Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: The Ultimate Good and the Ultimate Evil

Diary-like memory fragments continuously pieced together the truth within Bai Wu’s sea of knowledge.

The child with the power of regeneration swiftly healed whenever his body was damaged or mutilated. freёwebnoѵel.com

Even when losing organs.

To that doctor, the child was nothing but a human organ storage.

Still, the diary-like memories wove through the harrowing cycles of slaughter, memory resets, slaughter, memory resets, starting from the earliest diary entry in 2017, persisting until 2024.

For seven years, the child always believed himself to be a hero saving the world.

The world’s mutations didn’t start with the appearance of Evil Fallen, but rather began with changes in the environment, and for the world seven hundred years hence, the embryonic form outside of the tower already existed. Some people with peculiar talents might awaken certain powers.

Absolute Regeneration is very similar to Sequence 42: Endless Nirvana, only one belongs to Evil Fallen, and the other to humans.

Bai Wu speculated that at that time, Dandelion possessed not the perfect Mutation Entry: Absolute Regeneration, but Talent Sequence 42: Endless Nirvana.

What people thought of as superheroes were mostly those who could ascend to the heavens, challenge the impossible, and save others at critical moments.

But Dandelion was a hero too, at least he had always done well in saving others.

Only he didn’t know, no one ever welcomed him, no one loved him.

By the summer of 2024, a break finally appeared in this horrific cycle.

And this break came from another child.

...

...

2018.03.03.

Returning to school again, the teachers were very happy, but I disliked the look in their eyes.

Even though I had fully recovered, their eyes held sympathy. Shouldn’t that be the look I gave them?

In the afternoon, there was a grade-wide test, and the teacher seemed very happy afterward and asked if I wanted to participate in the provincial competition.

I had no objections, as, at least until now, my reason for living was to bring some added value to these people’s lives.

2018.03.04.

Today was still boring. At noon, I had a dream.

In the dream, I was back in the hospital, lying on the operating table, whilst a person who looked very much like me lay on the one next to mine.

He seemed to be calling my name.

It was a strange dream.

2018.04.04.

The frequency of the dream has been increasing, and each time I can only see parts of it. This dream seems to be guiding me to find something.

At school, I got confessed to by a girl on the rooftop, probably the most amusing thing that happened today.

The girl clung to me the whole way, and I treated her politely, just as my parents and teachers had taught me.

But deep down, I utterly loathed her. We barely spoke, what did she like about me?

Maybe clinging to me could elevate her value, possibly even change her social class?

But she doesn’t know, in my eyes she seems... just like a piece of food.

2018.04.06.

Multiple organ failures led me to undergo surgery, but I’ve always felt that I’m no longer myself after the surgery.

I had that dream again, and I’m gradually getting used to it. Every day I lay on the operating table next to him.

His heart, liver, lungs, spleen, kidneys; they all went to me, I even felt as if he and I had become one.

Does he truly exist? My mom told me the organs inside me came from different people and that I shouldn’t think too much on it.

What I should care about is studying well, so that I can earn more money for the family in the future.

2018.04.22.

I’ve grown increasingly disgusted with her.

When she sees a stray cat by the garbage bin, she would say, "Ew, how filthy, its skin is all rotten, so gross."

But in her social media feed, there are lots of photos of her visits to cat cafés.

She’s equally repulsed by roadside stray dogs, yet she thinks someone’s Shiba Inu is even more valuable than the lives of those underperforming students.

She thinks she’s successfully become my girlfriend, even somewhat boasting. She uses me as bragging material.

This has made me even more curious. what exactly does it feel like to eat human flesh?

2018.05.04.

The scenes in my dreams are becoming more and more vivid, as if I saw his face, a person about my age, and we look very similar.

He’s telling me that no one likes him, no one loves him, everything is fake.

I don’t understand what that means, but all along, people around me have liked me a lot.

I behave obediently, listen well, get good grades, and I’m rather popular with women, my father has made some money, so I don’t have to worry about the future.

