Ch32 - White Garden

“You can’t let go!” Zhao Hen shouted from afar.

The silent snow fell onto Zhao Hen’s arm. He firmly covered the fifteen-year-old boy’s neck. Just five meters from him, a man and a woman were using their all to cover the neck of a twenty-year-old girl. 

The girl wore a thick, red jacket, and in the sky full of snow, her eyes were absent-minded as she sang and attempted to reach her neck. Although the two strangers used all of their strength to cover the girl’s neck, the girl’s movement of touching her neck never stopped.

Her nails dug into the hands covering her neck and the skin on those hands had long been scratched red. Finally, the girl scratched through the skin of the man’s hand, scratching the flesh.

“Ah!” the man shouted in pain, his right hand subconsciously releasing.

Zhao Hen widened his eyes: “You can’t let go!” 

The girl’s hand lifted up again, heading for her neck.

Then another hand reached up.

Xu Qi covered the girl’s neck, his eyes red. He asked Zhao Hen: “Where is Wang Tao, where did he go?!”

This grand and solemn march was still moving forward.

Some people wanted to wrap the necks of the marchers with other things, such as plastic bags, clothes, or gloves. But the marchers didn’t just reach out to break their necks, they also remove any obstacles they encounter. No matter how much force they used, they couldn’t stop people from breaking their bones to reach their necks.

On the white and quiet ground, blood flowers gradually blossomed.

Zhongdu, Contamination Area 81.

The most powerful of the level five users rushed into the cleanest contamination area, the snow flying into Wang Tao’s angry eyes. He stood on the flat, abandoned land in Area 81, his eyes quickly scanning his surroundings. 

Green ponds full of dirt and dead leaves, broken bricks and tiles all over the ground…

The park’s children’s facilities were covered with a thick layer of rust and the once leafy trees on both sides of the road were now bare due to twenty-five years of abandonment.

Before the type-A radiation, Contamination Area 81 was also a small residential area.

There were two areas: a small park, and a small neighborhood. 

However, twenty-five years after the type-A radiation, there was only a dead silence that melted into the heavens and earth.

“Pope’s Crown!”

Wang Tao roared. He searched for the murderer’s figure in Area 81 as quickly as possible.

[…if ‘Pope’s Crown’ doesn’t pull off the target’s head, the target will pull off their own head themselves and make a sacrificial pose, holding their head up high, kneeling on one knee, facing the direction where ‘Pope’s Crown’ is located.] 

Therefore, the direction that all the marchers are heading to is the hiding place of Pope’s Crown!

However, half an hour later, Wang Tao stood in the middle of Contamination Area 81.

His surroundings were silent and empty, only the howling of the wind and the gently falling snow broke the tranquility of the contamination area.

The next second, Wang Tao took out his phone. 

“Li Xiaoxiao, I didn’t find a single living person in Contamination Area 81. There are no signs of a living person! Are you sure that the final destination of all the marches is Area 81?”

Zhongdu User’s Committee.

Hearing the words from the phone, Li Xiaoxiao froze. Her expression fell and she immediately looked up at the large screen. “Check again!”

There cannot be any mistakes. None of them can make a single mistake. 

A minute later.

Li Xiaoxiao firmly said: “It’s definitely correct, the final destination of the march is Contamination Area 81!”

Wang Tao’s expression was grim.

But in Contamination Area 81, he didn’t find anyone. Not a single person! 

“Can you find the precise location?”

Li Xiaoxiao awkwardly pursed her lips: “Yes!” Then she looked up and gave the order: “Maximize the precision marking of the march’s end.”

As soon as she said that, the entire maintenance department moved.

Dozens of drones buzzed in the air, capturing this horrific scene. Loved ones, friends, strangers. Everyone was weeping for the marchers who were chanting hymns. They tried their best to save everyone, but someone was always falling. 

There were too many, there were even more people joining the march.

The technicians listed the hundreds of victims as quickly as possible, precisely finding their path. Suddenly, hundreds of bright red lines pointed from all directions in Zhongdu to Contamination Area 81. The dense red lines connected together, ending in the middle of a small community.

Li Xiaoxiao waited a bit.

“Captain Wang, he’s in Fumin Community, in the area between Building 18 and 20! He’s right there! He hasn’t moved!” 

