CHAPTER 1055: CHAPTER 1052: "FOR ALL ETERNITY, NEVER TO PERISH

Holding the white flower, Su Ming’an called out:

"Li Yuxuan."

Li Yuxuan leaned forward.

"Give me a game disc. Did anyone in the military bring one?" Su Ming’an asked.

"Old God, we are about to reach Nine Serenities, it’s not time for a Dream Patrol now..." Li Yuxuan remained very patient.

"Give it to me." Su Ming’an calmly repeated.

Through the close red eyes, Su Ming’an saw his own appearance. He was still in clothing from two years ago, even the rain on his shoulders hadn’t dried, like an insect just breaking out of amber. Wet black hair clung to his forehead, making his expression appear both desolate and resolute.

"...Which game do you want?" Li Yuxuan never disobeyed his orders.

"The third one."

Li Yuxuan showed an expression of expectedness, straightened up, and looked around at the densely packed heads of people; farther away, only a military telescope could see clearly.

The sound of electromagnetic communication buzzed in his ears. Li Yuxuan shouted: "Did anyone bring a game disc? The third one!"

The generals communicating coordinates suddenly fell silent. The frequency Li Yuxuan was on had the highest priority, anything he communicated represented an order from the Old God.

The channel was silent, no one responded.

Li Yuxuan sighed; in such a dangerous march, with almost no signal in the Black Mist, how could anyone have a game disc on them?

"...I have one."

Amidst the silence, a clear voice emerged.

Wang Mingming squeezed in, holding a disc of the "Girl’s Dream Project" in her hand: "I always love bringing some useless things, here you go."

Su Ming’an accepted it.

On the disc, the detective held the girl’s hand, and the girl wore a beautiful crystal crown as they walked up the spiral staircase together.

—In the past, he didn’t understand why the girl on the disc wore a beautiful crown; now he finally understood how heavy it was.

Su Ming’an wanted to find a Dream Patrol Helmet and insert the game disc into it. But the disc suddenly shattered with a "crack." It shattered so abruptly that the sharp edges nearly pierced his fingers.

He stared blankly at the broken disc in his hand and finally realized something in an instant.

"The game disc... shattered on its own?" Li Yuxuan said in amazement.

This meant the game "Girl’s Dream Project"... had ended.

All the plotlines, all the stories... had completely concluded. There would be no new parts, no new lives. Because the story’s protagonist...

Su Ming’an trembled as he raised his hand.

...It shouldn’t be like this. In fact, there was no change in his expression from start to finish, but at the moment the disc shattered, he couldn’t control the trembling of his fingers. It was as if a tsunami was about to topple an iceberg, revealing his long-held pain.

Until his gaze froze on his ring, the blue gemstone shimmering beautifully.

...

[Current recorders in the Ring of Time: Tretiya, Bi, Yao Wen, Noah, Sen Kylstia, Beili Sier, Lin Guang T-0321, Alice]

...

Like a burn, his finger covered the newly engraved name on the ring, and his gaze was unfocused.

This made him suddenly feel as if he was trapped in a nightmare from which he would never wake. The last thing she left him was merely a white flower.

"...Don’t be sad." Li Yuxuan didn’t know how to comfort him, although he was one of the first to follow Su Ming’an, he always felt he couldn’t get close to Su Ming’an: "Even though her destiny hasn’t been broken, we’ve all broken destiny because of you. Think about it, Yi Zhongyu once spoke of his death ending, where he would die by your sword at the age of twenty-four, but he’s already past twenty-four. I would die by Su Wensheng’s hand, but Su Wensheng has long since died. Many more people have changed because of you..."

The evening wind collided in the air.

Nine Serenities could be seen from afar.

Blazing fires like dragons burned fiercely, and rivers of lava flowed like the Yellow River in purgatory. These bright red lava rolled at the edge of the cliff—Nine Serenities was actually a cliff, just jump into the abyss to reach Nine Serenities.

It really was like the ancient mythology of Dragon Country, with the Manzusha Flower blooming at the bottom of the Yellow Springs. Almost staining the entire world blood red.

This reminded him of when Su Xiaobi jumped off the world’s edge.

Two years ago, Alice went down... alone, in the same way.

"I don’t recommend you go down; no one knows what Nine Serenities is like; it only exists in millennia-old myths." Li Yuxuan said: "Let us go down with the three elements for you."

Su Ming’an pressed his abdomen; he had already planted a bomb inside his body.

"We’ve come this far; I must go." He handed the remote to Li Yuxuan: "If something feels off, press it."

Li Yuxuan said in amazement: "What is this?"

Su Ming’an said: "A magical prop to reverse time."

