Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Countless chaotic images and sounds came surging in like a tide. Not far away, the steel pipe in the young man’s hand seemed to turn into a sword.

Beside his ear, he caught a glimpse of a hand braiding his hair. “Seeing this face from this angle really is something special.”

“Ningning? You don’t like being called that? I like it a lot.”

“What do you want to do once we get out? Mm… first, let’s fix that wreck of a body of yours.”

Everything was bizarre and disjointed. Countless voices tangled at his ear, yet he could still tell they all belonged to the same person.

The whole world seemed to be receding into another realm. Only the figure not far away, blurred by firelight, grew clearer and clearer.

A sudden impulse rose in Ning Shuo. His entire heart heated up, and that burning urge drove him forward before he even realized it.

They had always been the most intimate of existences, the ones who understood each other better than anyone else in the world. There was no one else.

“Ning Wang,” Ning Shuo called to the other person amid the thunder of collapsing high-rises. “Want to kiss?”

The hilt of the sword that expressed love was in his hand, and now he invited his other self to hold it with him.

Ning Shuo’s brows and eyes relaxed into an easy smile. “Since you’ve handed me the hilt, then after this kiss, let’s date.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to keep making you suffer without a proper title.”

Ning Wang turned and ran toward him, his eyes curving with a smile. He pressed a hand to the back of Ning Shuo’s head, and a kiss carrying the taste of gunsmoke fell upon him. He was clearly the forceful one in action, yet the signal of reconciliation he gave was fragmented and vulnerable. “Then please hold this sword of mine well.”

[Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh, Narcissus!! The way they fight side by side hits me so, so, so hard!!]

[Where are the creators? Where are my beloved creators?!]

[Aaaaaaah, battlefield kiss!! It’s a battlefield kiss!! So spicy!!]

[Bring Us a pen! We shall write them doing it in the very next second!!]

The live feed cut off abruptly. A red “error” filled the entire screen. The Script’s limits had been completely shattered, and in the end, the screen went utterly black.

[System Notification: The Script you are watching has exceeded the threshold and can no longer continue to bear the load. After this Script concludes, it will be forcibly shattered.]

[System Notification: We apologize. Because the Script has exceeded the threshold, the connection between this Script and the Live Stream Room will be severed. A safe exit will now proceed.]

[System Notification: After the Script Angel’s Game ends, the System will repair the loophole. During the repair period, every Player will receive compensation in Heat Points.]

—

The smoke of battle was nearly gone. Corpses lay strewn everywhere.

Dust scattered in all directions, and the air reeked of rot.

Qin Genan plucked a blade of grass and idly stripped it apart bit by bit. “What’s going on? Every NPC has been smashed to pieces. Why haven’t those two come back yet?”

They were literally smashed to pieces-either destroyed by Corrosion or blown up, with barely any parts left behind.

Zhuang Yao tipped her chin toward the two walking hand in hand not far away. “There. They’re back.”

Qin Genan’s hand paused. “Don’t you think there’s something weird between them?”

Ning Shuo had taken off his glasses. If it weren’t for the difference in their hairstyles, it would have been almost impossible to tell who was who.

The moment she finished speaking, the short-haired one swung the hand that was interlaced with the long-haired one’s fingers. “What? How did you know my brother and I are together now?”

Everyone: “…”

After all that destruction, the Notary Office in the ruins was also in tatters.

The Clown was still as theatrical as ever. But perhaps because it shared information with the Main System, and because the entire Script was in such a miserable state, the Clown’s expression could hardly be called good. It had even lost the desire to perform. “Esteemed Player, are you all here to make an Accusation?”

The Murderer could not be casually killed like any other NPC. Perhaps, like Camberny, she would continue to exist in another form after death, which would only make things more troublesome.

Ning Shuo tossed the bucket to it. “We accuse her. Huang Yanmei.”

Before Huang Yanmei could even attack any Player, she was erased by the Clown first.

The Clown turned and tore open a spatial rift. “This Script is about to be shattered. The end time has been moved up. When dawn arrives, you may leave.”

Just then, the sky was paling with the first light of dawn.

Luo Li had been holding Zhu Xiangfeng’s hand the whole time and had never let go.

But she had not dared to look at Zhu Xiangfeng.

Right now, she was using Zhu Xiangfeng’s face, while Zhu Xiangfeng was no longer herself.

Luo Li kept remembering the eyes Zhu Xiangfeng had when she first entered the Script.

Pitch-black, unfocused eyes. They looked nothing like the Zhu Xiangfeng from when she had still been a Cloth Doll.

