“In—in the edge zone of the Central Hall!” The person pointed into the distance, panting heavily. “The very bottom row of seats!”
Before he could finish speaking, Mu Shicheng had already run off and disappeared.
Mu Ke took a deep breath, tossed aside the plastic casing he had crushed out of shape, and ran after Mu Shicheng.
Watching the two main forces run off until even the smoke behind them was gone, Wang Shun, who had been resting nearby, stood up helplessly to take over the mess they had left behind.
“Everyone, your hard work has paid off.” A smile appeared on Wang Shun’s face. “Now, let’s go see the Guild Leader we dug out.”
The crowd still climbing over the mountain of televisions froze for a moment, then raised both hands and erupted into a thunderous cheer.
The members were so excited they were weeping, scrambling down from the TV mountain in a chaotic rush. After surrounding the member who had brought the news and confirming it again and again, they let out a great sigh of relief and began shouting wildly.
“The Guild Leader is out!!”
“He’s back!!”
The edge zone of the Central Hall.
Mu Shicheng, the first to arrive, came to a screeching halt in front of a small TV. He took two steps back and began scanning the screen at a glance for the person he knew so well.
At last, his gaze settled on a spot in the very bottom corner. Mu Shicheng stared at that place for a while, unable to stop himself from letting out a breath and curling his lips into a smile.
And perhaps the meaning contained in that smile was something only Wang Shun, who was about to arrive, would understand.
This was exactly the promotion slot where Bai Liu had been when he and Mu Shicheng first met in the Central Hall.
“He really is tough enough to keep himself alive.” Mu Shicheng crossed his arms, scanning Bai Liu’s condition from head to toe, and snorted with a smile. “Looks like his mental state is pretty good.”
Mu Ke, who had followed closely behind, stared blankly at the safe and sound Bai Liu on the small TV for a moment.
Ever since he learned that Bai Liu had entered a Level 3 game, Mu Ke had been in constant terror. But he had endured it and had not dared to show it. He still had to handle matters and complete the tasks Bai Liu had entrusted to him.
But the instant he confirmed that he was seeing Bai Liu, the emotions he had suppressed for so long surged out. Mu Ke blinked his reddened eyes, sniffled in grievance, and tears welled up in his eyes, threatening to fall.
If Bai Liu had been standing in front of him right now, Mu Ke probably would have burst into tears.
Wang Shun led the large group of people close behind them. When he saw the position of Bai Liu’s small TV, he was also stunned. Then he smiled with relief.
“It’s good that he’s okay.”
The other members—or rather, the players from No-Man’s Land who had been saved by Bai Liu—looked at the person on that narrow, convex screen with curiosity, reverence, and countless complex, indescribable emotions.
This person had a face that made him impossible to forget. Anyone could easily pick him out from a crowd by appearance alone.
He wore the most ordinary white shirt and suit trousers, standing on a platform with a stack of speech notes in his hands, reading something unhurriedly. Occasionally, he turned his head and smiled at the audience below.
He did not look at all like a new player who had been trapped in a Level 3 game.
This was Bai Liu.
What exactly was he doing?
Thinking this, the crowd could not help moving closer to Bai Liu’s small TV, and then closer still, until they stepped into the viewing area of Bai Liu’s small TV and finally heard clearly what Bai Liu was saying.
Bai Liu lowered his head to look at his speech notes, his tone slow and deep.
“...We have all experienced the darkest times. We were trapped in a crack where no light could be seen, exploited, used as amusement, and after the last drop of our value was squeezed dry, we were thrown into a sunless prison...”
The other name for [No-Man’s Land] was the game’s prison.
Hearing Bai Liu speak this way, the people below could not help showing doubt. They whispered to one another in very low voices.
“...Does Guild Leader Bai know what happened outside?”
“Isn’t he inside the game? Why does it feel like he’s talking to us?”
The Bai Liu on the small TV suddenly raised his eyes. He glanced toward the screen and suddenly smiled.
“Raise your heads and look me in the eye. You are the people who fought alongside me. I am not the one leading you, nor the one saving you, but one of you. Do not lower your heads when facing me.”
The audience outside the TV was truly startled. They looked left and right, and in the end, they could only blankly follow Bai Liu’s instruction from the small TV and raise their heads to look directly at him.
A look of horror also appeared on Mu Shicheng’s face.
Bai Liu’s words gave him goosebumps. Mu Shicheng leaned toward Wang Shun and rubbed his arms, cursing in a low voice, “Damn! What’s going on?! It feels like Bai Liu has a complete grasp of what’s happening outside!”
Wang Shun gave a helpless, bitter smile. “How would I know? Do I look like someone who can understand what Bai Liu is thinking?”
