Chapter 883: Chapter 880: [Waiting.]
When Su Ming’an woke up, he glanced at the system time—1am on the second day of the instance, he was unconscious for an hour.
He felt a significant alleviation in his injuries, and his previously heavy limbs had regained agility.
His gaze shifted slightly, and he saw the barrage in the upper right corner crazily scrolling:
[Ming An’an, you’re awake.]
[The death rate for this instance is super low; not many have died so far.]
[It’s a modern urban setting, as long as you don’t mentally collapse in the dream patrol, surviving is not difficult. Su Ming’an was merely unlucky to be born in an abandoned city; most players live in normal modern urban environments.]
[Looking forward to whether the "deity" of this instance will become a comedian, standing alongside Su Rin’s pajamas, Little Love’s fox cake, and Acto’s white hair as the four deity jokes.]
[Discovered something interesting but can’t say it.]
[The Cat and Her is a survival elimination type of game. Louyue Nation is a choice-based ancient style game—when will the next game appear? Why can the game affect the current black mist?]
[World Independence Association in Main God World has already organized experts to research this issue, judging that it probably relates to world causality. Some experts believe this may be a reflection of dreams and reality. Humanity might be able to deduce the mysteries of the world game from this instance—even some believe we can end the world game prematurely!]
[Is it really that easy? Impossible, right.]
[Ah? End prematurely, no way, I still want to continue vacationing. I absolutely don’t want to face reality after the game ends... it’s horrifying.]
[...]
Setting aside these barrages about the world game, what’s different from previous instances is—the barrage in his vision from the "dream patrol live broadcast room."
The two live broadcast room barrages crazily scroll like snowflakes on the left and right, one calls him "Number One Player," and the other "Number One Dream Patrol Family." One talks about "Tenth World," the other about the "Louyue Nation game." One discusses the "essence of the world game," the other the "essence of the dream patrol."
—Their content is similar yet different, giving a feeling of being in a dreamlike daze.
The dream patrol live broadcast room’s popularity has already reached two hundred million. Although everyone only saw the Eldest Prince unconscious for an hour and couldn’t see any other footage, the barrage never stopped, even surpassing the madness of the world game participants.
[! Wow, awakened! Is this the Number One Dream Patrol Family?]
[In reality, he should be a young male, listen to the accent, don’t know if it can infer current identity.]
[Number One Dream Patrol Family, Union Government invites you to participate in a union meeting, can grant you the world honor medals and high status. If interested, please add friend AOU2931...]
[Eldest Prince, I like you!! I love you!! Ahhhh!!]
[Cereal, Old Day Church + Deity themed, interested+++]
[Number One Dream Patrol Family should have at least Fourth Rank peak strength, don’t know if his true identity is a front-line general? Or some nation’s royal family? Anyway, he cannot be an ordinary person.]
[...]
Su Ming’an blinked his eyes.
In front is an unfamiliar ceiling, a waft of medicine fragrance drifting, he lies on a somewhat shabby bed, covered with a thin blanket, outside the window, a drizzling rain sounds. Such a scene, letting him have an illusion of being on the day Ming Hui was fed medicine by Qingqing.
Clothes still stained with blood, wounds have not been treated by anyone, but all over is very strong. Should have been fed some kind of medicine that can recover injuries.
His current ruler’s skill allows him to "choose one previously perfectly passed instance to enter after each instance ends, freely choosing the stay time." Due to only being able to select one instance each time, it results in him only being able to choose a most needed instance to return to, instances like Henggang City or Ming Hui are not high priority, he almost never went back to see.
Not sure if after the ruler’s skill further upgrades, will he have the chance to choose multiple instances to return, like this maybe he can return to see Ming Hui.
He slightly turns his head, originally intending to look at the room’s environment, but got startled.
—A girl with an extremely pale complexion quietly sits at the door, like a dead person.
Under the starlit night, her cheeks are like white porcelain, emanating a high gloss, jet-black long hair enveloping her delicate cheeks, lips vividly bright, like smeared with fresh blood. This appearance is terrifying enough, yet she sits silently at the door, blocking the only light source, leaving only a pair of completely still eyes that don’t even tremble, silently staring at the bed-bound Su Ming’an.
