Chapter 1222: The Night of Vortex City
Zhang Shan took a few steps forward, then gradually came to a halt, bracing himself against the wall where he stood.
His senses were strange now. The effect of "Vitality of Heaven" was still clearly active, yet his mind had already grown hazy.
A torrent of memories blazed and shimmered in his mind like a meteor shower.
In those memories, he was not on the "Train," nor was he at "Heaven's Gate." Instead, he was in a blood-soaked city.
There were no "Ants" in the night there, but the streets were strewn with burning ruins and corpses everywhere.
The stench of decay and rot mingled with the smell of scorched debris, permeating the air around everyone. Late at night, all the people sat silently by the roadside, resting.
Their faces were etched with exhaustion. They stared quietly at the ground, whether at the dried blood in the cracks between the street bricks or lost in thoughts about their own crumbling lives, barely hanging on.
A massive mountain of corpses stood in the center of the city. In the memory, Zhang Shan was sitting atop that corpse mountain with another person.
Beneath them lay not only the bodies of "Participants" but also those of "Zodiacs."
"Dashan... we... we're really going to lose."
The person spoke. Zhang Shan followed the voice and looked over. A clean, crisp buzz cut, a dark, lean face, and a body covered in wounds.
"Are you giving up?" Zhang Shan asked.
"There's no reason to give up," the dark, thin man shook his head, his eyes filled with nothing but despair.
"But you can see the situation now..." Zhang Shan sighed. "It's only a matter of time before we're completely wiped out. How much longer can we hold on...? A few cycles? A few months? What's the point of holding on this long...?"
"In my dictionary, there's only 'die fighting,' not 'surrender,'" the dark, thin man said. "But... even though this city of ours is about to lose, the 'Participants' will eventually triumph."
"Victory for the 'Participants'?"
"The battlefield is much larger than we imagine," the man said. "The reason our city has fought until now is to severely weaken the power of the 'Zodiacs' and pave the way for future victory."
"What...?" Zhang Shan felt as if the man in front of him was saying things he had never heard before.
"Our city is not the only one out there." Sitting on the corpse mountain, the man looked down at the faint, lifeless campfire below and continued, "Our sacrifices are not meaningless. I lied to every 'Ripple Soldier' in this city. Holding on to the end will indeed lead to victory, but none of us will live to see that victory."
After saying this, he shifted his position on the corpse mountain, turning around to face Zhang Shan.
"Dashan, only you," he said. "Maybe only you will get to see that victory."
"Me?"
"I made a deal with someone else." The man wiped the dried blood on his face and smiled bitterly. "When the city falls, I'll find a way to send you out."
In that memory, Zhang Shan felt the situation escalating to a scale beyond his comprehension.
On ordinary days, all he knew was to lead various teammates in running and fighting across the city. Now, on the verge of total defeat in this rebellion, he was suddenly told there was an even greater war?
"You've been fighting alongside me for as long as we can remember," the dark, thin man said with a smile. "You remember almost everyone who has died in this city. We need someone with the longest-lasting memories to make it to the end."
"What does that mean...?" Zhang Shan paused. "Damn, the more I hear, the more confused I get... What do you mean by 'send you out'?"
"To send you to another city, to live under a new identity."
"Why not send you out?! You remember those people too."
"'Vitality of Heaven' is more suitable than 'Hawkeye,'" the man said. "I can only oversee the overall battlefield, but I can never effectively intervene. Your chances of survival are greater than mine."
"Damn, but your 'Ripple' is much more stable," Zhang Shan retorted. "My 'Ripple' may seem powerful, but it doesn't always burst forth... What if I forget? All our comrades... what if one day I forget them?!"
"It doesn't matter," the man said. "I'm going to take a gamble."
"Gamble...?"
The man raised his hand and pointed to the sky above their heads.
Zhang Shan followed his finger. The sky was pitch black, with no stars in sight.
"I got some news today." The man pointed at the sky. "Someone has placed a strange 'Barrier' over all our heads."
"'Barrier'?" Zhang Shan frowned, staring at the sky, feeling the situation becoming increasingly abstract.
Because there was nothing there, let alone any 'Barrier.'
"Right now, the 'Barrier' is still in effect. It helps the 'Land of Endings' cut off all our memories. Although ordinary people reborn in the 'Land of Endings' wouldn't retain memories anyway, adding this 'Barrier' makes the effect even stronger."
The man tried to explain the news he had heard today to Zhang Shan in a few words, but Zhang Shan was never a sharp person; he only felt more confused the more he heard.
"How should I put it..." The man lowered his finger. "Back when I was in school, I heard that all energy in this world is conserved and fixed. But I always wondered—when a person dies, while their flesh and blood turn back to mud, where do their memories and thoughts go?"
Zhang Shan blinked and muttered softly, "Damn, are you saying... memories are floating up in the sky?"
"Something like that," the man nodded. "Memories are like children away from home... they float in the sky looking for their owners. But you know... each of us is constantly being reborn."
Following the man's words, Zhang Shan quickly understood what he was trying to say: "Are you saying... the memories of my previous self might drift onto my current self?"
"Exactly." The man smiled. "Every one of us lives here through will and reason. We clearly know who we are, and our subconscious clearly knows what kind of memories we should receive. But once we enter a state of 'Deep Rippling'... in other words, when we're close to madness, we might receive chaotic memories."
Zhang Shan pondered this for a moment, then asked, "So you're saying that feeling like I've been somewhere before... or done something before... is because I've received the wrong memories?"
"You've grasped the general idea." The man nodded. "So ultimately, I'm not afraid that you'll lose all your memories. As long as you've experienced all this, one day those memories will come flooding back into your mind. Including... what I'm saying right now."
"But didn't you say there's a 'Barrier' in the sky...?"
"He told me that the one who set the 'Barrier' will die, and the 'Barrier' will vanish on the spot," the man said. "When that happens... everyone's sanity will drop, and those old memories will converge. Including... the memories of Azure Dragon and Heavenly Dragon."