“This is my first time seeing a player who can coordinate with actions outside the game while still inside the game.” Charles, on the other hand, approached the small TV with great interest. He looked up at Bai Liu inside it. “He suits my taste even more than I imagined.”
Charles praised him sincerely. “Whether it is his appearance or his actions, they are truly beautiful.”
The Bai Liu on the small TV lowered his eyes, withdrew his gaze, and looked down at the speech notes on the table to continue reading.
“...This is an unfair world. There are always people who attempt to treat us as ants, building a kingdom for their indulgence and pleasure upon our lives. They are powerful. They possess the best resources, and they use them to crush us, restrain us, and demand that we survive according to their rules.”
“No matter how we resist, there are times when they will succeed.”
Here, Bai Liu raised his head [N O V E L I G H T] and looked at the tearful refugees below.
“We have paid a heavy price.”
The low-level players and the No-Man’s Land players outside the television stopped being surprised as well. They watched Bai Liu quietly, realizing that Bai Liu was speaking to them.
This was exactly their current situation.
“To lose is not shameful. Losing to anyone who oppresses you is not shameful. What is shameful is to stop resisting. What is shameful is to know the outcome will be defeat and still refuse to fight.”
“Anyone can lose. Good people can, and bad people can too.” Bai Liu looked across the refugees below. “I can lose too.”
A refugee below could not help refuting him. “Mr. Bai, you won’t lose!”
“Thank you for the blessing.” Bai Liu chuckled softly. “But right now, in a place I temporarily have no way to reach, I must have already suffered a miserable defeat.”
“I fell into a place where only corpses can be buried. That place may be even darker than your prison. It is full of wreckage, and no one has ever been able to walk out of it.”
Bai Liu said calmly, “I cannot either.”
The refugees fell silent.
The audience outside the television screen stared blankly at Bai Liu’s face on the small TV.
They knew what Bai Liu was talking about. Bai Liu was talking about being surrounded and blocked by the large guilds, about falling into No-Man’s Land.
He really knew!
“When facing things that exceed our abilities, we are powerless to resist as individuals. Even if it takes away our property, our lives, and our souls. Even if it does not conform to morality, law, procedure, or even the laws of nature.”
Bai Liu said, “But as a group, we can.”
“I cannot escape that terrible place alone, but I know there will definitely be a group of people thinking of every possible way to save me. This group will slowly grow more numerous, become stronger, and form a brand-new collective that changes the original order. You will change this world, save yourselves, and save others.”
“You are very remarkable,” Bai Liu said. “You truly did it.”
Bai Liu’s gaze was without a ripple.
“The order we believe to be correct does not always win. The logic of bad people is, in most cases, more destructive than the logic of good people.”
“Therefore, justice will not eventually triumph over evil. I believe every one of you who has experienced evil now understands this principle very well.”
“But as long as one good person does not die, then as a collective, justice will exist forever.”
“You may lose, but as long as even one member among you is still fighting, you will never be destroyed.”
Bai Liu spread out the long document in front of him.
“So I have made this decision. I have decided to distribute the shares of these six newly opened Thorn Factories to every one of you. Each of you will take on a portion of the factory manager’s responsibilities.”
“What this world becomes next—” Bai Liu organized the documents, bowed, and stepped down from the podium. “—is your own choice.”
Inside and outside the game, both sides fell into a long silence.
The players who had come out of No-Man’s Land, the other players who had been drawn over afterward, and the guild members all silently lowered their heads and wordlessly opened their system panels.
Inside, they were filled with the various players’ small TVs they had bookmarked just now in order to fish Bai Liu out. Their liked channels were even more varied, and the points allocated to them had been spent until almost nothing remained.
It seemed as though they had done nothing, yet it also seemed they had done a great deal.
At this moment, reminded by Bai Liu’s speech, these people realized what an incredible thing they had just accomplished.
Under the forceful blockade of the King’s Guild, they had fished out a new player!
If they could help one another and unite like this every time, then would those large guilds no longer be able to blockade and oppress them at will?
Does such a collective exist?
In this cruel game, does a guild exist that distributes power to every member?
People began to quietly inquire about Bai Liu’s guild, and more people began consulting Mu Ke about how to enter Bai Liu’s guild. The small TVs they had bookmarked all coincidentally gained this one belonging to Bai Liu.
Charles looked at the stunned Wang Shun with a smile. “It seems our dark horse—or rather, white horse—doesn’t need me to waste points controlling anyone’s emotions. He can handle things very well in his own way.”
“Yes.” Wang Shun could not help waving his hands and shouting. He laughed more heartily than ever before. “Yes!”
