Chapter 90#

Let Me Keep You#

Sang Chiyu turned his head. In the corridor, a tall man in a white lab coat leaned against the wall. The man held his arms, looking at Sang Chiyu with a faint smile. This man looked exactly like the Su Ruhui in the video, only without the sickly appearance; he looked quite spirited. He appeared no different from a real person, yet despite this, Sang Chiyu sensed something was wrong. Light and shadow shimmered around the man, and there was no shadow beneath his feet—he was like a ghost that had appeared out of thin air. Sang Chiyu realized he was not a physically existing person; he was a holographic projection.

“Digitization of consciousness—have you heard of it? This is the true essence of the ‘Snowflake Key.’ I uploaded my consciousness to Paradise. Every puppet you saw along the way was me.” Su Ruhui said with a beaming smile, “It’s my first time seeing a fellow as heartless as you. I called you Brother Sang, and you didn’t even acknowledge me.”

“I am not your brother,” Sang Chiyu replied coldly.

With such consummate technology, it was no wonder the Secret Sect would rather destroy Paradise than let Su Ruhui’s technology fall into the hands of others.

Su Ruhui stepped forward, stopping across from Sang Chiyu, and leaned down to look at himself in the coffin.

“You were staring at me for so long just now… you couldn’t have fallen in love with me, could you?” Su Ruhui asked.

Sang Chiyu ignored his nonsense and simply asked, “Where did you go after dropping out of the military academy?”

“How do you know I dropped out?” Su Ruhui raised his head and looked him over. “Have you seen me before?”

Sang Chiyu looked at him expressionlessly.

Su Ruhui pulled up his memory bank. He framed his thumbs and index fingers together, making a photographing gesture toward Sang Chiyu. The image of Sang Chiyu’s cold face appeared between his fingers. He dragged the image into the memory bank, and the system automatically began searching for similar faces. The search finished within a second. Su Ruhui found a junior student he had once passed by in his memories of the military academy at age eighteen. They had met in a military academy, but they had never spoken.

“So it’s a junior,” Su Ruhui realized.

“Where did you go?” Sang Chiyu asked again.

Su Ruhui laughed heartily. “Oh, I’ve been to a lot of places. I stayed in the heart of a godforsaken desert for a while, went to the poles for two or three years, and lived in a tropical rainforest for a few months. That place was hot; I wore nothing but my underwear every day. Later, I found out there wasn’t a living soul for four hundred miles around, so I just started running around naked.”

Sang Chiyu understood as soon as he heard this. This guy had angered the principal and suffered persecution. The principal had deep connections, far beyond what a mere military cadet could shake—even if that cadet was exceptionally brilliant, a rare genius in the field of artificial neural networks. But in the eyes of those people, a genius without power or status was as insignificant as a grain of dust. Having offended the principal, Su Ruhui’s career prospects were dead. Looking at the situation, he likely faced assassination attempts; he might have obtained protection from some organizations, but they were certainly not groups that could see the light of day.

“You were too impulsive.” Sang Chiyu frowned.

“I killed all your comrades, yet you still dared to walk here alone,” Su Ruhui smiled. “We are two of a kind.”

Sang Chiyu said, “Accept the Secret Sect’s conditions. It’s not too late.”

Su Ruhui gave a wicked grin. “If the Secret Sect gave you to me, I might consider it.”

Sang Chiyu’s expression turned cold.

Su Ruhui laughed. “Just a joke. Alright, let’s change the subject. Are you very curious about why I built Paradise?”

Sang Chiyu said, “You wanted a different way of living.”

Su Ruhui froze for a moment, then began to laugh. “Many people like you have come to Paradise, trying their hardest to kill me. They all died here, and some were even collected into my character database. You are the only one who has reached the computing center, and the only one who has seen through me.”

Sang Chiyu recalled those Paradise files and said, “You failed.”

