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Chapter 699 - 696 - BE22 - "Meeting You

Chapter 699: Chapter 696 - BE22 - "Meeting You

This time?

Su Ming’an couldn’t accurately understand the meaning behind Noel’s words.

The wind and snow lifted Noel’s blond hair, steam swelled by his face and then disappeared, outlining his pale complexion. He was very focused.

"Look down," Noel said.

"Whoosh—"

As the crow descended, Su Ming’an lowered his head and saw a train rushing across the land. Through the exceptionally sharp senses of the Shadow State, he heard the voices below. A train sped by, with a mother and daughter chatting inside.

"Nini, be good, don’t stick your hands or head out of the window, okay?" a mother’s voice came from inside the train as she pulled the girl’s hand back inside.

"Mom, when can Dad come back from the battlefield?" the girl asked.

"After tonight, if we can see the dawn rise, then Dad will be able to return. You’ll have to give him a big hug then, okay, Nini?"

"Okay."

"Not just Dad, everyone on the battlefield is a hero. You have to learn from them in the future, you know?" the mother said.

"Okay!" The girl paused: "Mom, but what if we don’t see the dawn rise, what then?"

"Then that means... a nuclear explosion has occurred... It’s okay, Nini, you just have to remember that in the 48th year of the catastrophe, everyone fought with all their strength until the very last moment, whether frontline soldiers like your dad or logistics personnel like your mom." The mother said softly, her voice laced with a sob: "No one has failed their conscience..."

"Ah, Mom, look outside quick, I see a crow! A living crow, it’s so beautiful—"

Suddenly, the girl’s voice brimmed with delight.

The mother looked up to see a crow outside the window, like a floating black island. Under the pitch-black sky, it flew towards the earth in such a distant and tranquil manner, as if water was about to gently merge into water.

In the long years of warfare, people had hardly ever seen a living animal; the air was always filled with a murky haze, and the girl had never seen a bird from her birth.

Yet tonight, she did.

On the last night of the war, before the dawn, she saw a free flying bird.

"Mom, didn’t you say we’d have to wait until the war was over, until a long time after, when people step into spring, before we could see birds?" the girl asked: "I’ve only ever seen a foggy sky since I was little... are there birds even in the dead of winter?"

The mother held the girl in her arms.

She rubbed the girl’s head:

"Nini, maybe spring has already arrived."

...

...Spring.

Su Ming’an had heard this word more than once.

In the eyes of people from the ruined world, it represented everything that was beautiful. Warmth, beauty, light... everything that a winter night lacked, spring would have. Everything lost during the war, spring would bring back.

For this spring, countless people had marched to their deaths in the sixteen years of harsh winter.

"..."

The crow continued onward, and he saw the myriad lights of the city, the flashing red tail lights like flowing blood vessels, connecting the heart that sustained the lives of all the residents on the ground.

The Skyrise Building twinkled its lights, and the streets were lined with "swooshing" cords, ringing as clearly as bells.

He looked into the distance, beyond the city—to the indiscernible skeletons lying there. Trucks sped by carrying ammunition, trains rushed like serpents flying past, soldiers bound for the front lines said goodbye to their families hugging their guns. The Fuyuan Festival and this most perilous final night of the Dawn War perfectly fused together, all people looking forward to stepping into the warm world of man.

The flames soared high, blending with the fireworks.

High above, Noel too gazed down at this brilliant human world.

"I often think... the universe is endless, yet humans are so insignificant," Noel began: "Humans are a very peculiar race—even though they’ve become dominators on a planet, they can’t solve problems that animal species can easily resolve. Humans lack the absolute rules within animal groups, and some are born rebellious, which makes them think about rebelling nonstop, even under domination, chasing freedom that requires the sacrifice of life..."

Su Ming’an turned his head to look at Noel, whose eyes were blood red.

"To describe a person like this in one sentence," Noel likewise turned to him: "...is to say they’re like you and me."

"... What?" Su Ming’an said.

Noel’s voice was too soft, he hadn’t heard him.

"I said, I admire those who are naturally rebellious," Noel said with a smile.

On the other end of the night sky was so distant that even Noel, looking out, could not catch anything beyond the skyline. Those distant shades of the night were like a safe filled with secrets, luring adventurers who rush headlong into danger like moths to a flame.

The fragile human body, compared to the vast blizzard, was like an insignificant speck, reminding one of the truths of the universe and life and death.

"Puppet Master, what are you trying to say?" Su Ming’an said.

"What I’m saying is... the most crushing thing for a person is a repeated sense of ’helplessness,’" Noel said, "Those who are naturally rebellious, when they lose what they want to obtain again and again, and are unable to recover from it again and again... such individuals, who are suffering and cannot put an end to their own pain, are beyond the reach of any theory, unable to strike at their hearts and souls or converse with the despair they feel."

"Then what’s your suggestion?" Su Ming’an faintly felt that Noel was hinting at something to him, "Puppet Master..."

