Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1626 - 78: The Holy Sun Mermaid and the Sinless Men (11)

Chapter 1626: Chapter 78: The Holy Sun Mermaid and the Sinless Men (11)

"...Su Qing? I remember you didn’t come here before." A somber voice came from behind.

Behind him was a woman with long purple hair, her beauty aggressive, chin sharp, eye corners tilted up, with a detached sense of examining test subjects.

...Xi Ting.

That face, Su Ming’an instantly associated with the alluring and arrogant Lord of the Undead, Xi Ting.

"Edith," Su Ming’an said.

"I don’t like people interfering with my experiments," Edith, ranked sixth among players, said indifferently.

"Is there no other way?" Su Ming’an didn’t believe Hui Bai and Antetolia would permit such a thing to happen, unless there truly was no alternative. The planet’s destiny and test subjects, only one could be chosen.

"You mean Hui Bai? Huh, that guy can’t stop me." Edith turned her head, "If you want to condemn me, go ahead, you’re not the first. Do you have an extra way to survive?"

Suddenly, her wrist communicator rang, her somber expression instantly softened, smiling: "Ante? Hmm, you’re looking for me? Alright, I’m coming..."

She glanced at Su Ming’an and turned away.

Su Ming’an observed Su Liujin and suddenly noticed a timid female researcher standing behind the jar, with flax-colored wavy long hair, deep brown eyes, around forty years old, quietly sizing up Su Ming’an.

Noticing Su Ming’an’s gaze, the female researcher bit her lip, passed by him as if nothing happened, nervously slipping a note into Su Ming’an’s palm.

Su Ming’an left the laboratory, opened his palm:

...

[2 AM, Room 302]

...

Su Ming’an returned to his room, using hacker skills he quickly found the woman’s contact. Her name was Su Yongchun, a lab worker, he dialed her communicator.

An anxious voice came from the other side: "Who?"

"The person you slipped the note to."

"What are you talking about, I don’t understand." The other side hastily denied.

"No need to panic, I’ve infiltrated the network, the call won’t be monitored," Su Ming’an said.

"Why should I trust you?"

"The moment you slipped me the note, you trusted me."

There was silence on the other end for a while.

"Let me guess, maybe you’ve always wanted to rescue the white-haired boy in the jar. Today you suddenly found an S-level authority personnel visiting the lab, showing special attention to the white-haired boy... you decided to take a chance, so you slipped the note," Su Ming’an said, "I retrieved your surveillance, your sympathy for the white-haired boy is real... are you responsible for creating dreams for him?"

The other side remained silent for a while, as if finally making a decision, spoke hoarsely:

"Yes."

"I replace pain with honey, needles with cotton, prisoners with a little king admired by all... whatever he likes, I present it to him. It’s my job duty... to keep the test subjects in a pleasant mood. In the lab, we refer to ourselves as ’mothers’, we actively enter their dreams through helmets, taking the form of their mothers, guiding their emotions to stay stable."

"...don’t insult the term ’mother’," Su Ming’an was silent for a while, then spoke, "A mother wouldn’t imprison her child, turning them into what she desires, nor would she bind the child in the name of love."

The other side chuckled bitterly: "Indeed, holding this position requires great psychological pressure and guilt—you must watch your ’children’ grow innocent and harmless, you must use false lies to tell them this world is a fairy tale, you must forbid them to wake up to the truth. After warm encounters, you must return to this cold, brutal lab, watch them soaked in jars, even personally witness them being killed... until death, they still think you are their mother."

"Gradually, I couldn’t bear it anymore. Just today, I noticed his emotions undergoing drastic changes—he wants to wake up!"

"Waking up means interrupting data transmission, means his experiment fails... he would be turned into a bloody embryo, thrown away. Today, I quietly hid the data, but tomorrow it will be discovered! If you want to save him, you must take him away tonight."

Su Ming’an was stunned.

...so "waking up" meant "death" for Su Liujin.

No wonder, when I said "why don’t you want to wake up!" Su Liujin showed such an expression. I even wondered how Su Liujin could be someone escaping reality, indulging in dreams.

The Jellyfish Emperor wants to live.

To live, he must accept false fairy tales, a false life.

To be used, arranged, taken away, killed.

Waiting for the "Sunfish" that’s destined never to come.

How many white-haired boys have died already? If there’s a one in ten thousand chance to survive, then countless other "Su Liujins" would turn into bloody embryos.