“That’s right. I wanted to see if there was a possibility that those terrible things wouldn’t happen, that my miserable life could take a different shape. Unfortunately, every experiment pointed to the same result. Even rolling a die has a one-sixth probability, but the probability of my father going insane was one hundred percent.” Su Ruhui shrugged. “Maybe my own life was too tragic, so I didn’t want others to be like me. You’re right, I was indeed too impulsive. When I discovered the principal’s scandals back then, I only thought about ruining his reputation; I didn’t expect him to hunt me down. But it wasn’t a loss—I got my revenge.”

Sang Chiyu remembered that the principal had died a few years ago on his sixtieth birthday; the cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest. The memorial video at his funeral had been swapped out for the shameful video Su Ruhui had played in the Great Hall many years ago.

He should have guessed long ago that it was Su Ruhui’s handiwork.

“On his sixtieth birthday, I sprinkled neurotoxin powder specifically designed for Mystics onto his birthday cake. The powder was colorful; on his cake, it looked just right.”

Almost half an hour had passed. Sang Chiyu had no time for idle chat and returned to the laboratory. Su Ruhui followed closely behind him. He discovered that the download progress on the light screen had stopped, and the chip had been ejected from the operating platform.

Su Ruhui’s own consciousness controlled the entire Paradise. It seemed that the mission to obtain the “Snowflake Key” was unlikely to succeed.

Sang Chiyu checked his watch again. Ten minutes left.

He had to go.

Su Ruhui saw through his intention and smiled. “Sorry, I’m afraid you won’t be able to leave.”

Sang Chiyu was about to activate the Formless Method technique when a sudden pain pierced his heart. The technique was like a gun barrel that had misfired. He raised his hand and found red bloodlines spreading across his cold, white wrist.

“That neurotoxin I mentioned—I used it on you too. It can’t be helped; you Mystics are too strong. If I don’t play dirty, I really can’t win.” Su Ruhui watched as his muscles spasmed and the veins on his forehead bulged. “Remember the special warheads you encountered at the Elysium Pavilion? Those bullets were filled with neurotoxins. You weren’t hit, but you were poisoned. It takes a little time to take effect. See, to stall for time, I displayed my father’s funeral portrait to lure you in, and even showed you my bare butt from when I was a kid to tempt you into chatting with me. I didn’t expect you to actually take the bait. I thought you’d ignore me. Admit it, Mr. Kitty, you’re quite fond of me.”

Sang Chiyu clutched his agonizing chest, cold sweat breaking out on his neck.

The watch was counting down: five minutes.

“My Meta-Universe Paradise No. 21 has already been built. It looks much like this physical Paradise above us. For the social structure, I referenced the real-world Mystic Clan Alliance and the Vagrant Legions. It’s virtual; the server running it is two thousand meters under the sea. I put many AIs inside; the laws of suffering I established will civilize them, making them more and more like humans. Oh, I also put two characters in to act as my mom and dad. I hope this time Dad doesn’t saw off my legs again—it really hurts.” Su Ruhui’s smile shimmered in the light, almost transparent. “It hurts so much. After all these years, I still can’t forget. It’s just that I haven’t decided yet—when they discover the truth of Paradise, should I let them come to reality?”

An alarm suddenly blared. The system said: “Paradise locked by three missiles. Countdown: three minutes.”

Su Ruhui remained unhurried, tilting his head to look out at the deep blue ice sea beyond the glass curtain wall. “Should I kill you or not? To be honest, I’m quite lonely. In this Paradise drifting on the sea, every day I open my eyes and see nothing but the puppets I made. Once Paradise is blown up and I go to the Meta-Universe, the ones accompanying me will still be those AIs. Although they are very smart, they aren’t real people after all.” He turned to ask Sang Chiyu, “Do you want to come play in my Meta-Universe? It’s much more interesting than this one on the sea.”

“I refuse,” Sang Chiyu gritted his teeth.

“You’re going to die, you know,” Su Ruhui said. “With consciousness digitization, at least you can save your life.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Sang Chiyu was cold. “Dying in battle is a soldier’s honor.”

