First Player

Chapter 74 "Master, master."

——Do you believe that people can stick to their beliefs unwaveringly throughout their lives, from beginning to end?

This is a question Su Mingan has read in a philosophy book.

His thinking at the time was that only great men could. Only those great men who are upright, capable, philanthropic and wise can always remain firm in their beliefs.

However, in this world, he changed his mind. During this long and short journey, he saw too many such "great men" - some of them were just young people with little experience, and some were already decadent. After wasting most of their lives, some even used "fanatical love" as a mask to love crazily all their lives, and some were even regarded as lackeys and traitors, but they all carried out their beliefs until the last moment of their lives.

The brilliance flows, and the ring of time on the right finger shines, and the name "Yao Wen" is engraved on its gemstone, like ground gemstone powder.

It is juxtaposed with the other two names "Tredia and Su Xiaobi", and the font is extremely small, as if leaving enough space.

——Will one day this ring be engraved with names?

"Crash-"

The snow-white space shattered, and Su Mingan returned to the long corridor filled with pools of blood. The place is still full of traces of fighting, with craters and mechanical debris everywhere, and you can encounter corpses within a few steps.

The sounds of people fighting were like sharp swords, clashing day and night in the heavy rain. Yaowen's body was handed over to a soldier for safekeeping by Su Mingan. The soldiers saluted him and said they would deliver the body to a safe place.

Su Mingan stepped through the knee-deep rain.

"Wow——"

The cold wind blew his black hair. He smashed the glass of the tall building and jumped down from the sky. He used the scattered tall buildings to fly quickly through the night, like a goshawk in the dark night.

The rain washed down his face, reflecting the slight blush at the end of his eyes. He ran quickly, his dark pupils reflecting the buildings in the distance that stood like twin stars.

He's going somewhere.

The dead are gone.

He wanted to try his best... to hold on to something that wasn't gone yet.

…

"Plop."

"Plop."

It was like an ice-white heavy rain, and the white feathers flying like scattered neon lights opened the cracks in the night.

In the center of the room, Dawn System's blood-red heart was swelling all the time. The scarlet hose stretched and danced, constantly stabbing the thousands of white birds that were struggling to resist, dyeing their white-ribbed bodies translucent red.

"Swish, swish -"

The air was filled with a strong smell of blood, birds fell, and hundreds of white bird corpses lay on the ground, like a purgatory on earth.

The remaining white birds flew and attacked without fear, with the same posture - protecting the blond young man in the center, scaring him all over, sacrificing their lives for him, burning like bright flames in the air.

In their eyes, the blond young man is their leader, a mythical phoenix.

At this time, the blond young man had fallen to the ground, enduring painful emotional resonance. His left arm was pierced by the hose, exposing the white bones, and his legs were covered with hundreds of contusions. He had been severely injured by the scarlet hose and could not stand - —But the watch on his wrist remained firmly attached to the Dawn System, and he did not put it down even if his arm was injured like a bright red poker.

His mind was filled with fragmented images, his sky-like pupils were covered with a foggy white shadow, and Noah almost forgot who he was due to the long and intense emotional resonance. There is only one obsession in his mind——

Can't let go.

Can't die.

Hold on as long as possible, no matter how painful it is, or on the verge of collapse.

"..."

As if he had fallen into a black-red vortex, fragments of various emotionally resonant images flashed before his eyes, and thousands of sharp sounds tortured his brain.

A flash of bright red emerged from his pupils, and at this moment, he actually heard the voice of the god:

“The resonance is already very high.”

"You can rest, Noah, and leave your body to me. Don't insist on it anymore, it's pointless."

Noah's pupils trembled, and he still held his arm stained red with blood high, clinging to the Dawn System without letting go at all.

"Don't... think about it," he said brokenly.

The gods actually wanted to invade him at this time. It was impossible. He would not give the gods a chance to bewitch him.

The god's voice chuckled in his ear and said no more.

At this time, a slight "ding-dong" sound came, which meant that Su Mingan had successfully taken over the central control room.

Noah's hand slowly dropped, and his whole body collapsed to the ground, no longer weak. His mission was finally accomplished.

White feathers fell on his face, light and airy, as if they were casting a white coffin for him to sleep in. The number of white birds has been reduced by four-fifths. They can no longer protect him, and countless scarlet hoses are gradually crawling towards him.

Noah lay on the ground, like a golden-red flag of fatigue, and the bright red blood was more dazzling than his golden hair.

He stared blankly at the ceiling with flickering lights, curling his fingers unconsciously - his current resonance level was extremely high, and he could become possessed by gods at any time. For now, committing suicide was the best option.

Before coming here, he was indeed prepared to sacrifice.

However, the moment before he raised his hand with difficulty and planned to commit suicide, he quickly realized that he actually felt reluctant to leave this world.

He didn't want to commit suicide, and he didn't want to die alone here.

Are you afraid of the dark?

Are you afraid of pain?

Is it fear of death?

It seems like neither.

He wanted to see someone for the last time.

He still had too much to do.

I couldn't spend a peaceful time with that person.

I didn't get to hear a full piano solo from that guy.

I couldn't hear the person admitting defeat by saying, "Please don't call me grandpa."

He failed...to enter the spring he longed for most.

He didn't want to accept this cold ending.

"Noah, why are you so selfish? How can you be afraid of death?"

This was the sound he heard in his own mouth, but his desire to live was like a wildly growing weed. He didn't want to die alone here, it was too cold and lonely.

"grandfather."

His crazy desire to survive kept him sane. He suddenly started shouting.

Although he knew that even if he kept shouting, grandpa would most likely not come, it was too dangerous here. What's more, the iron gate was sealed by his own hands.

He just... doesn't want to give up love.

