Free Web NovelChapter 489: Chapter 106: Starting from a Hero
(When reviewing previous Chapters, I noticed that some readers pointed out that the name Tao Xingzhi involves a historical figure, so to avoid any misunderstandings, I’d like to clarify that it is merely a coincidence in naming without any intended reference, honestly there’s no hidden meaning~)
Bai Wu’s words, slow yet filled with a strong determination.
Wu Jiu didn’t speak, but his gaze was resolute, his will to rescue these people not the slightest bit less than Bai Wu’s.
Only now had they truly come to understand the plight of those scientists who had held out to the very end in Denglin City, how brutal it really was.
The female scientist, under Bai Wu’s repeated words, finally began to recover from her despair and started to accept the reality of the situation.
"Someone really came to save us? But how can you save us... The monsters outside are too strong... It’s too late, they’ve become so powerful that they have no weaknesses..."
"We’ve died too many times, it’s too late! We’ve allowed them to become too strong!"
The woman clung to Bai Wu, crying inconsolably, while Bai Wu gently patted the female scientist on the back:
"Leave it to us, no matter how strong they are, my friends and I will surely drive them out."
With his greatsword on his back, Bai Wu, and Wu Jiu with his sword at his waist, emanated an aura that made the woman feel that these two were extraordinary.
"You will see, we will eventually take you away from here, but for now, I need you to tell us what exactly happened. Where are the other scientists?"
Bai Wu looked at the female scientist.
Collecting herself a bit, the female scientist finally straightened out her appearance:
"I’m sorry, I was beside myself. My name is Bi Yunxia, I’m a scientist responsible for pharmaceuticals."
"My name is Bai Wu, I come from an Investigation Corps outside the tower, and this is my superior."
"Hello, my name is Gu Qingyu, from the Investigation Corps outside the tower."
Bai Wu and Wu Jiu introduced themselves as well.
Bi Yunxia said in surprise:
"You come from the High Tower? I thought... the High Tower was our enemy..."
Wu Jiu was puzzled, but Bai Wu probably understood:
"Those who stay here are heroes, but those who go to the High Tower aren’t necessarily all traitors."
Bai Wu decided to mention Xie Yingjie’s name, but Bi Yunxia seemed to sense something and shook her head, saying:
"Let me take you to the others... They’re all waiting in the office on the 20th floor, Xing Tao and I had to come down earlier because we couldn’t bear the torment of our negative attributes. Have you seen Xing Tao?"
Bi Yunxia’s mention of Xing Tao, Bai Wu guessed, was probably the person who had suddenly exploded.
Bai Wu said:
"We saw him, but it was too late to save him."
Bi Yunxia didn’t seem to care:
"If it weren’t for your relief of my pain, I wouldn’t want to be alive either... Let’s go, let’s talk upstairs, everyone should know you’ve arrived by now, but they might not have the same attitude as me."
With questions in mind, the three of them began their ascent to the 20th floor.
Although there were some documents to collect along the way, Bai Wu wasn’t in a rush.
One thing that Bai Wu was very interested in was that if the team leader had already arrived long ago, and both Bi Yunxia and Xing Tao suffered to the point of death from negative attributes, why didn’t the team leader feel the same way?
Was it because the negative attributes weren’t strong enough?
Or was it that the team leader had become so powerful that he surpassed human limits?
Bai Wu didn’t ask because after changing to the elevator, the 20th floor came into view very quickly.
There was a rather spacious lounge on the 20th floor, and in the corner of the lounge lay a group of dim-eyed scientists sprawled out haphazardly.
They had not yet been infected with negative attributes, or rather, it had been less than four hours since their last death. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Every face wore an expression of despair.
Seeing Bi Yunxia bring two men with out-of-place appearances upstairs, some opened their eyes with a pondering look.
Others didn’t care at all, believing no one could change the situation. They simply continued to tremble in fear and anxiety, waiting for doom to arrive after four hours of revival.
Among this group was no Professor Tao.