Wait a second.

At that instant, Su Ming’an suddenly thought of a possibility.

Noel’s occupation was Puppet Master.

As the name implies, Noel could manipulate the movements, expressions, and words of puppets, making them perform on stage, perfectly acting out each script.

Noel could use strings to control objects around him, even control NPCs, players... he could almost control everything he saw.

But Noel’s strings...

Su Ming’an’s heart missed half a beat.

—Could they control Noel himself?

If Noel’s will could control the strings, making them pierce through every bone in his body, dominating every inch of expression between the skin of his face, turning his own body into a puppet capable of performing...

Then behind the body of "the Noel who was invaded by another dimension," with blood-red eyes,

—could there be a Noel with a lucid soul, using strings to control his own body?

Su Ming’an suddenly remembered what the deity within him said when it saw Noel:

[Moreover, this Noel is really interesting, he actually...]

"..."

—He hadn’t actually been invaded at all.

Noel had severed his own body and soul, coldly watching his body be beguiled by the deity into becoming red-eyed, a walking corpse doing all sorts of savage and cruel things.

His soul remained lucid, manipulating his own body with strings, performing this puppet show of "being invaded by another dimension," to obtain critical information from the godly faction.

—This was a perfect performance that only someone in the Puppet Master occupation could achieve. No one else could sever their body and soul.

That’s how Noel deceived the deity.

He thrust the puppet threads into his own body.

—This was a method only a madman could think of, constantly enduring the double agony of body and soul separation.

The deity within Su Ming’an hadn’t been fooled by Noel; it had subtly pointed this out. However, the deity within Noel wasn’t as clever; it was deceived by Noel’s exquisite puppet show.

Even Su Ming’an and all the spectators had been fooled.

Su Ming’an lifted his head.

In this moment, he seemed to hear the "swish swish" of the strings, with the night sky as the backdrop and crows as the stage, the blonde magician smiled at him.

Noel’s lips slightly parted, sketching out a sentence to Su Ming’an—

[Head to the valley at (283, 298), find a person named Beili Sier, threaten him with the mechanical artifact hidden in the underground, and break the deadlock of three lines. This is secret information I got from the god who invaded me.]

"Ding-dong!"

Su Ming’an suddenly heard the system notification sound.

[You have acquired the hidden clue·Beili Ser’s Valley]

[(Beili Ser’s Valley): Beili Ser fears nothing in heaven or earth, only the mechanical artifact hidden underground by him can make him reveal the secret clue. It is said that this clue is related to the Dawn System, capable of overturning the world, and retrieving those who are missing...]

"..."

Su Ming’an’s breath was suddenly caught in a moment of clarity.

Turns out that Noel with red eyes,

was merely a puppet controlled by Noel’s lucid soul,

It was his capital for deceiving the gods and venturing into dangerous lands,

It was his proof as an explorer risking his life to seek the unknown,

It was the soul thread that he thrust through his own flesh.

He was the true—[Puppet Master].

The strings manipulated not only his weapons and enemies... but even himself.

Su Ming’an looked up and saw the blond young man standing in the snowstorm.

His flowing blond hair, beautiful like the feathers of a golden crow from myths, lifted by the cold wind, fluttered like a water bird skimming over a lake.

"Alright, you will achieve a Perfect Pass on three lines." Noel smiled, "Happy New Year, Ming’an."

Everyone had only seen Red-eyed Noel before, thinking he had lost his Rationality to the invasion of Ta Wei. No one saw the Puppet Master calmly manipulating his own body behind the curtain.

—He was Player Number Two, how could he possibly be bewildered by Whispering?

He had simply chosen the most dangerous method of infiltration, surrendering his body while firmly anchoring his Soul until this moment.

He didn’t know whether Su Ming’an’s Authority was to leap between timelines, he couldn’t even be sure it was a death rewind, and it was very likely that he wouldn’t even be able to preserve his Soul, being fully invaded.

But he knew that only by this means could he truly assist Su Ming’an at the heart of the crisis.

This was a textbook example of information exchange, a perfect spy game.

This was humanity’s Player Number Two.

"Su Ming’an, I have already lost all qualifications for a Perfect Pass, so I will raise my hands high and lift you up to the sky." Noel left the latter half unsaid.

What he wanted to say was that only by doing so—could the ’Number One Player’ with the god-like Time Authority, the only one who could truly contend with High Dimensions, step into a brand new World that was free of any dead-end scenarios.

He was always a bold gambler, a mad yet Rational Adventurer.

A golden Flying Bird rushing towards freedom, forever soaring high above and never falling.

"...Happy New Year, Noel."

Su Ming’an responded.

Noel laughed.

In his eyes, were bubbles filled with happiness.

The laughter was faint, melting away with the pitch-black world—

"Ming’an—I was still a bit uncertain before, the next clue, you need to go back and notify me first. [Shaking the head is scene simulation, waving is timed rewind, embracing is death rewind, giving a greeting is retrieving a save.]"