When people have "love", they can explode with infinite power. In the news, a thin woman was able to lift a heavy truck in order to save her child.

Because he sensed the emotion called "love" in his heart, he miraculously still maintained a certain amount of thinking despite the collapse of his reason.

He opened his eyes and stretched out his hand towards the sealed iron door.

"Master, master." He opened his mouth and called out.

But there was no one in the room except him, and no one could reply to him.

The iron door was cold, and there was nothing outside except the sound of the mechanical army beating metal.

Like a worm without legs and feet, Noah crawled forward bit by bit, his blood turning into secreted action fluid. As he crawled, he left a long bloody trail on the ice-white ground.

The scattered white feathers were like a thick carpet of blood, and blood gushed out of his mouth.

…

[If I had known that you could come back if you called me grandpa, I would have called you grandpa every day, grandpa, grandpa, grandpa——]

"grandfather."

He crawled, his voice echoing in the room.

The god's slight sigh sounded in his ears, and he didn't seem to say any more sarcastic words.

"Grandpa, grandpa, grandpa..." There was a cry in his voice.

[I'm afraid that if I don't call you grandpa, you will disappear! 】

[Grandpa, don’t jump off the edge of the world, let’s go together, okay? 】

…

It's reached its limit.

Whether it was his brain, physical strength, blood loss, or resonance level, he had reached his limit. He completed the impossible task abruptly, and under the precise calculation of the gods, he was dragged to the level of "above his own limit".

In front of him was the dreamlike light and shadow of remembrance.

"grandfather."

[Grandpa, how about we go to the bird show, Grandpa...]

[Grandpa, if you don’t know how to play a musical instrument, I can teach you, as long as you talk to me normally, Grandpa...]

【grandfather,】

【grandfather……】

…

At this moment, the flapping sound of wings suddenly disappeared in his ears.

A white bird, covered in blood, suddenly landed in front of his eyes with a "bang", and its blood splashed onto the tip of his nose, giving it a warm touch. It is the last surviving white bird.

It called hoarsely at him, and flapped its red wings, scraping his golden hair that was also stained with blood, as if it wanted to caress him, but the intimate light in its eyes quickly faded, and before he could reach out, When he took action, it had already made no sound.

The white birds were all dead, the scarlet hose killing them all.

Under the dome, blazing white lights flickered. It's quiet around me.

Those scarlet hoses did not penetrate Noah's body, but stopped in place, allowing him to crawl toward the iron gate, as if the gods were respecting his last effort.

"..."

In fact, he didn't know where he wanted to climb. Outside the iron gate, there was the cold mechanical army; further away, there was eternal night; and further away, there was nothing but eternal night.

Even if one cage is released, people in the two-dimensional world are still trapped in another cage, and the sun, rain and dew are extremely far away from them.

However, he didn't want to lie on the cold floor like a dead body. He wanted to fly forward as hard as he could, even if it was just dragging his heavy body close to the ground.

"grandfather."

He continued to call intermittently.

People who are trapped in a two-dimensional world can never have a future.

But he thought, if the sunflower saw the sun, how could it not grow in its direction? If a moth sees a light, how can it be blind to it?

He never changed the funny "Grandpa" title because he was afraid of seeing nightmares coming. He was extremely afraid of losing the people around him, so he was so scared that he chose to ignore reason and deceive himself with a ridiculous reason, thinking that as long as he called him this, Grandpa will never leave.

—But, God.

He suddenly wanted to pray to God.

——If there really is a god in this world who protects the ruined world, can you give him a chance at the end?

——Although he has always been an ungrateful believer, can a person who has never had a past or a future and whose life is extremely short-lived can get a glimmer of favor from the legendary gods?

——If he is destined not to see spring, can he see the person who can bring spring back on the last night of winter?

…

"Bang!"

Suddenly, a loud bang came from the iron door.

Noah fell to the ground, unconscious.

An S-shaped line of blood was dragged behind him. He crawled a full thirty meters from the central Dawn System to the edge of the iron gate, his legs soaked in a pool of blood.

So much so that when there was an explosion outside the iron gate, he didn't even know someone was coming.

But soon, there was another sound.

Then, there was a second sound.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Like the crackling of fireworks, there was a sound like popcorn being knocked over at the door, and it was like the fireworks rising into the sky at night during the Lucky Fate Festival, erupting with a loud roar.

“Bang——Boom——!!!”

The sound of mechanical military force outside the door gradually disappeared, and what followed was a violent space shattering. The iron door that was completely sealed was cracked bit by bit, and cracks were formed from dots to lines. It is made of lines and planes, and scattered puzzle pieces are connected to form a large hole. The entire metal door cracks to both sides in the vibration——

Finally, under the swaying warm light, a hole was opened from the iron door.

A young man with black hair stepped over the metal fragments and walked towards him covered in rain and blood.

Noah slowly raised his head and followed the young man with trembling eyes. The soaked black-haired young man broke the door, brandished his sword, rushed forward, cut off the blood-red hose, and ran towards him in a few steps.

Their meeting eyes seemed to be locked by the swirling white feathers. At this moment, Noah seemed to be blocked from all vision, and could see nothing except the young man who was coming.

The next moment, the light outside the door was blocked by shadows. Su Mingan stood in front of Noah, squatted down, hugged him lying on the ground, and closed Noah's hands with sticky blue blood. The back of the head, where the shoulders and neck meet.

"...Grandpa?" Noah whispered, and he was embraced into a smoke-filled embrace, as if he had stepped into spring in an instant.

Hug is the most beautiful word in the language.

When souls embrace each other, and the temperature touches each other, just like a stream flowing into another stream, they can receive all-encompassing tolerance and satisfaction.