Chapter 1631: Star River in Dreams
Xue Lang and Chang Bei might not know the truth, but they both knew he was still alive. Xue Lang in particular had held a grudge against him since the hospital, and had even killed his entire family before leaving. There was no reason for him to let Xu Huo go. His memories hadn't been rewritten, so the only explanation was that Dr. Zhang had restrained him.
Had Xu Zhi instructed Dr. Zhang to go this far, or had Dr. Zhang planned this from the start...
Thinking about it, another thought inevitably sprouted in his mind. If, just if, Dr. Zhang had never intended to take him out of District 014, but had planned from the beginning to rewrite his memories, then what did Xu Zhi's death even mean?
"Crack!" A fissure appeared in the scene before him. The Xu Zhi who had looked up shattered into pieces along with it!
Xu Huo instinctively reached out, but stopped halfway. This was all fake. What was there to cling to... Yet just as he was about to let go, a hand reached out from the darkness and grasped his.
Xu Huo paused for a moment, then pulled the person out.
A living Xu Zhi stood before him.
"You've grown up," Xu Zhi said, looking at him with satisfaction.
"You should have grown up too," Xu Huo replied.
The Xu Zhi standing before him had changed slightly in appearance, looking more mature and steadier than before.
Their hands remained clasped. Xu Zhi patted the back of Xu Huo's hand and said, "Seeing you live so well makes me happy."
"I'm not happy," Xu Huo said.
"You're over twenty years old, how can you still act spoiled with your brother?" Xu Zhi said with a smile. "Don't carry the burden of my death. The road of life can be long or short. My road was just short."
"Look at the trees by the roadside. Few people care whether they live or die, and even fewer care whether their road is long or short. People are like trees—insignificant to the vast world. We're no different from floating dust."
"If you had been given the choice back then, you would have wanted to die in my place too."
Xu Huo stared at him silently, then said after a moment, "That's my thought, not yours."
"Aren't you and I the same?" Xu Zhi touched his head. "When we were young, I told you that smart people are all the same."
"Xu Huo, I am you. You are me." Xu Zhi's voice suddenly seemed filled with temptation. He gripped Xu Huo's hands tightly, stepped closer, and began to merge with him, starting from their palms.
Xu Huo stood still, but at that moment, a shadow flowed out from beneath his feet, stood behind "Xu Zhi," and cut him in half at the waist!
As Xu Zhi's figure shattered, Xu Huo's expression darkened sharply. He suddenly lunged forward, seized the shadow personality by the throat, and slammed him to the ground—but that was as far as it went.
A few seconds later, he slowly stood up and pulled the shadow personality to his feet.
But the shadow personality reached out, slapped the back of his hand, and then vanished on the spot.
Xu Huo rubbed his brow, suddenly feeling listless. No matter how hard he tried within the illusion, the one who appeared could never be the real Xu Zhi. It was all futile, and it might even leave hidden dangers in his own spiritual realm.
However, the dream wasn't over. Ignoring the flashing images of Xu Zhi around him, he walked straight ahead. After about ten minutes, these images finally ended. Then the corridor expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it seemed to transform into a real world.
This was a vast forest. The vegetation resembled that of District 013, with strange fungi growing everywhere. At a glance, it looked exceptionally bloated and intricate.
Not far ahead was a city, but before entering it, corpses began to appear around him.
Each corpse had varying degrees of fungal spots. The most conspicuous were those like the Brown Skin City people, whose bodies were almost entirely covered in a layer of "new skin."
He wasn't sure if this scene was tied to a real city, but the further he walked, the more Brown Skin City people he encountered. By the time he entered the city, most of the faces had become identical.
At this point, he was no longer a mere observer. He was participating. As he walked past, the Brown Skin City people looked at him too.
Compared to the District 013 city he had passed through earlier, this scene had more people—mostly adults, with very few children. Perhaps because they had never seen a stranger, many adults had brought their children out into the streets. The children hadn't yet grown brown skin, but they were infested with fungi. Their skin condition was severe. Some unlucky ones had both eyes parasitized and couldn't see at all.
These were just the ones who could come out.
Those who couldn't either silently endured their pain in corners, quietly waited for death, or wept bitterly because a relative or friend was about to die.
The entire city was suffocatingly oppressive, like a sky that hadn't seen the sun for a long time, with dark clouds weighing heavily on everyone.
"Do you have any food?" A small child who had run out alone looked up at Xu Huo. When he spoke, tiny fungal spores sprayed from his mouth. Probably afraid of angering him, the child quickly covered his mouth after speaking and fanned the air in front of him vigorously.
Xu Huo reached behind him, found a backpack, and pulled out a loaf of bread to hand over.
Once one person started, several more children came up to beg for food. The children who got food shared it among themselves. Every child visible on the street got a piece. The adults didn't reach out, only watching the children with fondness and pity.
District 013 no longer had normal food. It wasn't that there was nothing to eat, but everything they ate and drank was fused with fungi. To survive, their main food source was fungi.
The survivors had learned to identify edible fungi. A small amount of toxins wouldn't kill them, and some might even be quite delicious. Eating certain types could even induce brief hallucinations. For the adults, this was just a life they had to get used to.
"Where is the guest going?" Someone stepped forward to ask. "The road ahead is hard to travel. We can guide you."
Xu Huo decided not to go any further. He found a place to sit and rest, then said, "I want to go to the 'Star River.' Do you know which way to go?"
Unexpectedly, the person who asked actually knew. He pointed in a direction. "It's over there."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. After sitting for a while, he headed in that direction. To his surprise, after passing through the forest, a real river appeared before him. He couldn't help but smile.
But a few seconds later, specks of fluorescence began to emerge from the riverbed. Up close, they looked like firefly light. From a distance, they resembled a shimmering star river.
Xu Huo jumped in. The water only reached his knees. He scooped up some of the fluorescence. The glowing substance seemed to be a type of fungus, but when the water dried, the light went out.
Looking ahead, he saw other people in the river besides himself—some District 013 residents, some players. Turning back, there were still people behind him.