First Player

  Chapter 1019 Chapter 1017 · “Who did he make a promise with?”

Chaoyan looked at him in the small town from a distance, her dark hair blown by the long wind.

He woke up at Su Wensheng's home, got up, looked through his schoolbag, mobile phone, and computer... Then he opened the window and looked at the sycamore tree outside the window.

 He got up, opened the door, met Su Luoluo, and started to go to school. I met the class teacher Xia Jiawen, then listened to the class, fished in class and looked at my mobile phone.

 —Nothing is different.

 If there are no external changes, his behavior pattern will always be the same, and he will never break the "established destiny".

When he woke up in bed, the calendar returned to February 3rd - he forgot that he had been running around in the rain, pursuing Grandma Lin's deeds under the camera. He forgot that he had stood on a high platform and preached, impassionedly demanding a thorough investigation of the Ark plan in front of the eyes of the world. He forgot that he had witnessed the shocking passing of fire by fifty fire bearers, and that he had ignited the fire and desperately walked step by step to the prophetic stone wall.

Chaoyan stood on a tall building in the distance. She kept watching him from a distance through the thin glass of the classroom. He was playing with his mobile phone on the desk. He seemed to feel something was wrong, but it quickly dissipated.

"Okay, okay, this is the last time, I'll try it one last time..." Chaoyan murmured to himself.

 She changed her strategy—she couldn't show all of herself to Su Ming'an from the beginning. He is a person who likes to get to the bottom of things. Only if she behaves mysteriously enough will he take her seriously.

 —He is a person dominated by the so-called "main mission". Only if her own value exceeds this "main mission" will he give up reaching the prophecy stone wall in accordance with the requirements of the main mission.

 She arranged the first meeting in "Louyue Kingdom".

The evening breeze blew up the shells on the seaside, and the waves collided freely in the salty wind. The girl carrying a medicine basket was waiting on the hillside where he would inevitably appear. She pinched the corner of her floral skirt, but there was no joy in her eyes that they were about to meet.

 She is indeed a person who values ​​emotion, but in her eyes, this emotion is more like a rationality that can be broken down. Even though she and he had made an agreement before they died last week, and they agreed not to forget each other - but since he couldn't avoid forgetting her, she would treat him as if she had never met him, so that she could better prevent him from going to the end. In front of the prophecy stone wall.

"Those promises from the stars...those candies...forget it. Even if we have lived and died together, since everything is happening again, let's pretend it never existed." Chaoyan said to himself, his eyes calm:

　　…Ah, here he comes.”

 …

　　【Su Mingan loaded the game and heard the crisp sound of water. 】

　　【His previous body was taken away by Li Mingyue. He thought that when he opened his eyes, he would already be on Penglai Immortal Island. 】

　　　But when he opened his eyes, he saw the night and the plain. The smoke from the village in the distance curls up, and there are wheat fields and cattle. He is lying on the plain, his body sinking between the soil and grass blades, and the continuous spring rain falls from the sky. 】

At the edge of the field of vision, a trace of the skirt of a floral cloth skirt appears. Plum blossoms are embroidered on the edge of the skirt, revealing a pair of small cloth shoes. This seems to be a girl from the village. 】

　　""Are you okay? Are you still alive..." Her voice was as clear as a gurgling stream. 】

Su Mingan gasped, his vision went dark, and he fainted. 】

 …

—But why would a girl from the village wait in a place like this and just happen to pick him up?

 —This was clearly a first encounter that the girl had carefully arranged to make him have a good impression of her.

 Their status has been reversed.

Chaoyan regards Su Mingan as an "NPC" whose behavior pattern will not change, and as a "player" who can always retain memories between different games - she must conquer him.

The main mission in her mind is-"Prevent Su Ming'an from walking to the prophecy stone wall".

Chaoyan looked at Su Ming'an on the ground. He was wearing the Qingyang Sword Sect's clothes, exactly the same as every Zhoumu. She picked him up and took care of his injuries.