Are all those boys and girls soaked in jars... having their beautiful dreams?

"So why did you decide to save this one?" Su Ming’an asked.

"I’ve been a ’mother’ fifteen times before, I’ve seen fifteen children spend their respective false dreams in dreamland, some are celebrities admired by thousands, some are noble princesses in castles, some are warriors slaying evil dragons... but they were all judged as unqualified data one day, their happiness lasted only a few days or even half a day..." the other side said, "I personally bid farewell to them one last time, they said ’see you next time, mother’, yet I couldn’t save them, couldn’t reach out, couldn’t give a reminder... I couldn’t bear it anymore, this sixteenth child, I must save. Even at the cost of my career, even if I’m imprisoned and judged."

"What are your thoughts?" Su Ming’an asked.

"I originally wanted mutual destruction, but since you can infiltrate the network and have the highest authority, it’s much easier..." Su Yongchun explained the plan.

She would act first without permission, pretending to "recover" Su Liujin, actually allowing Su Ming’an to secretly take him away, as long as they reach the lower level of the Ark, among the entire billion people, the network control would make it impossible to find him.

After Su Ming’an listened, he was silent for a while, then asked: "What about the other children?"

"Unfortunately, I don’t have the capability to save the world," Su Yongchun smiled bitterly, "We often only save the ones we’re most familiar with, right? Just like you, didn’t you go straight to him, ignoring the other boys in the jars?"

This is just a dream, real history has already happened... in the end, indeed only Su Liujin survived out of tens of thousands of children.

Su Ming’an hung up the call, looking at the cold ceiling.

At 2 AM, Su Ming’an set out, his figure flashed under the cold white corridor lights, the camera obediently shifted its view. He felt another gentle force collaborating with his actions in secret, allowing this rebellion.

...was it Hui Bai and Antetolia? They were allowing it.

The laboratory door slid open silently, inside only a few faint blue work lights were on, illuminating countless lives asleep in nutrient fluid. Su Yongchun was already waiting there, dressed in a researcher’s white robe, her flax-colored wavy hair a bit messy, deep brown eyes filled with tension.

In the pod, the boy slept quietly, white lashes shadowing pale cheeks, body connected to countless lines, like a delicate puppet wrapped in a web.

"Hurry..." Su Yongchun’s voice was extremely low, "His life signs monitoring is temporarily screened by me, but it won’t last long."

A few lines were removed. Su Ming’an took the boy’s cold and light body out of the life support pod. The boy softly leaned against him, strands of white hair brushed against his chin, a fragile icy touch.

...like a jellyfish about to melt.

Perhaps due to leaving the dream-sustaining medication, the boy’s long lashes trembled slightly, struggling to open a slit. His eyes were golden like newly melted snow, veiled with a thin layer of illusion. He tried to focus, wanting to see clearly the person holding him.

A feeble voice, like a wisp of smoke, slipped from pale lips, stabbing into Su Ming’an’s heart unexpectedly.

"... Is it... the Lighthouse Sect Leader... coming to take me away...?"

"Have I become... a Sunfish?"

His voice held no fear, no doubt, as if it were a scene repeated countless times in a dream, finally arriving at this moment.

Su Ming’an’s arm suddenly tightened, his throat seeming to be choked by something.

Su Yongchun, standing by the console, suddenly turned her back, her shoulders trembling violently, tears instantly welling up in her deep brown eyes.

"Go!"

Su Ming’an no longer hesitated, wrapping the boy tightly in a thermal blanket, his figure swiftly disappearing into the darkness.

Only after the sound of footsteps completely faded did Su Yongchun, as if all strength had been drained from her, slowly emerge from behind the console. She gazed at the empty life support pod, her eyes hollow and sorrowful.

The laboratory lights stretched her lonely shadow long. She murmured softly, her voice as faint as a sigh:

"Go... Run toward freedom."

She was a sinner, she knew it. She had witnessed the deaths of countless children, yet at this moment, she was resolute in saving one.

She lacked the strength to stop this experiment, which concerned the fate of the entire planet; she couldn’t alter the future of everyone because of "selfishness"... However, she at least wanted to save one, the luckiest one.

She was an incompetent "mother," with no face to see the child one last time, so when Su Ming’an left with Su Liujin, she hid behind the console, never glancing back. She emphasized to Su Ming’an, "Do not let the child know of my existence," she would cut all ties with his destiny.

Go, fly to freedom, child with wings.

