Chapter 1740: Chapter 84: Blue Mist Man
"Brother Wang! Enough! The thirteen rounds of the Game are over, the Number One Player and the others are coming out! Your mission is over!!!" Qiuqiu jumped off Xining’s motorcycle and stood at the edge of the Abyss, shouting. She didn’t dare get close. Boundless Demonic Qi rushed toward her, carrying a piercing, needle‑sharp chill; this simply wasn’t an environment an ordinary people could survive in.
In the center of the Abyss, the brown‑haired boy lay in a blooming flowerbed, his head slightly turned. He heard her.
His trembling hand was still clutching the little spheres, as if holding a handful of faintly glowing Stars.
He no longer had the Strength to stand. Even if the flower Domain could block out the pollution, the Domain sustained by just him and over a thousand Players working together was still too fragile. Even so, he was still mechanically talking to each little sphere one by one, like a robot, tossing them into the door one after another.
The reason Su Ming’an had been able to find Chen Yuhang and the others so quickly, aside from Lü God’s help, had a lot to do with Wang Xingkong’s little spheres. Things sharing a common aura tended to draw close to one another; given the bond between Chen Yuhang and Wang Xingkong, as long as Lü God found the place with the most spheres, it was easy to track down Chen Yuhang and the others.
Lin Yin had never expected that Wang Xingkong, who came out of Mingxi campus and didn’t even count as real Life... could hold out this far and make such a huge contribution.
Lin Yin’s voice came through the communicator: "Wang Xingkong, that’s enough, you’ve done very well. Your mission is over. Start walking out. The second group’s Support system Players will provide you with Mana and Halo support all the way. Use your flower Skill and walk out."
Beside the Abyss, a team of Healing Series Players was already standing in strict formation. They held their Priest’s Staffs and watched Wang Xingkong, who was surrounded by flowers, ready to provide Healing the moment he stepped out.
For an ordinary people to hold on this long was practically a miracle. It was no less than someone enduring, alive, the suffocating, searing agony of a sea of fire.
Lin Yin said, "After you come out, you’ll reunite with the other Hero, Chen Yuhang. No one will despise what you are anymore. You are the real Life. You’re even more worthy of respect than many others... In the future, whether you want to go back to Mingxi campus, stay in Luowasha, or head for Zhai Xing, we’ll help you make it happen."
The pain‑contorted cheeks of Wang Xingkong pulled into a smile.
So this is the treatment of a Hero, huh... Nice. It wasn’t in vain that I’ve been standing punishment here for so long...
From Lin Yin’s tone, that brat Chen Yuhang seemed to have pulled off quite a few heroic feats in the Source Point. Who would’ve thought? Back then he never knew this guy, who was always getting punished by the teachers to copy lines and stand in the hallway, actually had that kind of guts... He was clearly a stupid kid who blushed whenever he talked to girls, yet now he could do something this badass...
He suddenly felt fortunate.
Fortunately, that day in Mingxi campus, Su Ming’an had stirred up in him the thought of running. Of fleeing that prison‑like campus, of fleeing beyond that fake paper world. Only after escaping did he learn that Mingxi campus was a pirated imitation manufactured by the Disciple Game, and that he himself was just a false copy of "Wang Xingkong"... After all, the dead cannot Rebirth; he could only be a replica.
Only after he leapt out of the paper did he realize how fake his previous World had been. Those teachers, classmates, the college entrance exams that had tormented him to the point of thinking about jumping off a building to end it all... were all just a Void. If he had really been driven by those fake exams in that fake campus to end his Life, without ever seeing the real World outside, there would never have been the "Hero Wang Xingkong" standing here today.
So good. So good.
Fortunately, that day he climbed over the campus railing, resolutely leaping down from high above, diving toward freedom like a Flying Bird.
Fortunately, that day, that brat Chen Yuhang followed him and grabbed his hand.
...
["—Brother Wang, climb more carefully, don’t let the security guards spot you."]
["Go!"]
["Holy crap, Brother Wang, where the hell have you taken me, is this really still Mingxi?"]
...
Fortunately, he was "Wang Xingkong."
He had never felt so grateful for his escape.
Wang Xingkong stretched out his pitch‑black hand and froze for a moment, only now realizing that his skin had turned a purplish‑black, as if he’d eaten some poisonous mushrooms, his whole body tinged with an ominous dark hue. He picked up the communicator:
"—God Lin Yin, one more thing!"
"What is it?" came Lin Yin’s calm voice. Her voice was always calm. As the central controller commanding over a million people, she had to stay calm; no matter what happened, she couldn’t panic, or countless others would panic with her.
