Chapter 897: The Vortex City's Contingency Plan
The sky was about to darken when Jiang Ruoxue brought me and Gu Yu to a nearby building to rest.
Thanks to her, I actually became acquainted with this boy whom I had just met for the first time.
The three of us sat together in the room, and Gu Yu used a flint and steel he carried with him to light a campfire. He said he had been a magician before coming here.
Jiang Ruoxue gave a brief introduction of the two of us. She seemed to have some reservations and did not reveal my identity as the "Overlord," only saying that I was a "Transcendent."
But her next words completely stunned me.
She said that Gu Yu was actually a traveler from another city.
I had encountered many kinds of identities in the "Land of Termination," even serving as a "Thief" myself, but I had never heard of a "Traveler."
"So... what's the difference?" I asked. "Between your place and ours."
"How should I put it..." Gu Yu slowly lowered his head. "The underlying logic is the same, but the forms of expression are vastly different..."
Gu Yu gave me a detailed introduction to the situation in his city, "Jade City." Jiang Ruoxue had apparently heard it all before, and she just sat there shaking her head helplessly.
I had to admit, this was a situation I had never imagined, but upon careful thought, it made sense.
Once a person accidentally builds an organization to a certain scale, others are forced to join or have no chance of survival. This leads to a pathological organization growing larger and larger, while normal people become fewer and fewer.
The organization in "Jade City" seemed like an infectious disease, massively transforming the "Participants" there.
"So what do you think?" I said. "Are you going to flee that city, or are you going to save it?"
"I... I don't know." Gu Yu slowly lowered his head. "I know my own abilities... I'm just a performer who can be watched by an audience, not a wise man who can rule a city. But there are people important to me there too... I've been wandering outside for a long time. If I don't go back to help them soon, something bad might happen."
"Don't you even know what you want?" I asked.
"Yes... Sister Zhichun, I've told you everything about my situation... If it were you, what would you choose?"
He threw the question back to me, but I knew he just wanted to hear my advice.
"Sorry, I doubt my advice will be of much use to you," I said. "In this world, I only love myself. So I won't play the hero and risk my life to save a city or anything—that sounds too absurd. I'll only look after myself, find a way to survive first, and then lend a hand within my means. If I can save someone, I will; if I can't, all I can say is that I did my best."
After hearing my words, Gu Yu slowly lowered his head, looking a little sad.
"Sister Xue... what about you...?" Gu Yu asked again. "Do you think the same way?"
"Hmm..." Jiang Ruoxue pondered for a moment, then said, "Although I also love myself, my approach is different from Zhichun's. I think if you want to save people, go save them; if you want to stay, then stay. After all, if you think about doing something but don't do it, you'll just waste your energy and time internally. But at the same time... even if you die there forever because of your own decision, you can't blame anyone. Because you went because you wanted to—that's your 'karma.'"
Jiang Ruoxue and I had given two completely different paths, and no one knew which one Gu Yu would choose.
He seemed to have been conflicted already, and after hearing our words, he became even more conflicted.
In that case, let me help him out.
"My advice is that you just switch to another city," I said. "Anyone can see that place is beyond saving."
"Switch to another city...? Easier said than done..." Gu Yu shook his head. "Every time I travel to another city, it takes a long time... Once the people in my room notice something and force me to stay, I'll never be able to leave."
Gu Yu shared some intelligence about other cities with us.
He said that besides our city, "Dao City," and his own "Jade City," two cities had long since lost all normal people, and another city was barely hanging on.
Gu Yu had stayed in that city for several years before recently arriving here.
But the city known as "Vortex City" sounded strikingly similar to Gu Yu's "Jade City."
In that vast city, there was only one ruler. This ruler led the masses in a desperate fight against the "Zodiacs," entering the game grounds and immediately initiating "Death Bets."
They believed that after betting all the "Zodiacs" to death, the "Participants" would win, and the cycle would lose its meaning.
But... did they really not know that the "Zodiacs" could appear indefinitely?
I thought about it carefully and soon understood.
In "Vortex City," how could anyone be willing to put on a mask and become a "Zodiac"?
The "Zodiacs" in that city were clearly a high-risk occupation. They faced immense danger every day, exhausted from dealing with the endless tide of "Participants" flooding in, and even wanted to escape.
Under such circumstances, would any "Participant" pick up a mask, put it on, and willingly become a "Zodiac"?
It was like being on a battlefield where both sides were fiercely engaged, and while one's own side was suppressing the enemy with firepower, a soldier suddenly chose to put on the enemy's uniform.
That is to say... whether in "Vortex City" or "Jade City," everyone had different information gaps due to various coincidences.
The people of "Vortex City" didn't even know that a "Participant" putting on a mask would become a "Zodiac."
No... if this situation had been going on for many years, it might be similar to the predicament of "Jade City."
Even if the leader named Nie Bei had already noticed something was off, there was no turning back.
After all, all the organization members were striving in that direction—betting all the "Zodiacs" to death was the city's only faith. At this point, how could the leader say, "We've been wrong all along; those comrades died in vain"?
He didn't want to admit that reality, nor would he.
The entire "Vortex City" was like an arrow that had been shot—there was no turning back. Even if they knew there was an iron wall ahead, they could only crash into it and break themselves.
Otherwise, they couldn't justify themselves to anyone.
"You said earlier that 'Vortex City' is now 'barely hanging on'?" I asked again.
"Yes." Gu Yu nodded. "If you think about it carefully, you'll realize that the population of Vortex City is decreasing every day. A comrade who lives and dies with you in this cycle might disappear in the next. And those who remain, seeking revenge, will throw themselves back into the game, forming a vicious cycle... Probably before long, there won't be a single living person left in the entire city."
No...
I felt that this matter wasn't that simple.
If Nie Bei was really someone capable of ruling a city, he couldn't have failed to foresee this.
He must have prepared a contingency plan in advance. Even if Vortex City was destroyed, there would definitely be someone who would continue to live on behalf of Vortex City.