Su Yongchun took out a game console, a game she often played with the children in dreams, one they loved in this pixelated world.

Now, as the music played again, she thought of the fifteen children who had disappeared, her body weak, silently shedding tears.

"Ka——"

The alloy door slid open again, and in walked several expressionless order guards. The leader was Hui Bai. His eyes glanced over the empty life support pod, his face showing no surprise.

Su Yongchun silently extended her hands, as if she had been waiting for this moment.

"Detain her," Hui Bai said officially, his voice cold.

Two guards stepped forward, placing manacles on Su Yongchun. Then, Hui Bai tapped quickly on his personal terminal, sending an encrypted message silently away.

The content of the message was starkly different from his current icy tone:

[Researcher No. S719 Su Yongchun, involved in unauthorized actions, detained pending trial. Handle leniently.]

...

The metal passage extended beneath their feet, filled with the smell of oil and dust.

Su Ming’an held the astonishingly light young boy tightly, navigating through the complex passages of the lower levels of the Ark. Whenever they encountered cameras, Su Ming’an mimicked a "finger gun" gesture, silently shooting, and the cameras would retreat—Su Liujin had taught him this gesture, and Su Ming’an had set it as the unlock code.

"So cold..." Su Liujin murmured, barely conscious, his body so frail it was shocking, his complexion pale as paper, vastly different from the proud and uninhibited Little King in his dreams, more like a malnourished infant.

He clutched at Su Ming’an’s sleeve, "I’m so cold... Sect Leader..."

"You won’t be cold anymore." Su Ming’an carried him through the corridors, eyes focused ahead,

"You’ll never be cold again, Great Emperor."

...

[If you keep me in the dream,]

[Am I still the person you knew?]

...

The structure of the Ark was like an inverted pyramid; the deeper one went, the dimmer the light, the scarcer the resources, and the more abrasive life became. Su Ming’an delved further down.

Sights were filled with cold metal, exposed pipes, dense personal rooms. People were dressed in gray, faces weary, hurrying about. The two of them finally found a place to stay on the 37th floor, a forgotten lounge. The space was small, enough to be concealed.

Under the effect of the nutritional supplement, Su Liujin’s body slowly recovered, and he began to observe this real world, his brow slightly furrowing.

"This... isn’t like in the dreams," he said softly, his fingers brushing against the cold, rough wall, "nor is it like ’mother’ said..."

He no longer mentioned that address, his tone carrying a sense of disillusionment after being deceived.

...

[How do you plan to break the dream?] The mirror showed Rin’s handwriting.

[I suspect this is still Su Liujin’s dream. We have to wait for him to fully recover to awaken him in Luowasha.] Su Ming’an wrote.

[Layer upon layer of dreams... This jellyfish is trapped in endless dreams.]

[What puzzles me is that Su Liujin dreamt of being a Little King, dreamt of Luowasha’s future, and even dreamt of Hui Bei, Hui Chi, Hui Zi...] Su Ming’an wrote: [Was it known, even before the planet fused, that Hui Bai would split into so many parts, that Luowasha would look like this?]

[Can’t rule out the possibility.] Rin wrote: [Perhaps humanity has never escaped the vortex of the past.]

[Thought-provoking and terrifying.]

[Don’t worry too much, just wait for Su Liujin to recover.]

...

Su Ming’an attempted to awaken him, "Su Liujin, you’re still in a dream now, can you try to wake up?"

Su Liujin closed his eyes and tried, after a moment, he opened them, shaking his head helplessly,

"What method can wake you up?" Su Ming’an pondered.

"Perhaps experiencing things I’ve never experienced?" Su Liujin suggested.

Su Ming’an thought so too. The newly emerged Little King was still evidently different from the Su Liujin he knew. If Su Liujin saw many rich things, perhaps he would awaken.

He took Su Liujin on a walk through the Ark, observing its condition along the way.

——The pervasive anxiety about the future, the fear of dwindling resources, and the perceptions of the administrators.

In the whispered complaints of the lower-level workers, they heard the reverence and dissatisfaction towards "the blue-eyed Hui Bai," saying he was cold and hypocritical, willing to sacrifice any part for the overall good; they heard the fear of "the purple-haired Enchantress Edith," saying her experiments were strange and frightening; and they heard some goodwill towards "Antetolia," believing she was the only one among the adults to occasionally show warm feelings. But mostly, there was numb acceptance, the inevitability of swallowing injustice for the sake of survival.