“Still so heartless,” Su Ruhui said wistfully. “Even though you want to die, I’m an honorary member of the Small Animal Protection Association. I don’t abuse cats, and I certainly don’t kill them. Look,” he pointed a finger, and a bright red silk banner appeared on the light screen. “I even got the ‘Model Cat-Lover’ title from school when I was seventeen because I helped a mother cat give birth.”

Sang Chiyu was in too much pain to speak.

“Moreover, you destroyed my Paradise. One mechanical puppet costs one hundred thousand; one bionic puppet costs two hundred thousand. You destroyed a hundred mechanical puppets, fifty bionic puppets, and you blew up an entire street of mine plus a limited-edition Kawasaki motorcycle. There are twenty buildings on my street, one million each, plus the eight hundred thousand for the motorcycle. Rounding down the change, you owe me a total of fifty million. How much is your annual salary? One million at most. You’d have to go without food or drink for fifty years to pay it off.” Su Ruhui leaned down to look at him. “Enter my Meta-Universe No. 21. My rebirth program will automatically start, shielding all our past memories to achieve the effect of being born again. Life starts over; say goodbye to the miserable past. However, as the Creator, I still have a few privileges. For instance, I can choose the script and arrange our backgrounds. How about this? I’ll give you a few scripts, and you can choose.”

Sang Chiyu gritted his teeth, not wanting to hear a single word.

The system warned: “Countdown: two minutes.”

“Script one: You are a stray kitten without parents roaming the streets. One day, you faint from hunger at someone’s doorstep and are taken home as a pet. The young master of that family is me. Script two: You are a stray kitten without parents roaming the wild. One day, you are hunted by a tiger, and a passing young hunter happens to kill the tiger and save you. To repay the favor, you become the hunter’s pet. That gallant young hunter is me. Script three: You are a stray kitten without parents roaming a snowy realm. One day, you are found by an explorer and brought home to be a pet for her newborn son. Her son is me.” Su Ruhui stood face-to-face with him, eye to eye. “Become my pet, and your debt to me is cleared.”

Sang Chiyu: “…”

System: “Countdown: ten, nine, seven…”

“I like script two, but I don’t like hunting.” Time was running out, so Su Ruhui picked one at random. “Let’s go with three then.”

Sang Chiyu looked at him coldly. “I will never be your pet.”

Su Ruhui’s smile was incredibly brilliant. “I can also set the initial favorability of all characters. If the whole world hates you and only I love you, will you fall in love with me?”

Sang Chiyu said word by word: “I. Will. Not.”

“Good,” Su Ruhui looked down at him from above. “Let’s wait and see.”

The alarm shrieked. The system said: “Missiles incoming.”

The seawater surged. The missiles landed on the island of Paradise, and the glass dome shattered piece by piece. Rushing seawater poured into the computing center, the entire building disintegrated, and Sang Chiyu was swept away by the water, his blade slipping from his hand.

The seawater soaked Su Ruhui’s projection. The light shimmered, and a soft glow enveloped him like feathers. Sang Chiyu sank, his consciousness gradually blurring. Above their heads was a magnificent explosion. The island was sinking, Paradise was sinking, and they were sinking too. Su Ruhui floated toward him like a rootless ghost, yet also like a nebulous deity. Su Ruhui’s ethereal hands cradled his cheeks. Amidst the drifting uncertainty, he seemed to feel Su Ruhui’s cold kiss.

“I’m too lonely,” Su Ruhui whispered. “Mr. Kitty, let me keep you.”

[Character “Sang Chiyu” created successfully. Uploading consciousness… Upload successful. Starting rebirth program… Memory blocking algorithm running.]

[System online condition: Survival rate of Host 000 drops below 10%. Condition to restart the path back to reality: System authority reaches 100%. Time flow ratio between Meta-Universe Paradise and Reality: 15:1.]

[Welcome to “Meta-Universe Paradise No. 21.” Life restarts; everything begins anew. Dear Master, have a pleasant time.]