Bi Yunxia quickly began to introduce these scientists and recounted the origins of Bai Wu and Wu Jiu, and upon hearing the two were from the High Tower.
All of them reacted, most still believed these two could not change the situation, while some asked if they could enter the High Tower.
A physicist named Hou Haiyan showed a somewhat fawning expression, wanting to enter the High Tower.
Most of the others simply watched.
"Please! I heard that no twisted rule can take effect in the High Tower! Since you come from the High Tower, you must have a way to take me in, right?! There’s got to be a way!"
Wu Jiu took out the Return Roulette:
"You can enter the High Tower using this, but I’ve tried it not long ago and it won’t activate. It’s true that entering the High Tower can isolate everything twisted, but some places can interrupt the working mechanism of the Roulette."
This had happened before on the flight of death, Bai Wu wasn’t concerned, but the others looked quite disappointed.
Bai Wu and Wu Jiu started to state their purpose, recounting some things about the High Tower and the outside world; Bai Wu also brought up what he had seen in Xuanhui City, also known as the heart of Jing Si.
Jing Si, Xuanhui, Xie Yingjie - these terms seemed both far and near to these scientists.
"Maybe you all think that the people of the High Tower are cowards, and perhaps you even harbor some hatred towards those who abandoned you to enter the High Tower, but things are not actually like that..."
"Xie Yingjie never..."
"Get out!"
Bai Wu’s words were interrupted by a scientist named Fu Lei.
He appeared to be about forty years old, with a square face, a beard around his jaw, and looked somewhat fierce and tough.
Bai Wu took notice of Fu Lei, who seemed the most normal and yet the most abnormal among the group.
What was normal about him was that he did not appear to be neurotic but simply extremely tired.
What was disordered was that Fu Lei had a different reaction from the others; when Bai Wu and Wu Jiu arrived, the others had varied reactions—disappointment, surprise, cautiousness, and trembling hope.
Only Fu Lei had no change in expression from beginning to end, his heart as gray as ashes, his face as well.
But just as Bai Wu was about to mention Xie Yingjie, Fu Lei suddenly shouted:
"Get the hell out, go show off somewhere else, get lost! This place doesn’t belong to you."
After Bai Wu’s introduction, many scientists, like Bi Yunxia, sensed the extraordinariness of Bai Wu and Wu Jiu and felt a glimmer of hope.
Especially Bi Yunxia, who was supposed to be tormented to death by negative attributes, but she was able to endure the pain, or rather, her pain was alleviated by the miraculous powers of Bai Wu.
Bi Yunxia said:
"Old Fu... maybe we should..."
"Bi Yunxia, are you fucking brain-damaged from the injections? Do you want me to smash your head to make you sober up? Do you know what meaningless hope means?"
"Do you know who the fuck created our current situation? It’s that bastard Tao! And the one surnamed Xie!"
"If it weren’t for the one surnamed Xie, would Tao Xingzhi have such deep resentment for the deserters? Would he have locked us here for a lifetime?"
Fu Lei was clearly the leader of this group of scientists, and Bai Wu discovered that he possessed the Innate Force and had four negative attributes affixed to him.
That is to say, although Fu Lei seemed to be in despair, he was actually the most persistent among them.
It was only Fu Lei who didn’t have the disheveled, defeated look. But at the same time, it was also Fu Lei who was most resistant to Bai Wu and the others’ arrival.
"So you’re Bai Wu, right? I don’t fucking care who you are, just don’t mention the name Xie Yingjie in front of us. Has he sent anyone here in the past seven hundred years? You don’t think having him in your thoughts means he has a conscience, do you?" freewёbnoνel.com
These words did move Bai Wu.
Yes, many people are internally evil but do not commit crimes. You can’t call them good, but they are certainly not bad.
Many struggle and feel remorse within their hearts yet still commit bad deeds. They think they have no choice and want to be good, but in essence, they are actually bad people.
