Chapter 129: Chapter 129: Congratulations, You’ve Unlocked the "Outlived Your Usefulness" Achievement
In the end, Xu Tongming decided to extinguish the Bottle Sun.
It wasn’t that he’d had a change of heart; it was simply the only way to survive. If he didn’t go, he was dead for sure.
But now a very serious problem lay before him: the temperature around the Bottle Sun was terrifyingly high.
He would melt the moment he stepped into its outer perimeter, let alone entered its core.
As for Qi Suian and the Tai Sui God who brought him here, they were already ’dead’.
They had to see the act through, after all.
"Dying so quickly, without even telling me how to get in..." Xu Tongming was speechless.
Fortunately, he had a hunch. He looked at the ashes in his hand and smeared them on his body.
It was a bit repulsive, though.
The smart brain had previously told him that these were the ashes of ’humans’.
In fact, that wasn’t entirely wrong. The predecessors of the Sun Puppets did indeed contain parts of humans.
They were just mixed with Desolate Beasts.
But things had come to this, and he couldn’t afford to be repulsed. After smearing the ashes all over his body, the high temperature did indeed slowly begin to drop.
At the same time, the Sun Puppets seemed to have gone blind to him, ignoring him completely.
He didn’t dwell on the reasons for this. His gaze was now locked firmly on the area in the distance that was constantly radiating light and heat.
Like a small sun... no, it wasn’t a small sun at all, but a real one.
He had, after all, heard about the observation principle of the Bottle Sun from the smart brain.
Regarding this, he couldn’t help but mock himself, "The only lesson that humanity can learn from history is that humanity never learns any lessons from history."
If someone had told him before that the extreme heat and polar day were the result of humanity shooting itself in the foot, Xu Tongming would have just called them a lunatic. ’Are you crazy?’
’Humanity can’t even conquer the sky, and you’re telling me we can control the sun?’
And now, such an absurd thing was happening right before his eyes.
He couldn’t even fathom how the people of a hundred years ago had managed to pull off something so ridiculous.
’They couldn’t have really just decided to trust in the wisdom of future generations, could they?’
But then again, the ’wisdom of future generations’ was proving quite useful. After all, the ancestors were all dead. If the descendants wanted to live, they had to rely on themselves.
If he, Xu Tongming, wasn’t the one getting screwed over, he naturally wouldn’t care. Unfortunately, he was the one taking the fall.
If he could travel back in time, he’d make sure to hang all the upper-class elites behind the Sun Project from flagpoles.
"The power of the Bottle Sun... it’s magnificent."
"If only they had used it to benefit humanity from the start, perhaps everything would have been different," Xu Tongming said softly.
He naturally understood that the Bottle Sun itself was neither good nor evil. It was the ambition of powerful men, who wanted to use it to secure their rule and protect their own power and interests, that ultimately led everything to ruin.
Even now, he couldn’t understand what those so-called high-society people were thinking. To actually want to restrain the sun and monopolize it?
They were capable of putting the sun in a bottle. Wouldn’t doing literally anything else have been better than such a bizarre stunt?
"Perhaps," Xu Tongming said mockingly. "But even if they had, the benefits wouldn’t have trickled down to the lower class."
If they had truly intended to share, they wouldn’t have monopolized the sun in the first place. The fact that they dared to monopolize it meant they had no intention of sharing with the common people.
Even if it was to ’benefit humanity,’ it wasn’t for humanity as a whole, but just for that small clique of people who claimed to represent it.
Xu Tongming advanced step by step. The temperature grew higher and higher, and he began to smear more ashes on himself to withstand it.
At the same time, the Power of the Limit within him unknowingly broke through the two hundred-degree mark.
A wave of clarity washed over his mind, as if he had been transformed from a dull person into an intelligent one.
His mind raced, and as he recalled their previous conversations, he noticed quite a few flaws and inconsistencies.
But he didn’t really care.
"They’re already dead. It’s meaningless now," Xu Tongming said softly.
They might have had their own selfish motives, but their ultimate goal was still to extinguish the sun. Besides, they had already paid the price.
Not to mention, he was about to reach the Bottle Sun’s location. He couldn’t possibly turn back now.
The ashes could resist the high temperature, which meant they hadn’t lied about that. Everything else was a minor detail.
Soon, he arrived at the Bottle Sun’s location. The blinding sunlight, muted by the ashes on him, seemed to soften.
He saw the glowing, cheap glass bottle. The shining sun within it astonished him.
"Truly spectacular."
"A magnificent miracle that only the high-and-mighty lords could see... and now I get to enjoy it too." Xu Tongming’s tone was thick with sarcasm. "It would be even better if the price wasn’t all of humanity."
With that, he reached out, took a handful of ashes, and sprinkled it down.
The ashes covered the Bottle Sun, masking its light and heat.
He continued to sprinkle handful after handful of ashes, and the Bottle Sun’s brilliance and scorching heat gradually receded.
But suddenly, his hand paused. He looked up at the sky.