More and more people gathered around Bai Liu’s small TV.
There were too many inquiries. Even Mu Ke’s memory began to feel overloaded. Fortunately, Wang Shun stepped in just in time to help him take on a portion of them.
The data for Bai Liu’s small TV soared at a terrifying speed.
After leaving [No-Man’s Land], his small TV seemed to have grown helicopter wings. Under everyone’s stunned gazes, it leapt through several promotion slots and flew directly to the core promotion slot of the Central Hall.
After staying in the Central Hall for less than ten dimensional seconds, the audience watched in a daze as Bai Liu’s small TV flew again to the Nightmare Rising Star Hall, and within three dimensional seconds, it used its explosive data to sit firmly in first place.
Mu Shicheng watched in amazement. “I know this guy can’t be judged by common sense, but is this really reasonable?”
“It’s not very reasonable,” Wang Shun answered honestly. “In all my years recording players, I have never seen a small TV reach this kind of data in a player’s fourth game.”
“Even Spades has no way to make so many people follow him wholeheartedly within the duration of a single game.”
Wang Shun looked at the massive number of players constantly consulting Mu Ke about how to join Bai Liu’s guild and sighed.
“...He was simply born for this game.”
And at the instant the system announced that the game had been cleared, the small TV went dark and settlement began. Bai Liu’s comprehensive data had reached an inconceivable eight figures—data at the ten-million level.
Even Wang Shun, who had been recording all along, began to doubt himself.
Had he remembered wrong just now?
That was already a magnitude only Spades could possess. No matter how remarkable Bai Liu was, he was still, after all, a newcomer without any foundation. Could he really reach this kind of data?
But with the system announcement, Wang Shun’s doubts were dispelled.
[8,064,673 people liked Bai Liu’s small TV, 307,700 people bookmarked Bai Liu’s small TV, 1,256,171 people charged Bai Liu’s small TV, and player Bai Liu obtained 2,789,651 points.]
[Player Bai Liu obtained over five million likes within one minute and obtained over 2.5 million points from charging! You are piously loved by the audience!]
[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for obtaining the final promotion slot—]
Huge virtual fireworks appeared around the small TV, and an enormous crown logo appeared in the center. The system announced in a joyful, encouraging tone:
[Incredible—player Bai Liu’s small TV comprehensive data ranked first in the entire region, obtaining first place in the Central Screen King Promotion Slot. You are today’s King!!]
[Player Bai Liu’s small TV views are rapidly rising...]
[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for unlocking all main tasks and clearing Rose Factory.]
[System: Player has reached the True End—The Factory Where Roses Wither Forever.]
[If there is a world that prohibits the planting of roses and the production of perfume, yet produces thorns covered in spikes and forces people to swallow them—that is this world.]
[It sounds as if the people living here are very pitiful and unfortunate, having lost the right to own roses, but they feel their world is more beautiful than ever before. This is their choice.]
[A heart weighs 250g, and a rose weighs 2g. Would you choose to use one heart to exchange for a hundred roses, or a hundred roses to exchange for one heart?]
[Rose Factory awaits your choice.]
—————
[Cleared Rose Factory True End route—Point reward: 300,000.]
[Cleared Rose Factory True End route—Attribute points: 500. These can be used to improve panel attributes according to the player’s own needs.]
[Collection reward for Rose Factory Monster Book — Dried Leaf Addict Page—Item: Tentacle Cage. Can be used to capture moving objects. One-time-use item.]
[Collection reward for Rose Factory Monster Book — Rose Employee Page—Item: Inverted Right Eye. After the player wears it, mental value decreases and personality becomes evil. It can see through the hidden real scenes of a dungeon. Limited to one use per dungeon. Transcendent-level item.]
[Collection reward for Rose Factory Monster Book — Statue Page—One rose that has not bloomed. Quality unknown. Has identity attributes. Specific identity attributes unknown.]
[System: Comprehensive evaluation of player Bai Liu’s small TV this time.]
[Comprehensive data exceeds twenty million. Grading player Bai Liu’s Rose Factory video—should be a Diamond Crown Medal-level video. Considering the 214:13 dislike-to-like ratio, the video will undergo downgrade processing—]
[Final grade is Gold Crown Medal-level video. Videos of this level can obtain eligibility to enter the VIP library. Player Bai Liu’s game video this time enters the VIP library.]
[After entering the VIP library, if any player wants to watch player Bai Liu’s Rose Factory game video this time, they must become a system VIP member and then pay 10,000 points to the system. The points paid by viewers will be split 50/50 between Bai Liu and the system.]
[Bai Liu’s small TV achieved the following accomplishments this time—]
[First place on the King Leaderboard.]