No matter how much Xie Yingjie showed his longing for Professor Tao in front of Bai Wu, as long as he did not act, it was meaningless.
Maybe Xie Yingjie wanted to research weapons that could fight outside the tower, showing that his original intention had not changed.
But it would be too cruel to speak of Xie Yingjie’s virtues in front of the scientists such as Bi Yunxia, Hou Haiyan, and Fu Lei.
Bai Wu nodded:
"He is a deserter; there is no excuse for that. I will not speak for him again, but we have not given you all meaningless hope."
Fu Lei paid no attention to Bai Wu. Since Bai Wu had entered the building and the Return Roulette could no longer be activated to return to the High Tower, he was certain...
Sooner or later, these two would regret, despair, and curse Xie Yingjie and Tao Xingzhi, just like everyone else here.
Fu Lei simply lay down on the ground, took an experimental report, and started to read silently.
The others also lost their initial curiosity, including Hou Haiyan. Once they heard that Bai Wu and Wu Jiu couldn’t go back, they stopped caring.
Everyone was lying around waiting to die, no one believed them – they thought what Fu Lei said was right.
Meaningless hope is the most harmful.
Only Bi Yunxia, feeling the gentle force coming from Bai Wu’s hands, powerful enough to soothe the pain in her heart, believed that what Bai Wu said was true.
"Everyone... everyone has suffered so much, I hope you don’t mind," she said.
Bai Wu did not want to waste time. He and Wu Jiu would prove that the Evil Fallen outside were not invincible.
Now, both he and Wu Jiu had such abilities.
But for now, he needed to know what had happened here.
Since everyone was listlessly sitting around, Bai Wu didn’t expect any answers from them, so he turned to Bi Yunxia:
"I need to know what happened after Xie Yingjie left, after the High Tower disappeared in 2128, what did Jing Si do, what happened to Professor Tao?"
Bi Yunxia nodded and began to narrate slowly—
"Although a long time has passed, we will never forget what happened that year."
"After Xie Yingjie left, everyone was deeply affected. Although we researched methods to fight the Evil Fallen in many fields, only the areas led by Xie Yingjie and Tao Xingzhi yielded results."
"Jing Si’s madness became more frequent, unable to suppress his distortion, and many scientists in the building turned into Evil Fallen. He created a domain to isolate himself."
"But to no avail, we needed to study through Jing Si, the strongest Evil Fallen in history. If we could create something to defeat Jing Si, naturally we could defeat other Evil Fallen too..."
"This initially had hope, but not anymore."
"Negative emotions further stimulated Jing Si. He grew wildly deranged and... eliminated Jing Liu."
Bai Wu was shocked—he had not expected Jing Si, in his frenzy, to have eliminated Jing Liu.
Jing Liu was resurrected elsewhere, and that was the reason the siblings later separated?
"Jing Si also knew that in a state of madness, he would hurt others, so he always longed for Tao Xingzhi’s project to succeed, but how could it possibly succeed?"
"Xie Yingjie has left! He’s gone!"
Bi Yunxia was still somewhat emotional, and Bai Wu noticed that everyone’s expressions had changed as well.
They hated Xie Yingjie, detested him to the bone.
"Jing Si eventually realized this point, there is no savior in this world, which became his inner demon, his demon was split into two parts... one was good intentions, and the other was evil intentions."
"We don’t know where the good intentions went, but the evil intentions stayed in Denglin City."
Bai Wu suddenly understood, the good intentions must have gone to Xuanhui City.
So the heart of Jing Si... was not a real heart, as the creatures of the Well are already immortal beings.
They have no need for organs.
The so-called heart was merely a product of Jing Si’s immense obsession.
One remained in Denglin, twisting the rules, and the other went to Xuanhui City, where Bai Wu and Wu Jiu encountered it.
So that was the good intentions...
Only then did Bai Wu realize why he screamed that a savior did exist, that it could completely put Jing Si’s mind at ease.
Because that was what Jing Si hoped for.
