Chapter 226: Restoring Memories
The air grew thicker and thicker, leaving Henry no room to breathe.
Henry struggled to tear through every kind of substance wrapping around him, but it was useless. He couldn’t help thinking of Joshua—was Joshua also enduring the same pain as him...
At the final moment of his life, the only thought in Henry’s heart was unwillingness. Unwilling to die like this, unwilling to lose Joshua, unwilling to let Joshua be afraid.
His consciousness slowly sank into darkness, sinking, sinking. Until a streak of light suddenly rose and wrapped around him. Henry—no, or Nine, or perhaps Henry himself—suddenly opened his eyes wide.
Memories exploded in his mind, making Nine frown, no, he should be Henry. From beginning to end, he had always been Henry.
He knew he had died, but the will of the world had sought him out. As long as he repaired enough of the cracks in the shattered parallel worlds, the will of the world would give that apocalyptic world a chance to merge with another parallel world.
Henry agreed without the slightest hesitation, splitting himself into two halves. One half became the system, constantly completing missions. The other half waited for the day he could be revived along with the others, along with his Joshua.
He was almost finished with the mission, so what was going on now?
Earlier, he had hurried after the traces of a crack. Then he only felt a dizzying whirl. When he opened his eyes again, he was already here, returned to being himself.
The memories surged rapidly in his mind, allowing Henry to grasp the dangerous situation he was currently in.
He tore open the crack with his bare hands and stepped out at the same time. The energy that burst forth in an instant caused all the surrounding cracks to completely dissipate.
Suddenly, a roar rang out. Henry dodged to the side and lifted his leg. A single kick instantly smashed the head of a zombie that had just tried to ambush him.
Sensing the number of zombies present in this place, Henry moved forward without hesitation, his expression cold and arrogant.
"This will be your grave!"
...
Joshua ran forward. Even if he accidentally stepped on some kind of trap, it couldn’t make him stop. The props ahead were nothing compared to the very real zombies chasing him from behind.
At last, he reached the door. Joshua was panting hard as he hurriedly pushed it open, but to no avail. He frowned instinctively. The door was locked tight, without the slightest gap.
The strange noises grew more and more numerous. Now, there even seemed to be something else mixed in, chaotic and disorderly.
Joshua swallowed. He quickly scanned his surroundings and finally picked up a dried bone prop to use as a weapon. Compared to the skulls of the zombies, this thing was definitely nothing. Joshua knew that, but he had no other choice. In truth, he wouldn’t die. Even if his flesh was bitten off, it would grow back, and he wouldn’t be infected. But being bitten would hurt. A lot.
Joshua bit his lip. His eyes were brimming with tears, yet they looked incomparably calm as he stared straight ahead.
"Bang!"
At that moment, a loud crash suddenly rang out, as if something powerful had been kicked apart.
Joshua couldn’t help but flinch, staring ahead in a daze. In the dim light, he saw a tall figure stepping through fresh blood, walking toward him.
Joshua stared blankly, then without the slightest hesitation, threw the prop in his hand to the ground and sprinted toward the approaching figure.
In the faint light, Henry could still see a tear roll down from Joshua’s eye, as if soaking straight into his heart.
He spread his arms wide, catching Joshua as he charged forward with all his strength.
Joshua clutched Henry tightly, his hands gripping his clothes, his sobs almost impossible to suppress.
Henry only felt as though his own heart was being torn apart as well. He gently patted Joshua’s shoulder and comforted him in a soft voice, "It’s alright, Joshua. I’m here now."
Joshua pressed his lips together without saying a word. Henry, however, knew that Joshua’s tears were still falling without pause.
"Let’s get out of here," Henry said softly.
"What about Luther? Isn’t he with you?"
Henry couldn’t help frowning slightly. How could he possibly know where Luther was? At best, Luther had been dragged into a crack just like him—or worse, had already turned into a zombie like the game show staff.
"Let’s go out first," Henry said again in a low voice.
Outside, the area was surrounded by professional government personnel, with S leading the group. Earlier, the blaring alarms had indicated that two cracks had appeared simultaneously, and this place was one of them.
But just moments ago, the warning had vanished, indicating that the crack here had been sealed. How was that possible—unless it was that person...
Just as that thought crossed S’s mind, a deafening crash suddenly rang out. Everyone raised their guns and turned to look, only to see the iron door before them twisted into an unimaginable shape. Immediately after, a hand thrust out from within, tearing everything apart to forcibly carve out an exit.
Henry stepped out together with Joshua. Even though they looked like ordinary people, the guns around them were not lowered.
Then, as if an invisible force field enveloped them, the surrounding troops suddenly collapsed to the ground, the guns in their hands falling simultaneously. S remained standing, staring at Henry in disbelief.
Henry spoke indifferently, "The crack has been sealed. The crack that was hiding has also revealed itself. Peace will arrive soon. Ordinary humans like you shouldn’t interfere in this matter."
S seemed to realize something and said softly, "It was you..."
Henry didn’t respond. Instead, he turned to Joshua and said gently, "Can you go home first, Joshua?"
Joshua suddenly said, "I feel like Luther isn’t dead..."
Hearing Joshua mention Luther again, Henry couldn’t help frowning.
At that moment, S also spoke up. "Earlier, we had already told Luther about this matter. Because of the series of disappearances involving the Vermillion family, we placed a tracking device on him. But now it’s gone offline—we’ve completely lost track of him."
Joshua fell into thought upon hearing this. He realized this must be the secret Luther couldn’t tell him.
Recalling what Luther had said before, Joshua suddenly had an epiphany.
"Go to the Vermillion house!"
Perhaps the remaining crack was there as well.
"You can’t go," Henry said, his tone serious.
Joshua shook his head. "I can provide support."
Even though he was afraid, at least he would never truly die. Henry and the others were the ones who were really at risk.
They could charge forward with terrifying strength, but they could also get hurt.
"Let’s go." Without waiting for Henry to say anything, Joshua grabbed his hand and started running.
S and the others exchanged glances and could only hurriedly chase after them.
Meanwhile, at the Vermillion family mansion.
Just a second ago, Luther had still been following behind Joshua. Who would have thought that the moment he opened his eyes, he would appear here instead? Moreover, the floor seemed to have transformed into some other substance. His body was continuously sinking into it, the pressure threatening to crush his bones and forcing a painful groan from his throat.
Luther struggled to sit up and quickly ran outside.
But then he discovered another problem. The entire mansion seemed to have almost no exits. Everything had been rearranged into a completely different and extremely bizarre structure. No matter how he ran, it felt as though he could never escape this mass of material.
At the same time, something even worse happened. From beneath the sticky, slimy substance, strange creatures began to emerge—shapes that looked human, yet were not human at all. After all, no human could possibly be nothing but bones wrapped in layers of rotting flesh, with a face no longer recognizable as human.
Luther assessed himself and those grotesque creatures. His chances of winning were practically zero.
He could only run as fast as he could to escape, but the sticky substance clinging beneath his feet was a massive hindrance.
Joshua.
Luther fumbled around, but couldn’t find his phone anywhere. In the end, he couldn’t even say goodbye to Joshua...
What the hell is happening to this world?!
