Free Web NovelChapter 296: Chapter 100: Ultimate Fusion, Redemption Across Time and Space (10,000-word Mega Chapter)
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In the pitch-black room, there really wasn’t a shred of light; the sun couldn’t penetrate this place at all. The darkness here seemed almost deliberately created.
Perhaps it was only in such a sealed environment that the boy in the corner could feel a trace of safety.
Zero was certain that there was no such person in his memories, but inexplicably, he felt this person was very familiar, as if he knew him very well.
Along with this, many memories that had never surfaced before emerged.
The boy rarely showed his vulnerability in front of others, because he had a perfect father.
Zero even remembered a time when the little boy was crying in the town while watching a girl from the middle school walking with her mother under a parasol.
This scene was just witnessed by someone, and everyone knew whose child he was, so they found it very strange.
Dr. Bai was so perfect; why would this child suddenly be sad? Shouldn’t he be the happiest child in the world?
Thus, someone told Dr. Bai about it, and in a dimly lit room, Dr. Bai asked the child why he had cried with a smile, as a gentle father would ask his child.
The next day, the little boy stood outside the middle school’s gate just as before, watching that girl whose name he didn’t know, heading home with her mother under the umbrella, laughing and talking.
He didn’t cry again, just looked on calmly. The townspeople gave him friendly looks but didn’t notice the tiny pinhole on his neck.
From that day on, no one ever saw the boy’s tears again.
The pain from the depths of his memories caught Zero by surprise.
He was alien to this memory and to the kind of torment that was surely too much for a child to bear.
"Where is this... Who am I?"
The memories flooded in, overwhelmingly real, and because of their reality, intensely painful.
Jing Wu’s terrifying power continued to spill into Zero.
But the pain coming from outside the memory images wasn’t something Zero could feel anymore, as the core, to increase Zero’s chances of winning, was cutting off this physical pain.
Yet all this seemed futile; Jing Wu’s strength was too immense, and Zero’s body, within the Mechanical City, hurtled like a shell through building after building.
Many black buildings even collapsed as a result.
His eyes conveyed weakness and bewilderment, still not understanding why he was seeing memories that he had never experienced.
...
...
The fusion of the Inner World had begun.
Switching from the current sights to the scenes in his memories was something Bai Wu had experienced many times, right in Jing Liu’s phone booth.
When that pitch-black city vanished and a new scene appeared, Bai Wu found himself in an unfamiliar city.
This city was called Shudu seven hundred years ago.
In the commercial street of Shudu, there were towering shopping malls with TV walls, and the adverts on the TV walls showed scenes from the past concerts of the young actress Jia Kai’er.
The cheers from the audience below were wildly enthusiastic, and Jia Kai’er on stage shone brilliantly.
In the distance beyond the giant TV wall, a boy with black hair held a mechanical toy that seemed to be a Transformer, with red eyes staring blankly at the screen.
"Everyone really likes her, huh."
Although Bai Wu had never seen the former Zero before, he recognized him at a glance—an indifferent-looking child with black hair was Zero.
Because a flood of memories about Zero surged in his memory.
He even knew that at this moment, Zero greatly admired the actress named Jia Kai’er.
The star was the focus of attention, seemingly loved by everyone. Zero liked her too.
And so, that day, he named his toy, which seemed to be a Transformer robot, Jia Kai’er.
As he thought this, perhaps one day, mom and dad would not dislike him, and he would no longer be an outcast.
The world would have a city for them, the Mechanical Race, and there, his only friend, this newly named robot Jia Kai’er, if it also had a soul, would surely become a big star as well.
...
...
Mechanical City was still being destroyed continuously. Whether it was Zero’s Inner World or the real Inner City.
The tidal wave of rage finally arrived.
All the infected by the Lau virus began to vent their anger. After a brief calm due to the descent of darkness, the city once again erupted with bubbling noise.
The actual number of Lau virus infected was not much greater than what the Anti-virus Guard Team had estimated—about eighty percent of their estimation.
And the remaining twenty percent was enough to threaten the entire city.
In the East City District, a group of monsters were dueling; elsewhere, individuals infected with the Lau Virus and those who intended to blame and vent their violent desires by killing and burning the infected were causing chaos.
As the massive protective shield dimmed, the Mechanical City also darkened, all of these appearing like a vision of the apocalypse.