In this fourth episode, Chaoyan has always maintained the posture of the Riddler, maintaining a full sense of mystery, and risking his life to protect him from time to time, showing great strength. This made Su Mingan begin to trust her, become curious about her, and begin to regard her as a very important person.

On the fourth day, Su Mingan received the main task of "walking to the prophecy stone wall", and he told Chaoyan about it.

Chao Yan raised his eyes - it was a look that was clearly expected, but he insisted on pretending not to know.

“…The main mission.” Chaoyan said slowly, “Can I not complete it?”

 —It’s because of the main mission, it’s because of this thing called the main mission. That makes you despair again and again.

"No, this is my most important thing." Su Mingan shook his head, his pupils were covered with a white cloud-like color. He was obviously not awake, but he thought he was just starting the dungeon.

“—Don’t finish it!” Chaoyan shouted: “It will be very dangerous.”

She tried to use the meaning of "danger" to stop him. She repeatedly emphasized the concept of "if you walk in front of the prophecy stone wall, something terrible will happen", but he just looked at her with a smile.

 No, no, no.

 After persuading for ten minutes without a response, Chaoyan finally felt the stubbornness in Su Ming'an that frightened her.

 No matter what reason she came up with to stop him, he would never give up the idea of ​​"completing the main mission". It was like a mental imprint that she could not remove—his free will seemed to have been controlled by this invisible thing.

 Although she knew very well in her heart that he should be manipulated voluntarily. It's like he was voluntarily bound by the responsibility of being called "Player One." So he will complete the main mission no matter what, even if it is riddled with holes in the end.

“You have to face it before you can take the next step, right?” the young man said.

“It’s better if you don’t face it!” Chaoyan held his shoulders. The emerald eyes and the jet-black eyes looked at each other closely. She could see the fog in his eyes, and he could also see the despair and panic in hers. Invisible threads like spider webs connected them, and even though they were extremely close, there didn't seem to be any sticky feelings between them.

—Only for the stability of the world, cold, hot, desperate, diamond-clear, mud-like turbidity, selfishness full of personal emotions, and selflessness full of righteousness.

“—For my world.” She pointed her finger on his chest and stared at him closely.

“—For my world.” He shook his head slowly and looked away from her blazing eyes.

“—Please don’t go to the prophecy wall again.” She said.

 —You will trigger a major reversal in the world and make the causal line become more and more unstable.

“-Please don’t stop me from walking to the prophetic stone wall.” He said.

  —I must complete the main mission of this ring before I can have the next breaking point.

Her fingers around his shoulders were like ten hard iron hoops, but he seemed not to feel the pain and just stared at her calmly. There was persistence in his eyes that she couldn't understand. Finally, she suddenly realized that for the sake of the stability of the world, she had approached him again and again, and she also had this persistence similar to his in her eyes.

 Like an insurmountable abyss, there is a life and death between them. Even though their eyes are very similar, they can't convince each other. "Does it have to... be like this?" There were tears in her eyes.

 She finally became deeply aware of the stubbornness and persistence of the person in front of her. The only way to stop him from moving forward is to tell him "the prophecy that the stone wall will cause the world to turn around", but this is the only thing she cannot say out loud.

She placed all kinds of difficulties and sufferings in front of him and told him how terrible the outcome would be. She spun lies to scare him off.

Her lies frightened even herself, such as "when you walk in front of the prophecy stone wall, you will be burned by fire, and all your bones will be burned away", and how "you will be pierced by a thousand needles, and your spirit will be tortured"... But he Just listen, with a calm face.

 “I understand.” He said, “Thank you.”

 —Even such horrific lies did not deter him. She saw that his eyes were still shining.

Chaoyan opened her mouth, and thousands of words were stuck in her throat, and she could not say another word.

—Her lies, her obstruction, and her attempts to win his favor all failed to conquer him.

 The persistence and strong vision in his heart were like a sharp knife, standing between them. Even if she tried to hug him, the cold blade would only cause more pain.

So, this time, she still failed to stop him.