"...Is she alive?" Su Ming’an asked.
Though the girl remains motionless, her features are indeed beautiful, pupils deeply set, nose high and straight, like a pale doll. That pair of emerald-like jade eyes more akin to natural products, with a color rendering a sense of gentle depth. Makes one doubt whether she is a real existing human.
The girl picks up a bowl of medicine and walks towards him.
Su Ming’an noticed she is wearing a plum blossom long dress, she should be the girl who saved him. She should be a local villager who discovered him collapsed.
"Thank you for saving me, are you from the nearby village?" Su Ming’an asked.
The girl nodded, approaching with the medicine bowl.
"Do you live here alone?" Su Ming’an looked at this shabby room; outside should be a small village faintly visible with a few wooden cottages and golden wheat fields.
"Yes. I’m an orphan from the village, know a bit about medicine." The girl said: "I will take care of you until your injuries recover."
Her voice is beautiful, like jade beads, ethereal. Su Ming’an understood, seems to be just an ordinary girl from a secluded village, accidentally rescuing him severely injured.
However, her next sentence left Su Ming’an bewildered.
"Did you finally come to see me?" The girl said.
"Hmm?" Su Ming’an was sure this was the first meeting, didn’t know why the girl said this.
"No matter where I go, I’ve always been waiting." The girl said: "I walked under the distant quiet moonlight, conversed with thriving rose thorns. I visited the high and holy cathedral, exchanged gifts with the nuns. I gazed from afar the vine-covered midnight castle, watched white birds take flight, heard the bell tower ring. I traversed long sands and wasteland, lifted clear water in the oasis."
"I once prayed at the pure white angel statue, and saw demons by blood-red lava. I’ve been to bustling towns, traded with everyone at the market. I became friends with poets, sang ballads with them."
"Finally, I arrived here, chatted with the songstress of the Red Mansion, coexisted with wheat in the fields, viewed the Capital City’s prosperity, and the village’s simplicity."
"Now, I found you."
"Those days, I don’t want to endure anymore. I beg you, call out my name."
This long speech from the girl left Su Ming’an dumbfounded.
—What is this game npc’s dialogue?
She said she’s been to many places, even abroad. Outside Louyue Nation there are indeed other kingdoms, but they aren’t part of the game’s main plot line, only pure casual players will go traveling.
But a lone girl from a small village couldn’t possibly have the money or qualifications to travel the world.
"...What do you mean? This is our first meeting," Su Ming’an asked.
As he drank the potion, the girl’s emerald eyes stayed fixed on him, unblinking and deeply focused.
He found that this girl had a sense of being "detached from the world." Even though she was from the village, her shoes didn’t bear a trace of dirt... or even the semblance of daily life.
"Can you say my name?" the girl asked, almost pleadingly. She seemed obsessively focused on this question.
In the depths of her eyes was a complex emotion, on the verge of collapse, where despair met hope, burning like flames within her pupils.
Su Ming’an couldn’t comprehend her emotions.
"This is our first meeting, I don’t know your name," Su Ming’an shook his head.
He suspected that there might be something wrong with this village. People who were near madness often spouted nonsense, with common symptoms being confusing others’ experiences for their own. If there was an Exotic Species near the village, people under its influence could experience hallucinations and believe they had undergone events that never happened—much like how Players might experience illusions when their sanity is low, mistaking the sight of a beautiful ocean.
Could this village girl have been affected by an Exotic Species, causing her to speak of many travel experiences that didn’t belong to her?
Upon hearing Su Ming’an’s words, a sadness like the setting sun gently subsiding into the tides of the sea appeared in the girl’s eyes.
The hopeful flames in her pupils extinguished bit by bit.
Su Ming’an couldn’t grasp the complicated emotions in her eyes, as if they were etched with countless scars of suffering.
She seemed to want to say something, opened her mouth but quickly closed it again, a hint of confusion appearing in her emerald eyes.