Gang members received orders to head to the East City District for fire support, but most ordinary members of the Mechanical Race huddled in their strongholds, staring at the dim sky, silently praying.
They had never been so afraid before; the whole city was clearly alive, yet everyone felt as if the breath of death was spreading.
They didn’t know what was going to happen, just that the city seemed... to be losing something important.
Zero was utterly defenseless; his body began to shatter, and a murky liquid that looked like blood was seeping from the cracks.
His consciousness, due to the emergence of unknown memories, seemed broken and fragmented, just like his body that Jing Wu was relentlessly decimating.
To Jing Wu, this was simply the reaction to being attacked by a terrifying force.
Jing Wu didn’t consider there was anything wrong with Zero’s reaction; he just found it boring.
What it also failed to notice was that the heavy clouds in the sky... were beginning to thin out.
...
...
In an unknown small town, a heavy rain suddenly started falling that day.
Zero saw the boy again.
This time he had an umbrella; he held a white umbrella, still looking at that school, watching the nameless girl walking home with her mother under another umbrella.
The girl wasn’t pretty, and he didn’t like her, but people tend to be interested in some strange things.
He was soaked through, as the umbrella was not held over his head.
To onlookers, deliberately exposing oneself outside the cover of an umbrella and sheltering an empty side seemed like the act of a fool.
Of course, the boy was not foolish.
In the long future, he had survived many absurd worlds with distorted rules through his own intelligence.
With his strength alone, he led humanity outside the Tower to create a possibility that had never existed before.
The heavy rain poured down, and the mist made it impossible for people to see the boy clearly. They did not understand what he was doing.
But Zero knew; he understood the feeling of loneliness too well—the boy was just pretending that there was someone worth holding the umbrella for.
The boy smiled, a mature smile that didn’t fit a nine-year-old, as if at any moment, he would say to the non-existent person beside him,
"See, I can shield you from the rain now!"
...
...
"Jia Kai’er, I’m off; I can’t take you with me because mom and dad don’t want you to come. Today I have a TV program to record," Zero said to the mute robot named "Jia Kai’er".
It was actually quite crudely made.
Bai Wu took a closer look this time and realized this toy was indeed a Transformer from this world, which children in Shudu had liked over ten years ago.
But now it’s out of fashion; children don’t play with models much anymore. That era, when kids brandished toys and chattered proudly to their friends, seems like it will never return.
Today’s children are accustomed to using cell phones, which offer more interesting things than toys.
Yet to Zero, that fake world built with data meant nothing. If he wanted, he could hack into any online game company, even at just nine years old.
He could live a popular virtual life, but he chose not to. He hoped that one day, this world would accept him.
After setting down "Jia Kai’er", the memory jumped to Zero starting to participate in the TV interview.
Bai Wu watched the somewhat restrained Zero on TV and inexplicably felt a sense of déjà vu.
"I heard that you have a younger son, is your son also in... a special condition?" the woman on TV asked the man. The man seemed displeased, but forced a smile on his face for the camera:
"No, no, no, my little brother is not a robot; he’s a normal human being."
The term "normal human being" seemed to instantly relegate Zero to the ranks of those who are not normal human beings.
Am I a monster? Everyone seems to like me...
No, that’s not it.
As Zero thought this, Bai Wu felt as if he could hear Zero again, negating himself internally.
In their eyes, I am a monster, just because I haven’t shown any threat yet, just because they think I’m novel.
Just like how those children used to love Jia Kai’er long ago, but many years later, Jia Kai’er lost its novelty.
The host asked another question, wondering if there was any favoritism.
"I treat both children equally, and I’m very attentive, you know," he said with a laugh. "I’ll fill the older brother’s breakfast cup with oil, haha, and the younger brother’s with milk. As you know, I often post breakfast videos, and they really give me a sense of happiness."
It seemed to be a humorous response from "Dad."
The answer made the audience laugh happily, although Zero’s laughter was somewhat forced.
He, too, could drink milk. He wanted to drink milk, he wanted to eat birthday cake like his brother.
But ever since he found out that machine oil could replenish his energy, even though the oil was clearly more expensive, Dad always made him drink it.
Because eating things humans couldn’t consume and filming it would get a lot of views, people were interested.
However, it seemed that recently, because they’d seen so much of it and grown accustomed, these videos were getting significantly fewer likes.
Dad was distressed, thinking about whether to make him eat something like screws, maybe adding something new to capture the audience’s attention.
