joined in.

The onlookers didn’t see the dead girl behind Su Ming’an; all joined the city lord in a loud guffaw, not wanting the city lord to feel awkward laughing alone.

They had never seen the city lord smile so radiantly; the war must have been going well.

"Haha, haha, hahahaha..."

The laughter was like a bird soaring straight into the sky, flying outward in high pitches with feathers fluttering loudly, everyone was basked in a sea of joy; even the people in the corridor smiled knowingly, feeling that something joyful had happened in that room.

"What’s so funny here?" someone couldn’t help but draw closer, but the door was already packed with people.

"It feels so joyous, did the city lord tell some amusing story?"

"I want to hear it too, but I can’t squeeze in..."

"Then let’s stand at the door and laugh along."

People wore smiles as they looked toward the room.

These laughs sounded so appealing and melodious, making everyone feel delighted. Everyone laughed heartily, playing along in this nonsensical absurd comedy with their city lord.

Though no one knew what the city lord was laughing about.

Gradually, some people finally grew tired of laughing, and sensing that something was off, the laughter slowly died down.

One by one, they stopped their smiles, as if removing one mask after another.

Five minutes later, only the city lord was left laughing, slowly bending his body bit by bit, like a bow arched to its limit. His laugh escaped through the hands covering his cheeks.

Every so often, he would gasp violently, his neck turning a shade of purple-blue. A vast suffocating sensation enveloped him amidst the laughter, breathing as if flames were scorching him. Due to the anesthesia wearing off, his senses were clear, without a trace of fuzziness in his sight or hearing.

He had finally become a lucid madman.

Everyone watched as their city lord went mad.

"City Lord... City Lord?" a nurse reached out her hand, as if testing a fierce beast locked in a cage. Fear and concern filled her young face; she revered and feared him.

Su Ming’an lifted his eyelids.

His eyes stirred slightly, his thoughts floating outside his body under the influence of the medication, gradually separating from his painful physique.

He did not care who twisted his bones; it did not matter even if all his limbs were broken.

He endured burns and frostbite as he dashed a thousand miles; it did not matter that his whole body was festering.

He kept talking despite injuries to his throat—even if he became voiceless, it did not matter.

He went back and forth from life to death, struggling countless times in extreme agony back in hell. He did not care about himself; he did not mind any pain.

... but she still died.

He clearly feared loss, yet death rewinds made him lose her over and over again.

The time could have been frozen at the early morning mark, making him aware that she was already dead. Yet, it had to be frozen at a moment where there was a slim chance to save her, making him struggle frantically between hope.

—This made him repeatedly look back but gain nothing, made him desperately try to save her but fail, made him do everything he could yet hold nothing in his palms.

Thus, at the final point in time, after her death, he finally realized the clown mask on his face. He was in agony, laughing high, going mad; the mask seeped into his flesh, everyone joining him in performing this absurd drama, with cheerful people in white coats inside the screen, and the silent multitude of viewers outside.

He had too many things he couldn’t tell others.

He couldn’t vent in front of others, wasn’t allowed to nor did he have the counterpart; besides uncontrollable situations, he even lacked the necessity to show expressions the rest of the time.

...Is he allowed to laugh now?

Does he even have the margin to laugh now?

"..."

He gasped, emitting a sound like a bursting bellows, and his body leaned forward of its own accord.

No one managed to catch him in time.

"Bang!" His forehead struck the sharp corner of a cabinet, and the immense force produced a crisp sound of fracturing bone, instantly wiping the smiles off everyone’s faces.

He fell into the arms of a young nurse, his gaze piercing like scalding needles, with blood suspended in his thick eyelashes.

"City Lord..."

"Quick, save him!"

People ran in disarray, their reflections fluttering chaotically, his vision gradually turning blood-red. A slippery sensation enveloped his senses, and he heard the sigh of a deity.

Among the frantic figures, the nurse held him trembling, her embrace soft and warm. Under the influence of the medication, it felt like waves wrapping around him. She murmured softly, unclearly, as if she were reciting a bedtime fairy tale to him.

"City Lord, don’t sleep... City Lord..."

He subconsciously grasped the fabric by her hand as if holding someone’s warm hand.

"Mother..."

Consciousness faded.

...

A cold wind surged.