"I... I’m sorry," the girl said, holding her head in her hands, shaking it as if desperately trying to stay awake, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I seemed to have said some strange things. I haven’t been to those places, please forget those bizarre words. As someone meeting for the first time, I’ve said too many odd things, please don’t mind them."
"It’s okay, I’m just grateful you saved me," Su Ming’an said. He found that the spirit of the people in this instance was concerning.
"No need to thank," the girl smiled.
"Are we really meeting for the first time?" Su Ming’an asked again.
The girl was momentarily stunned.
"Of course."
She quickly confirmed.
Her demeanor held an otherworldly detachment as her black hair gathered on her slender shoulders. She clenched her left hand tightly to her chest, and in that moment, a bitter expression emerged, even as she smiled, her lips twitching downward, as if on the brink of tears:
"I’m just... a normal orphan girl from a remote village."
She said this very softly, looking into his eyes.
Su Ming’an couldn’t understand her sorrowful expression.
Smiling as if about to cry.
A normal orphan girl from a remote village wouldn’t have any connection with the Eldest Prince secluded in the palace. The Eldest Prince never left the Capital City, so this had to be their first meeting.
But Su Ming’an didn’t lower his suspicions.
"First meeting..." Su Ming’an looked at the girl’s face and quickly asked, "Then, I want to ask a few questions... Do we have any of the following situations—first, have we met before in another form? Second, is there an Ouroboros of causality between us? Third, did I return to the past from the future to meet you? Fourth, am I a part of you, and you are actually a Deity cultivating me as an ’Heir’? Fifth, are we simply ’long time no see’, and you have actually reincarnated many times? Sixth, is this world a continuously simulated program, with you constantly seeking a path to salvation and repeatedly encountering me? Lastly, is there any other possibility that we have ’met before’?"
Under the girl’s slightly shocked gaze, Su Ming’an rattled off all the possibilities like bullets, not giving the World Game any opportunity to dig a pitfall, demonstrating a very high level of skill as the Number One Player.
The two live broadcast rooms were shocked for a while at this scene—who would have thought Su Ming’an could be so adept! Why are you so proficient?
The girl was also taken aback by this series of questions from Su Ming’an, and after a pause, she shook her head: "No."
"Really?" Su Ming’an asked.
Holding the bowl of medicine, the girl paused, and as if making a decision, she asked:
"[I curse you, painless, undying, and immortal]—what’s the next line of this sentence?"
Su Ming’an thought about it; he truly hadn’t heard this sentence: "I don’t know."
Immediately, he saw the girl’s gaze visibly dim, like a pair of dark green gemstones. Holding the medicine bowl, she turned and left:
"Sir, this is indeed our first meeting. Your injuries require sleep to better absorb the medicine, please sleep a few more hours, I will wake you then."
"What’s your name?" Watching the girl ready to head out, Su Ming’an called out.
"My name is... xx." The girl turned her back to him.
In that moment, starlight through the rudimentary wooden door illuminated her, her black hair shimmering with a lustrous glow, and her slender, tall silhouette appeared inexplicably fragile, as if about to break easily.
Su Ming’an thought he didn’t hear clearly: "Sorry, I didn’t catch that, can you repeat your name?"
"My name is xx," the girl said.
Su Ming’an blinked.
This time, he was sure—when the girl said her name, it was inexplicably muted. He could only hear a "beep" sound, unable to make out the specific words she spoke.
"Can you write down your name?"
Su Ming’an could only request the girl to write down her name, and she agreed.
But as she inscribed her name on the wall, the letters immediately blurred beyond recognition, making it impossible to see which characters she had written. Even observing her mouth movements and arm gestures didn’t help Su Ming’an determine her name.
During this process, the girl also seemed to be trying. She repeatedly said her name, only for it to be muted each time. Even if she gestured wildly, using body language to express the words, Su Ming’an would forget her actions the next second. It was the same for everyone in his live broadcast room.
—Her name was just like—a taboo that couldn’t be touched.
Unknowable, untouchable, unspeakable, unrememberable, untransmittable.