Chapter 917: The End of an Era
So that means I'm different from all the other "Ultimate Ones"...
They can't die, while I "died and came back to life." This seems to be another move by Bai Yang.
Old Sun told me that every time a complete wipeout like this happens, it's the best opportunity for the "Ultimate Ones" to quickly find teammates. Anyone who can still move around at a time like this is one hundred percent an "Ultimate One."
Some people take this chance to meet and form friendships. He said that at its largest, they once organized a gathering of over twenty people.
It's just that the city is too vast, and the "Ultimate Ones" don't have a fixed meeting place, so everyone relies on luck to run into each other.
Old Sun also said that every time a Grand Reshuffle descends, it's almost always in the last few days of the ten-day cycle. This leaves survivors with no time to search for teammates, so they can only recognize each other by fate.
I find this concept kind of interesting... It's like all the werewolves revealing themselves when night falls in a Werewolf game.
That's great...
It means Jiang Ruoxue and Zhou Mo are all right... All the people I know are fine. I just don't know if I'll be able to see them in the remaining days.
"Old Sun, what day is it now?"
My question clearly caught him off guard.
"What the hell... Girl Zhichun, have you lost track of the days?" Old Sun said, amused and exasperated. "How can one of us 'Ultimate Ones' ask a question like that?"
Yeah, others might not, but this question is crucial to me.
"It's already Day Ten," Old Sun said. "We'll be disappearing soon, but it's a shame we can't find many people."
Hearing this, I knew I had no chance of finding Jiang Ruoxue in this extremely short time. I just sat down on a stone block nearby, resting my numb arm.
Now I understand what Jiang Ruoxue meant when she said, "Why didn't you shave your legs before coming?" If I had a choice, I'd want to come in a black dress instead.
The "Land of the End" is just too filthy. The air is filled with the powdered flesh of "Participants" that scatters everywhere—on the ground, on furniture. Whenever I sit down somewhere, I always end up dirtying my dress.
"Old Sun..." I said as I flexed my arm. "Have you met anyone interesting recently?"
"How could I not?!" Old Sun perked up with sudden interest. "Little sis, let me tell you... I found a good buddy. Hmm... should I even call him 'buddy'..."
"Who is it?"
"A fellow countryman born in '83..." Old Sun scratched his head. "Anyway, it's strange. That guy was born in '83, but he looks twenty years older than me. Weird, isn't it?"
"Uh... what makes him so good?" I asked again.
"That kid is a 'Puppeteer.' His surname is Deng. Just call him Brother Deng when the time comes," Old Sun said warmly. "I'll set up a gathering and introduce you to him. We're all straightforward people."
"Puppeteer...?" I was taken aback. "What kind of ability is that?"
"This ability... how to put it..." Old Sun thought carefully, then looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. "Little sis, you know... when we get abilities here, we're lucky to even know the name."
"Yeah." I nodded. "Knowing the name of the ability is already the best-case scenario. Some people 'Echo' in a daze and don't even realize the name displayed on the screen outside is their ability."
"Right, right, right." Old Sun agreed. "So most people have to experiment after seeing their 'Echo' name. When Brother Deng found out he was a 'Puppeteer,' he ran a lot of experiments too."
"Experiments?"
"Yeah, mostly to figure out what this ability does." Old Sun continued. "According to Brother Deng, it seems he can transfer deaths from a certain moment onto a corpse... But I feel like something's off. He definitely hasn't fully figured it out. If it's called 'Puppeteer,' shouldn't it at least let him make corpses move, don't you think?"
I knew Old Sun wasn't wrong. In this place, as long as you're crazy enough, or you completely forget you're human, you can treat even corpses—or living people—as puppets.
I had a faint feeling this person would be very useful in the future, but it was impossible to find him now. I asked Old Sun about his appearance and learned he was a short, chubby middle-aged man.
Then Old Sun and I took a break. The "Annihilation" came, and I watched Old Sun turn to dust right before my eyes.
It seems that even the "rules" here have a clear order. Although "Ultimate Ones" can avoid death during the Grand Reshuffle, they can't escape the Annihilation.
Two cycles later, everything had returned to normal.
The people here still moved about the "Land of the End" as if nothing had happened. The next two years were also filled with major events.
First was the big move by the "Heaven's Gate." After moving into the school, they began recruiting "Participants" on a large scale.
I was actually a bit curious... Every "Grand Reshuffle" lasts two cycles to ensure no one keeps their memories.
But their leader was still Chu Tianqiu.
I knew very well that he wasn't an "Ultimate One," but he seemed to have escaped the reshuffle and preserved his memory, even recruiting powerful allies like Yun Yao again.
I also heard that Chu Tianqiu "picked up" an exceptionally strong "Participant" on the street, who became a co-leader alongside Yun Yao.
It seems that the power of "Heaven's Gate" was growing day by day.
Later, I met Jiang Ruoxue again. She didn't seem very happy. No matter how much I asked, she wouldn't tell me what had happened recently. She only asked me a strange question:
"If a mirror that has already shattered is mended, and you forget it was ever broken, is it new again?"
I couldn't get anything out of her, so I just comforted her perfunctorily.
Not long after, she left "Heaven's Gate." This made me quite curious about Chu Tianqiu's character. Maybe it was really like Aunt Tong said—everything Chu Tianqiu did stemmed from "goodness." That's why he didn't try to keep someone as powerful as Jiang Ruoxue with her "Echo," allowing anyone to come and go freely.
Jiang Ruoxue's personality became a bit more reserved, but she was still as close to me as before.
The other thing that made me uneasy was Bai Yang. His eyes were getting stranger and stranger.
Every time, he would take a few seconds to confirm my identity, then confirm where he was.
But thankfully, his game venue was completely empty now.
Bai Yang always locked himself in the bank office and never came out, so all "Participants" couldn't tell from the entrance that it was a "game."
Even if someone actually "participated," Bai Yang would half-heartedly explain the rules.
The previously popular "Lottery" had a jackpot of zero for a long time, creating a vicious cycle, and no one participated anymore.
The legendary "Jile Bank," after the Grand Reshuffle two years ago, had completely closed its doors in the "Land of the End."