 She slowly let go of her hand, as if letting go of a light butterfly origami kite. In front of the young man's expression, which had never changed, she softly, lowly, let out a hoarse laugh from her throat.

"I see."

“Still like this, still like this, still like this…haha, hahaha…hahahaha…”

 The young man looked at her in confusion. She knew that she was probably considered to be mentally ill. Because she laughed inexplicably, said many riddles inexplicably, and spun many lies inexplicably. Yes, she is a madman, a madman who does what she knows is impossible, a hateful Riddler - why on earth does she have to endure so much suffering and stay with him? Why on earth did she have to endure the pain of burning her body again and again to defeat the tentacle monster on the seaside for him?

 How can a madman have so many reasons?

 The madman only wants to save the world and cannot take into account other rational reasons. So in people's eyes...the "madman" became a madman.

How can you ask a madman who only sees the world to perform such perfect behavior, to say such perfect consolation, and to make such rational decisions?

Chaoyan covered her face, and she felt her cheeks were getting hot.

—However, when she raised her eyes at this moment and saw the slowly rising morning glow over his shoulder, it was so pure. Wisps of light shone on them, the horizon behind him jumped into bright colors, and even his slightly raised black hair was curled with fluffy white edges.

The young man's eyelids were surrounded by the soft morning glow, and his slightly trembling eyelashes were like butterfly wings. Even though there was confusion and confusion in his eyes, the depths of his pupils were bright.

 "I'm sorry, Chao Yan." Even so, he was still comforting her. Obviously he didn't know why she was laughing wildly, but he would still comfort her.

She just covered her face with her hands to hide her smile that was about to turn into crying, crazy, sad, painful, and desperate.

  She knew that he would fall into the abyss of reincarnation again.

  She knew he would forget all this again.

 He will not know that he has experienced three major reversals of the world.

 He will not know that he is about to start the fourth world reversal.

She smiled and hugged him. She couldn't stop her maniacal grin, like she finally understood that there was no way she could stop him.

Then she watched him go to the pure white holy city, like watching a butterfly fluttering into the fire with incomplete wings.

"hahahahahahahahahaha…"

Nearly maniacal laughter sounded behind the young man.

The flames burn out, and the butterfly in the dream rotates on the Möbius strip.

 Back in time, February 3, 827.

 …

Who did he make eye contact with, and whom did he pass by?

 —With whom has he made a promise, and with whom has he embraced each other?

 Witnesses remember it all.

 But she couldn't say.

 …

 The next few weeks are like an endless cycle of nightmares.

 She once raised an army to fight against the gods and stop this great reversal of the world, but she failed. The army was killed, and the people sent her to the stake, shouting that she was a witch.

 The blazing, painful flames... were not even one thousandth of the despair in her heart.

She once formed an alliance with Xiao Jingsan and Li Mingyue, hoping that they would stop Su Ming'an, but in the end Su Ming'an walked to the prophecy stone wall alone.

Su Ming'an has also made mistakes. Sometimes he will be imprinted with control by the gods. When she took him to escape in the heavy rain, he would always hold her collar in pain, and his whole body would be tense.

 “Does it hurt?” Chaoyan whispered.

“…The gods may want me to be unable to endure the pain and force me to commit suicide to trigger Xiao Su’s reversion, and then He can block me…” Su Mingan gasped.

They are always followed by a huge pursuer, sometimes the Holy Alliance Army, sometimes the Army of the Steam Age, and sometimes the personal guards of Mizushima Kawa Sora and Blue Bird. With all the enemies in the world, she was the only one who held him tightly and led him to run in the rain.

Skipping past the tall buildings, past the clouds and mist, past the white doves and black crows perched on the bell tower, past all the rebuke and infamy—

 Every time when he reached a desperate situation, she was by his side.

"...I'm sorry." She couldn't share his pain, so she could only see him fall into coma from pain again and again, and even suffer from pain until death.

 Subsequently, he was captured by the gods. Soon the world reset and returned to February 3, 827. So Chaoyan later learned the talisman of "sharing pain".

 (End of this chapter)