Welcome to Rewind World Game
Chapter 810 - 808·“Revival of All Things (3)”
CHAPTER 810: CHAPTER 808·“REVIVAL OF ALL THINGS (3)”
"Acto... abandoned us?"
"He left with his Dawn System, abandoning this world?"
People looked up, disbelief written all over their faces.
Violet’s pupils trembled. As she turned her head, dozens of players met her gaze. They exchanged looks, confirming the fact that they had been abandoned.
"This can’t be real," Wang Si muttered to himself.
"Impossible—Su Ming’an won’t lose!"
"But even he has admitted it. What more can we do?"
In the thick black mist, Violet couldn’t see each player’s expression clearly. But she could hear their confusion.
...Number One Player actually admitted, with his own words, that they lost? Lost the efforts of generations of humanity, everything the "human" race possessed?
What about those sacrifices, those who couldn’t see the spring, all their struggles and efforts—what were they for?
Zhang Xiaoqi’s lips trembled as if wanting to say something, but then came an angry roar from a soldier within the black mist, like a sharp sword piercing through it:
"—Why! For what!! For what!!!"
The roar seemed to drain all the soldier’s strength, venting his deep sorrow and unwillingness, and he sat down heavily on the ground, a muffled sobbing sound emerging from his protective suit.
"Clang," "clang," "clang," a series of noises echoed as figures seated themselves heavily on the ground like collapsed mountains. Soldiers dropped their weapons, staring blankly at the sky, unsure anymore of what they were fighting for.
Around them, the silver locators flickered with light, which once symbolized hope but now, to the eyes of the people, held no meaning.
No matter what is done... it’s already meaningless.
"Yesterday when I heard Su Ming’an achieved a Perfect Pass, I felt something was off. This instance no longer binds him. Now, he could abandon this world," Player Babru said.
The nearby player Pearl’s brows furrowed: "You’re talking nonsense! Didn’t you see Su Ming’an’s efforts over these twenty days? If he could save us, he would definitely do so!"
Babru shrugged: "Put yourself in his shoes, the destiny of the Ruined World has nothing to do with us or Zhai Xing."
"Are you crazy, opposing things at a time like this..."
The players’ voices grew increasingly chaotic, falling into bickering.
Meanwhile, Su Ming’an’s voice continued, resonating like thunder:
"I deeply regret this outcome."
"Humans have survived on this land for a long time. From the primitive age through the Century Catastrophe, undergoing a full one hundred and two years of civilization continuation. We should have been wiped out by [Ta Wei] in the early years of the invasion. These one hundred and two years are the last duration Acto could extend for us."
"If possible... I also wish I could step with you into a new century. I once promised this to Beacon during the Dawn War. I also hoped that one day those beautiful human histories, the homes we cherish—could truly be reclaimed by us."
"The layered recession of the Three Dimensions, the Ouroboros of causality, the grandmother paradox of the Civilization Gambling Pact, the grid-like theories of time, space, and dimension. Acto exhausted all human wisdom to extend the lifespan of the species. I once held the hand of a companion, telling him before he died, that there was truly a spring in the future."
"But I..."
His voice paused, the first time people heard any emotional fluctuation in this farewell speech.
"...I seem to have broken my promise."
"This is my fault."
...
At Constantine University, students stopped typing on their keyboards.
Just like countless times before when attending public lectures in the auditorium, students slightly lifted their heads, listening to their city lord’s farewell on the broadcast, as if it were their last lesson.
There were no shouts or curses in the auditorium, only faint sobs. Some young people’s eyes were moist, with dark circles from staying up writing papers still lingering around their eye edges.
"Sister." A blonde student with big waves leaned towards Yamada Machiichi: "Sister, you’re the liaison at Constantine University. Is what the city lord said true?"
Her voice trembled.
Many students took pride in potentially entering the Central City laboratory in the future. Some even had their biggest dream as becoming the city lord’s assistant.
This conclusion was the hardest for them to accept.
"..." Yamada Machiichi looked around.
In his view, the cursors of hundreds of students’ laptops blinked, but the progress of their papers had completely halted at the moment they heard the world broadcast, and no one was typing a single word.
Student Luocha, who once had meals with Yamada Machiichi in the cafeteria, put down the core journal filled with complex foreign text, eyes full of confusion.
A few students with messy hair stopped working on the mathematical problems they were researching, the wall still marked with unfinished formulas and data.
Everyone was caught in a stagnant state. The future, their careers, their lives, had entirely lost meaning for them.
Yamada Machiichi took all this in, softly replying to the blonde student:
"It’s true."
"He has... done everything he could."
As he spoke, his eyes grew moist.
Clearly, each person had a clear awareness; they were not dying in a stupor. The death of each life, from a worldly perspective, bore a heavy weight.
Just like in Yamada Machiichi’s eyes, each student sitting in the auditorium should not die like this.
"I was just one step away from securing a postgraduate research spot..." The blonde student’s body suddenly slumped. At the brink of world destruction, she was considering such matters.
"Three years of servitude to the mentor for nothing, I’ll never get my letter of recommendation." The buzz-cut student next to her punched the table.
