Fine rain dampened the weary streets.

The congested traffic was almost completely stationary.

When Feng Bujue came back to his senses, he was already sitting in the back seat of a taxi.

A smell that resembled the vomit of the previous night entered his nose, quickly sobering him up.

His gaze first fell on the car window, and through the water-streaked glass, he could only see a hazy scene. Vague, strange shadows flashed past the window, and it was impossible to tell whether they were human figures, car shadows… or something else.

“We’re almost there, don’t worry.” A man’s voice suddenly came from the driver’s seat up front a few seconds later.

“Where?” Feng Bujue asked almost without thinking.

“To where you’re supposed to be.” The man replied, “All journeys must have an end, mustn’t they?”

Feng Bujue made no comment on the answer that had a deeper meaning. In the next second, he asked an even more direct question: “Are you ‘God’?”

As he asked this question, Feng Bujue tried to get up and move forward to see the other person’s appearance clearly.

But he soon discovered… that despite his intention, his body seemed to be nailed to the back seat, completely unresponsive; at most, he could only see the body below the driver’s neck through the rearview mirror.

“‘God’ huh…” The driver on the other side recited thoughtfully, “You could say that… but, as you said earlier, if you were also in my dimension, I might just look like an ordinary person with poor execution in your eyes.”

“Why didn’t you stop ‘Destiny’?” Feng Bujue then asked.

“Ah… as you can see, I’m stuck in traffic here.” The driver’s response was a bit of a non sequitur.

“Is it really okay for you to be so leisurely?” Feng Bujue intensified his tone and pressed, “Once the dimensional erosion is complete, ‘Destiny’ will replace you. Where will you go then?”

“Heh…” The driver laughed when he heard this, “Then let me ask you a question… When you sit in front of the screen to play a game, will the real you suffer any substantial harm because of the death of the game character?”

These words changed Feng Bujue’s expression.

“You…” Jue-ge wanted to say something.

But the driver didn’t wait for him to speak and interjected, “That’s right, for me, this world, this universe, and even more diverse universes… are all similar concepts…” He paused for a moment, “Since I never existed here, what is there to talk about where I will go?”

Feng Bujue was silent, silent for a full minute.

A minute later, he said again: “Then… ‘I’, am I important to you?”

He suddenly asked a somewhat inexplicable question, but in fact… asking this question showed that he had already understood what the other person was saying.

The driver sighed deeply, “Ah… of course, you are very important.”

“Then why do this to me? Why destroy what I cherish?” Feng Bujue questioned.

“Don’t you think it’s childish of you to ask such a question?” The driver replied in a slightly disappointed tone, “What you took for granted and what you lost, which carries more weight?”

He paused for half a second, and then raised his voice slightly and continued: “When you and I are sitting here chatting, Shi Long is bleeding to protect his family… Little Ma is being besieged by a large group of monsters for a group of strangers… Jin Fugui, Honghu, Uncle Trash, and those players you saw on the Scorched Earth of Chaos, have all lost everything, including their own lives.

“These people… these ‘not so important’ people, who cares about the suffering they have experienced? Who will question ‘why’ for them?”

Speaking of this, the driver let out a long breath, moved his neck, and then continued: “You… want to save everyone, save the whole world… but if I tell you now that you can only choose to save one between ‘the whole world’ and ‘what you cherish’, what will you choose? More importantly, if this choice was destined from the beginning, then, do you understand… the meaning of this choice.”

“I don’t understand… don’t want to understand, and won’t understand.” Feng Bujue replied coldly, “Please… re-seal my fear, so I can do what you want me to do.”

“It’s useless…” The driver replied, “What my ‘hope’ is, is irrelevant; where you are going is no longer something I can decide…”

“So… it’s no coincidence that we are appearing in this stinky ‘taxi’ at this moment.” Feng Bujue said, “Even you have to admit… I am the one who decides where to go, and you are only responsible for taking me there.”

“Yes.” The driver replied.

Feng Bujue repeated sternly: “Then I now hope that you will re-seal my fear…”

“Fear…” The driver interrupted Jue-ge again, saying, “… is not something that really exists. ‘Fear’ only exists in the human consciousness, it is a purely imagined entity; it makes people feel fearful and vigilant about things that do not exist in reality or may never exist…

“‘Danger’ is what exists objectively, and ‘fear’ is just a choice.”

Screech—

Just as the driver said the word “choice,” suddenly, a sharp braking sound came from outside the car on the side where Feng Bujue was sitting.

Before Jue-ge could react, a violent impact accompanied by a loud “bang” caused him to lose consciousness.

…………

The quiet black space was like endless nothingness.

When Feng Bujue “woke up” again, he found himself in it.

Standing in front of him was a figure, a figure half-melted into the black nothingness.

“Come on, make your choice.” Even though he was close at hand, the figure’s appearance was still indistinguishable, but from the sound of his voice, it could be known that he was the “driver” just now.

As his voice fell, a black guillotine appeared on Feng Bujue’s left.

“Choosing the guillotine will create a universe where ‘Feng Bujue does not exist’.” The figure said, “There, you were never born, and everyone you know or don’t know will live a life with no intersection with you; and you… will return to nothingness, and no longer be remembered by anyone in any form.” He paused for a second and added, “In such a universe, ‘Destiny’s’ plan will naturally fail at a very early stage.”

As he finished speaking, a black throne appeared on Feng Bujue’s right.

“Choosing the throne will create a universe where ‘Feng Bujue stopped Destiny’.” The figure said, “There, you successfully killed ‘Destiny’ before the dimensional erosion was completely over, however, the broken world cannot be restored… You will become the savior and ruler of mankind as the ‘winner of the Candidate Game’… Leading the survivors to rebuild civilization in a world full of monsters.”

Immediately afterwards, a black bed emerged behind Feng Bujue.

“Of course, you can also choose the bed.” The figure said again, “That way… you will return to fifteen months ago, back to the day you lost your fear, wake up from a ‘dream’ with the memories you have accumulated so far, and start your journey again.”

After saying these three “choices,” the figure stopped speaking, just stood there quietly, waiting for Feng Bujue… to make his decision.