Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 435: Chapter 52: Bai Wu’s Step-mom

After hearing the words of The First Generation, Bai Wu suddenly felt a sensation that this was all a trap.

If one of the makers of the Ark project was Bai Yuan, did he deliberately design it this way?

What was his ability?

The aversion to Bai Yuan made Bai Wu’s feelings very complicated at this moment.

The First Generation had also noticed. From the fact that Bai Wu directly called Bai by his name, and the tone when Bai had been mentioned earlier in the conversation, he had keenly sensed something— the relationship between this father and son was probably rather strange.

However, The First Generation did not stop anything, nor did he attempt to change anything; in his view, that was Bai’s family affair, or perhaps Bai’s...some wicked taste, or maybe it was one of Bai’s planning tactics?

Who knows.

"He should have been able to do more. When he betrayed you, didn’t you feel angry? There will come a day in the future when you will be in trouble for lack of support. There will come a day...when you will feel lonely and tired because there are no fellow travelers on the road. You just..."

"Stop, stop it. I refuse this kind of spoiler. If I changed everything in the future, you can spoil it for me, but if I failed...well, it seems I indeed failed now, but you don’t need to tell me where I went wrong."

Bai Wu was surprised. Didn’t The First Generation want to know the direction of the future?

"Why? Isn’t it more meaningful to know one’s failures and to stop some actions?"

"Just as Bai said, I am destined to fail, but someone has to do it, the enemy is so powerful, someone has to use their own meaningless failure to exchange for the meaningfulness of later generations."

There was no grandiose rhetoric, The First Generation spoke these words very calmly, without any didactic tone, this was simply what he believed.

These words left Bai Wu momentarily at a loss for words.

For a moment the atmosphere turned silent, the moon shrouded by the drifting clouds, and the light within the room dimmed significantly.

At this time, The First Generation suddenly said:

"I don’t know what you would do if you could go back to the past, but Little Bai, if you really have this power, you must understand, people like me never have regrets. You ought to focus on the future, not the past."

The First Generation had said something similar when he was on the verge of death after being seriously injured in a battle with Jing Si and then met Lin Rui.

Lin Rui received the power and the will from another self. But it wasn’t until his death that Lin Rui truly understood these words.

Against such a backdrop, Bai Wu’s hatred for Bai Yuan grew even more, and a red aura even began to emanate from him:

"How could he have abandoned you."

"Perhaps he had more important things to attend to."

"What could be more important than saving one’s comrades?"

The First Generation did not answer this question, just silently looked at Bai Wu, and after a few seconds, said:

"I can’t judge what Bai has done to you, nor should your impression of Bai be swayed by me. So what I’m about to say next, you can just take it as my personal opinion of Bai."

Bai Wu nodded: freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

"My impression of him is not going to change."

"Hahaha, that’s your business then. In my eyes, Bai is a very charismatic person, he looks far into the future, at least farther than I do, I can’t surpass him even though I can travel to the future, living in the present as he does."

"But he’s not good at fighting, too obsessed with the way of influencing people’s hearts."

Bai Wu remained silent.

To Bai Wu, Bai Yuan indeed didn’t seem like the type to engage in fights, of course, playing with needle pricking was indeed his strong suit.

"He, I, and another creator of the Ark, we all encountered a very powerful will, which can be said to be the origin of all twists, or the other side of the origin."

The High Tower Creator.

Bai Wu guessed that The First Generation was talking about this.

"The three of us received power, my Temporal Power was thus perfected, with even more possibilities, and what Bai received was some power on the mental level."

"Who is the other? Is he still alive?" Bai Wu asked.

As long as this person was still alive in this timeline, he must be traceable in the Memory World.

The other creator of the Ark was Bai Yuan, Bai Wu couldn’t change this fact, and Bai Yuan would in any case reappear.

As for his view of Bai Yuan, Bai Wu was reluctant to admit it, but indeed, there had been many changes.

But for now, Bai Wu needed to find the person who worked with Bai Yuan. Only by finding this person could he unravel the mystery of the Memory Labyrinth, retrieve his lost memories, and also find what Jing San had left behind.

"Alive, but hard to find."

If necessary, Bai Wu felt he could enter The First Generation’s memories.

But for now, he needed to have a good talk with The First Generation.

"Where has he gone?"

"He’s gone into hiding."

As far as Bai Wu knew, the other creator of the Ark had hidden inside the Ark.

That is, deep within the Memory Museum.

