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Chapter 749 - 746: "Milk.

Chapter 749: Chapter 746: "Milk.

In the control room, Su Ming’an faced the man.

"We meet again," the man said.

The man’s eyes drooped, his features appearing sullen and depressive—it was Yao Wen, whom Su Ming’an had seen at the garden in tonight’s dinner. It was Yao Wen who had been exceptionally brilliant but had chosen to side with Ta Wei after disappearing in his childhood.

But now, Yao Wen’s eyes were blood-red, and his tone was more like that of a deity. Clearly, the deity had temporarily invaded Yao Wen’s body.

"You can still shift between bodies to possess?" Ming’an said.

"I just randomly possessed the body of a subordinate. Haven’t you too used a bionic body to transfer messages?" the deity, wearing Yao Wen’s face, said, "Alright, I don’t want to talk to you right now. You are a terrifying person, talking to you always makes me feel an inexplicable fondness arising in my heart."

The next moment, several blue-veined mechanical beings raised their mechanical arms and smashed them down towards Su Ming’an!

"Boom—!"

The fierce wind tousled Ming’an’s black hair, a scorching breeze hit his face, but Ming’an didn’t dodge or avoid, facing the gunfire and bullets, he slashed the Sword of Yarman straight at the deity three steps away.

"Swoosh!"

Gold glittered, the dazzle of cold weapons clashed head-on with the shockwave of firearms.

The deity’s expression didn’t show panic. According to his judgment, Su Ming’an currently had no wheelchair shield, nor did he have mana points to sustain a defense. He had calculated all of Su Ming’an’s moves; Su Ming’an couldn’t possibly get to him.

With a crisp "click," a virtual image of a yellow rose flashed across Su Ming’an’s wrist, the blade aimed at the deity—this was the skill of the Red Level equipment "Yellow Rose Lock," ensuring Ming’an’s next physical attack would be unavoidable.

The precondition was that his sword must land on his enemy.

The deity didn’t think Su Ming’an could reach him.

"Ding—"

However, the next moment, he saw an exceptionally dazzling golden light surge around Ming’an, accompanied by the metallic clang of knight’s sword and shield.

The gunfire flowed like water, sliding past both sides of Su Ming’an, not harming him in the slightest.

...

[Otherworldly Notes of the Knight of Light (Red Level): Writing a player’s name in the notebook will make that player invulnerable to any damage for (ten seconds), with a use limit of (3/3). Once the uses are depleted, the prop becomes an ordinary notebook. A player’s own name can be written.]

...

The next instant, Su Ming’an charged through the intense flames, the blade thrusting—piercing the deity’s body.

The deity’s high-level protective suit radiated light, making Ming’an’s thrust somewhat difficult to drive home, but the intrinsic 200~500 points of true damage of the Sword of Yarman could not be mitigated. The deity slightly shifted, spat out a mouthful of blood, and staggered a few steps back.

[hp-776! (Reduced damage! True Damage!)]

...

"You indeed have a trump card left, but it should be your last," the deity, stabbed in the chest, contemptuously said, "Well, it’s good that it’s tested."

Bi had once said—killing a person fully invaded by a deity could weaken the deity itself. But Yao Wen was just a temporary vessel for the deity. Even if this body died, the deity wouldn’t be affected much and would just return to its original body. That’s why it had confidently possessed Yao Wen to intercept Su Ming’an.

"Scram," Su Ming’an said.

He rotated the blade to widen the wound, and blood trickled down the blade onto the stark white floor.

The surrounding mechanical army clanged towards Su Ming’an, but they were blocked by a golden-white knight’s shield and couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

Sherrod’s notes, which recorded lemon and chocolate from the Otherworld besides, still helped Su Ming’an, the traveler who continued his journey.

Su Ming’an withdrew the blade, turned around, and with his waist as the axis, executed a spinning slash—like slicing through tofu, shattering those metal mechanical arms.

"Click, click, click—"

Using his ten seconds of invincibility, he had destroyed those giant mechanical beings. His arms felt somewhat slick and warm, likely from swinging his sword excessively and causing the outer skin to tear.

After annihilating these mechanical troops, Su Ming’an thrust his sword into the ground, breathing heavily. The deity’s strategy was simple—overwhelming numbers. If they could deplete Su Ming’an’s Mana Points and Emotional Value, sending wave after wave of mechanical troops, they could wear him down.

Unfortunately, the deity hadn’t accounted for the fact that Su Ming’an still had an invincible prop, a prop that had not been used since the Ninth World began. Sometimes, because being invincible for ten seconds was futile, but more often, it was to safeguard against the deity’s tricks.