Back then, there had still been light in Zhu Xiangfeng’s eyes, even though she later suffered unbearably.
Warm morning light drove away everything. The hand Luo Li was holding warmed again, like a final flash of life, and heat spread across the back of her hand.

Luo Li’s lashes trembled. She turned to look.

A pair of black eyes gazed at her gently, and a hand stroked her cheek. “I saw it, Lolita.”

“After I died, I saw everything.”

For some reason, Luo Li’s eyes stung. “Xiangfeng…”

“Don’t cry, Lolita,” Zhu Xiangfeng said, her brows and eyes soft. “I hope you win.”

“Xiangfeng…”

“The ‘me’ inside the System can still help everyone like this. That’s a good thing,” Zhu Xiangfeng said with a comforting smile. “I’m going to find my brother now, Lolita. Thank you for letting ‘me’ be of such great use, and thank you for setting me free.”

“May we meet again in the near future.”

—

This System update and maintenance lasted a very long time.

Ning Shuo suspected that the many fragments that had inexplicably appeared in this Script, almost like “scene replays,” had something to do with him, so he went to ask Song Zhu.

The reason he asked Song Zhu was that, within the System, aside from the System itself, Song Zhu was the only one who could evade the System’s surveillance and even use data to mend wounds.

After joining the Team, Song Zhu did not hide much from them. He said he had originally been Clown 001 of Zone A. A System internal upheaval many years ago had severed his connection to the Main System, which was how he had become a Player.

Ning Shuo asked him, “Do you think it’s possible that Ning Wang and I didn’t split apart, but are some kind of copies?”

Song Zhu frowned. “I’ve never heard of an item like that in the Main System.”

Ning Shuo thought it over carefully and realized he was right.

If they were copies, then those memories seemed to have taken place in all sorts of Scripts too. There was no reason Ning Wang would have the original account while he did not.

But those memories were truly strange. He did not even know how to ask Ning Wang about them. Just like the first time, soon enough he could only remember a few scattered words. Even if Ning Shuo wanted to tell someone, he would not know where to begin.

So that matter could only be set aside for the moment. Right now, there was something else-

As soon as Ning Wang came out of that hospital Script, he made a post on the Forum.

Even Players who did not watch their livestreams knew about them because of Rao Lin and the System’s latest announcement that “Number One Swordsman in the World and Ning Banxian will be joining the Zone F Team as special-invitation Players.”

So when Number One Swordsman in the World made his first post on the Forum, almost everyone in Zone F rushed over to take a look.

Then they clicked in and saw: Hello, everyone. Yes, Ning Shuo (codename Ning Banxian) and I are dating.

All the Players: …

Are you insane?!

Even more insane was Ning Shuo, whose levels of chuunibyou were no lower than Ning Wang’s. He seized the first comment: Thank you all for attending the ceremony. This King and this King’s Knight will have a beautiful and everlasting private-oh no, romantic relationship.

All the Players: If it’s a private affair, then keep it private, okay? Can you not make it public?!

Seriously. Other people are wailing and fighting for their lives in the System, while you two are chatting and dating in the System.

Of course, amid the chorus of speechlessness, there were some blessings, as well as a few unhinged comments.

Willow: Oh my god, if Teacher Song weren’t so shy, I definitely would’ve been the first to launch this kind of whole-zone announcement!

Lucky Little Qi: Whoa, whoa, whoa! The King and the Knight have finally crossed a thousand hardships and ten thousand trials to be together!

Lolita: From the time I started following them until now, I really haven’t seen them go through that many hardships or trials to be together.

Shuishui: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Congrats to the King on bringing home his queen!

Nan-ge: Yo, yo, yo. So back at the hospital, during that time when you two never came back, the Narcissus flowers were already blooming, huh?

Zhuang Yao: Congratulations. Also, please note that before the Star Zone Arena begins, we can still practice 76 Scripts together. The estimated Script destruction rate should ideally be maintained above 64%.

Z: …All right.

All the Players: ?

So you people enter Scripts not to clear them, but to destroy them?

Is this some new arena strategy?

Still, the happiest ones were the shippers.

[Nan-ge! Can you tell us what they were doing while they disappeared?!]

[The livestream cut off when they were halfway through kissing. Did they-kiss-until the end of time!!]

[They’ve got the official status, they’ve kissed, so how far can they be from doing it!]

[Teacher! Teacher, come quick! I want to see them do it!!]

/Volume 1: Freeze Frame End.

/Volume 2: Surging Tide get.