But in his memories, at this time, the creator had not yet completed the Ark, so he might be somewhere else.

Bai Wu was very glad he hadn’t rashly gone to Black Gold Island.

"Are you very curious about her? She is an autistic patient with severe social difficulties, but her spiritual power is abnormally strong. Consider her the same type as Bai. Perhaps even stronger than Bai, but not as clever. She is not as adept with her abilities as Bai is. Overall, she doesn’t pose as much of a threat as Bai does."

Bai Wu could understand this, and became even more interested in this person.

It’s like comparing someone with an AK47 to someone with a handgun; although the former is stronger, the owner of the handgun is a sharpshooter, and naturally poses a greater threat.

The Masked Strange Person tilted his head slightly, thinking of some odd things:

"Hmm, she’s a very difficult person to get along with, a very peculiar thinker. I am considered to have poor social skills, right?"

Bai Wu smiled awkwardly yet courteously, without answering, thinking to himself that he did have quite a self-awareness.

"But she’s even more outrageous. I don’t know where she has gone. The last time I saw her was when the three of us had just escaped from the farm."

It seemed that he would indeed need to enter the Memory World of The First Generation.

Bai Wu said:

"So to put it simply, she’s not easy to deal with?"

"Hard to get along with, but..."

"But what?"

"You might be able to get her to talk just with your looks."

Bai Wu frowned, an uncomfortable feeling rising up again.

"Don’t tell me that this person with autism you mentioned happens to be the one exception who doesn’t resist Bai Yuan."

"Hahahahaha...now you got it!" The First Generation laughed loudly and seemed to be very amused.

Bai Wu’s expression drooped:

"He really is a lady-killer."

"Isn’t that the truth? Who doesn’t like Old Bai? Old Bai has a gentle presence and he’s good-looking, unlike me... Ahahaha, I’m so ugly. Whenever the three of us are together, it’s basically just me talking to Old Bai, while the one with autism gazes at him with deep affection."

Bai Wu thought to himself that the other person wasn’t ugly at all, and actually looked quite nice, but he still focused on the main point:

"Looks at him with deep affection? A woman? Or is it a man who’s just bent that way?"

"A woman. You can call her Little Mom; maybe she’d be happy to talk to you. But she’s not your mom. Old Bai’s not interested in her; he just sees her as a sister. Pfft, what a dog, hahahaha..."

The First Generation laughed and cursed at the same time, his laughter tinged with reflection.

Now that Old Bai had a child...

If his own future had failed, then the days the three of them had spent together couldn’t possibly happen again, could they?

The path to saving the world in the future would have to be walked alone.

But at that thought, he suddenly became magnanimous again:

"Such a life wouldn’t be too bad."

This statement came abruptly, and Bai Wu was still immersed in the previous one. Little Mom? This person who created the Ark... a woman... and she had a liking for Bai Yuan?

Why had he never mentioned it?

But it seemed normal somehow, given that Bai Yuan apparently had many secrets from him.

Bai Wu was astounded, a picture of shock for a century.

"What’s her name? I don’t plan to call her Little Mom; I’d rather use her real name."

"Hahahaha, don’t be shy, as a Time Traveler, you should be prepared for this. In the future, if you find yourself referring to your son as your brother, that’s how it will be."

"Her name is Dong Yugan. It’s not a nice-sounding name, so she probably wouldn’t have accepted it if it weren’t for Old Bai picking it."

"Dong Yugan? Is she a cat person?"

Bai Wu dislikes Bai Yuan, but not the people who like Bai Yuan.

If Bai Yuan hadn’t done those atrocious acts, even if he was a selfish and indifferent person on a daily basis, it would still be hard to dislike him based solely on his appearance.

Especially since he was very good at making people happy.

"Indeed, she’s a cat person. We call her Xiaoyugan because she once fought with a cat over food."

"But that’s not her real name. She and I, due to our high aptitudes, were marked by causality; we can’t mention our own names, though I also don’t know my name..."

"Even now, Old Bai calls me K, I call him Old Bai, and then the third person, your Little Mom, we call her Xiaoyugan. Hence her name became Dong Yugan."

"But actually, Old Bai wasn’t marked. Until he left the farm, Jing Yi believed in him deeply. On the farm, Old Bai had a fair amount of power too."

"After leaving the farm, we arrived in a random region, far away from Sheng Country. Also, leaving the farm, my Temporal Power had almost run dry, and I needed a long time to recover."