For an enemy "who could observe everything," the best response was always to keep a card up one’s sleeve, never showing it outright.

Su Ming’an caught his breath for a moment, then stood up and walked over to the control panel to take over the Dawn System. A deep blue map unfolded before him, and he quickly put all the mechanical troops into sleep mode. However, it seemed he could only control half of the mechanical army; the other half was beyond his control.

This wasn’t because he lacked sufficient authority. It seemed... that half of the mechanical army no longer fell under the category of ’mechanical,’ unable to be controlled by the program.

—When the mechanical no longer belong to the mechanical, what do they become?

—What had the deity done to these mechanical troops over these six years?

Su Ming’an furrowed his brow; he needed to leave this place immediately, as the deity was certainly causing trouble outside.

Just as he turned around, he saw Yao Wen opening his eyes on the ground.

"..."

Blood spread from Yao Wen’s chest, flowing across his formal attire, the gash made by the Sword of Yarman gruesomely severe, staining the suit red.

The deity had already left this body, but Yao Wen had truly been struck by a sword. Upon regaining consciousness, he discovered a large hole in his chest.

Yao Wen looked down, glanced at his wound, then looked up at Su Ming’an, who was only two steps away and still holding the bloodied blade.

"So, this." Yao Wen said, "It turns out to be this ending, that I was killed by your hand..."

Su Ming’an had no desire to engage Yao Wen in a discussion about betrayal and loyalty. He believed that since Yao Wen had chosen to side with Ta Wei, he must accept the inevitable conclusion.

Yao Wen had already built a family in a stable life. That very night, when they met unexpectedly in the garden, Yao Wen even said, "Sorry, I am not a senior who is blind to reality. I have a wife and son; I cannot follow you." That was his choice. Choices lead to consequences.

Su Ming’an dismissed Yao Wen and looked around, trying to find a way out.

The central control room felt like it had plunged into a virtual space, surrounded by ripples and waves, the original exit now vanished. He was like a walker in the void, unable to find his bearings.

"Click," Su Ming’an took out the Blood Seal Pocket Watch, attempting to teleport.

...

[You are in a Special Space, teleportation props cannot be used.]

...

"Tsk," Su Ming’an clicked his tongue. Not giving even a sliver of a chance, that damn deity played a hard game.

This was his first encounter with such a calculating opponent; his previous adversaries had mostly dominated him through force—whether it was some unreasonable deity of Yun Shang City or some tentacled trickster prone to turning dark. It was his first time dealing with such a scheming old fox.

As he paced around the room, he heard Yao Wen’s voice. Yao Wen lay on the ground, his blood flowing across his formal attire from the evening’s event, turning the pristine white ruffles crimson. His life was fading; even though it was the right chest that had been pierced, the substantial blood loss meant death was only a matter of time.

Yao Wen’s voice carried a hint of world-weariness:

"Today, the deity possessed my body. If I had been killed by you, he would have tested your cards. If I hadn’t been killed, that would have suited him even better, as he could have captured you. But..."

Su Ming’an glanced at Yao Wen.

Yao Wen gave him a clear look, which puzzled Su Ming’an.

Suddenly, Yao Wen, as if mad, reached out with his hands. Su Ming’an immediately raised his sword defensively, only to see Yao Wen clawing at the back of his own neck.

"Hiss—hiss—"

A spine-chilling sound emerged, the noise of fingernails scraping against skin. Yao Wen’s hands incessantly tore at the skin on the back of his neck until he peeled off both skin and blood, dragging along a small, flimsy flap of skin. The scene was particularly horrifying, silencing the viewers in the livestream into shock.

"I am Yao Wen." Yao Wen muttered to himself.

His face was twisted in pain, yet he still continued to peel the skin from the back of his neck.

"Ding dong—"

A crystal blue bullet fell to the ground, something that had dropped from the back of Yao Wen’s neck.

Su Ming’an paused for a moment.

The bloody bullet rolled in Su Ming’an’s direction, and the prompt interface popped up automatically:

...

[Source Breaker Bullet・First Generation (Purple Grade)

Type: Consumable Item

Description: Insert into any firearm to take effect, your next gunshot will sever the connection between the target and the Dawn System, completely destroying the link with the Dawn System.]

...

"This is?" Su Ming’an asked softly, realizing something.

"Source... Breaker Bullet." Blood trickled from the corner of Yao Wen’s mouth.