In fact, compared to sitting at Central Control, she was more skilled at wielding a big blade as a violent Healer on the battlefield. But everyone was scattered all over. Lu was inside the Source Point, Yamada and Bei Wang were drawing enemy attention, Eni and Lü Shu were fighting in the sky, Isabella was chasing the God of Inspiration... Everyone had something they had to do. Still, she wasn’t alone. Behind her stood a temporary decision‑making council of the United Group of as many as three hundred people, average age over forty, all veterans, Think Tanks, politicians skilled in this very field, and even famous online‑game guild war commanders and Game designers.
"I heard Violet and Chen Yuhang already came out. Why didn’t they walk out through the door?" Wang Xingkong squinted hard at the door in front of him. "I don’t see anyone!"
Lin Yin went silent for a moment, as if conferring with the Think Tank, then quickly spoke: "It’s fine, Wang Xingkong. Just come out."
On the other side, in the battlefield’s Central Control area, a bearded middle‑aged man immediately shook his head. "Ms. Lin, the optimal decision is to have Wang Xingkong continue to stay there."
"This is my judgment." Lin Yin muted her mic and said flatly.
"Ms. Lin, we need to make the most rational decision." Another middle‑aged woman adjusted her glasses. "The optimal decision is to let Wang Xingkong remain at the door, to act as a resonant coordinate... to ensure that once Su Ming’an comes out, he appears right here. All of our reinforcements are gathered here; both Su Rin and Lü Shu, our two Divine Level Combat Power, are here."
Another middle‑aged man with the look of a Doctor was named Caschaya, a past recipient of an international medical award. He closed his tablet and spoke: "In fact, our assessment is that... just like Chen Yuhang and Violet, who are now lying in a Severe Injury coma, their situation is very bad. Our Healing Series Players can’t do anything... Even if we bring Wang Xingkong back now, the chances of Healing are slim. The aura of the Source Point is like an undeveloped primordial forest, with viruses and material components we’ve never even heard of. Once they chose to advance without the protection of the World Game’s mechanics, this may well have been a road with no return from the start."
Lin Yin frowned, and said harshly, "You’re lying!"
Before, these people had told her that having Wang Xingkong stand at the door was fine, that they could pull him back afterward. Yet at this moment they suddenly told her that once Wang Xingkong stood there, Healing would be impossible.
Wasn’t this tricking him into sacrifice!?
If they had told Wang Xingkong from the beginning that this was a road with no return, would he still have gone?
She’d been busy sitting in Central Control and had no Time to verify what they said. She hadn’t expected this group of politicians to truly stop at nothing for victory, deceiving a boy who was giving them his all!
Lin Yin pressed her lips together. She wanted to loudly denounce them, but she couldn’t. If she lost herself to rage, more people would die.
These "despicable" humans, their actions were, ironically, for the Survival of another group. They knew very clearly that if Wang Xingkong had chosen to run from the start, if no one had stood there to provide Transmission of information through the door, it could have led to total collapse of the situation. So they chose an extremely despicable deception... to deceive a hot‑blooded teenager barely past ten.
"We have Angels! We have Deities! In the future we’ll even have High Dimensions! We still have Chao Yan’s Authority over ’Life.’ As long as we wait till later, there will definitely be a way to Heal him!" Lin Yin said decisively. "Bring him back immediately!"
"Maybe..." But the middle‑aged woman didn’t try to persuade her further and fell silent.
Lin Yin understood that these experts were all right... They weren’t disturbed by emotion and wouldn’t make the wrong decision. And she shouldn’t deviate from reason either.
"God Lin Yin, God Lin Yin?" The boy’s voice was still coming from the communicator by her ear. "Why aren’t you talking..."
Lin Yin closed her eyes for a moment and gently picked up the communicator.
How was she supposed to say it? Tell Wang Xingkong: you’ve been tricked by some people, the moment you chose to stand there, you were destined to never make it out alive?
Tell him: some people never saw you as a fellow human being at all, only as a prop, as a weapon, as a consumable?
Tell him: your hot-blooded youthful fervor is the very poison that will kill you? That the so‑called title of "Hero" is nothing but a consolatory name you can only receive after you die?
To say it like that was too cruel; she couldn’t do it.
"Wang Xingkong, you can choose to stay, or you can turn back right now. If you stay, you will be the one to receive Su Ming’an. But given the state your body is in, if you stay any longer, you are absolutely beyond saving. If you turn back, we will do everything we can to heal you," Lin Yin said.