The First Generation reminisced about the past:

"That period was tough; we didn’t know how to face the future, what we were supposed to do, or even how long we could live, wondering if Jing Yi would come after us."

"But at the same time, we were happy. The air outside the farm wasn’t as fresh, but it had the scent of freedom."

"We escaped a terrible fate."

"Is she... K from the cards?"

"Oh, you know about that! Looks like you’ve encountered people from the farm. How are they, the farm kids these days? Are they as formidable as we were?"

"Not as formidable as you. Not by far. Perhaps no one after you reached your heights. Jing Yi might have lowered the standards a bit, but I’m not sure."

Bai Wu found it odd and continued to ask:

"Right, why has Bai Yuan never mentioned this person? He mentioned you before, but not Xiaoyugan."

"Probably out of guilt, I guess. Xiaoyugan originally wanted to stay on the farm, even though she knew that there would be a terrible ending there. But Bai thought Xiaoyugan’s abilities would be useful to him, so... damn, thinking about it now, he really is a scumbag."

The First Generation spoke in a complex tone, feeling that Bai had done something very wrong, but also feeling... it seemed somewhat reasonable:

"Xiaoyugan liked Bai as well as the friends on the farm. For her, that was a combination to have, not a choice to make, in the past decade or so. Until Bai forced her to make a choice... She chose to leave her comfort zone and elope with Bai."

"Later, Xiaoyugan was happy because Bai needed her. Together, using their strong spiritual power, they prepared to launch the Ark project."

"The Ark project was what Bai considered the most reasonable and reliable plan because they couldn’t defeat their enemy. If you can’t win, you should focus on reducing casualties. Preserving humanity? Too difficult. But human civilization, now perfected, was worth preserving through human memories."

"The plan indeed succeeded. Xiaoyugan and Bai working together created a bizarre space; I once entered it, and after I came out, my memories stayed inside... breathing a bit of ’me’ into that tiny yet infinite world."

"Amazing, isn’t it? If the two of them, plus the person whom Bai deceived, our four people, if we could..."

If the four could work together... perhaps the future would still be a failure? But maybe the later generations could gain more.

But The First Generation didn’t finish voicing this thought.

Because in life... there are no "ifs."

Lin Rui didn’t even realize that he was a memory entity... because memory entities also have their own trajectories in the Memory World.

And those trajectories astonishingly mirror the real world.

In the real world, The First Generation, Bai Yuan, Xiaoyugan, and the Jack of Spades went their separate ways.

The same happened in the Memory World...

So Bai Wu had the opportunity, relying on similar trajectories in the Memory World, to infer reality.

The only certainty was that, to evade a pursuer... Xiaoyugan’s true body was hidden in this world.

Like me, she was a visitor.

"After that, the most crucial part of the Ark project was completed. What remained was waiting for the Ark to be fully manufactured, a shell wrapped around the Memory World... But that was for humanity to finish."

"Then the end of the world would come. Bai believed that as long as humanity escaped the apocalypse with the Ark, all would be well. If escape was impossible, and humanity died off, it wouldn’t matter. The small world was indestructible. As long as later life forms... whether humans or twisted species... entered the Memory World, they would possess the will of humanity."

"It was a grand concept. At the moment of completion, Xiaoyugan, an introverted and withdrawn person, also felt accomplished. I still remember that day... she kissed Bai excitedly."

"She must have wanted to live forever with Bai in the Memory World, but then... Bai, he..."

Hard to calm down, recalling Xiaoyugan, The First Generation ultimately felt some turmoil:

"He left. He went somewhere Xiaoyugan could never find. Xiaoyugan lost hope in this reality and later hid somewhere I also don’t know..."

"Maybe she’s still waiting for Bai... We all have immortal lives. Maybe in your world, she’s still alive, waiting for Bai for seven hundred years... damn, it better not be like that..."

The First Generation actually sounded somewhat distressed.

Great, a story about a man who uses a woman and then runs away.

No wonder he doesn’t dare to show his face.

Turns out there is someone that you, Bai, are too afraid to face.

Turns out there’s someone other than Lin Rui who makes you feel more indebted.

Damn scumbag! Bai Wu thought disdainfully inside. He also felt annoyed by what he’d heard.

Nonetheless, Bai Wu also caught key information; maybe Bai Yuan understood Xiaoyugan very well... knew where Xiaoyugan would be hiding.

(Maybe there will be more around twelve, but just like Schrödinger’s updates, don’t expect it.)