[The 27th player to obtain ten-million-level data on a small TV.]
......
Game exit.
Because of Charles’s previous action of scattering large sums of money into No-Man’s Land, many players were now exiting. This exit, which usually had average traffic, looked crowded at a glance. In this system space where everyone was separated by dimensions, it actually seemed somewhat packed.
From the exit, one could faintly see the King Promotion Slot screen in the Central Hall.
The King Promotion Slot was in the very center of the Central Hall, a huge screen. Moreover, when a newcomer ascended to it, an announcement would be made across all game sub-regions. It was the best publicity channel for a newcomer.
So as soon as these players came out through the exit, they could see Bai Liu’s small TV giving a speech on the King leaderboard and hear the system loudspeaker playing joyful, encouraging sound effects:
[Incredible—player Bai Liu’s small TV comprehensive data ranked first in the entire region, obtaining first place in the Central Screen King Promotion Slot. He is today’s King!!]
Whether they were there to watch the excitement or because they were drawn to Bai Liu, most of the players pouring out of the exit flowed toward the Central Hall as soon as they came out.
Of course, there were also those who did not go to the Central Hall. These players usually had urgent matters to attend to—for example, members of high-level guilds who had been called back by their own guilds to urgently discuss matters related to Bai Liu.
Charles’s intervention and Bai Liu’s fame both meant that this support season would not be as simple as usual. Even if Bai Liu only competed next year, their support season this year would inevitably have its votes split by this guy!
The way this person appeared every time was far too eye-catching.
Especially this time!
A major event like the League had been stirred up by this guy, and more than half of the audience’s attention was concentrated on him!
This portion of players hurried back to their own guilds after leaving the exit, not giving another glance to the King screen Bai Liu had ascended to. That screen was precisely the source of their trouble.
But the other portion of players who could not go to the Central Hall was far more pitiful.
They had been gravely injured in the game, and as soon as they exited, they lay on the ground, unable to move at all.
Generally speaking, injuries from the game were not brought outside the game. But if the game had completely destroyed a person’s reason, blurring the boundary between reality and the game, then the injuries that person suffered in the game would remain on their body in their entirety and be brought out with them.
Because they were absolutely certain that the game was reality, injuries left in “reality” would naturally be brought into reality.
This group of people lay at the exit covered in wounds, unable to move, trampled over by people coming and going. Although those people would not step directly on them, because of this, most people would not even spare these injured players a second glance or help move them aside.
Such people would not crawl to the side even after recovering a little. Most of them had gone mad, their eyes hollow as they lay on the ground and allowed others to trample around them, no different from corpses.
But among them, one “corpse” crawling toward the side was particularly eye-catching.
This person looked as though he had been fished out of a sea of blood. Blood dripped and flowed from his entire body. It was impossible to tell whether it was his own or someone else’s.
His features were not deep-set. He looked mixed-race. Even soaked in blood, his features were still very beautiful, carrying the green immaturity of adolescence. His head of shining, semi-curly golden hair had been dyed orange by blood. Hidden beneath those dirty curls was a pair of fresh apple-green eyes.
And now, he was using those apple-green eyes to gaze at that large screen from far away. He had not blinked for several minutes. Even when blood flowed into his eyes, he did not blink.
Thus, the blood flowed into his eyes, dyeing those apple-green irises an ominous dark red.
He tilted his head and studied the person on the screen for a long time. Then he slowly bent down, using his broken limbs and fingers to crawl across the ground toward the large screen where Bai Liu was.
Bai Liu’s voice came from the small TV. He was giving a speech to the refugees in the factory.
“...I have fulfilled my promise and done everything I could to save every one of you...”
“Every one of you is worth saving...”
The crawling hands of this person stopped.
He was like a puppet that had been cut apart and then barely pieced back together, his limbs moving stiffly as he wrapped his arms around himself and hunched over to cover his face. It was a self-protective posture, but the corners of his mouth split open eerily from both sides of his hands.
If he moved his hands away, it would surely reveal an exaggerated, terrifying smile.
He could not control himself and began to laugh.
A hoarse, dry laugh, like a demon crawling out from the bottom of the abyss.
“Bugiardo,” he whispered. “Padre, mi hai mentito.”
“Liar.”
“Father, you lied to me.”
—
Author’s Note:
Joker is speaking Italian. I used Baidu Translate! I don’t know it either! If anything is wrong, tell me! I’ve never been to Italy!
Joker is of mixed Italian descent.
Buon Natale to everyone tonight! Merry Christmas in Italian, also from Baidu Translate. I don’t know how to use it either, as long as the meaning gets across!