If that’s the case with good intentions, what about evil intentions?
"The evil intentions were embedded into Tao Xingzhi’s body, Jing Si was almost mad at the time, and said to Tao Xingzhi: ’You must pay the price for your incompetence and lies.’
"So the immense twisted obsession was infused into Tao Xingzhi’s body by Jing Si."
"When we saw Tao Xingzhi again, he was saying goodbye to us with a calm expression."
Thinking back to that moment of farewell, Bi Yunxia was actually quite moved, but everyone despised Tao Xingzhi because of their current fate, so nobody dared to show their feelings.
They used to admire him, but now... everything had changed.
"He said to us—
’Humanity will not fail. I have become a cursed man. I am about to turn into a monster, but don’t be afraid... From now on, Jing Si’s obsession is my obsession.
You will never become Evil Fallen like me. You will live as humans forever.
You won’t be killed by the Evil Fallen, and this last haven will not be destroyed!
Keep on living, we are humanity’s last hope... The High Tower will fall one day, but by then, we will surely find a way to defeat the Evil Fallen... definitely!
I’m really sorry. I should be with you, but I don’t have much time left.’
Such words moved us deeply at the time... We swore we would try our best to conduct research.
But we ignored the meaning of that sentence—Jing Si’s obsession is his obsession. We should have run away then."
Bai Wu asked:
"What is Jing Si’s obsession? And what is Professor Tao’s obsession?"
Bi Yunxia’s tone was heavy:
"The one who couldn’t let go of Xie Yingjie’s departure was Tao Xingzhi the most. After giving his last words, Tao Xingzhi’s will was completely devoured by that twisted heart of Jing Si."
"When he acquired that immense twisted power, this city, this building, was enveloped under new rules."
"His hatred for Xie Yingjie was also distorted into immense hatred capable of altering the rules of the world!"
"We cannot become Evil Fallen, we cannot truly die, death is just the beginning, we have no way out..."
"We must keep trying to figure out a way to research, to research a method to kill the Evil Fallen. Only by using our research to kill the strongest Evil Fallen in this city can we find release."
"At first, we thought we could do it, but we didn’t expect that what Jing Si imposed on us was a curse!"
"Our deaths would actually make the monsters stronger! Our research speed could not keep up with the evolution speed of the monsters."
"Even if we died from the negative attributes occurring every four hours, the monsters outside would get stronger."
"We have researched many things, which might have been useful at first... but it’s meaningless now."
"Their resistance is getting higher, and with our continuous death and resurrection, the weaknesses we had barely implanted in the Evil Fallen Bodies were overcome by their various mutations and evolutions."
"A few months ago, we were still very motivated, but after a year, we realized the horror of it all."
"Two years later, we became increasingly desperate, but we didn’t even have the right to truly despair, we could only be clear-headed in agony, and because of such clarity, the pain intensified."
"One year, two years, three years, five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years... Bai Wu... we can’t hold on anymore! We really tried very hard."
"But there’s no way... There really is no way, no matter how hard we try, no matter what we do... we can’t close the gap between humans and the Evil Fallen!"
At this, Bi Yunxia suddenly knelt down, a proud scientist, a person with pride who chose to stay in Denglin City, now kneeling before Bai Wu:
"We’ve lost, we’ve given up... I don’t want to stay here, I want to truly die, I don’t want to be human anymore!"
In the rest room, the emotions of all the scientists exploded with Bi Yunxia’s weeping.
Many scientists, just like Hou Haiyan, were crying with their heads in their hands, they did not look like scientists, but more like beggars with broken spines.
Fu Lei covered his face with the file, lying on his back, no one knew what expression Fu Lei had, only his clenched fist was visible.
Bai Wu gently helped Bi Yunxia up and said,
"So, the heart of Jing Si’s Evil Thoughts was planted in Professor Tao, and Professor Tao became a monster... The task he left for you is to use your research to kill the strongest monster."
Bi Yunxia nodded.