The sound of wind and snow beside his ear drowned out the doctors’ and nurses’ panic, as if suddenly switching to another world.

He leaned on the wall and stood up.

Since discovering Yuanyuan’s body, he had been killed by Yuanyuan once, committed suicide in the snow once, and in the hospital once. This was the fourth time.

"It doesn’t matter," he muttered to himself, "It doesn’t hurt..."

He took the wheelchair, rushed to the rooftop, waiting for Cloning Ming to arrive and counterattack Lin Guang, seizing every second of time.

But this time he only managed to gain sixteen minutes, ultimately still a failure.

Yuanyuan died in his arms, a sword chopping off half of his head.

In the fifth loop, he arrived seventeen minutes early, which didn’t give him much of a lead.

She still died amid his voice, like a cat drifting off to sleep.

In the sixth loop, he arrived eighteen minutes early. The missing illness sometimes made her quiet as an angel, other times furious as a demon. This time she frantically scratched herself to death, not as peaceful as before, crying before she died that she wanted to go home.

He said he was sorry, he would get her home.

In the seventh loop, he did not arrive early. He accidentally angered Lin Guang, who strangled him to death on the rooftop.

Before dying, he saw Lin Guang frantically apologizing to him, his demeanor as ludicrous as a clown.

The myriad facets of life repeatedly replayed with each rewind, everyone’s happiness, joy, grief, and fear appeared before him like slideshows.

He repeatedly traveled back in the long river of time, like a spectator chasing the plot.

Then came the eighth time, the ninth time...

Swallowing the potion—Ascending to the rooftop—Delaying time—Waiting for Cloning Ming to arrive—Rushing at full speed—Talking to her—Watching her die in his arms.

He even felt that he had gone mad, otherwise why would he even feel numb to pain, his viewers’ comments blurry like flying snow.

In the tenth loop, he decided to switch tactics, starting from the NPC. Unless he killed Lin Guang, he couldn’t possibly speed up any further.

Lin Guang wasn’t easy to kill, even difficult to say.

Aside from his hands, Su Ming’an could barely move any other parts of his body. A slight mistake would get him caught by the endless Mechanical Army or even pierced by a machine gun poking out from a corner, ending in a tragic demise.

Sometimes he was knocked to the ground, his flesh torn, his bones shattered, the Mechanical Army pinned him to the ground like a target, bullets piercing his skin and blood dyeing the ground red.

Lin Guang tortured him and then healed him, frantically apologizing to him.

Due to the anesthesia not having worn off, he didn’t feel much pain; he merely watched his bones being shattered bit by bit, as if Lin Guang was only smashing white stones that had nothing to do with him.

Once, he called out "Lv Shu" to test Lin Guang’s reaction. Lin Guang’s response was so furious that he strangled him to death, as if it were a forbidden name.

He gradually became an indifferent spectator to it all, like a strategist from outside the situation. He was controlling a game character named "Su Ming’an," repeatedly going through this level. Because the drugs numbed his pain and he did not fear death, his mindset was no different from that of a player outside the screen.

Sometimes, after being tortured for a long time, the agent Bi would come to his rescue. However, she could not defeat Lin Guang, and before dying, she would say:

"Lewis, I want to sign a contract with you..."

What contract?

Su Ming’an lifted his head, his face covered in blood, eyes bloodshot.

...

The fifteenth loop.

This time, Su Ming’an went directly to the first floor and happened to encounter Bi, whose green eyes were still beautiful.

"Lewis, how did you get here...never mind, your situation is very dangerous, I must sign a contract with you," said Bi.

"Hmm?" Su Ming’an’s expression was ice cold.

"When I confronted Noel, my memory began to return. I am a special program, you can consider me as an ’antivirus program,’ essentially a ’virus killer’." Bi said, "I can bridge with your program so that when Ta Wei invades, I can appear before you in time to stop you."

"No need, I won’t be invaded by Ta Wei," Su Ming’an said.

"Do you know why I rushed here in such a hurry?" Bi frowned, "Take a look at your eyes, do you really believe what Ta Wei said?"

Su Ming’an was taken aback, activated the system mirror, and saw a pair of dark red eyes.

He suddenly realized why Bi’s arrival sped up with each loop. As an antivirus program, she could sense that someone here was being invaded by Ta Wei.

