Chapter 1223: Working from the Inside and Outside
The more Zhang Shan listened, the more he felt the situation growing eerie. Several doubts surfaced in his mind.
"Wait... Old Nie." Zhang Shan interrupted. "What do you mean by the 'memories of the Azure Dragon and the Heavenly Dragon'? If everything you're saying is true, how could they have memories floating in the sky? Did they die too?"
"I don't know." The man shook his head. "But this is indeed what I've heard."
"So you're saying that one day... everyone here will slowly remember everything that happened in the 'Land of Endings'?" Zhang Shan asked with confusion. "You said 'the level of sanity will decrease,' meaning everyone will stand here with stronger 'Ripples' and all their memories?"
"To be honest..." The man's expression turned grave. "I really don't know... All of this is a plan, or rather... a fantasy."
"If even you don't know... then why did you take it upon yourself to send me out?"
"That's why I said I was gambling. I'm betting that sending you out means you'll survive until the very end, and one day you'll remember all of us."
Despair resurfaced in the man's eyes.
He stared silently downward, his voice never rising above a whisper from beginning to end.
Whether it was because he feared others overhearing this bizarre news, or because he was afraid of disturbing the nonexistent sleep time.
"This is goddamn absurd..." Zhang Shan scratched his head, wanting to argue, but feeling he was too dull to come up with a solid rebuttal. He could only ask, "Old Nie, you know what's most important to all of us, don't you? Is it the damn 'Ripple'?"
"I know what you mean." The man looked at the crowd below and nodded. "What's important to us has never been the 'Ripple,' but 'memory.' 'Ripplization' is just a means for many people to preserve their memories."
"Exactly!" Zhang Shan's tone grew increasingly anxious. "If it's really like you said, that all our memories are..."
He looked up at the sky, still finding it absurd. "...floating up there in the sky, then why the hell would that person set up a 'Severance' to block us from obtaining those memories? Now everyone's trying to 'Ripplize' to preserve memories—doesn't that just make it harder for us to escape?"
After hearing this, the man reached up and touched the bridge of his nose, peeling off a dried scab of blood. He said, "Perhaps... it's to keep us from going mad?"
"That's too far-fetched..." Zhang Shan shook his head. "We'd go mad from gaining too many memories... but wouldn't we go mad from dying over and over again?"
"I think the person capable of doing this... would have their reasons." The man mused. "They just think we shouldn't have those memories right now, or maybe what they truly want to block isn't our memories... But I don't know what they're thinking."
"Old Nie, I feel like you've been deceived... His deal doesn't hold water. Besides, there are too many factors involved..." Zhang Shan counted on his fingers. "First, I have to survive safely until his so-called 'end.' Second, the person who set up the Severance has to die at the very end. Third, his so-called 'Severance' has to completely disappear. Fourth, I have to undergo 'Deep Ripplization' to remember all of you..."
"Yes, that's right." The man said.
"And all of this has to be based on the premise that 'our memories are really floating up in the sky.'" Zhang Shan shook his head. "I don't agree. This method is like walking a tightrope over a cliff—doomed to be dangerous from the very first step."
The man flicked the blood scab from his hand onto the mountain of corpses at his feet, then turned back to Zhang Shan. "We have no choice."
"What..."
"You know it yourself. We've entered the 'Fall Countdown.'"
The man sighed deeply, pointing down at the mountain of corpses, at the people sitting by the roadside resting. "How long do you think our people can hold on? Even if our numbers can carry us through a few cycles, our sanity won't allow it."
Zhang Shan followed the man's finger downward. Every inch of land in this city was stained with black, stinking blood. Exhaustion was etched onto every face.
They didn't even have the strength to bury the corpses of their teammates and their own dead. All they knew was to stake their lives on the gambling table.
"Right now, I only have two paths to choose from." The man reached out and patted Zhang Shan on the shoulder. "The first path is to send you out, and then I take all the 'Ripple Soldiers' to their deaths in battle."
"What's the second?" Zhang Shan asked grumpily.
"The second path is for you to stay here, and then all of us die in battle."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Shan opened his mouth and fell into a long silence.
He felt he couldn't say a single word.
"We can all see the ending." The man gave a bitter smile, his white teeth especially bright in the darkness. "Neither of these two paths contains 'victory'—only a sliver of 'hope.' The only thing I can do is to send that 'hope' away. After all, war was never about the individual. I can only follow what the other side told me and look as far ahead as possible."
Zhang Shan swallowed hard but still couldn't find the words to argue.
He didn't know what he was holding onto. Staying here would only result in death, but going to an unfamiliar city and abandoning all his former comrades... no matter how he looked at it, it didn't suit his style.
"Old Nie..." After a long pause, Zhang Shan came back to his senses and asked, "That person you mentioned... how are they going to grant me a new identity?"
"According to them, they can make a deal with the 'Upper Echelon' here." The man answered truthfully. "One time when you wake up again, you won't be a teammate from my room anymore. You'll appear in a brand-new room. When you walk out the door, you won't see our city anymore..."
"Damn it." Zhang Shan shook his head helplessly, a complicated smile on his face. "We've been fighting against the so-called 'Upper Echelon' here all along, but that person can make deals with them... What kind of spell did they cast on you to make you believe every word?"
"It's 'identity.'" The man replied.
"Identity...?"
"If any other 'Participant' had told me this, I wouldn't have believed it." The man smiled and shook his head. "But unfortunately, the person who told me this was a 'Zodiac.'"
Zhang Shan's eyes widened slightly at that.
"I can hardly understand it myself." The man rubbed his head. "The earth dragon in the north told me someone wanted to see me. Then, during the Zodiac's off-duty hours, I met that white sheep through a portal."
"So this is actually a... working from the inside and outside?" Zhang Shan asked with a frown.
(Author's note: I saw that the rating for End of Ten Lives hit 9.9 today. I don't know if it'll drop in a couple of days. I was so happy I didn't know where to share it, so I'll just share it with every reader here in advance. Thank you all. Without every single one of you, the current results would never have been possible. I'm truly, immensely grateful.)