It wasn’t just the Bottle Sun that was dimming because of the ashes, but the sun in the sky as well.
"He really wasn’t lying. The sun in the sky is just an observational effect, a projection from the Bottle Sun’s technology."
"When I bury the Bottle Sun with ashes, it affects the sun in the sky too."
With this proof, the previous flaws and inconsistencies no longer mattered. The important thing was that he could actually survive.
"Blasphemer! Blasphemer!!!"
The roars of the Sun Puppets rose and fell. They sensed that someone was interfering with the Bottle Sun, but because of the ashes on Xu Tongming, they couldn’t find him.
This caused all the Sun Puppets to riot.
But their riot seemed incredibly weak and feeble.
As Xu Tongming continued to cover the Bottle Sun, all the Sun Puppets were weakening because of it.
Once the entire Bottle Sun was buried, the Sun Puppets would dissipate as well.
By the time the last wisp of ash was sprinkled onto the body of the bottle, all the Sun Puppets had vanished completely.
At the same time, the sun in the sky also looked listless, as if its vitality had been drained.
Then, the temperature began to drop to a normal level.
Of course, this was ’normal’ for people like Qi Suian and other survivors. For a polar day human, it was a bit cold.
For Xu Tongming in particular, it was already freezing.
The Desolate Beasts had it even worse. If they couldn’t adapt to the new era, they would face death.
"I succeeded. This feeling... this is cold, isn’t it."
"What a strange sensation." The Power of the Limit was surging within Xu Tongming.
This was not good news. It meant that if he didn’t solve the temperature problem, he would die from the cold.
"To think I’d one day have to worry about staying warm... Life is truly unpredictable," Xu Tongming said softly.
"Not necessarily," a voice drifted over. It was Qi Suian.
Xu Tongming saw the Armored Man. A flicker of surprise crossed his face, but it quickly subsided.
The fact that the other party wasn’t dead was indeed unexpected, but he was somewhat prepared. After his Power of the Limit reached the two hundred-degree mark, it had further enhanced his mind.
It had greatly improved his abilities in emotional management, logical thinking, and more.
"So, are you here to snatch the final prize?" Xu Tongming’s gaze shifted from Qi Suian to the now-buried Bottle Sun.
The greatest prize here was undoubtedly the Bottle Sun. It was hard for him not to make that connection when the other party chose this exact moment to reappear.
"Rest assured, I have no interest in the Bottle Sun." Qi Suian noticed his gaze and immediately explained.
He was running out of time; there was no need to touch something that was clearly problematic.
Ever since the Bottle Sun had turned into an X-grade quality item in his hands last time, Qi Suian had lost all desire for it.
Taking it would be a surefire way to get himself killed.
It was useless and dangerous. He would have to have had his brain squashed by a door and kicked by a donkey to covet the Bottle Sun.
"Good." Xu Tongming nodded. He didn’t want to die either. Then he quickly reacted, "Since your target isn’t the Bottle Sun..."
"...and you’ve chosen this moment to show up, does that mean your target is me?"
Besides Qi Suian, the only things present were himself and the Bottle Sun.
Since Qi Suian wasn’t after the Bottle Sun, he was the only one left.
"I don’t understand. What value do I have that you could possibly covet?" Xu Tongming asked.
"Why don’t you consider the possibility that I’m here to befriend you?" Qi Suian asked in return.
But Xu Tongming smiled. "Your malice, in my eyes, is as obvious and biting as the cold."
Hearing this, Qi Suian understood. Spurred on by the stimulation, Xu Tongming’s Power of the Limit was continuously evolving, led by his protagonist’s halo.
It had now broken through the three hundred-degree mark. Whether it was a sudden power-up or some other reason, it proved he was beginning to become something other than human.
So, it was quite normal for him to be able to sense Qi Suian’s malice.
’Smart brain, make a note. I need to find a shielding module for next time.’
As for restraining his malice? Qi Suian knew how to do it a little, but not much, and it was less effective against a protagonist like Xu Tongming.
"Alright, fine. I just want to kill you," Qi Suian said bluntly as nineteen Floating Cannons materialized around him.
He was using his old trick: keeping one Floating Cannon back as a trump card while using the rest as bait, a specialty for killing strong enemies like this.
After his armor value reached 20 points, the number of Floating Cannons had naturally increased to twenty.
"I won’t even ask why, but..." Before Xu Tongming could finish his sentence, he turned and ran without a shred of hesitation.
Qi Suian’s eyes widened when he saw this.
"Wait, you’re..." Qi Suian truly hadn’t expected Xu Tongming to flee.
’Aren’t you the protagonist? The standard playbook says you should fight against heaven and earth, not run away from a strong enemy.’
The smart brain, however, immediately had the Tai Sui God give chase.
"Protagonist’s halo, I need to kill Xu Tongming."
"Work harder! I’m doing this for your own good. After all, if I kill him, his protagonist’s halo will be yours!"
Qi Suian couldn’t be of much help in the chase itself. The only thing he could do was try to give himself a little more luck.
