Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 168: Chapter 168: Joint Effort Across Time and Space

Gu Hailin’s resolute face showed signs of exhaustion.

He possessed an Innate Force close to the seventh rank, with movements too fast for the naked eye to capture, but in the face of the vast power difference, these abilities and skills were futile.

His subordinates died one by one, and the various events from their time in the High Tower flickered through his mind like a revolving lantern.

The disputes with the low-level thugs, the grudges and gratitude with the Garrison Corps of Gao Ta Town, the friendships with his beloved subordinates.

Shortly after he became the deputy head, he buried these memories deep inside because the higher the position, the more decay of the High Tower he saw.

He had long given up on humanity, but now, those past grudges and grievances resurfaced.

The cold-hearted man now had the blood of one willing to die, yet in the face of absolute power... that blood seemed pathetic and laughable.

The spear was already bent.

The Hydra, as if it could smell the pure sorrow in the man’s heart, didn’t bother with him at all.

It was as if Gu Hailin was a main dish, while the other prey were just ingredients to make the main dish more delicious.

The more people around him were killed, the more pain Gu Hailin felt. The Hydra savored the increasingly delectable scent emanating from the human above.

It planned to kill these humans one by one in front of him, to let this man experience the deepest despair, bearing the sin of all his comrades’ deaths, and finally, before his Evil Fallen Transformation, to devour him.

Indeed, this was its plan, and the process had reached its final stage, until—someone leaped into the air and slashed at it.

That figure wore a black cloak and a strange mask, wielding a longsword that appeared unremarkable.

Neither in speed nor in power did the Masked Strange Person seem a threat.

But it was this person, with such a gentle slash, whose sword light passed through like moonlight through the leaves—

Silently severing the one head of the nine where Gu Hailin was.

Gu Hailin’s eyes widened, nearly in despair, he felt his body lose balance.

Because the huge head began to tilt downward from the point seven inches from its magatama.

One slash.

There was no blinding flash to dazzle the eyes, no terrifying sword aura rampaging violently—this one slash was like a breeze gently brushing aside willow branches.

The head slid from the body hundreds of meters tall, with Bai Wu standing in front of Gu Hailin, the air currents fluttering his black cloak.

Before Gu Hailin could ask about Bai Wu’s identity, Bai Wu spoke first:

"My name is Bai Wu, from the refuge, and also from the future..."

This statement left Gu Hailin baffled.

But the current situation was not one for idle chatter.

Original Sin, a slash that could reduce by 7.5% of the maximum life value, under the effect of Double Strength, Bai Wu’s slash was equivalent to two.

So, with the force of one slash, he severed the giant head of the Hydra.

But now, the Hydra had become the Yamata Orochi, and it no longer held any contempt. The eight remaining heads froze, eight wrathful gazes locked onto Bai Wu.

As the head fell to the ground, Bai Wu said to Gu Hailin:

"I know you have many questions, but right now I need your help!"

Under the Hydra’s defensive stance, Bai Wu had no chance of approaching its head again.

But Gu Hailin could!

The two separated by ninety years suddenly developed a strange tacit understanding at this moment.

Gu Hailin declared:

"Go!" freēwebnovel.com

The attack of the Hydra came, a perfect Mutation Entry, Death Cold Light.

This was a powerful move capable of instantly wiping out any vitality in the opponent, used only against the most dangerous enemies by the Hydra.

It had originally thought that, on the suspended heads of the snake, the two humans had no space to dodge; they were undoubtedly doomed to die.

But in the next instant, Gu Hailin, holding Bai Wu’s hand, vanished with him! Under the serpent’s gaze, they disappeared as if they had evaporated into thin air.

Talent Sequence fifty-nine—Instant Shadow.

A super joint move that transcended space and time, giving all the soldiers trapped in despair a glimpse of hope at that moment!

The man who had been holding a spear and howling in anger a moment ago, now had a spark back in his eyes!

He, along with the enigmatic Masked Strange Person who had appeared, flickered in the blood-red mist.

Gu Hailin and Bai Wu appeared before the first snake head, Bai Wu swinging his blade in a crescent arc, cleanly severing the snake head once more.

Before the serpent’s various destructive attacks could land, Gu Hailin vanished with Bai Wu again.

The second snake head was severed, still with one strike.

As if the Grim Reaper had descended, three consecutive heads were chopped off, creating an atmosphere of fear even in this six-headed serpent.

It was not stupid and quickly realized that these two possessed the ability to teleport instantly; it also recognized that there was a limit to the distance they could move, incapable of crossing between two heads.

Its thinking was indeed correct, but it had mistakenly estimated the intelligence of its prey.

The moment it dispersed its body, Bai Wu saw through its intentions.

In mid-air, Bai Wu asked loudly,

"Can you activate it consecutively?"

"Can you keep up?" Gu Hailin retorted.

"You just teleport! I won’t waste the opportunity!"