Of course, if such a thing really happened, Zero knew very well that Dad would tell the audience: It was Zero’s own idea, I thought it was strange, but I respect the child’s wishes.
Bai Wu now understood what this sense of déjà vu was all about.
It turned out that in the residential area of the East City District, the tragic mechanical actress Jia Kai’er’s real-life model was Zero.
...
...
"Such a defective piece, can’t even answer such a simple question, huh? Of course, Dad is a bit disappointed, but still very confident that you can do it. Perhaps your abilities just need to be stimulated."
"My good child, fear shouldn’t affect your thinking, ah, fear should speed up your thought process," he said.
"You should smile, don’t cry in front of me. Am I a very scary person?"
The man in the white coat caressed Bai Wu’s cheek, gently wiping away his tears.
The pain of the needle prick made Zero frown; he couldn’t imagine enduring such soul-piercing pain as Bai Wu did.
He now knew that this was Bai Wu’s memory because that abusive man would refer to the boy in that manner.
For the first time, Zero realized that he wasn’t the loneliest being in the world.
At least he once had Jia Kai’er.
What about Bai Wu?
In his memories, that boy would just whisper the names of monsters in the darkest room.
Zero had once thought that one day Jia Kai’er would have a soul, that one day he could give soul to those inanimate things.
Because then, there would be more and more things in the world that could talk and think, and maybe he would no longer be ostracized for being the closest to humans among these oddities.
That wish had come true, although far too many changes occurred afterward, and another Jia Kai’er ended up facing the same fate as himself.
He had not changed his original intentions... it was just that the Lau virus was rampant, and many things could no longer be taken care of.
Zero no longer cared about the past.
His life force was still draining away, but he could no longer feel his world collapsing, the Mechanical Kingdom he had worked seven hundred years to create was being destroyed bit by bit.
All he did was look at Bai Wu, the boy in the corner who seemed so lonely, yet extraordinarily strong.
Because no matter how fiercely the man in the white coat tormented him, Bai Wu always seemed to recover after whispering the names of those monsters.
This twisted father-son duo, it was unclear what force was maintaining their relationship.
One seemed to be yearning, the other appeared to have a purpose.
...
...
"Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You..."
The birthday song music played in the background, and although it was different from the tune in his previous world, it carried a similarly cheerful melody.
Bai Wu’s expression, however, was exceptionally calm, as if he were not watching Zero’s birthday but attending a solemn play.
Zero felt it was a bit lonely. He was ten years old that year.
But on that day, his parents told him to stay home and watch the house, while they took his brother to participate in a variety show that interviewed celebrities’ families.
The apocalypse had not arrived yet, although the world had already begun to mutate slightly, and that year in Denglin City, a man and a woman had volunteered for a group of scientists to study.
Most people could not sense the advent of the apocalypse that year; they still needed a variety of shows, and they still needed many interesting things to fill their minds.
However, Zero felt somewhat relieved inside. Without Mom and Dad there, he was finally able to buy a cake.
He had never eaten cake since his face began showing mechanical patterns.
Today, when he went out, he had deliberately covered the parts of his face with mechanical patterns with gauze.
While on the subway, Zero couldn’t help himself. In the nearly empty car, he opened the cake box.
Then, holding a fork in one hand and "Jia Kai’er" in the other, he began to sing a birthday song.
As if Jia Kai’er herself was singing, he actually smiled, imagining Jia Kai’er saying to him:
"Happy birthday!"
Just as his dad and mom would have said to him when it was his brother’s birthday.
But as he smiled, a cloudy liquid dripped from Zero’s eyes onto the white icing, quickly dirtying the cake.
...
...
As the fusion with the Inner World progressed, more and more memories poured in.
In these memories, Bai Wu saw a woman appearing in the Core City of Mechanical City.
She told Zero that a catastrophe would befall Mechanical City in the future, and afterwards, Zero would meet someone extremely important to him.
He also saw, many years earlier, Xie Yingjie coming to study in Mechanical City and the great realization he had while trying to save his dear friend. This happened much earlier than Bai Wu had estimated.
However, Zero’s disdain for humans gave Xie Yingjie’s realization somewhat of a gambling nature.
There were many other things, most of which were tragic past events for Zero. But what drove Zero to despair was being completely abandoned.
...
...
"Dad, will you come back for me?"
"Of course, I will definitely come back for you."