Noel’s words seemed nonsensical, but Su Ming’an understood.

"I got it."

Noel got up, no longer looking at Su Ming’an, gazing into the dark sky.

He spread his arms wide, his laugh as free as the wind. As if an intense Flame were burning his body, like the slowly unfolding light of a clear sky high above—

"Spring is here..."

...

Su Ming’an raised his hand to his temple and stabbed, closing his eyes.

The next loop.

Su Ming’an opened his eyes, just like the last loop he stopped Tretiya from detonating the bomb, distracted Lin Guang, saved Yamada Machiichi, and then turned around.

Under the rippling moonlight of the high-rise, the blond Magician with blood-red eyes appeared outside the window, standing on a black crow:

"Hello, visitor from afar to the City of Gods, the master here has left, and I take this opportunity to take you away..."

The next moment,

—Su Ming’an stepped forward without hesitation and embraced Noel.

[Shaking the head is scene simulation, waving is timed rewind, embracing is death rewind, giving a greeting is retrieving a save]

...

[Embracing is death rewind.]

...

At that moment, a piece of "information" crossed over two unrelated loops, defying the cycle of repeated saves, jumping freely through the Long River of Time. Two Solitary Islands, unable to communicate, suddenly understood each other’s signals through this embrace.

"Ah..." Noel responded softly.

He understood.

Days ago, he had already set the mental cue for himself that if he could connect with Su Ming’an, he had to control himself to say the sentence [Shaking the head is scene simulation, waving is timed rewind, embracing is death rewind, giving a greeting is retrieving a save].

He thought, in the last loop, he must have already said it.

So Su Ming’an embraced him.

...It turns out Su Ming’an’s authority was the death rewind.

He knew now.

He knew what he had to do next.

—Between the cycles, gradually perfecting the information each held... He would traverse Su Ming’an’s death rewind time flow as an ordinary human.

No high-dimensional being could cross cycles to understand the meaning behind this embrace—they were witnessing an "absolutely covert" transfer of information linked by human wisdom across different cycles.

To defeat the deities with pure human wit... who’s to say it isn’t possible?

Wisdom is mankind’s eternally burning torch.

...

"Swoosh," Noel let go of the soul threads controlling his body, his eyes temporarily turning from bright red back to blue.

Su Ming’an’s fingers rested on his back, the hug so tight it seemed to clutch his soul, like a tight embrace between solitary islands.

Humans are an extraordinarily peculiar race.

They scorn authority, are ashamed of obedience and submission, inherently rebellious and unwilling to be humiliated... Some are born with a defiance that never yields.

—Such defiance leads them through deaths to achievements, drives them to frantically save and find contentment in benevolence, compels them through fire and water to fulfill their desires.

—It makes them resist ceaselessly even under the rule of high dimensions, it drives them to desperately turn back to save those who seemed beyond salvation.

—It prompts them to pass on information across cycles by severing their souls, even when they know they might die, still fearless...

Thus allowing the pathfinders to meet each other in the eighteenth cycle when winter had dispersed.

Su Ming’an fought through eighteen cycles... because of his defiance, he refused to succumb to fate. He wanted to lose no one.

He said "I’m sorry" so many times, but not to hear her say it’s okay with tears before she died.

"[In this life, we will meet many people, relationships as fragile as dew from morning to dusk.]" Noel began quoting a line from "Dust Tune," as if exchanging a covert signal with him: "[But with you alone, it’s like an ever-flowing river.]"

"[When two rivers converge into a waterfall, even the mist obstructing the view fades away.]" Su Ming’an responded.

He remembered that Christmas night in Yun Shang City, when Noel pointed out the death rewind, gaining Su Mingan’s trust, allowing his own soul that was on the verge of erosion to be saved by Su Ming’an in the next cycle. That move was like a stroke of genius.

At that time, Noel had crossed the unreachable before and after cycles of humanity, commandeering the deity’s time authority into his own hands, achieving perfect self-rescue.

The current New Year’s Eve was also a snowy night.

In the a three-way deadlock, Su Ming’an, desperate and falling into despair after failing to rescue anyone through sixteen cycles, suddenly looked back amidst the snowstorm—

The blonde youth was smiling at him through the snow, holding the key to break the deadlock.

"[This time, it’s my turn.]"

With Noel’s wisdom, he had calculated that Su Ming’an would have tested all possibilities before finally turning to him.

The two of them had missed each other for sixteen cycles.

But as long as there was one cycle... If Su Ming’an started from Noel, the exchange would succeed.

This time, it was his turn to help him.

The solitary islands were no longer looking at each other; they now had a secret language for communicating across time and space.

The youth would traverse time and cycles, outsmarting deities with human wit.

The deadlock broken.

The three ways perfected.

...

Dawn was approaching.

...

...

"[In this life, we will meet many people, relationships as fragile as dew from morning to dusk.]"

"[But with you alone, it’s like an ever-flowing river.]"

...