Chapter 137
Chapter 137
In every Script that followed, Ning Wang was like he’d swallowed gunpowder, striking wherever Ning Shuo pointed.
Holding a thermos cup, Ning Shuo walked across the river bridge in the urban Script, admiring Ning Wang as he swept through a whole crowd of mutated NPCs with a sword that was obviously OOC for the setting.
Ning Shuo, of course, had no problem stirring things up. The next second, he pointed at the most severely mutated NPC in the Script, which was currently chasing him, and shouted, “Protect your King, protect your King! This King is about to get caught!”
A sword cut through the air and pierced the NPC’s throat. Smiling, Ning Shuo said, “Knight, be faster next time.”
Amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood, Ning Wang set off the firework signal that showed the Script test was complete, saying as he did, “King, not even the hem of your robe got stained with blood.”
“I see. Then next time I’ll step in some blood.”
It would still take a few minutes before the transport passage to leave the Script opened, so they simply leaned against the bridge and watched the glittering ripples on the river.
The golden-red sunset and the fireworks reflected one another. After that faint burst of light was completely drowned out by the glow of dusk, Ning Wang suddenly said, “We haven’t dated before, have we?”
Ning Shuo arched a brow. “Anyone who knows better would think you’re saying neither of us has ever been in a relationship. Anyone who doesn’t would think you’re saying the two of us have never been in one together.”
Under that smiling, coaxing gaze, Ning Wang willingly stepped into the option he had laid out for him. “Then, King, permit your subject to go with what ‘those who don’t know’ would think.”
The breeze carried the stench of rotting corpses. Ning Shuo lazily draped an arm over his shoulder. “Smells a little strong. Let me hide here for a bit.”
Ning Wang curled his lips. “There’s a better way to avoid it. Would King like to try it?”
Ning Shuo put the thermos cup into his Backpack, then pinched Ning Wang’s chin and pressed their noses together. “Try it?”
Their breaths mingled, heavy with ambiguity, yet at the very moment they were about to touch, the transport passage opened.
Ning Shuo immediately slipped away as lightly as the wind. Amused, Ning Wang followed and simply carried him into the passage.
During this period, with both sides tacitly accepting it, a strange sort of peace had formed between them and the System.
From the System’s point of view, with their memories gone, they truly shouldn’t hold any grudge against the System itself.
Seeing Ning Wang carrying Ning Shuo, the Main God paused atop the high platform. “…What is this?”
Ning Wang veiled the coldness in his eyes and smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? We’re dating.”
The Main God chuckled. “I see. Congratulations to you both. But unfortunately, I have something to tell you.”
“Ning Wang, your combat ability is beyond question, but test NPCs aren’t only meant to assess how dangerous the NPCs are. They also have to test whether the NPCs can detect that you’ve broken character.”
“However,” he said, raising a hand as the destruction ratings of every Script they had tested during this period appeared in midair, “haven’t you been going OOC a little too directly?”
The Main God tapped a finger, and a flying Camera drifted to their side. Within seconds, it became invisible even to the naked eye. “So in the Scripts you’ll be testing next, I’ll be observing at all times to see whether you can successfully play your roles.”
“Of course, a moderate amount of OOC is still necessary when testing the NPCs’ threat index.”
He smiled. “Once all the Scripts that need testing are finished, I’ll honor my promise and send you back to the world of the Li Kingdom so you can take your revenge.”
When he saw that neither of them spoke, the Main God thought for a moment, then let out an “ah.” “Right, I forgot. You’re dating. Don’t worry, I’ve given the Camera a privacy setting. If it detects any overly intimate behavior between you, it’ll automatically block it out.”
The privacy setting couldn’t be revoked unless the Camera itself was destroyed.
That seemed to make them feel a little less stifled. The two of them only gave a brief acknowledgment and had just turned to leave when the Main God asked, “By the way, Ning Shuo, do you still not remember where the Water Moon Mirror is?”
Ning Shuo replied without leaving the slightest opening, “As you know, I’ve forgotten many things-how I came here, and even what the Water Moon Mirror looks like. Rest assured, I have no interest in keeping something unimportant to me. If I remember someday, I’ll definitely present it to you with both hands.”
