Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 304: Chapter 108: The Recording in the Box

Zero felt this was very peculiar.

The special structure had indeed enabled him to find the memory of collaborating with Jing Liu, but he simply couldn’t recall it.

"I can remember everything else, but just not the contents of this box. Perhaps Jing Liu knows."

Bai Yuan’s composure always made Zero feel as though Bai Yuan knew something, but unfortunately, Bai Yuan didn’t know what it was either:

"Have you ever considered, regarding this box, that perhaps the woman chose you to keep it because of your uniqueness?"

Zero was slightly puzzled:

"Do you think Jing Liu has also forgotten?"

"Yes. Maybe the woman discovered something, I don’t know how she found this box, but I guess, if you ask her, she probably won’t know what it is either. And I need Bai Wu to see the contents of the box, once he wakes up, your fusion will be undone. Then, I will remind him."

Bai Yuan’s eyes were as discerning as a pawnshop owner’s, he continued:

"Your cooperation has been pleasant, so we should talk about something more enjoyable before the fusion is undone. To save you, Bai Wu has gambled away nearly all his remaining life, leaving him less than seven days, and the accrued Sequence has been wiped clean. Those six minutes nearly left him with nothing."

Zero said:

"Don’t worry about that, the connection between him and me is certainly not limited to just this once. I still need his help, so I can’t let him help me for nothing. I will give him a true Angel Envoy."

"A true Angel Envoy? I don’t really understand what that means, but it sounds very powerful. It’s settled then.

Next, let’s talk about the issue of memory segmentation. This is a bit more troublesome, concerning what you have experienced together in this duel, the memories you share won’t be forgotten after the fusion is undone.

But as for each other’s past, those are exclusive. You have already touched on some of Bai Wu’s taboo memories."

Bai Yuan’s expression gradually became serious:

"Let me set the bottom line first. You can request some of Bai Wu’s memories, but the existence of Prayle’s Eye, the existence of the three rooms, and the secret of his origins from the Otherworld, must be returned."

Bai Yuan’s request was not excessive, and after some thought, Zero nodded. As long as they stood united, he did not mind the other having his own secrets.

Moreover, he saw a certain resoluteness in Bai Yuan’s eyes, something that seemed non-negotiable.

However, regarding Bai Wu’s past, and the things both he and Bai Wu had done in each other’s past, Zero felt it was a way to make up for each other’s regrets.

But the longer the fusion went on, the more evident the changes in both of them would become. As Bai Yuan had said, two people whose childhoods were full of happiness were not suited to survive in an apocalyptic world.

Many things in life are called regrets because they have already become unchangeable.

...

...

Undoing the fusion took much longer than everyone had imagined.

In it, Bai Yuan seemed like an expert who had long been immersed in the Inner World, while the process of splitting the two fused Inner Worlds, he was the chief surgeon.

With his deep understanding of the Inner World, Bai Yuan precisely stitched back each of their memories to where they belonged.

For Bai Yuan, this was also an enjoyable task.

A fusion of the Inner Worlds, such an event had never occurred before, after all, only someone like Zero, half mechanical half biological, could have possibly done it.

He felt as if he had found a new and interesting toy.

While Zero and Bai Wu were both in a comatose state, unraveling the fusion of their Inner Worlds,

Wu Jiu and the others received the treatment of heroes of Mechanical City.

All five of them were waiting for Bai Wu and Zero to wake up and bring some news.

In the highest-grade hotel in the East City District, five people were recuperating together.

Zheng Yue and Xie Xingzhi felt it was somewhat unbelievable; both recalled the confrontation with the merchants and blacksmiths of Black Gold Island and felt somewhat frightened in retrospect.

Having spent too long in their comfort zone, they finally realized that this world was one of Evil Fallen, and above them, there were many existences so powerful they were beyond human reach.

Zheng Yue, in particular, appeared somewhat dispirited, as if half-sleeping, half-awake.

He had actually been bullied in his own dreams, which gave rise to a feeling of powerlessness. Before, no matter the opponent, he’d simply close and open his eyes, and the battle would be over.

But now, he realized his dreams... were still too conservative.

