Chapter 230: Fake
Qi Xia still frowned as he stared at Chu Tianqiu. After a moment, he finally spoke, "Let me confirm... Chu Tianqiu, are you telling me that last time, you staged this whole farce just to make me 'Echo'?"
"Yes." Chu Tianqiu nodded.
"So this time, you're fawning over me like a lovesick dog because you want me to use 'Echo' to help you," Qi Xia said.
"Yes."
"But it seems you've got something wrong." Qi Xia furrowed his brow. "That clause isn't in our agreement."
"Oh?" Chu Tianqiu rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "You're right. This is something I just added... So you can propose a corresponding new condition. Let's try to keep things fair."
"Oh...?" Qi Xia let out a cold laugh. "Really?"
"Really."
"Then don't regret it."
"I won't regret it!"
Chu Tianqiu's answer was very straightforward—so straightforward it felt unreal.
"So... Qi Xia..." Chu Tianqiu's smile spread again. "This time, I'm offering you all my 'true heart.' Join forces with me!"
"Of course." Qi Xia nodded. "If I didn't want to join forces with you, why would I have come here?"
"Yes... yes..." Chu Tianqiu laughed and nodded.
Everyone had stacked all the corpses in the center of the playground, forming a tall mountain of bodies. With nearly sixty corpses now, it was completely unrealistic to bury them all. They would have to let time take care of them.
But the days ahead wouldn't be easy for everyone. "Heaven's Entrance" would have the freshest stench in all of "The Land of the End."
Qi Xia and his teammates wiped the blood off their bodies and went to their classroom.
"Good work!" Qiao Jiajin said energetically to everyone, still full of vitality. "Thanks for helping me move my corpses. I'll treat everyone to canned food later!"
No one really wanted to respond.
"Fist, come here a second." Qi Xia said softly. "There's something I want to confirm with you."
"Oh?" Qiao Jiajin walked up to Qi Xia. "Conman, what is it?"
"How did you resurrect?" Qi Xia asked bluntly.
"You mean the 'Defense of Heaven's Entrance'?"
Qi Xia sighed after hearing that. "What? Did you actually name that battle?"
"Yes." Qiao Jiajin nodded seriously. "I've been in too many fights. If I don't name them, it's easy to mix them up."
"Fine..." Qi Xia conceded helplessly. "So, the 'Defense of Heaven's Entrance'—how exactly did you resurrect?"
"Strangely enough..." Qiao Jiajin said. "Every time I felt like I'd been killed, I'd open my eyes and find myself nearby again. Then I'd run back to the spot where I died to get revenge. But those guys were pretty tough. It's hard to fight barehanded."
Looking at the bizarre ways Qiao Jiajin had died, it was easy to imagine what a brutal battle it had been.
Someone with his fighting skills had died so many times—ordinary people would have been even worse off.
"But it seemed like those invaders were even more scared than I was..." Qiao Jiajin said, a bit puzzled. "I wasn't scared even when I died. What were they afraid of?"
Qi Xia paused, then asked, "At that time... I mean, back then... did you see..."
He paused again and slowly pointed at Yu Nian'an not far away.
"Oh? You mean whether this girl was at the scene during the 'Heaven's Entrance Counterattack'?"
"'Heaven's Entrance Counterattack'...?" Qi Xia sighed helplessly after hearing that. "Yes. Did you see her at the scene?"
"No." Qiao Jiajin shook his head. "After the kung fu girl and I successfully defended the place, we searched for all the survivors in 'Heaven's Entrance.' I didn't see this girl."
Hearing this, Qi Xia felt a pang of pain in his head again.
He was trying to figure out whether the Yu Nian'an before him was a product of "Echo."
But from the looks of it, she didn't seem to be something he had created. Could she really be the original?
But if she were the original, why would she suddenly appear in the interview room?
"At that time, the doctor kid, the big guy, and a few others whose names I don't remember survived—only six people in total." Qiao Jiajin said. "The writer kid died, the psychologist died, and the rest of the people from 'Heaven's Entrance' died too. The losses in this 'Battle to Defend Heaven's Entrance' were really heavy."
"'Battle to Defend Heaven's Entrance'..." Qi Xia stared into Qiao Jiajin's eyes, barely holding himself back before finally saying, "Fist, promise me—don't just name things randomly from now on."
After chatting with Qiao Jiajin for a bit, Qi Xia went over to Yu Nian'an.
Yu Nian'an was staring blankly at the sky, lost in thought.
"An, are you okay?" Qi Xia asked.
"I... I don't know." Yu Nian'an shook her head. "Xia, this place is really strange. Aren't we dreaming?"
"I'd rather be dreaming." Qi Xia took Yu Nian'an's hand and made her sit beside him. "An, do you remember how you got here?"
"How I got here?" Yu Nian'an thought for a moment. "It feels pretty strange too..."
"Oh?"
"I arrived here about four or five days ago... The people I met were all strange, the air here stinks, the sky is red... And..."
"Wait..."
Qi Xia slowly widened his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"You said you've been here... how long?" Qi Xia asked quietly.
"Four or five days," Yu Nian'an said.
Another bolt of lightning flashed through Qi Xia's mind.
Fake.
It was fake again!
"The reason I suddenly appeared beside you..." Yu Nian'an said thoughtfully, "seems to be related to some weirdo."
Qi Xia didn't speak, only letting Yu Nian'an continue her narrative.
"That person seemed to have some special ability. About three days ago, she took my hand and said to me, 'You must understand that as long as your beloved appears, you will definitely be able to see him.' That girl repeated that phrase five or six times. I always felt her mental state wasn't quite normal."
Qi Xia frowned. So this fake Yu Nian'an had come here because of some "Echo."
She was indeed a product of Qi Xia's last "Echo."
But she hadn't appeared in "Heaven's Entrance." Instead, she had been wandering around "The Land of the End" until she met some "Echoer." For some reason, that "Echoer" had helped her, letting her "see her beloved."
So when Qi Xia appeared, this substitute Yu Nian'an also appeared.
That explained everything, and it also proved another thing—
The Yu Nian'an created by Echo indeed didn't disappear with "The End." She was not within the scope of "participants."
"Xia, what's wrong?" Yu Nian'an felt something was off about Qi Xia. "Why aren't you saying anything?"
After confirming that the Yu Nian'an before him was a substitute, Qi Xia had nothing more to say to her.
His feelings could only be given to the real Yu Nian'an, not to a replacement.
"It's nothing." Qi Xia shook his head coldly.
"That's good..." Yu Nian'an gave a bitter smile. "Oh, by the way, Xia, yesterday at noon was really strange. I saw many people turn into dust right before my eyes. At that moment, I thought I'd never see you again."