Wu Jiu thought of something and looked at Bai Wu, whose expression was complex as he shook his head,
"That monster... is Professor Tao himself, right? He absorbed a part of Jing Si’s power and became the strongest Evil Fallen in this city."
Bi Yunxia cried out,
"We also don’t know... After so many mutations, and having not left this building for too long, we have no idea what he looks like anymore."
Bai Wu was fairly certain of this,
"So Professor Tao also fits this characterization? Your deaths would also make Professor Tao stronger?"
"Yes."
It was too heavy to bear.
Bai Wu could imagine that the scientists were in utter despair, but probably, so was Professor Tao.
He watched himself growing stronger, his inner fear was probably deeper than that of these scientists,
Bai Wu always believed that the person who could resist the temptation of the fifth floor of High Tower and said "I don’t want to leave," the person who could make Jing Si feel guilty all the time, although he cursed these scientists...
It surely wasn’t his intention, but he was completely twisted.
Deep down, he must not have wanted to grow stronger, he must have hoped that this group of scientists could kill him, right?
Jing Si... truly ruined Professor Tao.
That was even more painful than letting Professor Tao die.
He could only watch helplessly as his former colleagues plunged into despair and personally experience—that being twisted far exceeds the powerlessness of human effort.
But what, after all, did Professor Tao and the scientists do wrong?
Feeling the despair of these scientists, the crying of Bi Yunxia, the pleading of Hou Haiyan, and the anger of Fu Lei...
Bai Wu stood in the center,
"I know no matter what I say, I cannot restore your hope, so I won’t say much more. Next, my companions and I will exterminate the Evil Fallen in this city."
"Your seven hundred years of effort were not in vain, at the very least, this spirit has been passed on to me."
Bai Wu turned and left, and Wu Jiu also turned to leave.
The others didn’t understand what the two of them were planning to do, but they soon realized.
Everyone leaned against the edge of the break room, looking out the large windows, at the scene twenty stories below.
Below was the same as always, teeming with Evil Fallen.
Some of these Evil Fallen were not high in mutation level, but due to numerous evolutions, a multitude of terrifying entries had emerged.
Any random Evil Fallen could easily kill the scientists countless times, and countless Evil Fallen gathered outside the Ddnglin City Science and Technology Building like a tide. What could those two humans possibly do?
Upon leaving the Denglin City Science and Technology Building and seeing those Evil Fallen again, Bai Wu said,
"Captain, we’re now so much stronger than when we first explored Xuanhui City.
"But the heart of Evil Thoughts in the form of Jing Si has been strengthened countless times in these seven hundred years. I’m not clear what level it could reach, and we may be in for a fierce battle."
"I will protect you," Wu Jiu said.
"I will also protect the captain," Bai Wu recalled the scene when Wu Jiu took over as deputy leader.
He had said the same thing back then.
The brothers sensed the presence of a formidable enemy lurking in this city, but neither of them retreated.
"I once told Jing Si’s heart of Innate Force that there is a savior in this world."
"But at that time, Captain, you should still remember what I said next, right?"
As the tide of Evil Fallen continued to gather, Bai Wu and Wu Jiu stood in the shadows below the Denglin City building, radiating an air of determination as though they faced a million enemies alone.
Wu Jiu nodded,
"You said then that it was all fake, made up. There was never a savior in this world, and humans were still in the High Tower."
In the High Tower, even when people on the lower levels were slaughtered, Bai Wu never thought of assuming the role of a savior.
And that remained true to this day.
But after arriving in Denglin City, feeling the enlightenment and despair of Professor Tao and the scientists, he suddenly changed his mind.
The world was too big; he could not save it, but at least, he wanted to save the scientists in this city.
Bai Wu’s figure gradually emerged from the shadows, sunlight falling on him, casting him in a golden hue. He drew his greatsword, his fighting spirit immediately erupting,
"If this city has no hero, then let me be that hero!"
(Over 6000 words, just barely a big Chapter huh~~)