"I haven’t even entered the Central City laboratory, and now I’m going to die... I haven’t seen the city lord in person yet."
"I want to go home. My mother lives in The Fringe, and ever since I entered college, it feels like I haven’t visited her in a long time..."
Outside, the Black Mist grew denser, and the temperature in the hall gradually decreased, no longer sufficient for comfort. The students felt the chill.
A flame ignited, and the indoor heating system beneath the lectern in the hall activated. They threw chairs, tables, and books into it, the flame flickering inside the glass cover, slowly devouring the essence of knowledge from these items.
Textbooks filled with fine notes, notebooks with experimental diaries, meticulously organized lesson plans, and sketches brimming with images... all were consumed in the warm light.
In the face of disaster, even books lost their original significance.
Yamada Machiichi took a breath, staring at the Black Mist outside the window.
He thought that everything he saw now was just a tiny corner of a vast world, yet it was also a microcosm of the entire world.
"Miss..." At this moment, a blonde student girl hugged him, sobbing, "I want to go home, I miss my mom."
Yamada Machiichi held her hand.
"Don’t be afraid." Yamada Machiichi’s lips trembled:
"Everywhere is home."
They maintained their embrace, like the most inconspicuous pair of warmth-seekers in the apocalypse. Similar to them were dozens of people in the hall embracing each other.
...
The outside world.
A dark reconnaissance aircraft hovered in the sky, beneath the crimson Blood Pool was a two-thousand-meter-deep Heavenly Pit.
Trucks were parked by the pit, and dozens of soldiers lay by the pit, slowly smoking.
Snow-white ash tapped off fingers, the smoke floating in the wind, carrying the soldiers’ long gazes into the distance.
Broken instruments were discarded to the side. Just moments ago, they had smashed these precious detection instruments with their own hands. Their task was initially to delve into the pit and transport the stored backup energy, but the moment they heard the world broadcast, it all lost its meaning.
Driven by anger, the soldiers smashed the precious instruments they had carefully protected all along.
"From a universal perspective, this is just a battle for survival rights, akin to tribes competing for territory in primitive times. The war between Ta Wei and the Ruined World is similarly a civilization war waged to fight for survival, a civilization gambling pact costing everything."
"—I’m sorry for bringing such an end upon you all."
The car’s radio, amid static, delivered the voice of their City Lord. A soldier wearing a star-studded military cap tapped some cigarettes in his hand and chuckled.
"City Lord." The soldier’s voice was light, speaking to the air:
"What wrong have you done?"
"When holding the fate of an entire race in your hand, save as many as you can to survive."
He turned to grab a nearby bottle of alcohol. The soldiers lay on the ground in a circle, drinking the poor-quality spirits from the truck, preparing to face the final end in this manner.
The disk spun, and old disco music flowed through the air.
While drinking, a soldier suddenly noticed a team preparing to descend the Heavenly Pit on the other side. The soldier blinked and shouted: "You on the other side! Don’t go down the pit anymore, it’s meaningless!"
No one in the team opposite acknowledged the soldier’s words. In the team, a black-haired girl was equipping her brother.
"Are you sure you want to go down?" Yuanyuan asked.
Che glanced down at the pit and said, "We must do what needs to be done. Since I was assigned the task of descending the pit, I’ll complete it."
Yuanyuan nodded, securing the final knot for him, "The equipment is checked, come back safely."
Around them, twenty to thirty soldiers continued securing ropes, not giving up their tasks despite the City Lord’s harsh declaration.
"Sister, you don’t seem like someone in their twenties; often, you are more rational than me... I recently heard some rumors, and I know your origin may not be simple," Che said.
Yuanyuan looked up at him.
She truly didn’t belong to this world. Sometimes, she felt out of place here. If NPCs discovered this fact, how would they view her with disdain?
"But no matter what, you are still my sister."
Che said so.
His palm patted Yuanyuan’s shoulder, softly saying:
"I only know that these past twenty years living with you felt real. If you once had a better life, more friends in the past, if you can go to a better world in the future rather than be buried with the Ruined World, I, as your brother for these short twenty years, am satisfied."
"Sister, I’ve long thought this world is too cruel; people aren’t like people, ghosts aren’t like ghosts. If dying here means paving the way for others, contributing to the homeland, I’m satisfied."
"At least... we didn’t freeze to death meaninglessly."
Yuanyuan’s pupils trembled slightly.
"Don’t say such foolish things." After a moment, she said, "You are also my brother."
Che chuckled and walked to the edge of the Heavenly Pit. Rough knots dragged on the ground, his steps steady yet swift.
He gazed into the bottomless darkness below, softly saying:
"Now I finally understand the feeling Lord Lewis faced at the world’s edge back then."
He descended along the rock wall, the ropes coiling and twisting, emitting a "sch-sch" sound as it scraped.
Along with him leaping down were dozens of soldiers who hadn’t given up. They landed beneath the rock wall, snapping the bones left by their predecessors, helmets forever shining with lights.
In the darkness, a faint glow rose.
...
[TE·Rebirth of All Things Perfect Completion Progress: 87%]