Chapter 886: Chapter 883: "Eye of the Old Days Sauce
"Don’t wear it," Su Ming’an said.
He thought that would be the end of it, but the next moment, the system prompt popped up again:
...
[Are you really sure you don’t want to wear the "Eye of the Old Days"?]
[Wear/Don’t wear.]
...
This time, the words "Don’t wear" turned bloody red, as if reminding him that if he didn’t wear it, there would be terrifying consequences.
But Su Ming’an was very clear in his heart that this thing absolutely could not be worn. Even if there were benefits, he would rather erase a potential hidden danger.
"Don’t wear it," Su Ming’an said.
The next moment, the system prompt popped up for the third time:
[Is this really your final decision not to wear the "Eye of the Old Days"?]
[Wear/Don’t wear.]
...
The words "Don’t wear" had already begun to distort, the bloody red like fresh blood, as if it were about to flow down. The characters seemed like a pair of twisted eyes, staring at him coldly.
"Don’t wear it," Su Ming’an replied for the third time, his answer extremely firm.
The system prompt did not appear again.
Su Ming’an successfully took off the necklace, and it lay in his palm, the once lively eyeball already turned into a still state, like an ordinary wooden pendant.
He stared at this necklace, his spine chilling.
He had never seen such a bizarre instance; even in White Sand Paradise, its underworld aspects were visible to the naked eye, its background limited to a small school.
But this "World of Old Days" instance had an incredibly vast and broad background—covering from the present world to the Louyue Nation, from Louyue covering to the seaside village. From the start to now, the world’s eerie aspects were hidden in every corner, almost omnipresent. It seemed that wherever he went, there were eyes watching him.
He clenched the wooden pendant in his hand and put it into the backpack grid.
He lifted the broken bricks beside him, trying to find Chao Yan’s figure in the ruins. But he knew in his heart that if she hadn’t appeared by now, she was most likely already dead from the tentacle’s strikes. If she were just an ordinary isolated orphan girl from the village, she wouldn’t have been able to dodge such a swift tentacle.
"I’m here."
A hollow voice came from behind.
Su Ming’an turned around to see a black-haired girl sitting quietly between human flesh and bones, covered in blood and dust, as if she had just crawled out of the ruins.
She expressionlessly lifted the half of a corpse pressing on her knee, slowly stood up, her expression very calm, without the basic fear and aversion to the smell of blood.
"So you’re okay," Su Ming’an said.
Chao Yan took a few steps; there were obvious scars on her arms and thighs, probably scratched by tentacles, with a few wooden splinters and nails stuck to her skin, oozing with fresh red blood, yet she seemed not to feel the pain, stumbling towards him, still carrying the medicine basket in her hand.
Her gaze slightly shifted, looking at the already dead Old Man Wang and a few incomplete villagers’ corpses beneath the ruins. She could see their painful and mad expressions before they died, every fold on their faces, every wrinkle.
The sea breeze swept through, the monster long gone, and the dawn gradually appeared in the distance.
"They were just strutting around arrogantly, thinking about how to exploit me tomorrow," Chao Yan said, "In just a few minutes, they were killed by the exotic species, not even leaving whole corpses."
She stared at these corpses, her gaze unmovable, as if she pitied them.
Seeing her demeanor, thinking about her completely non-resistant attitude just now, Su Ming’an felt she was too kind, "Do you have sympathy for those who exploit and morally coerce you?"
Chao Yan lifted her head, the sea breeze blowing on the purple and white morning glory she was holding.
"Life is indeed like this, no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or an accident." Chao Yan’s voice was very calm, like a gently flowing stream, more peaceful in the dawn: "I don’t hate anyone. I think they are beautiful by nature, like flowers, even if they have an ugly side painted on them, they can be redeemed. I hope to see their beauty when they bloom, even if it’s pessimistic, heavy, oppressive. Even their ’anti-human’ side makes me understand all the more the rare beauty they have when they are kind—so when they express their desires and ugliness to me, I instead hope they can reform, to be persuaded by me. When they can be redeemed, this contrasting beauty moves me the most."
"Don’t you feel angry?" Su Ming’an was hearing this kind of view for the first time. It already wasn’t a concept that a normal human could bear.
Redemption, compassion, extremity. Not harboring resentment after years of oppression.
It’s almost like... God loves mankind.