He then distributed the remotes to the Black Cat, White Cat, and Yi Zhongyu. Some of these remotes were real, some were fake: "If circumstances seem wrong, press it."

"You’re treating yourself..." Yi Zhongyu’s fingers trembled, only feeling that the remote was as heavy as a thousand pounds: "Like a prop that can reverse time?"

"It’s just something I can do." Su Ming’an said nothing more.

After doing all this, he looked at the distant abyss.

—Massive armies blocked this final stretch of road. The deities had prepared for full two years to prevent him from jumping into Nine Serenities.

Countless arrays, traps, trenches, barriers... were stuck on this last stretch of road. It seemed within reach, yet was as distant as a thousand miles.

This time during the pre-battle mobilization, he didn’t say much, his Emotion Value had already reached the maximum.

He simply stood on the chariot, leaned into the microphone, his voice hoarse yet calm:

"Thank you for your hard work; this is... the last stretch of road."

"This is a war initiated by Dawn City, it should be called the ’Dawn War’, but it sounds a bit ominous, so I won’t give it a name. If it has to have a name, it’ll be... the ’Lighthouse War.’ To record our names in the human chronicles, so they won’t be obliterated... passed on."

"If successful, we will... no longer have to sacrifice."

"If unsuccessful, then..."

Low laughter came through people’s earpieces, like someone with clumsy articulation searching for the right words:

"Perhaps I shouldn’t hypothesize this premise."

"Let’s begin... for the sake of... civilization."

In the Black Mist, only the light of burning talismans could be seen.

In the dense, dark vision, nothing far could be seen, as if everyone was wrapped in a pitch-black shell.

Dust storms covered the sky, the resounding horn echoed, and the entire world seemed dyed in a crimson shade. That was the color of war.

Then, there was a wave of high-pitched shouts and killing, the earsplitting clash of metal, and the loud sound of charging.

"Members of the Third Legion—charge with me on the twelve segments of the eastern front!"

The courier of the Third Legion, Saloyang Kara, left with explosives, and with a loud boom, a bright firelight glowed in the distance.

"We pledge to resist bravely, until death!"

Molton Phyllis from the Tenth Legion’s Dream Patrol family drove the chariot forward until the vehicle was consumed by the explosion.

"The Old God protected a millennium of history in the past, today we offer ourselves to the Lighthouse!" Even the players began to shout, fearing it wasn’t fervent enough:

"We march to battle today, vowing with flesh and blood, to achieve immortal glory! Su Ming’an invincible!"

Most of the light surrounded Su Ming’an. Like a blue island standing resolute amidst a black ocean, unwavering despite the waves and flickering flames outside.

Every time someone fell, another had to take their place. They advanced in rows like wheat stalking the ground.

The shouts and the sound of horns made the ground shake, the magma’s glow seemed dim, and the dark mass of flesh piled on the road was like an endless sea of black.

The war that continued to preserve civilization made human lives like thin paper, yet the will was like blazing fire. This scene, no matter how many times viewed, left Su Ming’an in awe. As if at the first gunshot, everyone’s hopes weighed on his shoulders. If the war failed, he would bear all the regrets of the dead, all the sorrow of the living.

Su Ming’an utilized his "Soul Ferry" function.

...

"Everyone carries the ’hard drive’ of their past life, and you hold the one with the largest memory capacity. You can collect all the memories and emotions of the dead and save them into your ’hard drive’."

"Detecting that you possess the Ninth World’s skills — Biochemistry Level 10, Mechanics Level 10. If you have sufficient resources, you can infuse the memories and emotions of the deceased into bionic bodies from your mind, bringing them to ’rebirth’ in reality."

"As long as you remember them, they are immortal."

"— You alone are equivalent to the hard drive of a civilization."

...

In Su Ming’an’s mind, tens of thousands of light points had already formed.

Because of the activation of this function, he no longer needed to ’kill the other to save the hard drive,’ which was a method for opponents. How could people a thousand years ago have set such a method as the only way? Now, he merely had to place his hand on the forehead of an ally and murmur ’Soul Ferry’ to store them.

He was like a computer with a vast storage capacity. Others were hard drives, and once linked to him, even if the hard drives were physically destroyed, the information would be permanently stored in this computer.

— In this way, these dying people became ’past lives’ attached to him.

If viewed from a magical perspective, this was ’past lives.’ From a scientific perspective, it was ’a personality hard drive storing all lifetime information.’

Xiao Jingsan barely bore the weight of Xiao Ying, almost collapsing. Su Ming’an, on the other hand, bore the ’past lives’ of tens of thousands.

...Generation after generation, everlasting and infinite.

"I’m here! Number One Player! We brought plenty of energy for you!"

