CHAPTER 393: CHAPTER 35 THE MEANING OF EFFORT

There was a time when gods... placed their hopes on the children, putting all their love and dreams into the mortals, hoping for a beautiful future that belonged to humanity.

Then, under such dreams and *self-sacrifice*, they turned their lives into the final guardianship.

"Truly moving..."

"..."

Yila looked at the woman of the serpent with an inexplicable gaze and retorted, "As the chaos that caused the gods to *sacrifice* themselves and got sealed... is it really appropriate for you to say such things?"

Yes, Yila had appeared again...

After resolving the three calamities, he had come to see her once more... it was unavoidable, as, in a certain sense, the woman of the serpent had always been very diligent in her role as a "Golden Finger."

Really quite useful.

Lately, he had been coming over more frequently.

"Huh? What’s wrong with that... have you already found the coordinates of the Dragon Realm?"

The woman of the serpent said this, thinking for a moment before adding, "By the way, if you don’t know what to call me, you can call me ’Shedding,’ instead of always using *woman of the serpent* in your mind... although I don’t really mind."

As Yila saw it, he somewhat understood the equation of *I don’t really mind=I mind a little bit*. While complaining that women were troublesome, he nodded and corrected himself, "Got it, got it... hmm, ’Shedding,’ huh?"

Shedding, a name of a traditional Chinese medicine, roughly means... the layer of dry, dead skin that a snake sheds during molting. What significance does such a name hold?

"Don’t think too much about it... it doesn’t have any meaning anyway~"

The woman of the serpent... Shedding spoke of this topic once more, and similar words had already been heard during their last meeting... her tone, as if doomed to destruction.

"What exactly do you mean?"

Yila asked this, sitting casually in this pitch-black space with Shedding... The purpose of his visit, besides obtaining the coordinates from the "Dragon Branch" of the World Tree, was primarily to get the truth from Shedding in front of him.

To Yila’s question, Shedding, sitting with her legs crossed, her slender and flawless white legs swaying casually, said nonchalantly, "Don’t overthink it... don’t care too much..."

Speaking in that completely incomprehensible manner, Shedding showed a helpless smile, gently got up, then hugged Yila from behind and said, "The world itself might not want to be ’saved’..."

Feeling the abundant warmth from behind, Yila, devoid of any amorous thoughts, frowned and complained, "Can’t you speak more clearly? Are you saying... the world is doomed to destruction?"

"..."

"Sort of..."

Shedding said, hugging Yila even tighter and explained simply, "Moreover, we can’t change it. After all, we can’t stop the world itself... wanting to ’save’ it and wanting to ’prevent its suicide’ are two different difficulties."

Indeed, if the "world" was personified, a bit of thought would lead to this conclusion—if the world itself didn’t want to be saved, then others would be powerless.

"..."

"Then why am I even bothering? Am I not toiling in vain?"

Yila complained, but surprisingly... he was not too dejected, instead, *a sense of inevitability* lingered in his heart, making him sigh with emotion.

This world seemed to have too many people searching for meaning... Perhaps what those outside theories suggested was the real truth of the world, perhaps everything genuinely had no meaning at all.

Obviously putting in all the effort to make the world great again like the Federation, but in the end, he failed to realize that the difference between this world and the world itself made his efforts futile.

"Sigh... speechless. Is there really no way to stop the world from destroying?"

Seeing Yila sigh and ask, Shedding did not say anything, but gently rested her chin on his head, rubbed slightly, and said, "Probably not, but... everything you’ve experienced is your treasure."

"..."

"Stop feeding me that nonsense..."

Yila said, pushing Shedding away from him, watched her sit back in the chair and stretch, then squinted and said, "To be honest, you seem familiar."

The familiarity Yila spoke of naturally wasn’t from after he crossed into this world... He felt that Shedding in front of him had some quality that made him feel even more familiar.

The action of her stretching...too familiar.

"What? Have you recognized me?"

Shedding, who asked this, clearly saw it too, smiling slyly, waiting for Yila’s answer...

"..."

However, Yila remained silent, twitching his mouth, rising to leave for the outside of the World Tree, his voice sounding like he was about to cry, "I can’t accept it... I’m a cat person, not a serpent person!"

"..."

"Pfft!"

Alone in the darkness, Shedding burst out laughing, realizing that the sharp Yila had already recognized her, laughing joyfully at his reaction, "Hahahahaha..."

"Next time... next time, Yila, you will definitely do better! Next time, we’ll all have more experience, at least not choosing such a world with no room for development~"

———— A separation of the past ————

"Ugh~ spent too many points... this month might be a bit tight."

Taking off his suit and hanging it on the vintage coat rack, Yila sighed lightly and spoke as he picked up the plush cat that had already rubbed over and petted it.

"Meow~"

To the meowing virtual kitty, Yila, as he fell onto the couch, smiled helplessly... Most of his credit points were spent on his kitty.

However, watching the cat stretch lazily... Yila thought it wasn’t such a loss.

...

Even if it was just a virtual pet... in this Federation trend of retro waves, Yila wanted to raise a natural pet, which was quite simple and possibly cheaper.

But cyber pets were not without meaning... at least not as the proponents of natural pets said, *once dead, they’re dead, gone forever*.

Thinking this, Yila, in the pose of Simba with the Lion King, stretched his hand under the kitty’s armpits, lifting the lazy ragdoll cat beside him, their eyes meeting.

"Meow?"

"..."

...

Memories themselves are beautiful treasures.