"Can seeing healing after harm, being moved lead to forgiveness? No, what drives me to forgive them is merely myself. Encountering these ugly things, I would of course get angry, but before that, I hope my anger won’t affect their self-redemption." Chao Yan said.
She stood between the dawn, her bright green eyes still artistically beautiful, her figure so thin it seemed a mere snap would break her. But in Su Ming’an’s eyes, she seemed immensely vast.
"..." Su Ming’an was silent for a while: "A very noble concept, I respect your thoughts."
On his shoulder, a shadow of a fox appeared faintly.
"Why does it feel like an isolated orphan girl from a small village has more divinity than me?" Little Love fell into reflection.
"I think you’re fine," Su Ming’an murmured dismissively.
Little Love’s big tail wagged, looking very pleased.
Su Ming’an looked up at Chao Yan:
"But are you really just an orphan girl?"
Chao Yan nodded: "Hmm. I’ve lived here for many years."
Chao Yan placed her hand gently on her chest. Only then did Su Ming’an notice she wore a very thin cross around her neck.
She held this cross, gazing at him, and softly said:
"I’m just... an ordinary orphan girl from a small village."
At that moment, her eyes held a bone-deep sorrow and loneliness, like a quiet smoldering dead fire. Su Ming’an’s heart trembled, and he looked away.
In the distance, over a dozen surviving villagers crouched on the ground, shivering as they looked at Su Ming’an and Chao Yan. No longer like they were looking at an outsider and an orphan girl, but like they were looking at two monsters.
The white-haired village chief shakily stood up with a cane, pointing at Su Ming’an:
"It’s you! It must be you!"
"It was you, the outsider, who brought the exotic species! It’s you who brought the calamity! We’ve lived by the sea for generations, and have never seen such things. As soon as you arrived, it appeared!"
The village chief waved his arms and then pointed at Chao Yan:
"And you! You orphan girl! It must be you who brought the disaster, you’re the one who saved these people! I’ve always thought that with an orphan girl like you in our village, something unfortunate would happen. If I had known, I would have sold you years ago!"
He shouted wildly, looking deranged, having lost his rationality under the influence of the tendrils.
Upon hearing this, Chao Yan asked, "So the girl who came to this village with me ten years ago was sold by you?"
When she came to this village as an orphan, it was already ten years ago. Back then, she had a playmate who was also an orphan displaced by the famine. The villagers warmly accepted both of them, but a few days later, the girl went missing.
Chao Yan’s ability with herbs became apparent back then, which is why the villagers spared her. So the girl was sold.
"So what if she was sold! Keeping her wouldn’t do any good, might as well sell her so we could fill our bellies!" The village chief was already mad.
Chao Yan shook her head and said nothing.
Su Ming’an took out the "Treya Mechanical Wheel", an object shaped like a disc, theoretically capable of carrying two or three people. He glanced at Chao Yan beside him: "I’m going to participate in the Penglai Immortals selection, do you want to come with me?"
Chao Yan glanced at the village chief, who was still bellowing, and nodded to Su Ming’an: "Okay. I have nowhere else to go now, the village won’t accept me anymore."
"Aren’t you angry? Your friend was sold by them." Su Ming’an noticed that Chao Yan still showed no expression.
"Let me handle it myself, please." Chao Yan said: "Let’s go."
"Constant retreat will let the evildoers take an inch and then a mile." Su Ming’an said.
"I understand." Chao Yan said: "Let’s go."
Su Ming’an did not persuade her further. He helped Chao Yan onto the mechanical wheel, and they flew towards the Capital City.
Blood was still flowing from Chao Yan’s body. Su Ming’an fed her some Blood Bottle, pulled out a wooden splinter from her arm, and used some bandages and other first-aid supplies from his backpack to dress her wounds. He always keeps these miscellaneous items on hand, mostly gifts from players of the Fifth World.
Her arm was full of densely packed wooden splinters, nails, and even broken kitchenware, all pierced in when the house collapsed. The wounds looked extremely horrific. Su Ming’an pulled them out one by one, leaving behind gaping cuts, with blood gushing out, just watching it felt painful.
Yet she remained calm, only watching him.
After bandaging her, she sat silently on the wheel, her legs hanging outside, quietly watching the scenery. Su Ming’an talked with her a bit about her past; she said she was just an ordinary village orphan, and her past life consisted of gazing at the starry sky from the fields, nothing special.