Xie Xingzhi, on the other hand, didn’t mind; he was not the combative type, especially since the relationship between Bai Wu and Zero seemed better than expected. He believed this made it very possible to retrieve what his boss wanted.

As long as they could get it back, the trip would not be in vain.

Yan Zizai was lost in thought in front of the window.

In the recent upheaval of Mechanical City, there had been much that Yan Zizai hadn’t had the time to ponder, but now that the dust had settled, he began slowly recalling those events.

"Does this world truly have people unchanged for seven hundred years?"

The answer to this question seemed to have been found, even though it may not be representative, but such a being ultimately existed.

When his negative emotions were being eroded by Jing Wu, it felt like a resentment many times stronger than that of the Lake God. The painful memories from his mind surged to the forefront, and even though they were quickly numbed and made unconscious by Zero, Yan Zizai saw his sister once again.

Only, because of Jing Wu’s thick resentment, the scenes in his consciousness also became distorted.

His sister’s appearance... was very frightening.

He was not afraid, but the guilt and sorrow inside him had nowhere to rest. After a long time, Yan Zizai decided that after returning to the High Tower, he would begin investigating some things.

The quietest were Wu Jiu and Bai Xiaoyu.

Bai Xiaoyu did not know what exactly had happened in Mechanical City, but it seemed the Lau virus had been eradicated, and all the people rescued from South District had normal emotions again.

Everything seemed to have a perfect ending; although the process was brutal, he was still happy.

Wu Jiu was expressionless.

With Instant Shadow, his strength had greatly increased, but he was still reflecting on that last battle.

Constantly reviewing it.

Eventually, Wu Jiu identified a problem; unless they could deal with emotional erosion, they would still be unable to protect their teammates against Jing Wu.

This was not what he wanted to see, so it became one of the issues he had to resolve.

Calmative drugs probably would not work, because in Wu Jiu’s view, the aura emitted by Jing Wu was too corrosive. Besides, calmative drugs had backlash effects that could shorten combat time.

He could not figure it out at the moment, but his heart had already placed emotional issues at the top of the list of problems that needed to be conquered.

The five people had different thoughts and were all waiting for Bai Wu and Zero to negotiate a result and then return to the High Tower.

For Wu Jiu, this journey was not the longest experience outside of the tower, but for the others, it felt quite lengthy.

...

...

Four hours later. Core City. Mechanical Temple.

Zero and Bai Wu woke up at the same time. The Mechanical Temple was very spacious; at first glance, it seemed like the whole Mechanical Temple had nothing but a throne.

There was nothing else, just walls and ceilings of blue crystal-like blue.

But in fact, this place could change its form according to Zero’s will.

Bai Wu recalled his past and found some things seemed to have changed, while others had not.

He felt as if he had experienced a lot, as though one world was being reborn and another was perishing.

In the end, all returned to silence.

He still felt lucky to have escaped certain death at the hands of Jing Wu, but his main focus now was on Zero.

He knew that he had merged with Zero into the Inner World and that he had fought side by side with Zero, but with the fusion with the Inner World now dissolved, he should not feel much... familiarity with Zero.

Yet for some reason, when Bai Wu looked at Zero, he still felt an indescribable sense of recognition, as if he really had met such a person a long, long time ago.

Zero felt the same way, a difficult-to-explain sense of identification with Bai Wu.

This was all different from what Bai Yuan had said, because Bai Yuan... had not followed the plan.

He had not erased all of the memories of the childhood regrets that were compensated for after the fusion; it seemed that each retained a small piece of it.

Bai Wu remembered, on some rainy day, a silver-haired boy had held an umbrella for him, and Zero also remembered, outside the massive TV wall, someone who also liked Jia Kai’er.

Just this tiny portion of memory, in the tragic childhood of both, was but a drop in the ocean, the rest of which Bai Yuan had restored.

But it was with these little bits of memory, as if adding a touch of fantastic possibility into the painful past of two souls.

If Bai Yuan were to grade his own work on this transformation, he would certainly give himself a perfect score.

Bai Wu was still Bai Wu, rational, melodramatic, insusceptible to negativity. He had his own insights into Evil Fallen.

Zero remained Zero, the monarch of Mechanical City, with an almost indifferent coolness and a near-hostile loathing for native humans.