In the next second, the call ended and Wang Tao turned into a shadow, rushing to the Fumin community at the other end of the contamination area.

The wind broke the air, rushing by his ears.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

It only took one minute for the most power level five user in Zhongdu to reach the door of the Fumin Community.

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Delivlcu 18. 

The moment his right foot stepped out of the building’s shadow, Wang Tao’s muscles tensed up. He looked up in anger at the path that crossed between the two buildings.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Silent snowflakes fell on a field of dust.

Wang Tao looked at the empty path, his pupils slightly shaking. 

…

“Captain!”

Zhao Hen picked up the call from Wang Tao. He hadn’t opened his mouth, yet on the other side of the phone, a dull and depressed voice sounded: “Is Xiao Jinyu there?”

Zhao Hen froze and he looked around: “No! I don’t know where Xiao Jinyu had gone to, the last time I saw him was an hour ago.” 

“If he’s not there, then find people to bring detectors over here!”

“Captain?”

“Bring more detectors. I want a hundred detectors… No, bring all the detectors in the city!”

A member of the extermination team took over his hand, continuing to cover the boy’s neck. 

Zhao Hen cluelessly whispered a “yes”. He raised his head, snowflakes landing on his face. A cold snowflake flew with the wind into his eyes and he couldn’t help but squint. When he opened his eyes again, under the dark and gloomy sky, he saw a person.

In the midst of the holy song, a thin and tall youth dressed in a short white jacket, bowed his head as he quietly walked.

Quietly walking against the flow of people singing, the white sky became a silent backdrop behind him. His shoes gently stepped on the fluffy snowflakes, his figure was thin and lonely, the harsh wind trying to blow him away.

Xiao Jinyu looked up, his clear eyes looking at the lead-gray sky. 

His mouth opened slightly. A snowflake fell on the tip of his nose.

Zhao Hen looked at this in a daze.

He suddenly felt sorrowful.

In the song that resounded throughout the city, there were people’s cries and shouts everywhere. The youth that he knew didn’t cry, he just looked up at the sky. 

But, he seemed very sad.

…

Zhao Hen strode forward and grabbed Xiao Jinyu: “Where have you been, Xiao Jinyu.”

Xiao Jinyu lowered his head and looked at Zhao Hen with a solemn face. For a long time, his eyelashes fluttered slightly. He seemed to have woken up suddenly, his vitality reviving little by little in his eyes. 

“Have you found the murderer yet?”

The youth’s gaze was cold, his indifferent voice suddenly sounded, piercing into Zhao Hen’s ears.

Zhao Hen froze.

He felt that something was off. 

Not dwelling on it too much, Zhao Hen dragged him towards Contamination Area 81: “If it really is Pope’s Crown’s logic skill that is killing people, then he himself must be at the final destination of the march.” He quickly explained to Xiao Jinyu what the User Committee had found in the past hour: “…Anyways, Pope’s Crown should be in Contamination Area 81, but we can’t find him! Captain needs you, needs your logic skill in order to find where he is!”

Ten minutes later.

Zhao Hen brought Xiao Jinyu to Contamination Area 81.

In this abandoned, old-fashioned neighborhood, dozens of users were holding detectors, looking for the hidden “Pope’s Crown”. 

Xiao Jinyu didn’t waste any time. He raised his hand, swiping across his eyelids.

The world turned into black and white.

The wind blew harder as Xiao Jinyu looked at his surroundings.

It was very clean. Very, very clean. 

He couldn’t see any colorful logic factors or the black pollution factors.

In the cold wind, snowflakes fell on the thick eyelashes of the youth. Xiao Jinyu’s eyes widened, his gaze sweeping through every window, every tree, and every brick between Building 18 and 20. He couldn’t spare a single corner, no one knew where the murderer was hiding.

Suddenly.

“There!” 

Wang Tao and Zhao Hen were shocked and hurried to the end of the path where Xiao Jinyu was.

It was a flower garden that covered around 20 square meters, which was covered in overgrown weeds since it was unattended all year round.

Xiao Jinyu eyes widened, staring at the black dot that slowly drifted out of the ground. It floated so slowly that it almost took thirty seconds for a dot to float out, merging with the dense snowflakes in the sky, making it hard to detect.

Zhao Hen: “This small garden? Is there a problem with this flower garden?” 