The middle‑aged man listened and objected, "Ms. Lin, how could he possibly be willing to stay there?"
The will to live is human instinct. Knowing full well that staying means death, who would remain there? Wang Xingkong is neither a Zhai Star people nor a Luowasha people, he bears no responsibility to either World, so why would he be willing to sacrifice himself to help them?
Right now he is already a "Hero" watched by the whole world. As long as he turns back, the entire world will hold him in their palms; he’ll enjoy endless glory and riches in the future. How could he possibly not turn back?
The middle‑aged man felt they should keep deceiving Wang Xingkong—since he was doomed anyway, he might as well keep staying there.
"Then what about Violet, Yang Changxu, Chen Yuhang, Joy... When they faced Su Ming’an’s ’Death’, why did they choose to go forward? Why didn’t they turn back?" Lin Yin glared at him fiercely. "The situation they were in back then is exactly the same as the one Wang Xingkong is in now. They all refused to give up!"
Advance, and there will be no bones left to bury; retreat, and there will be glory and wealth.
They already knew there was no road back, yet they still chose to move forward.
"This..." The middle‑aged man rubbed his nose and fell silent. He still carried the ingrained thinking of the old class order; of course he couldn’t believe that anyone would sacrifice themselves like this—it made no sense.
But many things make no sense.
Whether to turn back or not, whether to sacrifice or not... for example.
Lin Yin heard the boy’s hoarse reply from the communicator.
Hoarse with laughter, hoarse with tears:
"God Lin Yin, I hurt all over, I’m so tired, I want to go back."
...All right.
Lin Yin understood Wang Xingkong’s choice. He had held on for too long; what he had given was already enough.
Even if everyone had already pronounced a death sentence on Wang Xingkong, she would still try to save him. As long as he wanted to live, as long as he still had the desire to survive, she would mobilize every resource she could to keep him alive.
A Hero must not be left heartsick.
"Wang Xingkong, use the Skill ’Infinite Bouquet’ and lay a path of flowers all the way in the ten‑o’clock direction. There are Priests outside ready to receive you."
...
Wang Xingkong lay on a soft carpet of flowers.
His chest cavity was full of a scorching, stabbing sensation, as if something inside him was rampaging, roaring, tearing him apart. He breathed the searing air, as though he were in a sea of fire.
The Abyss was very quiet, as if there were a thin membrane isolating it from the roaring artillery outside. People had to shout very loudly for Wang Xingkong to hear them. It was like lying beside a hot stove on a winter night, watching the endless snowfall outside.
But he was in the middle of the catastrophe; he couldn’t enjoy the mood of watching snow by the window.
"Cough, cough cough cough..." He stretched out his hand and crawled outward.
Good, he could walk now; he didn’t have to repeat the same sentences over and over again, or throw the little spheres in again and again.
If the Lives of ten thousand ordinary people could be traded for one more step forward for humanity, those aloof old men, the Rulers, would definitely agree. If the Lives of ten million ordinary people could be traded for the peace of the entire Planet, they would also agree. In the eyes of many high‑rank, low‑positioned people are not equal Lives, but merely replaceable mechanical parts; if Death can bring benefit, then it’s the most cost‑effective trade there is.
The most terrifying thing is this: the ones who feel something is wrong have no Strength to change it, and the ones who have the Strength to change it don’t feel it’s wrong.
That is precisely what makes Brother Ming’an so precious—Brother Ming’an is that kind of person who both has the Strength to change things and feels that they are wrong.
Wang Xingkong understood this, so he left without hesitation. If Brother Ming’an learned that someone had died as a sacrifice outside the door, he would definitely be sad. What he had to do was stay alive and crawl outward.
"Cough, cough cough cough..."
The dense mist blurred his eyes; his consciousness was hazy. In a daze, he seemed to see the little night‑light at home that was always on late at night, waiting for him to come back from evening self‑study.
"All right, time to go home..." he said to himself, like in a dream, "Once Brother Ming’an comes out... we can... go home..."
"You should have left much earlier." A voice suddenly rang out.
Who?
Wang Xingkong tensed.
Right—seemed like it was that Blue Mist Man... When he had almost fallen into the Source Point together with Chen Yuhang, it was a Blue Mist Man who suddenly yanked him back and kept him from falling.
This Blue Mist Man had been standing here the whole time. Obviously even Su Rin the great God couldn’t get in, yet this Blue Mist Man had been standing here all along, doing nothing—neither helping nor harming, just watching.