But oddly enough... the two of them had different views of each other because of a segment of memory that didn’t exist.

"There’s an annoying voice in my head, reminding me to tell you to open that box," said Bai Wu.

In the end, Bai Wu did not care why he felt this strange affinity for Zero.

Zero didn’t dwell on it either. He had promised Bai Yuan to provide Bai Wu with a true Angel Envoy, as compensation for Bai Wu’s losses, and also to give Bai Wu the box that Jing Liu had hidden away.

Directly in front of the Mechanical Throne, the floor suddenly protruded with a section of a blue cylinder. ƒreewebɳovel.com

In the middle of the blue cylinder, a door opened, and the box Jing Liu had given to Zero was hidden within this square door.

Zero took it out:

"For you."

"What’s inside this?"

"I don’t know, I don’t even remember."

Bai Wu was surprised:

"You don’t remember?"

"There is a theory that the box contains information that this world does not allow to be known, and once someone knows, the memory will be erased. This is what Jing Liu gave to me."

Jing Liu!

The woman closest to omniscience, she gave Zero something that, if not related to the Jing Family, not a tool for Zero to use against Jing Wu, then it must be something... Jing Liu herself deemed the Jing Family Members should not know about?

No, if combined with previous clues and Zero’s particularity, perhaps Jing Liu saw some trait of Zero and thought him suitable to hold such a forcibly forgettable secret?

Unable to figure it out, Bai Wu decided to open the box.

It’s a purely metallic box, without a keyhole, completely sealed.

[To open this thing, you can only rely on Brute Force. Although the item inside is important, it’s not considered vital knowledge, so the containment is not top-notch. Hence, you can dismantle it barehanded. Go for the miraculous with great force, don’t be afraid of breaking whatever’s inside.]

Important, yet inconsequential if known.

These two seemingly contradictory statements also shed light on some issues.

Bai Wu exerted a bit of force and opened the box.

Zero also looked over, both showing expressions of puzzlement. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"A tape recorder?"

"It seems there’s a recording hidden inside?"

In front of Bai Wu, indeed, was a miniature tape recorder, a model from seven hundred years prior.

To Bai Wu, if this object were not a Spirit Possession item, it probably wouldn’t work. From its exterior, one could see its obvious wear and tear.

Zero’s fingers lightly touched the tape recorder, displaying to Bai Wu once more the astonishing skill of self-repair, as the tape recorder began to shed its age.

One minute later, Zero said:

"Turn it on and let’s listen, see what the recorder hides."

Bai Wu nodded and pressed the play button.

The tape recorder started spinning, and a disconnected voice came through; although Zero found the voice unfamiliar, Bai Wu displayed a look of astonishment.

He incredulously stared at the tape recorder, and the content of the recording took him a long time to process.

The recording lasted only about twenty seconds, with just a few short sentences. Still, since it was in a foreign language, Zero did not understand.

But Bai Wu could understand because, despite some differences, the language in the recorder was quite similar to Greek from his previous life.

"How is this possible... how could it be this way?"

Bai Wu had once wondered why this world did not have white or black people and even speculated whether he had traversed into a large-scale, reality-virtual interactive gaming world.

Was this the Asian server of this world? Of course, this world did not have the concept of Asia.

Jing Liu had mentioned that this world was different from the world of his previous life, a world that made Jing Liu envious. And in this world, the place names and geographical distribution were indeed different; it truly was another world.

This world had no concept of the seven continents, but, like in his previous world, it also had many races.

Of course, the emergence of this recording now proved one thing... this world was not some kind of large-scale comparative experimental site.

This recording did not solve Bai Wu’s doubts, but it did give him the right direction for speculation.

"Can you understand it?" Zero asked.

"I can."

"What does it say?"

Bai Wu calmed his emotions and replied:

"It’s a recording in a foreign language; it’s very short, just a few sentences—

Here is the Susla border; we have established a communication base and have sent an exploration team into the Hei Wu region. But Alpha Squad seems to have encountered some mishap quickly; we have lost contact with the team. The three nations within the Hei Wu region are also now in a state of complete communication isolation. Please instruct us on our next actions from headquarters."