The mechanical wheel moved very fast, and by seven in the morning, they reached the outskirts of the Capital City.
Su Ming’an planned to leave the game for a while, waiting until late when the Penglai Immortals selection was about to end, then he’d return to challenge the Royal Family, completing the main quest efficiently.
"I need to leave for a while." Su Ming’an said, looking at Chao Yan after she stepped off the wheel.
"Are you leaving?" Chao Yan seemed unsurprised.
"I’m not from this era." Su Ming’an said, "But tonight, I’ll return."
Chao Yan looked at him, asking nothing.
Her gaze was very transparent. At that moment, Su Ming’an was reminded again of her divine side. Chao Yan seemed to have a profound respect for others’ secrets, not curious about his identity, nor questioning him about "different eras".
Seeing Chao Yan remain silent, Su Ming’an chose to log off.
After Su Ming’an left, Chao Yan turned around and pinched her fingers slightly.
A long sword appeared beneath her feet, the blade was transparent, like glass, clearly an extraordinary sword. She stood on the sword, and with a gust of Chang Feng, swiftly flew back to her original direction.
When Chao Yan returned to the village, the village chief and the villagers were still cursing aloud. They were picking up the broken corpses on the ground, discussing how to take revenge on the outsiders next time.
However, a flash of sword light came from the sky, and in an instant, the cursing village chief and villagers turned into mounds of flesh and blood.
Chao Yan retracted the sword light, her feet landing on the ground.
"Having been influenced by the Exotic Species King’s tendrils, you’ll gradually metamorph into monsters. I can only end your pain." Chao Yan murmured, "I originally thought you could repent, but unexpectedly, you were wrong from the start."
During these ten years, the village faced crisis more than once, and each time, it was Chao Yan who quietly took action, killing pirates and bandits closing in on the village. If it weren’t for her, these villagers would have died countless times without even knowing it; they had no idea that this orphan girl had been quietly protecting their village all along.
But today, the village chief lost all rationality and revealed the abduction incident from back then, which made her realize that the villagers had sinned from the start.
So she reclaimed the lives she once saved, as it should be.
——Redeem their kindness, forgive their ugliness, with perseverance. Even if they exploit her again, abuse her again, she still saw them as lost lambs, trying to redeem them.
——But once their accumulated ugliness exceeds the limit, immediately abandon redemption and kill them.
She was like a scarlet balance scale.
She silently gazed at these corpses, collecting their bones, building graves, laying flowers, hoping that in their next life they could transcend their worldly impurities.
"Go to the outskirts of the capital and wait for him to return." Chao Yan thought: "For now, keep the identity of a ’village orphan girl’."
...
Su Ming’an exited the "Louyue Nation" game, with the live broadcast room already hot at four hundred million viewers.
He opened the Dream Patrol forum and saw that a huge number of people were frantically spamming the screen.
[(Hot) The first Dream Patrol Family is live! It’s revealed to be the Eldest Prince!]
[(Hot) First-tier celebrity Meng Ya claims to be a fervent fan of the first Dream Patrol Family, expressing hope to have dinner with him.]
[(Hot) Director Wang of "Biography of Louyue’s Concubine" stated that he invited the first Dream Patrol Family to join the film, offering the leading male role and generous rewards.]
[(Hot) The cosmetic brand Xiumei plans to invite the first Dream Patrol Family to endorse their brand products, promoting premium eye cream and new luxury lipsticks.]
...
Su Ming’an flipped through his private messages and found messages from over 9,999,999 people. Influencers trying to ride on his fame, celebrities wanting to establish connections, and countless advertisers inviting him to promote products in his live streams. He briefly looked at them: cosmetic brands, food products, kidney treatment pills, pillows... a wide variety, a complete mess.
"Even in the dangerous Apocalypse, as long as it reduces people’s negative emotions and prevents the frontline exotic species from strengthening, the Union Government will still strive to create a world dominated by entertainment... Therefore, the internet has become the best channel for emotional venting." Su Ming’an pondered for a moment, then took off the Dream Patrol Helmet: "Entertainment to death, it’s the same everywhere."
Today was the second day of the instance activation, at seven in the morning. He remembered he had to meet a Godfather named ’Moon’. Although he hadn’t slept all night, the three hours of heavy injury unconsciousness should suffice.
Just then, he suddenly felt something heavy around his neck.
Looking down—a wooden pendant with a lively eyeball was quietly hanging on his neck.