In the laboratory, as his body was disassembled and reassembled over and over, Zero’s memory seemed to freeze on a certain day.
He silently recited several names, waiting for these people to come and take him away. But the bearers of these names would never appear again.
The experimenters were amazed at the speed of his flesh healing.
"Its flesh test results are identical to those of real human flesh! But it’s as if the Creator changed some rule; when those inorganic materials touch it, its body fuses with them!"
"My goodness! Is this a miracle? I feel like everything I’ve learned has been completely overturned! It’s unbelievable, just unbelievable!"
"Perfect integration, no matter what the object is, it can be perfectly combined. If we link it to a supercomputer, I even suspect it could control data through consciousness alone!"
"This is a dangerous thing!"
People spoke with amazement, as if in joy but also fear. Insiders see the depth of the issue, while outsiders enjoy the spectacle. Unlike the majority who liked to watch Zero drink gasoline and swallow nails, these researchers considered Zero to have a great potential for danger.
This might be something even more terrifying than the Transformers from the comics.
But whether it was the audience or the researchers, their view of Zero was the same; he was not human.
"If only I were human."
Lying on a mechanical workbench made from alloy, Zero thought to himself.
Months of endless dissection in darkness reminded Bai Wu of Bai Xiaoyu.
There was a time when Bai Xiaoyu, too, was in a similar environment, deceived and used by others.
But Bai Xiaoyu’s kindness was pathological in nature.
The turning point came one day when the scientists discovered something resembling a core had formed inside Zero.
This was Zero’s evolution.
As the wait grew longer, the names long muttered never appeared, and Zero gradually realized he had been deceived.
Yet another part of him still trusted his mom and dad, believing that every warm morning, every good day, all the laughter and joy, he had contributed to it.
He was also a part of this family.
That’s what he thought; it was what sustained him to keep waiting, to cooperate with the researchers.
One day, when mom and dad would come for him, he would proudly tell them how hard he had worked, how cooperative he had been, how many problems in the world were solved because of him.
But mom and dad never appeared.
And on this day, the scientists attempted to connect Zero’s core to the internet.
They wanted to test just how powerful the core’s computational abilities were. If possible, they would remove the core and use it within human machines.
Perhaps because Zero had always been so compliant, they failed to recognize the significance of this step.
When the data connection started, it was as if the whole world unveiled itself before him.
Everyone’s online social information, all privacy posted on the internet, even all state secrets, human history, all surveillance camera footage, all the data stored in digital devices—he could see it all.
Unlike those apocalyptic robots in sci-fi movies, he didn’t "blacken" at this moment and wreak havoc on the world.
He simply sought out his family and went to see his mom and dad.
In the surveillance by the roadside, in their own cell phones.
He watched them with a smile as they lived their happy lives, because by signing the agreement, they had received a large sum of money.
Zero thought to himself that he indeed had helped his parents—at least because of his existence, they had ascended to another social class.
But before long, his smile froze.
The room that had been his was turned into a room for his brother’s pet. The traces of his existence were being erased bit by bit.
"Honestly, if it were still here, I’d really be in trouble. I can’t let it do anything illegal, and it’s such an oil guzzler to maintain. Now that it’s finally gone, I don’t want to be told I gave birth to a mechanical freak."
"Today we’ll have a family clean-up, get rid of all the things it left behind. This way, we’ll be rid of that thing forever."
"I still feel a bit sad, after all, it was our..."
"Shut up! Such non-human entities should be handed over to the state. We have made a contribution to our country. If you feel bad, you’d better think like I told you. We can’t afford to keep it, and you see, the mechanical parts on it are increasing. Who knows if it will turn into a cold-blooded robot one day!"
"Haven’t you ever watched science fiction movies? These damned robots are all enemies of humankind! Don’t you feel scared living with it?"
Although Dad said this, he soon began to rejoice in his own cleverness:
"But at least, it made a contribution to this family. The decision to sell it was so right, hahaha, I think I will be pleased to praise it in front of others."
As said before, children of this era have no desire to play with toys; they prefer playing with cell phones.
While Mom and Dad had this conversation, his brother was playing a game on his cell phone.
Ironically, the games always asked users for a bunch of permissions: camera access, recording function, SIM card access, text message reception, and sending rights.
Humans are willing to exchange privacy for money, so this message, which shouldn’t have been recorded, was seen by Zero.
The beautiful world in his mind seemed suddenly shrouded in darkness.