"Hmm?" Su Ming’an asked softly.

"That year, I lured the Mechanical Army away but accidentally entered a hidden laboratory and found a strange bullet," Yao Wen grinned, speaking with all his might:

"I realized something was wrong, so I quickly hid the bullet inside my body. Later, I was captured by the Mechanical Army."

Su Ming’an’s gaze trembled slightly.

The corners of Yao Wen’s mouth were soaked with bitterness, his voice calm yet extraordinarily fragile:

"They subjected me to Emotional Resonance, brainwashed me, tortured me... I succumbed."

"I married, had children, worked for them, became a reviled dog, was excommunicated by Doomsday City, I failed Fayse... but I thought, I had to be ’forced into confession,’ I had to be a dog, if I died, who would remember that bullet."

"I kept remembering that bullet in my mind, over and over, and to prevent discovery, I buried it deeper and deeper, turning myself into a semi-biochemical being capable of hiding a bullet... I knew I had to become the most loyal dog, the most undignified, face-licking dog appeasing the deity. I struggled to survive, I couldn’t accept it otherwise..."

"Lord, when I saw you at dinner tonight, I really wanted to tell you everything, but I knew it wasn’t time yet..."

He said this, vomiting blood:

"But now, it finally is."

"After being a dog for so many years, I can finally die."

"Laboratory location, 38th Cartha District, Building 183."

Su Ming’an’s pupils trembled.

He looked at Yao Wen, seeing an unyielding spirit and a pride hidden under layers of oppression and falsity.

A human’s mask, layer by layer, is still a mask, and underneath the final layer is the dignity they burst forth with just before death.

Yao Wen had always addressed him with the respectful "You," never changing.

Yao Wen slowly raised his hand, using his last strength to prop himself up.

With his blood-stained, cold hand, he touched Su Ming’an’s hand, loaded the Source Breaker Bullet into the handgun, and aimed at the surrounding pure white space.

"The central control room’s space isolation is built inside a person’s brain, you can think of it as a miniaturized brain-in-a-vat. Just shoot the surrounding space to sever the Dawn System’s connection, and this spatial isolation will be destroyed," Yao Wen said. "This is also... why I volunteered to be possessed by the deity today, I need to help you break the game."

"Yao Wen," Su Ming’an called him.

Yao Wen grasped his hand, helping him pull the trigger. Su Ming’an saw the weathered face of the middle-aged man close to him—sparse beard, broad wrinkles, cracked pale lips, yet making him recognize, this middle-aged man, so like the proud youth he was forty years ago.

The youth’s father died due to a divine execution by fire.

The youth, as the descendant of a revolutionary, also became a revolutionary.

"Click," a crisp sound rang out as the trigger was pulled, and the Source Breaker Bullet fired, causing the surrounding pure white space to suddenly distort and the light dimmed instantly, signaling the central control room’s predicament had shattered.

In the shifting space, Su Ming’an looked back at him one last time.

The light was blinding; Su Ming’an couldn’t make out his expression.

"I am Yao Wen," Yao Wen said. "Ruined World, Doomsday City, Human Faction, Yao Wen."

Su Ming’an blinked, realizing that Yao Wen was bidding him farewell, so he responded:

"I am from the Human Faction, Yasa Acto."

Yao Wen lifted his hand, gently performing a kiss hand gesture, his rough beard was a bit prickly, accompanied by the slick blood, staining Su Ming’an’s hand red.

"Yao Wen at your service, Lord Yasa Acto."

...

In their final moments, they suddenly both smiled, their eyes mixing with similar emotions, like an unquenchable fire, more touching than anything else.

A perfect ending is hard to achieve, it requires countless coincidences, opportunities, just enough to erase dangers, fears, and numerous issues, nothing can be perfect.

So the world is never a fairytale, resistance is always accompanied by tragedy.

In a war with almost no chance of victory, there are always those who must pay with their lives to push the chances of success to the peak.

Tretiya, Su Xiaobi, Noah, individuals famous in their own right would do so.

Yao Wen, a man of no name, would do so as well.

"Do you have any final wishes?" Su Ming’an asked.

In the fragmented radiance of white light, Yao Wen’s pitch-black eyes moved slightly, then stopped.

"I really wish..."

He said:

"To taste my mother’s cup of milk again."

...

"Ding dong!"

[Main Quest・"Revival of All Things" Progress (1/8)]

...

[Witness the death of an important NPC (Yao Wen).]

[Ring of Time (Purple Grade) upgraded to lv.4.]