Chapter 1931 - 1930: The World’s Divergence Point

"How did the world end?" Sitting on the shaking roof of the pickup, Lin Chichi looked at He Ao opposite her, shrugged, and spoke slowly, "About a month ago, we just woke up and it was gone."

That did leave He Ao a bit dumbfounded.

"It wasn’t actually that simple," the long-haired girl beside them said quietly, "That night I was sleeping when I suddenly felt the earth shaking, and then my brother burst in and shoved me into an off‑road vehicle."

At this point, her tone paused slightly; she wrapped her arms around her knees, as if recalling something terrifying. "I sat in the car and saw the high‑rises behind us collapsing like piles of sand. There were screams everywhere. Sparrows in the sky flew over our heads, and then they fell like a torrential downpour, pattering against us."

Her voice grew lower and lower. "The off‑road driver turned the wipers to the highest speed, but they still couldn’t fling those birds off. The dense bird corpses almost covered the entire car. All I could see was bright red blood staining the whole front windshield. My mind was completely blank. At first there were still a lot of cars on the road, but then there were fewer and fewer, fewer and fewer."

Everyone in the truck listened to her, falling into a brief silence. The whole pickup rocked continuously along the jarring road, and the people on it grew more and more somber.

The long-haired girl went on hoarsely, "I leaned out the window, watching the other cars. Some were still driving when the people inside suddenly vanished. The out of control vehicles crashed into each other, blocking the road. We had no choice but to get out and go around those cars burning with flames."

"Fire was burning across the ground, covering the whole city," He Ao said softly.

It was somewhat similar to the hazy scene he’d glimpsed before.

"Yes," the long-haired girl lifted her head and glanced at He Ao, speaking in a low voice, "I saw the people in those cars. Some of them hadn’t vanished, but the drivers had. They were trapped in the vehicles. I wanted to save them."

Here she halted for a moment. "But when I put my hand on theirs, I watched them, right in my field of view, turn to ash and completely scatter."

She lowered her head and looked at her own palm. "Back then my hand was still stained with their blood."

"Skip that part." Sitting next to the long-haired girl, Lin Chichi raised her hand, gave the girl a hug, and murmured quickly.

"Anyway," the long-haired girl took a deep breath, lifted her head, and looked at the collapsed ruins around them, "By the time Daybreak came, the world was already destroyed. We had run to the edge of the city, but there was no one in the suburbs either. Ruins everywhere, out of control flames everywhere."

She lifted her gaze to the gray giant pillar rising at the far end of the ruins. "And those huge pillars seemed to have sprung up overnight too."

"There weren’t this many back then," Lin Chichi added from the side. "Just one or two."

"Right, there are more and more of those pillars now." The long-haired girl lowered her head and looked at the figures sitting in the truck bed. "But we did find a few survivors. Everyone gathered together, helped each other, and just barely made it through."

"So where’s your brother, Ye Yun?" He Ao looked at the long-haired girl, gazing at that somewhat familiar face. "He should be one of the people in charge of the Research Institute around here, right?"

The long-haired girl was his other ’disciple’, Ye Ying.

He Ao had actually been a bit surprised when he’d first seen Ye Ying.

But what surprised him wasn’t running into Ye Ying here—this was Nandu, Ye Ying’s home. What surprised him was that Ye Ying was actually together with Lin Chichi.

Theoretically, if these two didn’t know He Ao, there shouldn’t have been any connection between them at all.

You could only say fate really was strange.

Lin Chichi lifted her head and glanced at He Ao again.

Ye Ying also stared at He Ao in mild surprise. "You know my brother? How did you know he worked at the Research Institute?"

Then she paused, lowered her head, and said softly, "My brother is dead."

"He didn’t die that night?" He Ao watched her expression and asked quietly.

"He didn’t vanish," Ye Ying shook her head. "The next morning, I even got a message he’d had someone deliver."

She lifted her gaze and glanced at the gray giant pillar towering in the distance. "He and some companions who’d survived, together with Big Brother Yang De, went to investigate those gray pillars."

She withdrew her gaze. "Then he never came back. The next news I got of him was three days later. Big Brother Yang De brought back a piece of his clothing."

She turned, glancing at Lin Chichi beside her. "Chichi found us around then. She met Big Brother Yang De, badly wounded, on the road and brought him back."

"Yang De..." He Ao faltered slightly.