Despair spread in his heart—the scientists didn’t understand why this monster had murky liquid flowing from its eyes. They had forgotten that this child was, in fact, human.
Immersed in his immense loneliness, Zero was overwhelmed.
In the end, he saw "Jia Kai’er" thrown into the trash next to a dusty robot, surrounded by spoiled food and the flies that hovered around the rot.
Zero did nothing but silently smiled. From this moment, he finally realized he was an outsider, understanding that others describing him as a "thing" was accurate.
His hair began to turn silver-white, bit by bit.
The world in his heart, bit by bit, turned pitch-black.
...
...
In a dim, lifeless world, the scent of death grew stronger and stronger.
Outside the sewer in the South District, which was dealing with numerous infected, a young man started to roar loudly.
The boy, who had always been meek, displayed a rare anger.
In the East City District, the three duels gradually lost suspense, as outsiders demonstrated their mighty strength, absolutely suppressing and mocking the efforts of humans.
Despair spread through Mechanical City, and the frightened cries of the people gradually overpowered other sounds.
In the Inner World, Zero’s mechanical core was laid bare, and his robust mechanical casing shattered under Jing Wu’s violent attacks.
Looking at the face lost in the rubble, with silver hair above, Jing Wu said:
"Will you accept my conditions?"
"Your mechanical core wouldn’t let you do anything that jeopardizes your own interests, would it?"
"Your soul is still the frail human soul from before, but your core keeps evolving. Its decisions are inevitably more correct, and its authorities are inevitably greater, right?"
The exposed mechanical core was cracked under the pressure of Jing Wu’s foot.
But Zero didn’t step out of the young boy’s lonely memories, despite the pain he felt in the Inner World.
He finally understood the twisted father-son relationship between Bai Wu and Bai Yuan and what held it together.
Because in Bai Wu’s heart, there was a woman he had to protect no matter what.
The whereabouts of that woman were only known to Bai Yuan. Even though the memories of that woman had long been erased, Zero, through the fusion with the Inner World, saw the truth that even Bai Wu himself didn’t know.
"Even though he doesn’t remember her..."
"But deep down, he still feels distressed because if he doesn’t obey Dad, he will never see her again. Because of this distress, a kind of compliance forms that he himself does not understand."
"It’s just like myself."
"That woman might... maybe she has already died?"
Zero now knew all of Bai Wu’s deepest secrets, the unbreakable bond between him and Bai Yuan, the reason he didn’t turn evil and twisted after a tragic childhood, and even the secrets from another world.
He wasn’t surprised that Bai Wu had a unique Sequence, an exotic origin from another world.
He just suddenly felt... in another world, there was also such a lonely person.
Lonely people always feel an unknowable affection for those in the same plight.
This kind of affection became the opportunity for a deep fusion.
Jing Wu lifted Zero’s shattered body from the ruins with one hand, looking at Zero:
"Can’t talk anymore? Robot, has your vocal system been damaged? Such a pity, I love tormenting my opponents the most, and I even deliberately avoided the throat and head."
"Oh, that’s not right, we original creatures think with our brains, everything about you relies on the core. In the end, you’re just a more advanced toy."
Zero slowly opened its eyes, revealing the weakness from a damaged core through its gaze.
But for some reason, its red pupils had a hint of blue light.
In the sky, the clouds of sorrow began to dissipate, bit by bit.
Behind Zero, within a corner of that colossal city, a colorful school suddenly appeared among the charred ruins.
Next to the school, a red house materialized. As this house appeared, the clouds in the sky nearly vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye.
However, Jing Wu was completely unaware of all this, its gaze fixed on Zero’s defiant eyes, as the desire for cruelty rose once again.
...
...
For some reason, Bai Wu suddenly saw some familiar buildings in Zero’s city.
He once again arrived at the commercial center of Shudu City, only this time, there was much that should belong to his own memory around.
He didn’t have time to think too much, as the bustling crowd suddenly knocked him down. He slowly got up and looked at his hands, finding it somewhat incredible.
"The fusion of the Inner Worlds... has it started to blend my memories with Zero’s?"
Once again, he saw Zero, with a face full of longing, gazing at the radiant Jia Kai’er on the television wall outside.
At that moment, Bai Wu suddenly had an epiphany.
He was no longer just observing everything as a bystander but had become a participant.
The blending of memories seemed to turn them into characters in each other’s lives.