Everyone loves me, everyone likes me, everyone welcomes me. They all act as though they are very close to me. Maybe because this way, they can get some benefits in return?

I really hate them.

2018.05.09.

In the previous dream, I was chatting and laughing with him, he would occasionally complain to me why everyone is afraid of him.

But today, he didn’t recognize me.

He was as if he had forgotten everything.

At school, a woman pulled me into the infirmary and kissed me. I accidentally bit her lip, and as her blood slowly seeped in, I suddenly felt the vibrancy of the world.

Life is truly a marvelous thing, I could almost hear the organs speaking, praising the fresh blood.

Until I was harshly pushed away by the woman, with her frantic screams as she looked at me in horror, as if she had seen a monster.

Hey, hey, what’s with this ugly expression? It’s just half a lip bitten off, isn’t it? You say you like me with every breath, and you can’t even bear this?

2018.05.14.

My father paid a good deal of compensation and scolded me for causing him significant financial loss, even saying it could affect the company’s stock.

Too bad, I only had a little taste.

But it’s not too bad, no more having to see her divide life into worthiness and disgust.

I feel something awakening inside me, as if I have found the meaning of life.

2018.05.20.

What an interesting day. Today I met an interesting person.

The school’s teachers arranged for a psychologist, they want to get an answer: I only did something I shouldn’t have due to too much pressure, that it’s not my true nature.

And the psychologist gave them such an answer.

He’s a very interesting person, he told me, his name is Cain.

He said to me, "Dandelion, I will call you Dandelion from now on. You’re not a good kid at all, you’re not just under psychological pressure, you just really like the taste of flesh and blood, right?"

Cain? Dandelion? Such strange names, but they seem unexpectedly interesting.

2018.05.22.

I received my birthday gift, a car, which I don’t like.

I’m increasingly tired of pretending to be a good kid. In my dreams, I befriended that person again.

But I have a feeling that he will soon forget about me again.

In the afternoon, Cain suddenly appeared in our yard. He came in his capacity as a psychologist, saying he was there to counsel me.

My parents happily welcomed him.

He knew my birthday; he was giving me a birthday present.

We walked together in the garage, and he opened the trunk, revealing a sack that emitted the muffled sobs of a woman.

"Do you like this gift?"

"It’s fantastic!"

2019.09.19.

Over the past year, Cain had become my mentor, and I told him about that dream—he told me it was true.

He told me there was another me in this world. The other me was in agony; the world owed him a great debt.

My purpose was to retrieve everything the world owed him!

2020.01.04.

More and more people started to mutate. On the outskirts of the city, creatures named Evil Fallen were discovered.

I was a bit frightened, but Cain gave me courage.

I was a born predator; everything in this world, they were my prey! The Evil Fallen were, and so were humans.

I wanted to save the other me, but Cain told me the other me still harbored good intentions towards this world, it wasn’t time yet.

2022.03.04.

The number of Evil Fallen kept increasing, though they weren’t yet a threat to humanity.

Cain had taken me hunting some Evil Fallen, and also humans.

I didn’t understand what Cain really meant, which side he was on.

Cain told me we only belonged to ourselves.

If the Evil Fallen were evil, then kill the Evil Fallen; if humans were evil, then kill humans.

2023.07.15.

The transformation in me could no longer be hidden; devouring too many humans and Evil Fallen had caused some sort of change in me.

I asked Cain if I was still human.

Cain said to me, "Is it necessary to cling to being human?"

Humans would eventually be driven into the High Tower; only such a form could stay outside forever.

Parents and teachers finally showed their true faces; everyone started to fear me at last.

Ha ha ha, it’s so funny. They’re angry they can’t use me anymore, yet they still pretend to be pitiful and scared.

They wanted to send me to the Ninth Psychiatric Hospital; I knew that place was for confining monsters.

So I was already a monster? But their faces were just as hideous.

2023.09.11.

A guy with a mask appeared in the city, so annoying, so annoying! Just as the city reached a boiling point of fear, his emergence cooled it down.