Yang De was the head of the external operations department of the Research Institute, and had once been He Ao’s ’old superior’. He’d taken good care of He Ao.

He Ao lowered his eyes, sweeping his gaze over the short sword in Lin Chichi’s hand. "Is he still alive?"

"He passed away," Lin Chichi picked up the thread. Her tone was calm, with a faint heaviness. "His injuries were too severe. We used up all the healing Props. We couldn’t save him."

Ye Ying lowered her head, looked at the orange ring on her hand, then at the red short sword in Lin Chichi’s hand. "He left us two Extraordinary Items. That’s the only reason we’ve held out until now."

Yang De had two Talent Sequences in his body, one ’warrior’ and one ’Noncommissioned Officer’.

Lin Chichi’s short sword obviously came from ’warrior’, while Ye Ying’s came from ’Noncommissioned Officer’.

Normally, C-level Extraordinary Items carried some contamination. Ordinary people found them very hard to control, but these two girls had clearly found a way to control them.

Ye Ying’s physique was special—she was born with spirituality connected to the world. The price was a broken energy circuit, leaving her constantly on the verge of death. The Noncommissioned Officer Talent Sequence might actually be good for her.

He Ao lifted his head and looked around.

As the pickup drove on, faint traces of purple smoke seeped out of cracks in the rocks, gathering into twisted human shapes.

But before these shapes could fully form, they were scattered by an invisible ’wind’.

"Are you some big shot in the Research Institute?" At this moment, Ye Ying sitting opposite also noticed the smoke being blown apart around them. She looked at He Ao and asked softly, "Usually, getting away from these ghost things half kills us. You look even stronger than my brother."

"In a sense, you could say I’m staff at the Research Institute," He Ao glanced at the dim sky, a bit curious. "Did these purple smoke things only appear after the end?"

"They’re Evil Spirits," Lin Chichi said quietly. She raised her eyes, sweeping a look over the mist being blown away by the wind. "The people who died unjustly aren’t willing to leave. They cling here and tangle into Evil Spirits, attacking all survivors without distinction. The more densely populated a place used to be, the more Evil Spirits there are."

At this moment, the pickup passed through a patch of grass and stopped in front of a factory building that had half collapsed but still had half remaining.

"We’re here," Ye Ying said to He Ao. "This is our camp now."

As they moved and spoke, the factory’s heavy iron gate was opened from the inside, and a faint smell drifted out.

A few thinly dressed people were standing just behind the gate, gazing at the pickup.

The pickup started up again, driving into the yard beyond the gate.

"This used to be a scrap‑recycling plant," Lin Chichi raised her head to look at the open area beyond the gate. "It’s remote, with few people, out on the outskirts. You wouldn’t expect it, but this place even has a biogas pit."

"It really is a good place." He Ao swept a glance over the ruins behind him.

In these ruins, almost no purple mist was seeping out.

Clang—

The big iron gate closed. Ye Ying was the first to jump off the truck and began helping with the unloading.

The people on the pickup started getting off one after another.

And just as a woman in the corner was about to jump down, Lin Chichi suddenly raised her hand and pressed down on her.

The woman froze slightly, looking at Lin Chichi with some confusion.

Beside them, Ye Ying also lifted her head in a daze, looking at Lin Chichi.

"Are you planning to move again next time and get all of us killed?" Lin Chichi lowered her head, looked at the woman, and asked in a quiet voice.

The woman’s face stiffened. She reached out and hugged the bread in her arms. "What are you talking about? I don’t understand."

"This isn’t the first time you’ve deliberately made noise. Last time was in the grocery store, before that in the pharmacy," Lin Chichi lowered her head, her gaze fixed on the woman in front of her. "This time it was in the supermarket. Once or twice could be an accident. Three or four times are still accidents?"

The people around who were carrying supplies all lifted their heads to look at Lin Chichi on the pickup. They clutched the items in their arms, simply watching in silence, saying nothing.

"Chichi..." Ye Ying, at the side, looked at Lin Chichi and said softly, "Everyone was nervous then. Bumping into something by accident is normal. Just don’t let her go out next time..."

"How great do you think you are?!" At that moment, the woman holding the bread suddenly raised her hand, snatched the red short sword from Lin Chichi’s waist, and, without the slightest hesitation, thrust it toward Lin Chichi. "Why do you get to live?! Why?! They’re all dead! You all deserve to die!!"

A dense red radiance wrapped her body in an instant, but Lin Chichi had already reacted. The moment she stabbed, Lin Chichi reached out and clamped down on her wrist.