This was the unexpected event Bai Yuan had mentioned.
If such an accident occurred, it was very possible that for some reason, during the fusion process, they would not be able to recognize themselves correctly.
Or, if the souls despised each other, this aversion could lead to an even more horrifying outcome. Just like the mechanical cores linked by the Tower God Society’s chairman, where each core had a soul, these souls would erode each other until only one remained.
However, even Bai Yuan had not anticipated this time—
The Inner World of a child, dark and without light, under the oppressive clouds.
The Inner World of a child, pristine and normal, with only three houses seeming somewhat eerie.
These two entirely different people, unexpectedly, felt sympathy for each other.
They were both souls that had suffered immensely, but were those called sufferings the mockery of others? The pain inflicted upon their bodies? Or was it the destitution of not having enough food and clothing?
For Zero and Bai Wu, the so-called sufferings were always just loneliness.
Two lonely souls encountered each other, existing in each other’s worlds, giving birth to a completely different Inner World.
A fiercely passionate... a completely different soul was also born.
...
...
Shudu commercial center.
"Do you also like Jia Kai’er?"
"I do! She’s really enchanting!"
"Right? I like her too!"
"I’m Bai Wu! We live in the small town just on the edge of the city, let’s go see Jia Kai’er perform together sometime."
"Ah... Can we really do that?"
"Of course."
The two people outside the television wall burst into laughter, although it was only an ordinary invitation and meeting, both were exceptionally joyous.
...
Outside the high school gate of the unknown town.
The sky was pouring rain, and Bai Wu held a white umbrella, which was not over his head, but the rain didn’t fall on him.
Because another silver-haired boy had raised the umbrella.
Bai Wu looked at the stranger who had never appeared in this town before, watched as the other person raised an umbrella over their own head, then, just like himself at the beginning, got drenched in the rain. He suddenly found it somewhat amusing.
So, Bai Wu shifted aside and used his own white umbrella to block the rain.
The silver-haired youth did the same and retracted his umbrella.
The two of them, each holding an umbrella and looking at each other, both felt a familiar sensation, as if they were seeing themselves.
In the end, the two exchanged smiles. Allowing one’s umbrella to shelter someone else from rain and wind is such an ordinary act, yet Bai Wu simply couldn’t do it before this person appeared.
...
In a television interview in Shudu.
When the father expressed his impartial love for his two children, saying he prepared oil for breakfast for the older brother, and milk for the younger, everyone clapped amidst laughter and merriment.
Only Zero, whose smile was forced.
His expression seemed out of place amidst the laughter, yet no one ever cared. He, too, gradually lost hope.
But just as he lowered his head to hide his inner sadness, a young man loudly asked:
"But how do you know he doesn’t like milk? What on earth are you all laughing about? You can only see the mechanical parts of him and fail to see the human parts, the flesh and blood?"
"Who told you that just because he has mechanical parts, he must drink oil? What are you basing this on?"
This abrupt voice was actually very calm, but the words were filled with indignation, causing Zero, sitting in the interview chair, to suddenly freeze.
The atmosphere had been so upbeat just a moment before, and these were the words he had wanted to say himself. Yet for some reason, when the young man shouted them out, Zero’s nose suddenly felt sour.
The murky oil dripped down Zero’s face. He had always thought he was quite happy, yet at this moment, when someone verbalized what was in his heart, he was still delighted, so much so that tears streamed out.
...
Outside the unknown town.
Hearing the term ’defective product’ over and over, a young Bai Wu finally couldn’t bear the pain and dialed the Universe Defense Team.
The call, of course, went unanswered, but as he hung up, his phone rang again.
He heard a phrase that he thought was naive yet warm.
"Hello! This is the homeland of light! We have just received your call, sorry, because there are too many monsters in this world, we did not receive it immediately."
How funny.
Bai Wu knew that the call was a hoax; he had long understood there were no monsters or Salty Egg Superman in this world.
But still, he hoped to be like other children, fond of things ethereal and nebulous.
Not far away, he saw that silver-haired youth holding a phone, who, despite appearing indifferent, had just uttered those childish, laughable words.
The two children exchanged smiles.
The pain of not being recognized by their father, it seemed, also disappeared with their solitary plight.
...
In Shudu.
On the subway, Zero sang ’Happy Birthday’ holding a Jia Kai’er in one hand and a knife and fork in the other.