"Alright!"

Thunder struck from the sky, only to miss once again.

But just as Bai Wu and Gu Hailin’s figures appeared near the fourth head, a cold wave capable of instantly freezing a person struck them.

The hydra was ecstatic, thinking it was about to hit its mark, but Bai Wu did not swing his sword; he only feigned a slashing gesture.

Before the movement was even halfway complete, Gu Hailin teleported them to the fifth head.

At that moment, Bai Wu’s sword slashed down.

"Back!"

"Got it!"

The snake head was once again severed, leaving the hydra with only five heads, thinking the two humans would attack again.

The remaining four heads simultaneously targeted the next one they thought the humans could reach with a fatal assault.

Only this time... it was again outwitted by Bai Wu, the terrifying force bombarding where they were expected to be, believing it was sacrificing a piece to secure the game, achieving victory at the smallest cost.

But Bai Wu’s single word "back" turned it into the laughingstock, the clown. Bai Wu and Gu Hailin did not choose to attack but to retreat instead.

They returned to the position of the previous head.

"My physical strength is probably not enough to use Instant Shadow too many more times..." said Gu Hailin loudly in the midst of the rapid movement.

"Then use your utmost speed and finish it in one go!"

"Then you’ll have to..."

"Save—"

Silver moonlight pierced the red mist, sparking an even more scarlet cloud of blood mist.

"God!"

What appeared before everyone’s eyes was akin to a white light dot, drawing a line in the red mist with the posture of swimming against the current.

But the line was drawn so swiftly that before people could even marvel, it had already appeared at the next serpent head’s location.

Consecutive slashes. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Triple consecutive slashes!

Quadruple consecutive slashes!

Gu Hailin couldn’t imagine how this mysterious person who had suddenly appeared was able to keep pace with his movements when he was fully unleashing Instant Shadow; his reaction was not even slower than Gu’s own, who had been regularly using Instant Shadow for years!

After one slash was completed, there were no superfluous movements, just the startup of the next slash. As a result, the two of them worked seamlessly together to sever all of the hydra’s heads...

Brief as fireworks.

The strength of a red zone monster, of course, would not be so weak.

But these two men were not only perfectly synchronized, but their attributes also matched flawlessly. One possessed incredible destructive power to sever an opponent’s lifeline, and the other, a zero lag displacement that opponents could not capture.

The combination of these two abilities produced an incredible chemical reaction.

All nine heads of the hydra were severed under their combined efforts!

Everyone, including Gu Hailin, wore an expression of disbelief. Just... minutes ago, they saw no hope at all.

The arrival of the miracle was so totalitarian that some were moved to tears, emitting unintelligible monosyllabic shouts into the air above the scattered corpses.

This shouting was seemingly infectious, swiftly spreading to everyone present.

They didn’t even know what they were shouting; perhaps through these raw, impassioned roars, they wished to reach the distant netherworld so that their deceased comrades could find solace after their victory.

"What in the world is going on... who exactly are you?"

Gu Hailin had also come back to his senses from the shock. He knew that without this young man who had burst onto the scene, such a fantastical moment could not have happened.

Bai Wu thought for a moment and then said,

"It seems I naturally get along well with you speedsters. I’ve said it before—I’m called Bai Wu, and I come from a refuge, also from the future."

"A refuge... do you mean the High Tower? And what do you mean by ’from the future’?"

These two questions were actually really difficult to answer. Bai Wu had, in fact, anticipated being asked such questions the moment he drew out Original Sin.

In the end, he could only provide an answer that was half true, half false.

The false part was beautiful, the true part, cruel.

"The refuge is not the High Tower. The High Tower is merely temporary shelter for humanity to evade the Doomsday. I come from a future ninety years later, which is a preposterous notion. You certainly wouldn’t believe it if I told you," he said.

Indeed, it was hard for Gu Hailin to believe.

Even though he had just experienced a near-impossible miracle.

Bai Wu looked up at the sky, where the clouds were red, and the surroundings were shrouded in a blood-red mist. He wondered if this place was beneath the crimson sky-sea?

High above Food City, could it be the eternal, uncrashable flight that will never reach its destination?

Thinking this, Bai Wu felt it more and more likely.

"This world has many special rules. You often leave the tower; you must understand that many physical laws are twisted—space, time, gravity, temperature... It’s as if at the very top of this blood fog, there is an aircraft forever stumbling through a repeating airspace," he said.

"I have no reason to suddenly appear here and then specifically come to deceive you about coming from the future, especially in such an environment."

Gu Hailin fell silent for a few seconds, thinking about their just-now exhilarating collaboration, and then said,

"If you come from ninety years in the future, does that mean... the people from ninety years in the future have already left the High Tower?"

"Yes, ninety years later, humanity walked out of the High Tower. People found a region outside the Tower called the refuge, a new world. There are no Evil Fallen there, no decaying rulers on top of the tower, nor any distorted rules."