The player Lu Meng teleported to Su Ming’an’s side. Her occupation, known as "Wormholeer," maximized the strengthening of "Spatial Teleportation" ability, allowing multiple teleports. Su Ming’an appointed her as the Deputy Minister of Information Department, assigning her the task of transporting critical resources across the battlefield.

A line of players followed her, all adept in long-distance teleportation, classified as "Couriers."

"Wow, a living Su Ming’an!" Upon seeing Su Ming’an, the players were instantly excited.

In previous instances, they could only be beaten by NPCs. Now Su Ming’an could assign them to the most suitable positions, sending those proficient in healing to the healing group, and those adept in messaging to be couriers. Not only could they earn significant contribution values on the battlefield, but it was also safer than fighting solo, completely changing their plight.

It’s great to mix with Su Ming’an!

But when they wanted to thank him, they found Su Ming’an’s face was grey. He sat alone on the mechanical wheel, holding a scepter encrusted with gemstones. He stared at the white light dot on his palm, as if it contained thousands of years of information.

...He truly resembled a god statue that wouldn’t budge.

The players stifled their laughter.

Su Ming’an picked up a stone; it appeared like a battery or concentrated nuclear energy.

Lu Meng brought many resources, including bionic bodies, artificial skin, and metal. When the light gathered in Su Ming’an’s hand, and he infused each light point into these bionic bodies...

The deceased returned to life.

...

"What defines a person is their appearance, voice, personality, habits, persona, memory, emotions..."

"When these can be stored, transformed into a life hard drive, and placed in one’s mind—then, when this person injects such information into a bionic body—’the deceased reborn.’"

"He alone—"

"is equivalent to the eternal life of a civilization."

...

At this moment, Su Ming’an felt the wisdom and tenacity of people from a thousand years ago. This plan, named ’Soul Ferry,’ spanned a thousand-year gap, traversed obliterated history, and truly shook him.

Human life is brief, barely a century.

Yet the ’hard drive’ can cross a millennium, reach his side, be revived by his hands, stand again on the battlefield, until the soul returns to destiny, back to his mind, awaiting another resurrection.

As long as the ’Old God’ does not die,

—"the entire civilization" is still alive.

Generation after generation, endlessly circling, never perishing.

The first Su Ming’an reincarnated was the light point with the most recent death. He had touched her forehead while still on the chariot.

The brilliance gathered on a bionic body, and as Su Ming’an’s complexion became even paler, the bionic body slowly opened its eyes. Amethyst, gemstone-like eyes.

She curved her lips into a smile, her voice hoarse, yet so familiar.

"Detective... sir."

Perhaps, even if the deceased are stored, they are no longer who they were before. But perhaps their souls truly haven’t dissipated, and will be summoned by the Old God, returning to new bodies.

One could say — they truly revived, which is why they act identically, or say because of the hard drive storage, they are indistinguishable from true people.

Even Su Ming’an couldn’t distinguish if the resurrected people were still themselves?

The Ship of Theseus... or the original ship?

If the fake Noel isn’t Noel, who is the fake Noel? If the fake Noel steadfastly believes he is Noel, and would make sacrifices identical to Noel’s, is the fake Noel considered Noel? If there was never a secret code established with Noel from the beginning, could he tell Noel is Noel? In more extreme cases, if the Noel who first met Su Ming’an in the Second World was a fake, could the authenticity of Noel be judged?

Once a chain of suspicion forms, it is endless. It cannot be distinguished.

But the color and beauty of their souls... truly, across the thousand years of the time stream, flowed downward... ferried to his side, showing him the wisdom and beauty crossing a millennium.

Soul [Ferry].

Time is an ever-regressing long river.

He is the [ship] tirelessly sailing in the river.

Su Ming’an gently patted Alice’s head. Ultimately, he couldn’t regard her as Alice, perhaps she was truly Alice, or maybe she simply steadfastly believed she was Alice, but ever since the moment of resurrection, distinguishing her true identity became eternally impossible, as elusive as Schrodinger’s cat.

In other words — they really have been reborn.

But even if they had been stored post-death, they could not return to their former selves in the true sense. Perhaps, however, their souls have truly never dissipated and can be recalled by the new bodies, summoned by the Old God.

The Ship of Theseus—still the same ship?

If the fake Noel is not Noel, then if the fake Noel firmly believes he is Noel and acts wholly as he would, is the fake Noel still Noel? If the original Noel encountered by Su Ming’an in the Second World were a fake, could one judge Noel’s authenticity?

Perhaps——

If the living believe them to be the same, they are the same. Once identity crisis arises, it is unending and indistinguishable.

Schrodinger’s Cat...

He finally raised Alice’s head, ultimately unable to truly see her. She sat quietly, and perhaps truly smiled.