A virus protection program specifically for him?

"Then let’s sign it," Su Ming’an said. Previously, he had noticed Bi’s favorability toward him, a full 80 points.

After signing, they went upstairs together.

Five minutes later, Su Ming’an died again.

Like the ocean, the mechanical army engulfed him.

He realized that the path of killing Lin Guang alone was also not viable. In the sixteenth loop, after signing the contract with Bi, he symbolically glanced at the legion map, activated Mil Khris’s Blood Seal Pocket Watch, and teleported to Yuanyuan’s side.

He wanted to try a route that did not stop the nuclear explosion. If he was in the outside world, Lin Guang might not launch the nuclear explosion at six in the morning.

Beyond that, there were no other roads left...

The moment the teleportation ended, a loss of one-third of his blood instantly turned a serious injury into a near-death situation.

"Ming’an?" a surprised voice of Yuanyuan came from near him.

At ten fifty in the evening, she was still sitting in the truck, not driven to the Blood Pool.

"Crackle—Crackle—" The sound from the truck radio was unclear. This troop had lost contact with the main force, debating whether to return or continue forward.

Everything had not yet happened.

"City Lord!" the soldiers cried out in surprise upon seeing Ming’an descending from the sky.

"Quick, call Doctor Karl!"

"City Lord, why are you covered in blood, did something go wrong at the front..."

Before passing out, Su Ming’an mustered all his strength to tell her:

"Don’t go forward, turn back..."

He wanted her to go home.

Do not move forward, do not move forward, do not move forward.

Hell is ahead.

...

"Beep—beep."

The young man with black hair lay on the pristine hospital bed, as if submerged in a soft, white dream. Lilies and red roses bloomed at the head of the bed.

Amid the recurring beeps of machinery, he slowly opened his eyes.

A line of people waited by his bed, and when Su Ming’an woke up, everyone promptly stood up. These were the scholars and experts from the aftermath of the Dawn War in the first cycle, all familiar faces.

He had returned to Doomsday City.

Yuanyuan sat beside him, holding his hand. The wall clock showed midnight, her hand soft and clean, without a trace of scorching. Her eyes were clear and bright, free from rolled flesh or grotesque burns.

Su Ming’an stared blankly at the clock and smiled.

She had survived past midnight.

He had saved her.

Otherwise, her body would have become scorching hot, her smooth black hair would have turned brittle, the fingers holding the sword would have snapped like dry branches, everyone would have abandoned her as if sick, and she could only lose her sanity in the desolate, blood-red hell, waiting for death...

Otherwise, no one would have been able to save her...

A sudden feeling of weightlessness surged in his chest, as if an anchor pressed down on his heart.

No pain or loss could tame his soul, he was just frightened of the fleeting shadows passing by his side, the loneliness he could only speak of to himself.

The girl wearing the cat ear cap was still alive.

Perhaps, there would be a fantastical world she’d enjoy ahead.

Among the sounds of people celebrating the Fuyuan Festival, only she wished him a Happy New Year.

In the voices that called him City Lord, only she gripped his hand tightly, calling him Ming’an.

In that moment, time seemed to stretch infinitely, the moon and stars became metaphors brimming with emotion, and her gaze, clearer and purer than both the moon and stars, watched him.

"Happy New Year, Ming’an. You saved us, it’s okay, no one’s at the City of Gods and it’s alright," Yuanyuan said.

"Happy... New Year."

He clenched her hand tightly, and in the shadows cast, it seemed as if countless skeletons of himself tightly gripped him.

"Let’s celebrate the festival together," she said.

...

The sixteenth cycle.

Countless "Su Ming’an" had died in his memory.

...

...

[Perhaps the future I saw has another ending.]

[At the year’s end, the World Game ended, Noel went on adventures worldwide, Su Rin returned to his hometown, Yuanyuan had endless chocolate, Cici saw the sea, Shen Xue survived with Liu Anna’s help, Elisa had a happy family, Wang Xingkong became a game streamer, Sherrod became a traveler of Otherworld... they all had bright futures.]

[As for Su Ming’an.]

[...]

[...]

[...Who is Su Ming’an?]

[——From the World Forum, January 31, 2022, "Humanity’s Brightest Stars" TOP20 hot post]

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