"Humans in that place can eat food from the Pre-Tower Era. They have established a civilization anew there and are continually spreading out, gradually reclaiming land from the past, bit by bit, using something called the Doomsday Puzzle pieces. As for the High Tower... only those rulers are still occupied with their dreams of empire, reluctant to come out."

This was the false part and Bai Wu delivered it with all seriousness. He was, after all, an actor; just like the roars he had unleashed before Jing Si’s heart, it was all for the sake of the script, yet it wasn’t without sincerity.

He hoped Gu Hailin would find solace.

After hearing Bai Wu’s words, Gu Hailin’s eyes shone with shock and longing:

"Really... Really, is there such a place?"

"I’m not lying to you. The knife in my hand is very good proof that humans have developed weapons capable of inflicting heavy damage on Evil Fallen. Ninety years in the future... humanity will be able to confront Evil Fallen alone. It is no longer they who drive us, but we who drive them out."

"The future Investigation Corps has an outstanding leader, his name is Gu Qingyu, and he will lead people out of the High Tower, overthrow its decayed rule, and find a way to rebuild human civilization. Decades later, the Investigation Corps and the Garrison Corps will reconcile and join forces to fight the monsters outside the Tower."

After a long silence, Gu Hailin suddenly burst out into hearty laughter:

"Hahaha... hahahahahaha..."

His laughter didn’t last long, as looking at the littered remains and skeletons, a look of regret appeared on his face:

"If you are from the future, can you tell me if today in history, did we all die here?"

Unexpectedly, Bai Wu did not deny it, his expression merely became more solemn. The conversation finally shifted from a beautiful lie to a helpless truth.

"On this day in history, you’re already dead, died at the hands of this Hydra. It was the first joint operation of the Investigation Corps and the Garrison Corps during the Era of the High Tower, the first expedition to the red zone, which ended in a bloody defeat because of the rulers’ conspiracy.

You all died here, dying with hatred for the High Tower and anxiety for the future. Not one soldier died with closed eyes; each of you died with great fury and unwillingness."

This was the harsh reality, and it was also the future that Gu Hailin had already accepted.

The moment he mounted that black steed and charged, he had foreseen such an end.

"I’m a simple man. I don’t understand much about the mysterious things like time-space rules, but I guess... since I am already dead, I suppose your coming won’t change that."

Bai Wu let out a soft sigh:

"Yes, I just felt your determination, and through a special area with unique time-space rules, I have come here to witness the most vile deception and the bloodiest battle in the history of the High Tower."

"I can’t show you such a future, because we are not in the same time-space, and I can give you hope for survival, but history will not change. In a place like outside the Tower, you won’t live for many days, and ultimately, you cannot escape death."

"The refuge is still far in the distance, so far away that it will take mankind decades of continual exploration to glimpse its silhouette atop the mountains of bones."

"That is not something you can find now, and I can’t persuade myself to deceive you, giving you unrealistic hope. What I can do is only by a special means, entering an area where ninety years have passed, to tell you the answer to that question."

Will humanity one day walk out of the High Tower?

To explore this question, Gu Hailin and others, or rather, the countless people of the High Tower for over six hundred years, have paid a heavy price.

But they never received an answer.

Bai Wu now confirmed, Gu Hailin’s determination... was the answer to that question.

"The High Tower won’t imprison humanity forever; your deaths are not meaningless. Everything you longed for ninety years later will be realized in the refuge. So... Captain Gu, please rest in peace."

The world around them had already begun to change slowly, and scenes from a distance seemed to start fading away.

Bai Wu knew that Gu Hailin’s heartache and determination had been resolved.

As the world was about to vanish, this resolute-faced Deputy Legion Commander laughed boldly:

"At least... here, I have avenged them and learned that our deaths were not without meaning. I die without regrets."

The blood-red fog began to dissipate slowly, and the daylight of the streets of Food City from another time-space was shining into this world.

Bai Wu didn’t know how Gu Hailin would choose in this telephone booth world—would he lead a group of people in search of the elusive refuge?

Or would he and his people choose to bury these fallen comrades and then perish under the influence of some negative attributes? Or before transforming into Evil Fallen... end their own lives?

He was unclear about all this, but as always, his eyes received another enigmatic hint—

[Mankind can never live in peace and contentment, taking refuge in satisfaction. As one determination ends, another begins. A farewell in this time-space does not mean that there won’t be a meeting in another~ Whether it’s ninety years or seven hundred years, some people are very rigid. No matter how long they wait, they will wait for a thought~ It’s getting more and more interesting, let’s pick up the next call together!]

Babbling annotations—he probably understood, like how every time he left a specific area, he would see some sort of summative phrase.

It’s the same custom when the small world inside the telephone booth comes to an end.

Only at this moment did Bai Wu remain unaware that this special telephone booth area was a heavily mutated time-space rule area.

What he experienced was not merely an unchangeable past story.