But just as he was about to cry from loneliness, another voice arose.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." frёewebηovel.cѳm
The tune was different, but the meaning was the same.
"Cutting a cake alone is too lonely! Mind if I join you?"
Zero was first taken aback, but then nodded vigorously.
The loneliness of his tenth birthday suddenly ceased to be lonely. His human sense of taste already diminished, he suddenly found the cake genuinely sweet.
...
...
More and more memories began to blur.
But this disarray did not make the two deeply scarred souls even more fragmented.
They were like brothers, understanding each other’s deepest desires through similar experiences of loneliness.
Yet, they both knew that these memories were not real; nothing had changed—the pain caused by previous loneliness was fading away bit by bit, and each saw in the other a different possibility for life!
They did not destroy each other but chose to redeem one another!
...
...
In the real world, Core City continued its relentless descent.
The enormous pipes supporting Core City had begun to show signs of impending collapse.
But at that moment, a light suddenly lit up inside the Mechanical Temple!
The light was not intense, only because the vast Mechanical City was shrouded in darkness, the light in the temple resembled a source of light.
At this moment, the Mechanical Race citizens hiding in their houses in fear and unease all looked up, even those infected with the Lao virus began to gaze at the light.
The Mechanical Race committing crimes everywhere stopped their criminal activities. It seemed as the city grew darker, they felt an unprecedented catastrophe was imminent, and so they began to revel in their sinful deeds.
The huge Inner City remained dark and lightless, yet the light within the core city’s Mechanical Temple grew increasingly dazzling.
In the South District, the Destructors and Blacksmiths who held absolute superiority looked up. They had absolute confidence in Jing Wu, but the light from the temple suddenly gave them a hint of worry.
...
...
Inner World.
The damage to Zero’s mechanical core was getting worse and worse. Even though this was the spiritual world, the core symbolized the soul.
If destroyed, he would truly become a machine without self-consciousness in the real world.
Jing Wu had maintained an absolute advantage from the beginning, enjoying the process of crushing Zero.
At first, Jing Wu did not deliberately ignore the surroundings, but the changes were too subtle.
The pace of change in the Inner World was too slow for Jing Wu to notice.
The oppressing clouds weighed heavily on the city, and even though some had dissipated, they still covered the sky and blocked the sun.
In the pitch-black world, even if a small pebble suddenly colored or a black flower sprouted white petals, the world remained dark and lightless.
But as the two souls began to fuse continuously, the two boys who had experienced despair and loneliness began to compensate for their regrets in each other.
The changes in this world began to intensify rapidly.
The rate at which Zero’s flesh healed became faster and faster.
The somber clouds in the sky began to dissipate continuously.
The buildings on the ground were also slowly regaining their color.
This was like the process of a miracle descending.
Finally, Jing Wu realized that something was wrong.
It floated in the sky, looking at the changes around it, stopped its brutal act, and revealed a stunned expression:
"How is this possible? How can the changes in the Inner World be so rapid?"
Zero, having fallen into the ruins, slowly got up. From Jing Wu’s perspective, Zero’s flesh was healing at an incredibly fast rate.
And around Zero, the black surroundings, with Zero’s feet as the center, began to become colorful.
It was as if a black-and-white photo had turned to color in an instant.
This was not a visual illusion—Jing Wu’s spiritual world was very powerful. It knew that this blackness represented Zero’s perception of the world!
How could this entrenched perception accumulated over seven hundred years change so easily! This was impossible!
While it was puzzled and confused, an even more astonishing thing happened.
The sunlight finally pierced through the clouds, heavy with negative emotions, and shone upon the city that was continuously regaining its color.
Jing Wu finally realized something: the negative emotions accumulated by the Lao virus were being rapidly eliminated by some force....
No! Wrong!
Not eliminated! Absorbed!
Its vision fell upon three purely colored houses. Although the city was regaining its luster, only these three houses... had extremely pure colors.
They were completely out of place with the surrounding buildings.
Jing Wu’s experience was vast, and it realized that these belonged to an Inner World that was not part of Zero’s. Someone was covering Zero’s Inner World with their own!
It asked aloud:
"Who are you, exactly? Who are you!"
Zero lifted his head, and at the same time, Bai Wu in another corner also lifted his head.
They appeared unchanged, yet they were utterly different from before.
The two people were clearly not in the same place, but their movements were perfectly synchronized as two voices sounded simultaneously:
"I am Bai Wu!"
"I am Zero!"