A sharp pain came from his eyes and at the moment that pain was generated, Xiao Jinyu bit the tip of his tongue in pain. The taste of iron spread in his mouth, but he didn’t close his eyes.

Xiao Jinyu looked directly at the pollution factor that floated out of the soil.

…Where did it float out from?

“Your eyes are bleeding?!” Zhao Hen cried out in alarm. 

Wang Tao’s eyes widened: “Don’t use your logic skill anymore, you’re only a level one user. Is there a problem with this flower garden? Everyone, gather and dig up this flower garden…”

“There!”

Wang Tao’s voice stopped.

In the feather-like snow, the youth bit his lip in pain, his body trembling uncontrollably. His eyes that were mixed with blood and tears didn’t close, staring at him. 

Xiao Jinyu lifted his hand, pointing to the far corner of the flower garden.

“He’s over there.”

A moment later.

Wang Tao: “…Okay!” 

***

Five minutes later.

From the soil, they dug out an urn.

Xiao Jinyu wiped the blood and tear stains from his cheeks and strode forward. 

Zhao Hen took out the urn from ten meters underground.

Wang Tao opened the urn and looked at the dark ashes inside.

[…holding their head up high, kneeling on one knee, and face the direction where ‘Pope’s Crown’ is located.]

In fact, when Xiao Jinyu pointed to that part of the garden, there was already a slight speculation in the hearts of the people here. However, even with their psychological preparation, when the facts were placed in front of them, it was still ironic and cruel— 

The “murderer” they had been looking for so long was just a pot of ashes!

Pope’s Crown really was dead, he died half a year ago. He only left a pot of ashes, but this really was his last “location”.

“Crush—”

The ceramic urn was crushed by the level five user, Wang Tao had directly grabbed the urn from Zhao Hen’s hands. 

“Captain!”

“Crash—”

Wang Tao smashed the ashes of Pope’s Crown on the ground and in a second, the crushed bone and ashes on the ground were blown away by the wind. However, before these ashes could fly any further, Wang Tao suddenly smashed his fist into the ground. He roared angrily, grabbed a handful of soil while reciting a sentence quickly. Suddenly, a fire burst out from all directions, enveloping everyone in it.

Soon, this raging fire began to shrink rapidly, passing the crowd and only wrapping up the ashes of Pope’s Crown in the air. The range of the fire became smaller and smaller, until only a small ball was left, which was grabbed by Wang Tao. 

“I originally thought that if we wanted to break Pope’s Crown’s logic skill, from the ‘effect’, it seemed that only by killing him could we stop this act of sacrificing and head-picking. But what I didn’t expect was that he had died long ago. And even if he had only left his ashes, the victims who were caught up in his logic skill could still ‘make a pilgrimage’ to his ashes! But now,” Wang Tao let go of his hand: “even the ashes of Pope’s Crown are gone.”

Everyone looked at Wang Tao’s palm.

The world in front of Xiao Jinyu became blurred since the time he had overused Fourth Perspective. Xiao Jinyu narrowed his eyes, struggling to see what was in Wang Tao’s hand.

Pope’s Crown’s ashes disappeared. 

It was destroyed by the fire. This fire should be Wang Tao’s logic skill, as for how it could burn the ashes that had already been burned before, Xiao Jinyu couldn’t think of for the time being.

But now it seemed like the last of Pope’s Crown, his ashes, were gone.

The moment after Pope’s Crown’s ashes were burned, Li Xiaoxiao’s phone call came.

Wang Tao picked up the call. 

“Captain Wang, it’s stopped! Those marchers stopped!”

Wang Tao squeezed his phone tightly, his large hand nearly crushing the phone. However, before the group could feel happy for a few seconds, Li Xiaoxiao suddenly said in panic: “No…”

Wang Tao’s eyes turned cold: “What is it?!”

“They… Wang Tao, they started again! It’s the same direction as before, they’re still moving to that direction. They’re heading to where you all are!” 

In the middle of the deserted neighborhood’s flower garden, all the users fell into dead silence.

Wang Tao looked down at his empty palm. He turned his head towards Xiao Jinyu and quickly said: “Are you sure that this urn is the only thing here? Pope’s Crown’s ashes couldn’t have been split by the real culprits and buried in multiple areas?”

Xiao Jinyu looked up.

