Chapter 221
Chapter 221
Qin Nan stood on the rooftop.
One glance down from that height was enough to terrify anyone.
He genuinely couldn’t understand what Jian Fan intended.
Before he could hesitate, however, Qin Nan felt someone violently tearing at him, trying to wrench him out of the body. He suddenly realized–was Little Princess fighting him for control of the body?
Jian Fan had to have a reason.
Qin Nan had no attention to spare for anything else, not even fear. He struggled desperately toward the edge, but while his consciousness advanced, the body remained frozen in place.
What kind of garbage was this?
Qin Nan gritted his teeth. He managed to lift one foot but couldn’t take even a single step.
He could feel Little Princess pulling harder and harder.
She was afraid.
Of course she feared death, but Qin Nan sensed something wrong in the desperate struggle. Little Princess’s fear might not be limited to dying.
Peaceful coexistence might not be the true way out. Jumping could be.
Jian Fan was handing him the Points for clearing the world!
At the thought, an unmistakable determination surged through Qin Nan.
He had to leave alive, and he couldn’t waste Jian Fan’s good intentions.
“Get lost!” Qin Nan roared at Little Princess inside their mind. The shout seemed to stun her for an instant. Seizing that instant, he charged forward and leaped from the roof.
Qin Nan felt as if he were flying.
Then, to his astonishment, the scene before him began to fade and transform. Everything changed beyond recognition, but before he could absorb it, the familiar white light flashed again.
Thud.
Qin Nan crashed to the ground.
The pain in his backside pulled him back to himself. He raised his head and looked around at the painfully familiar white expanse.
He quickly discovered Jian Fan and the others standing not far behind him–including Xia Zeqin.
They had escaped.
“We’re out?” Lu Jing stared around in confusion.
They had clearly returned to the Realm of Death.
Weren’t they supposed to coexist peacefully with Little Princess? She hadn’t seemed to agree yet. And Xia Zeqin–they hadn’t even found him. How had they escaped?
Lu Jing had only just managed to understand the earlier explanation, and now he was lost again.
His brain simply couldn’t keep up.
Qin Weiyi looked puzzled too. He turned to Jian Fan. “The solution wasn’t peaceful coexistence. It was Little Princess’s death?”
“Mm,” Jian Fan replied. Then he added, “Not necessarily her death. The actual condition should be world collapse.”
Lu Jing: “???”
I suspect you’re speaking in code right in front of me, and I have evidence.
Qin Weiyi frowned.
Little Princess’s death caused world collapse. The true exit condition was world collapse, and killing her was merely one way to trigger it. Once Qin Weiyi worked through that point, he froze.
“So it was still a false world? Something like… a game world?”
Jian Fan nodded.
“How did you discover that?” Qin Weiyi asked.
“The computer was too easy to breach,” Jian Fan said. After a pause, he added, “I’d suspected it earlier. In reality, family corporations are rarely named directly after a surname.”
Everyone: “????”
That was enough?
“A society governed by law,” Jian Fan continued. “And hypnosis isn’t nearly as powerful as you think.”
Everyone: “????”
Question marks filled every mind.
Qin Nan remained seated. He carefully worked through Jian Fan’s remarks, filling in the missing pieces until he finally understood the entire sequence.
“So Little Princess still existed inside a virtual world resembling a game. It was a story about an innocent, adorable young woman who grew up at a terrible cost: both parents dead, family ruined, multiple personality disorder–and finally, successful revenge?”
Jian Fan nodded.
Qin Nan shifted his position and continued. “Our task was never to treat her multiple personality disorder. It was to escape the virtual world. To leave, we had to make the world collapse. Little Princess was its protagonist, so once the protagonist died, the entire world collapsed.”
Jian Fan nodded again.
“And you noticed the problem through several details but couldn’t be sure. The computer confirmed it, so you told me to kill myself. Right?” Qin Nan asked.
“Mm.” Jian Fan added, “At that moment, Little Princess’s death was the best way to collapse the world.”
Whoever controlled her body at the moment of death would count as the person who solved the world and receive bonus Points.
Qin Nan opened his Points interface.
Excellent. This world had awarded him fourteen hundred Points.
Yellow Hair understood now too.
He clicked his tongue. “Qin Nan, you really need to watch what you say from now on.”
Qin Nan looked blank. “What does this have to do with me?”
“Didn’t this fulfill exactly what you said at the beginning? Twist after twist after twist, illusion after illusion after illusion.”
The first illusion was the beautiful villa and amusement park. The second was Little Princess’s psychological world. The third was the virtual space.
Qin Nan: “…”
Would they ever let that joke die?
At his utterly defeated expression, everyone laughed kindly.
Everyone except Xia Zeqin.
He stood in place for a while, listening to Qin Nan’s analysis with a faint, meaningful smile. By the time Qin Nan finished, the smile had vanished. Xia Zeqin didn’t linger; he turned and left.
After he disappeared, Yang Zhen elbowed Shi Chen beside her. “What’s his problem?”
Shi Chen glanced at her. “A big dumb oaf doesn’t understand anything. Don’t ask the big dumb oaf.”
Yang Zhen: “…”
“Are you sick?” She stared at him speechlessly.
Shi Chen choked.
Yang Zhen perfectly demonstrated that if she refused to feel awkward, the awkwardness belonged to someone else; if she refused to play along, then the other person had to be the one with a problem.
Shi Chen gave two cold laughs and refused to speak with her again.
After saying goodbye to Qin Nan and the others, he left. Yang Zhen glanced at Jian Fan’s group. She wanted to ask for more information, but after considering their relationship, she decided to watch and proceed gradually.
Soon, only Qin Nan’s seven-person group remained in the Realm of Death.
They could now be considered a stable team.