Chapter 14 - BE2 - Tomorrow (Part 2)
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"Oh, if it's about the final answer, I'm sorry, but I can't disclose that. After all, the problem arose from your lack of clues, so I can't..."
"—What must I do for you to let Zhai Xing go?"
Upon hearing his voice, a slight electric glow flickered in the rabbit's eyes.
"I think I've pretty much figured out this world game," Su Ming'an said lightly, pinching his fingers: "The game segments are so terribly dangerous that it will inevitably lead to a situation—only a very few people dare to take the risk and venture into the game, while the vast majority of Zhai Xing's people, who like comfort, will hide behind the barrage and silently watch... as if watching a reality show about killing that they can deeply relate to.
The game imposes fate on everyone; once you join the game, everyone voluntarily becomes the weak, and no one has the power or will to destroy it... They hate these rules, yet hope to benefit from them.
—A few fight desperately, battling in terror between life and death, while the vast majority enjoy the same privileges as the Organizers with pleasure—this game mode is very deformed, not a very good game."
Upon hearing Su Ming'an finish these words, the rabbit's voice started to mix with mechanical sounds and the tone, from cheerful, gradually became low and frightening:
[Are you saying that our game is not good?]
"No, not exactly," Su Ming'an said: "Your world game is of a grand scale, and the content is quite interesting. The life-and-death struggle of billions of beings is an immensely grand carnival—though it's for you."
The rabbit looked at him, silent.
"But," Su Ming'an looked at it: "If such a good game has a skewed balance, it's a terribly frightening thing. I love games, although I don't like this current one, but I truly don't hope that such a perfect game would have a terrifying crack."
His blood-stained hand slightly lifted.
In the glow of the setting sun that filtered through the high window, the light was as thick as blood, slowly blending into the brightness emanating from his eyes.
That gaze, for a moment, was startlingly bright.
"Are you the host of the game, or the game's designer? Mr. Rabbit, either way—you're going to fill this crack, right?"
Su Ming'an lifted his head: "Or, you could admit to me the imperfection of the game, acknowledge the flaws in the mechanics—"
"Our game has no flaws," the white rabbit told him in a flat tone.
When Su Ming'an heard Mr. Rabbit's words, his cheeks bathed in the blood light of the sunset, for a moment surged with a long-accumulated color of blood.
"That's right, you have no flaws—thus, those who enter the game to venture, must be able to get something those who do not participate will never get—only then is it a fair game." Su Ming'an followed up immediately, his gaze resolute, his words as decisive as a knife, leaving no room for pause: "They can get the conditions to perfectly end the game, redemption for all losses, and even—the right to save Zhai Xing or even to dominate Zhai Xing. The final victor gets everything they deserve, right?"
"That's right, the rule is indeed so," the rabbit nodded with some hesitation: "...unless the person can achieve perfection."
"Meaning every world must Perfectly Pass with a hundred percent?"
"Yes."
Su Ming'an's face finally showed a genuine smile.
It was as if a flame had ignited from the depths of his eyes, his gaze blazing intensely for an instant.
He had finally led the other to reveal the information he wanted to know.
Now, it was time to reap the fruits of his labor.
"—Then, the ultimate winner's reward.
Does it include letting Zhai Xing go?"
He spoke without pause.
...
Right when the game had started, Su Ming'an had realized that the seemingly all-out struggles of the players were just to arrange their own human rankings, to battle for their "ranking."
But in fact, even after the game was over, Zhai Xing would still be under the control of the Organizers. Who knows if there would be a "second game," a "third game," where the Organizers would treat the people of Zhai Xing as playthings for endless experiments.
Therefore, he had devised a plan.
...He wanted to use this inevitable death to induce an answer, to find a way to save Zhai Xing, to completely drive out the high-dimensional beings.
Even if he couldn't, at the very least, he hoped to obtain information that would allow him to step outside the chessboard.
Therefore, he first confirmed the perfection of the game's mechanics, getting the other to admit the balance of the game, then he broached the question of "Perfect Pass" to gain relevant information.
Mr. Rabbit, with a somewhat sluggish movement, lifted its head, looking at the Zhai Xing being in front of it with a new perspective.
...The way this human had just acted, it had thought of him as just a player wanting to reach the pinnacle, fighting for selfish gains. But after such an upheaval, the end goal was this?
