Chapter 575: Farewell
"Perfect match..." Dr. Zhao gave a bitter laugh. "Are you talking about the two of us?"
"That's right." Han Yimo nodded. "The two of us teaming up would be unstoppable."
"But I don't want to kill anyone." Dr. Zhao shook his head. "Not even a little."
"Yes, that's exactly why I said we're a perfect match." Han Yimo reached out and placed his hand on Dr. Zhao's shoulder. "You don't need to kill anyone at all... you just need to 'save' people. I'm the protagonist; leave the killing to me."
"I... 'save' people?" Dr. Zhao couldn't keep up with the madman's train of thought, his mind grinding to a halt.
"You're a 'doctor,' so 'saving people' is your character setting." Han Yimo chuckled.
"But our goal is to dig out the victims' eyes. What good would saving people do...?"
"Who said anything about saving those people..."
"Then what do you mean?"
"The moment I feel fear, the 'Seven Black Sword' will tear through the sky and come to my side, slaughtering all who are guilty..."
"But you and I are both 'guilty people.'" Dr. Zhao stated.
"That's why I need your 'Separation'..." Han Yimo smiled. "You're my 'ace in the hole'... I can kill everyone all by myself, and you just need to use your ability to save the two of us when the 'Seven Black Sword' tries to kill us. Even if my 'Seven Black Sword' is shattered, it doesn't matter—I can summon countless more. We'll try over and over until we've killed everyone."
Dr. Zhao sighed after hearing this. "So you just want me to save the two of us..."
"Exactly. That way, you don't have to get your hands dirty, yet you can still complete the mission. Why not?" Han Yimo smiled and winked at Dr. Zhao. "If you don't want to join Chu Tianqiu, you can join me instead."
Dr. Zhao could only feel how absurd this was. How confident was Han Yimo to think he could stand against Chu Tianqiu?
"I don't have anywhere else to go." Dr. Zhao murmured. "Even though I revive every ten days, I still need food."
"So you agree?" Han Yimo seemed very pleased. "What a coincidence that we ran into this deadly 'Pegasus Hour' today. We can wait here. Sooner or later, those exhausted 'participants' will come back. That's when we'll go on a killing spree."
"What did you say..."
"Wrong choice of words, sorry." Han Yimo chuckled. "That's when *I* go on a killing spree."
...
Chu Tianqiu left the "Heaven's Mouth" and walked alone down the streets covered in black threads.
At this moment, the black threads were slowly retracting toward the sky, while the streets were littered with corpses cut in half. Their blood had spilled everywhere, and their internal organs lay spread across the ground.
Before coming to the "Land of the End," Chu Tianqiu had never known that human blood was sticky.
When he stepped on it, it felt like treading on weak glue. Each step made a squelching sound, pulling up thin, reddish threads with every lift of his foot.
He wanted to avoid it, but there was no escaping it.
Blood was everywhere, as if it were the natural state of this place.
Not only had many participants been sliced in half, but some "Madmen" wandering the streets had also run into the strands of hair stretched across the road, getting cut in two without even feeling it.
They were nothing more than sprinklers on this blood-red lawn of the "Land of the End," quietly spraying blood somewhere on the street until their bodies were completely drained, making the ground here even stickier.
Days later, their corpses wouldn't fade away with annihilation; instead, they would linger on the streets, adding to the suffocating stench and contributing their last remains.
This was the "Celestial Hour."
As long as these "Celestials" willed it, the entire "Land of the End" would be covered in corpses. The lives and deaths of tens of thousands depended on a single thought.
Even those who had managed to cheat their way through "Terrestrial" games, using so-called tactics and wit to win time and again, would never dare to claim they could escape unscathed from a "Celestial Hour."
Because during a "Celestial Hour," no referees were to be seen. Many could only perish alone in misery—whether they were "participants" or "Madmen."
The only difference between them was that "participants" were split vertically in half, while "Madmen" were cut horizontally.
"How foolish..." Chu Tianqiu sighed as he looked at the fallen natives on the ground. "It has nothing to do with you, yet you walk right into death one by one..."
He continued forward, stepping through the sticky blood, leaving behind a trail of black-and-red leather shoe prints. Against the black threads receding into the sky, the scene was eerily surreal.
By now, most people were either dead or resting in some hidden corner, grateful to be alive. Yet one man was calmly walking down the street amidst the chaos, like a lone boat sailing backward in a raging storm.
After about an hour, Chu Tianqiu arrived at the entrance of a shabby convenience store.
It seemed the store had also been affected by the black threads. A participant must have fled inside, leaving deep gouges in the walls.
Chu Tianqiu paused for a moment, pushed the door open, and found the store empty. He then walked behind the counter and opened the door to the employee break room.
A female employee, emaciated to the point of being unrecognizable as human, sat on the edge of a bed, muttering something to herself.
When she saw someone enter, she slowly lifted her head, her eyes flickering.
"I'm here to deliver supplies." Chu Tianqiu smiled.
"Deliver supplies...?" The female employee was momentarily dazed, then shook her head. "No... you're not the delivery person... you're different..."
A barely restrained sorrow flickered in Chu Tianqiu's smile as he pulled a can from his pocket and gently placed it beside the woman's bed.
"But what I'm delivering is the same." Chu Tianqiu replied. "Has my current appearance scared you?"
"You..." The woman looked up, carefully studying the man before her.
Although her sanity was mostly gone, she could still sense the change in him.
He wasn't wearing glasses, his hair was combed back, and there was a red mark between his brows. Around his neck hung a strange necklace.
This was worlds apart from the refined "delivery man" she remembered.
"This might be the last time I deliver supplies to you." Chu Tianqiu's voice was choked with emotion. "Once I walk out that door, I won't be coming back."
The woman nodded as if she half-understood, her expression vacant as she asked, "You won't come again...?"
"Yeah." Chu Tianqiu nodded, then bent down and took the woman's hand. "Qiaoyun, the only way I can think of to save you... is to let you die here."