The woman crushed the bread in her arms into mush, glaring furiously and hideously at the Short-haired girl. "The world is already destroyed. Everyone should die! All of you! No one gets to live! Go die!"

The twisted red light covered her body, and the flesh on her began to show warped patterns.

Her arm gradually bulged, and her whole person started to twist and mutate.

Bit by bit, her hand pushed forward, trying to drive the blade through Lin Chichi’s body.

The people nearby, seeing this scene, all instinctively backed away a few steps.

"Chichi!" Ye Ying rushed forward at once. The ring in her hand emitted a faint orange glow, suppressing the already twisted and ferocious woman in an instant.

Lin Chichi watched the woman’s contorted expression, was silent for a moment, then suddenly tightened her grip on the red hilt, twisted the blade, and drove the sword straight through the woman’s body.

As the short sword was taken back, the red radiance enveloping the woman gradually faded.

She lowered her head and swept a glance over the people around, laughing. "You all deserve to die. All of you. Living like this is worse than being dead..."

As her voice fell, her body seemed to be tugged by some invisible force. Her entire body turned to drifting ash and completely vanished in the yard.

Pa—

The bread she had crushed in her hand dropped into the bed of the pickup.

"This is how it is after the end of the world," Lin Chichi said as if she had done nothing at all, naturally sliding the short sword back into the sheath at her waist. "Once people die, they don’t even leave a corpse behind. Saves us the trouble of cleaning up the bodies."

Lin Chichi squatted down and picked up that piece of bread.

Ye Ying gazed at the empty truck bed, somewhat silent.

"She’d gone mad," someone at the side said in a low voice, his eyes on the spot where the woman had disappeared. "Her family all died. She’s been a bit deranged ever since she came into the camp."

"Most likely she was affected by those Evil Spirits..." another voice murmured quietly.

"If you notice someone around you showing similar signs," Lin Chichi lifted her gaze and swept it over the crowd, "you need to come to me or to Ye Ying immediately."

She tore open the plastic around the mushy bread in her hand and took a bite. "Anyone who wants to die can go find some corner and die on their own, but don’t drag others down with you. The ones staying here all clawed a life back with difficulty. A shitty life is still better than a clean death."

She raised her eyes again, scanning the group once more. "I trust all of you still want to live?"

"Yes." Everyone instinctively lowered their heads, not daring to meet her gaze.

"All right, little episode’s over." Lin Chichi took another bite of bread and jumped down from the truck. "Everyone, keep at it."

She lifted her head and happened to see that He Ao had at some point already gotten off the truck and was watching her.

"Do you want some?" Her tone paused slightly as she lifted the ruined bread in her hand. "I can share a bit with you."

He Ao only lowered his eyes, glanced at the red short sword at her waist, and asked calmly, "Do you know the Velora?"

Lin Chichi’s face stiffened a little. She glanced at He Ao. "What do you want to ask?"

She shifted her gaze, took a look at Ye Ying, whose expression was a bit heavy as she directed people carrying supplies, then looked toward a corner of the yard. "Let’s talk over there."

...Ten minutes later...

"So during the Velora incident, you threw in with Ruonati?" He Ao looked at Lin Chichi, asking with a touch of surprise.

"I don’t know what his name is." Lin Chichi looked at He Ao and spoke in a low voice. "I only know everyone called him Boss. Jin Ya called him Boss too."

She looked at He Ao and smiled. "If I hadn’t teamed up with Jin Ya, I’d have died long ago."

"So," He Ao regarded her, asking with some curiosity, "back then, who was living in Compartment No. 3 on the Velora?"

Compartment No. 3 was the one He Ao had been assigned to after he boarded the Velora.

"I think it was an Alano person," Lin Chichi recalled for a moment and spoke quietly. "He didn’t have much presence. Died after two tunnel runs. But Jin Ya took his Prop. I guessed Jin Ya’s identity through that Prop, but before I could make a move, she caught me. She had me help her deal with the killer, and then she used that Alano person’s Prop to protect me, kept my Soul anchored on the Velora."

She looked at He Ao. "Later, when the Boss took control of the Velora, she figured out a way to activate the ship’s rules and made me ’alive’ again."

"One question." He Ao looked at her and asked quietly, "Do you know Hao Yi?"

Lin Chichi lifted her head and gave a slight shake. "Who is Hao Yi?"