Cain told me that was a troublesome guy, it was best not to provoke him.

When everyone wanted to confine me in the Ninth Hospital, Cain rescued me and told me that after the masked man died, we could act to save the other me.

2024.07.14.

Cain said the rate of mutation in the world was too fast. People started lining up, trying to squeeze into the tower.

Those still outside were just waiting to die.

As for the masked man, he seemed to have left the city, or perhaps he was lurking somewhere?

No matter, the city was too chaotic; monsters stronger than me began to wreak havoc, roaming throughout the city. People started to scatter in all directions.

Every day near the supermarket, crowds fought over supplies.

Organizations also began to build underground shelters; Cain said this world could last another three or four years but after that, outside the tower, it would be difficult to see humans.

To live outside the tower, not cohabited with those regarded as food, one must become an Evil Fallen.

Cain and I finally arrived at the central hospital in the city. Many times I wanted to come here, but Cain stopped me every time.

And at last, I met the other me...

The chamber door had been open for a while, and he, the test subject, had run to a place where he could be touched by sunlight. His crying sounded just like that of a child.

Why was he crying?

It turned out that no one knew him, no one loved him, and no one cared about him. He thought he had redeemed others and was a hero in people’s hearts.

But in the hurried and disordered hospital... no one paid any attention to him.

Some even showed faces of disgust.

He shouted a woman’s name, probably that of a nurse here.

He once told me there was a kind-hearted nurse sister here.

But Cain told me that there... had never been a nurse. Never.

Since the day I had my surgery, there had been no women in this hospital.

...

...

The log-like memories continued until, in the end, Bai Wu saw the misty figure of Cain, as if covered in a fog, and Dandelion, whose body had mutated and begun to show signs of decay from continuously devouring others.

In the end, they took away the other Dandelion, the child who had first awakened the Talent Sequence: Endless Nirvana.

As for what happened afterwards, Bai Wu wasn’t clear.

But the storyline had become evident.

It wasn’t a case of two souls, one body; Dandelion’s organs had saved the other child.

The two of them, one personifying supreme goodness, and the other, supreme evil.

The irony was that the good person lived in the most evil of surroundings; no one loved him, no one welcomed him, no one cared about him.

The so-called nurse sister... was just like Hong Yin’s comb. If this benevolent Dandelion had met Hong Yin, they could probably have been considered misfortunate siblings.

And in the end, when everyone abandoned Dandelion, he didn’t harbor any resentment. Throughout it all, he remained human.

As for the evil one? He lived in conditions many people could only dream of, possessing wealth, resources, connections, and even exceptional personal appearance.

Yet, paradoxically, he became an Evil Fallen prematurely. Of course, the appearance of this teacher, namely Cain, had a lot to do with it.

If at that time there had been a real psychologist instead of Cain, perhaps the other Dandelion wouldn’t have fallen so far.

The fragmented notes were proof of Cain’s power to connect the lives of the two Dandelions.

Now, Bai Wu had uncovered the ultimate puzzle.

"Hello, investigator, having gone through all of this, I think we’ve both realized the ugliness of human nature, and I’d like to offer you an additional secret—

You must be curious about how Yang Zhen, Qin Lin, and Liang Yu came to be here, it’s actually quite simple; I gave them a bit of guidance."

Bai Wu was startled.

He had realized something—Evil Fallen could not go to the High Tower, as they would be directly executed by some power of the tower.

So this Cain... was he not an Evil Fallen? Did he live in the tower as well?

Only the last page of the file remained. This page was bound to hold the secret of the three.

"It seems you want me to make a moral choice, to blackmail me with my own morality?"

Bai Wu had guessed Cain’s thinking; his biggest trump wasn’t Dandelion, but Bai Wu himself.

It’s just that Cain didn’t know, inside, Bai Wu felt not even the slightest weight.

As long as I am without morality, you will never be able to blackmail me.

He calmly turned the last page.