After that, they continued entering Script tests without pause.
It went on until the Ghost Bride Script, when Ning Shuo sent the Water Moon Mirror Fragment he had kept hidden in his flesh and blood all this time into Mingzhi’s body.
There were two reasons he used only one fragment. First, it was only a single fragment, so it would have little effect on the complete Water Moon Mirror. Second, the Main God had poured a great deal of effort into this Script, and Mingzhi was a key NPC in it. Ruining her meant ruining the entire Script.
So after using that fragment, Ning Shuo immediately acted like he was coughing his lungs out, making it seem as though he had done it purely to save himself.
Ning Wang reacted just as quickly and realized what he was trying to do. After shutting Mingzhi outside the door, he brought over a bowl of medicine. “Ningning, come drink your medicine.”
With the doors and windows tightly shut, his cold body gradually began to heat up.
As their breaths tangled together, Ning Shuo tried to run, only to have the back of his neck pinched. “What are you running for?”
The movements were fervent and tender. At his ear, Ning Wang said hoarsely, “Ningning, are you very hot?”
It was all lewd talk. Only when Ning Shuo’s consciousness sank into heavy darkness did he hear a low sigh.
“We’ll have another chance.”
The words were vague, but Ning Shuo knew Ning Wang was referring to the fragment he had thrown out.
Both he and Ning Wang understood this clearly: with just the two of them, let alone the Main God, even bringing down those Judges would be incredibly difficult.
Even though 001 seemed to have been frequently entering Scripts lately, especially Scripts in Zone F.
So they had long since prepared two backup plans.
Either they would perish together with the World-Descent Rule;
or they would find a way to throw the System into chaos again and, ideally, escape from the System.
The existence of the World-Descent Rule depended on the maintenance of rules.
If one day they returned as Players again, and if luck was on their side and they obtained the Water Moon Mirror Fragment from Mingzhi, then after recovering their memories, all they would need to do was break one of the World-Descent Rule’s permanent rules. That would cause the World-Descent Rule to collapse, allowing the World Management Bureau to trace the Main God hidden inside the System-the interstellar fugitive.
Unfortunately, the Main God never gave them that chance.
The harmony of that period had really only been a cover.
On the surface, they had been getting along peacefully, but in truth, it was all to quietly strip away the concealment surrounding Xie Ning as the medium.
It all happened without anyone noticing, and the Water Moon Mirror, missing only a single corner, also fell into the Main God’s hands within a Script.
But at the same time, the World-Descent Rule was being held at swordpoint.
The moment he saw the World-Descent Rule, which should have been safely stored inside the System, the Main God’s pupils contracted.
Who else could obtain the World-Descent Rule from that internal space, a place only the Main God himself could enter?
The only Judge with the ability to traverse space: 002.
Ha.
The child he had trusted most had betrayed him.
Fortunately, he had not been without suspicion. Back when he decided to send Shu Xiao into confinement, the Main God had already planted a Surveillance Anchor in him.
He merely moved a finger, and a thread connected to his index finger snapped.
But Ning Wang still knew nothing. He only knew that one night, Shu Xiao suddenly handed him that thing. “The Main God is about to make a move against you. If you hit a dead end, destroy it.”
Ning Wang frowned. “This thing has to be important to the Main God. If it’s destroyed, what happens to you?”
As if by accident, Shu Xiao touched the back of his head and smiled with the same punchable look he had worn when they first met. “The moment he planted something in me, I knew that even if I didn’t help you, I wouldn’t live much longer anyway.”
The spectator enjoying the show died soundlessly behind the scenes.
With the World-Descent Rule in Ning Wang’s hands, they were given one chance.
A chance to keep the situation locked in a stalemate.
And yet, just as the World-Descent Rule was about to be destroyed by that sword, the Main God twisted his face into a savage expression and took out that mirror.
He only made a tiny crack appear on the mirror, and Ning Shuo, who was standing beside Ning Wang, suddenly let out a muffled groan.
In the next second, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.