Forcing it to reveal the only way to save Zhai Xing, then,
...trying by any means to redeem Zhai Xing?
While all were still engaged in mutual slaughter, thinking of the fisherman's benefit...
The human in front still looked at it, covered in filthied blood, but what had once been an ordinary appearance now signified something different in its eyes.
"It includes," it said: "You are one in a billion, very special."
Su Ming'an nodded in acknowledgment of Mr. Rabbit's words.
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"It seems the answer is affirmative," he said as he slightly turned aside, sitting beside the girl's corpse and reaching for the silver sword tied at her waist.
"Although I confirm your guess, there's something regrettable I must tell you. You have already failed in this world; the chance for a Perfect Pass is only once, and you just guessed wrong——even if you have the intention, you can't, nor will you ever be able to become, that sole victor," the rabbit boss hinted with a meaningful look at his actions.
The rabbit boss wasn't worried about its words being leaked, as these were the established rules, simply revealed a bit sooner than usual. It spoke now not wanting to be forced to admit the game was unfair, so telling him in advance was harmless.
What it was worried about... was this man's audacious wish.
Redempion for Zhai Xing?
This human truly dares to mention it.
...With this, even if this human were to die here now, the subsequent progress of the game must definitely never let him have an easy time.
Its gaze turned somewhat gloomy.
"Hmm, I'm aware of that, it is indeed the case for now. But in this first loop, all I needed was your answer," Su Ming'an said with a smile.
"For now?"
Su Ming'an weighed the sword in his hand, then flipped the point around, slowly aiming it at his own temple.
...Because in the next loop, the next Time Rewinding, he still had a chance.
Having confirmed this mechanism without revealing his true intent to redeem Zhai Xing, his next loop's self still had a chance.
The rabbit boss looked at him, clueless as to what he was doing.
"Just wait and see," the young man's face broke into a radiant smile:
...
"In the next loop, I will succeed."
Reclaiming Zhai Xing with a perfect game, an all-SSS rating, is indeed very difficult for the average Player.
But he is the only one with the Time Rewinding Skill, the only one with this ability...perhaps even the Organizers never anticipated, a Chess Piece outside the board.
Whether it's an unknown entity's malevolence or Zhai Xing's conscience trying to save itself, as an utterly ordinary human...since he's glimpsed a sliver of daylight, however meager.
...Then such seemingly impossible tasks, such unimaginable feats to others, are best left to himself.
The golden finger of Time Rewinding didn't come without reason, nor is it a prideful asset, not a Prop on which to complacently tread over others to ascend.
...But rather a burdensome responsibility.
He has become the "Chosen One".
Just a regular student, he possesses Time Rewinding, he can do it, so he must do it.
"'The greatest luck in one's life is to discover one's mission at the prime of life,'" he murmured to himself, as if savoring the meaning behind the words.
Even if it's nothing more than his humble human conjecture, a mere fantasy, it's enough for him to seek a definitive goal, to keep moving in such a hopeless situation.
The despair of the masses brings about even greater Despair. Even now, at the beginning of the game, a pervasive sense of panic has already set in.
Humans can't see the sky when they look up; they can't see the future.
And in a disordered large group, everyone is like a lost ship at sea. They submit to the "Fate" established by the game, always acting by some fixed Rules, unable to step off the board, unable to escape their shackles, adrift in a script written by High Dimensional beings.
So, I, with the Skill of Time Rewinding, might be the one nearing High Dimensional existence.
Due to Time Rewinding, he hopes to become their guiding beacon, an ever-standing figure, the spotlight's center—like a steadfast Lighthouse.
Even if it means running corpses on world lines invisible to all.
He is the Number One Player.
He refuses to be a Chess Piece unable to get off the board of the world game.
Perfectly completing a Perfect Pass with an SSS rating in every world, find the perfect Strategy path, and then——redeem Zhai Xing.
——Game start.
...
The next moment, blood splattered.
The rabbit boss looked on, stupefied and confused, as the person before it fell to the ground, still not understanding the meaning of his words.
The blood-red light of the setting sun outside the high window slowly sunk in,
...casting a dramatic and moving halo over the quiet corpse.
The gears of Time gradually began to reverse.