He could only see Wang Tao’s blurry, tall, silhouette. 

However, he said resolutely: “No. There’s only this.”

“How can it be…”

“So is this why they killed White Garden?”

The youth’s voice sounded and everyone stopped moving and looked at him. 

Zhao Hen asked, bewildered: “What do you mean by, ‘So this is why they killed White Garden’?”

Xiao Jinyu wiped his eyes that were gradually blurring, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. The tumbling mood and pain from his eyes were suppressed to the deepest depths of his mind, and when he opened his eyes again, Xiao Jinyu had already recovered his calm look. He analyzed: “After I was involved in White Garden’s logic storm, Qi Simin explained to me that day what White Garden’s logic skill really was.

“The White Garden space was a real, independent space, only White Garden could freely enter and exit, and if others wanted to enter, there were certain restrictions. And this space had eight exits…” Saying this, Xiao Jinyu suddenly stopped as if he remembered something and quickly muttered, “Maybe there were never any fixed exits at all.” Then he raised his head and continued: “Captain Wang, did you think that you completely burned all of ‘Pope’s Crown’s’ ashes?”

Hearing this, Wang Tao nodded with a calm expression: “This is my logic skill, I can be sure that it’s all gone. Also, you all can’t see it anymore.” 

“Not being able to see it, does it mean that it’s really gone?”

Wang Tao suddenly froze.

Xiao Jinyu’s tone was calm, he didn’t want to accuse or question. He seemed emotionless and only rationally said: “It’s like scattering Pope’s Crown’s ashes into the air. The wind can blow away his ashes and we won’t see it anymore. But these ashes haven’t completely disappeared. Not being able to see it doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. It will always exist. In this world, there is only one way to make these ashes disappear completely, making it so that the marchers would never find where it is or where they should sacrifice their heads to…”

Wang Tao’s eyes slowly widened, and he said a name: “White Garden…” 

Xiao Jinyu glanced at him.

The answer was clear.

That’s right, it was White Garden.

Wang Tao seemed to have completely destroyed the ashes of Pope’s Crown with his logic skill, but the ashes haven’t disappeared. It still existed in this world, but it was invisible to the human eye and was indectectable by machines. But his logic skill knew where Pope’s Crown’s ‘corpse’ was, and everyone in the logic skill knew which direction they should go! 

How could the existence of Pope’s Crown be fully erased?

—Only with White Garden.

Let White Garden use his logic skill to bring Pope’s Crown’s ashes into his White Garden space and never bring it back out again.

At that point, Pope’s Crown would truly disappear forever. This logic skill would be completely stopped due to the lack of the ‘effect’! 

Xiao Jinyu looked up at the sky.

At this moment, Xiao Jinyu suddenly recalled the scene where the colored light dots jumped off the platform over and over again in the White Garden space.

Before jumping off the platform, those light dots showed no violent signs, nor did they have a trace of chaos. They floated and rotated in the air with regularity. Then, with their master, they fell into the torrent of the subway.

In fact, since then, White Garden’s residual logic factors had been trying to remind the future people: his logic skill didn’t collapse, he didn’t commit suicide. Because no broken logic skill would run so stably a second before they die! 

Before he died, White Garden tried his best to inform the person who collected his body that he had been murdered. So his remaining logic skill erupted into a logic storm that involved innocent people with potential. However, the information he gave was too little. Even if it was Xiao Jinyu who could see logic factors, his understanding of the logic skill world was too short. He lacked the understanding of logic factors to discover his true intentions.

Thinking was lonely.

White Garden didn’t have any friends, so no one knew that his logic skill was very stable.

And this stable and powerful logic skill was the real reason why the culprit behind the scenes needed to kill White Garden. 

“So, it wasn’t suicide. Was it because of this that White Garden died…?” Zhao Hen gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Xiao Jinyu calmly glanced at him.

White Garden was already dead?

Yes, he was dead, he died ten days ago under the cold wheels of the subway train, dying horrifically. However, his logic skill didn’t die. 

Xiao Jinyu looked down. He slightly waved the fingers of his right hand…

Suddenly, three colored light dots appeared between his fingers.

The author has something to say:

Originally, Ninth Sister was going to come out at the end of this chapter. 

But I ended up pushing him to next chapter~

The full-scale counterattack will begin next chapter. It’s time to kill the bad guys!