Lian Qiao opened his mouth, wanting to say something. Then Little Apple, next to him, suddenly screamed.
"Lian Qiao! Your hand!"
Lian Qiao was taken aback and looked down at his right hand. His palm was always hidden in his pocket and only a section of his wrist was exposed. However, at this time, there was nothing between the wrist and the pocket. There were only tiny chunks of flesh floating around the wrist.
He pulled his hand out of his pocket and realized that, from the wrist down, his palm was gone.
Little Apple screamed again. RenDong's expression changed and he stepped forward to grab Lian Qiao's wrist.
"What's going on?!" RenDong asked sharply, "What the hell did you do?!"
Lian Qiao looked at his severed wrist silently. As if being devoured by an invisible beast, his wrist also disappeared bit by bit, turning into flesh-colored fragments of 1mmx1mmx1mm, floating in the air.
This scene is too weird, like in a dream. RenDong tightly grasped his remaining wrist with such force that it almost broke his arm bone.
"How could this happen!" RenDong's voice was sharp, trembling slightly. "What the hell did you do! Lian Qiao! Answer me!"
Lian Qiao didn't know how to answer him. But Little Apple collapsed first, knelt down on the ground crying loudly.
"It's my fault! I shouldn't have given him the key! Wuwuwu, I killed him! Xu RenDong, kill me! I killed him!"
RenDong's face was pale but he didn't even look at Little Apple. He just quickly took out the gauze from his backpack, suppressed his trembling and wrapped it around Lian Qiao's wrist.
But it's useless.
Lian Qiao thought to himself: My hand wasn't cut off, so what's the use of wrapping it in gauze?
He hesitated for a while and couldn't bear to say this out loud so he smiled and said, "It's okay, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt at all, really."
This place is close to the campus hotel. The location is remote and it happened to be meal time. The students were all gathered in the cafeteria and so Little Apple's loud crying did not alarm others.
The warm yellow sunset shone on Lian Qiao's face, reflecting his tender and soft features more and more tenderly.
RenDong grabbed his right hand, still winding the gauze up round and round. However, the shattering speed of Lian Qiao's body was much faster than he imagined. As soon as the gauze was wrapped around it, the arm underneath was already shattered, turning into countless small flesh-colored squares floating in the air. The gauze couldn't be tied at all.
The speed of the body's mutation is so fast that people have no time to react.
Time is limited.
Lian Qiao took a deep breath, held down RenDong's hand and tried to make his voice appear calm.
"RenDong, calm down and listen to me."
"Debug is for you to find the bug and eliminate it. I guess after eliminating the bug, you can find the button. The elevator should appear when you are 28 years old, don't worry."
"As for that bug…"
Having said that, Lian Qiao quickly glanced at Little Apple, who was slumped on the ground. At this time, Little Apple was crying out of breath, her cheeks were flushed, like a ripe red apple. She was so absorbed in her own grief that she had no time to think about anything else.
Lian Qiao pursed his lips, leaned close to RenDong's ear and whispered, "That bug is you."
RenDong shuddered all over and opened his eyes wide.
Lian Qiao stared at him, and said low and fast: "You can go back to the past using some type of method. But this ability is also limited. At most, you can go back to the time when we first entered the elevator. So every time we enter the elevator, it seems like you change into a different person. Because you've already experienced the instance."
"You have successfully escaped countless times by relying on this ability that is almost like cheating. But in turn, because you have this ability, instances containing you will become extremely difficult."
"It is reasonable to say that your ability should make you invincible but you hit a wall in this instance. You feel that we can't get out and so you become desperate. So that's why you started doing these unreasonable things as though you are a different person ."
"I guess this is because you are the key player this time. The instance has been adjusted for you and set up an obstacle that even you cannot cross."
"What's this obstacle?"
Lian Qiao suddenly stopped at this point. RenDong stared blankly at him and his lips moved slightly, unable to speak.
Lian Qiao raised his hand, trying to touch his face, but found that his right hand had disappeared from the elbow down. He had to switch to his left hand to stroke RenDong's cheek.
"Isn't it: you can only go out if we are all dead."
"Your last obstacle is me. You don't want to kill me, so you choose to go back to the past again and again and experience this instance with me again. You have decided to stay here with me forever."
"Did I guess correctly?"
Lian Qiao finally finished speaking. The shattering of his body was still continuing and the speed seems to be slightly faster than before. Fortunately, he still didn't feel the slightest pain, which made him proud to be able to keep the last calm in front of RenDong.
RenDong's eyes were red and tears filled his eyes, as if he was about to cry in the next second.
But he didn't cry but raised the corner of his mouth slightly and asked mockingly: "Is there any more?"
Lian Qiao was taken aback.
RenDong said: "Is this all you want to say? Is this all you wanted to tell me at the expense of your self-destruction?"
"…" Lian Qiao was stunned, too shocked to speak.
RenDong smiled self-deprecatingly and finally pronounced: "You guessed wrong."
"Then…" Lian Qiao was about to ask a question but suddenly a cold light flashed in front of his eyes.
Before he could react, he heard a blunt sound. RenDong actually stabbed a dagger into his own chest!
"RenDong!" Lian Qiao was shocked and instinctively reached out to stop him, but forgot that his right hand had disappeared. The remaining half of his arm couldn't reach RenDong at all.
When he stretched out his left hand towards RenDong again, RenDong took a step back and pulled out the knife from his chest at the same time.
"No!" Lian Qiao screamed but it was too late. Blood spewed out of RenDong's chest like a blood arrow.
Lian Qiao was splashed all over his face by the hot blood. The thick bloody smell made him almost vomit and blood splashed into his mouth, arousing a strong smell of rust.
Blood flowed profusely from RenDong's chest, instantly dyeing his clothes red. His face was pale and the few drops of blood splashed on his cheeks were bright red.
The gushing blood quickly gathered on the ground into a small pool of blood. RenDong stood in a pool of his own blood, holding a sharp knife in his hand, but his eyes were smiling.
"You guessed wrong. I'll give you another chance."
"What…" Lian Qiao's pupils shrank suddenly. In an instant, his brain ran fast and all the clues connected together in a series. "I know, I know! The condition for you to go back to the past is death! So—so you—"
He desperately stretched out his hand towards Xu RenDong, trying to stop him but a blur suddenly appeared in front of him. Something flew out.
The thing bumped into RenDong and then fell into a pool of blood on the ground with a "snap".
A hand.
A left hand.
Lian Qiao was stunned and looked down to see that his left wrist was broken at some point. The blood vessels and tendons at the broken ends were clearly visible and the pulse of the arteries keeps pumping out the fresh blood but the blood beads that jump out of the blood vessels float in the air weightlessly.
There are also countless flesh-red squares floating around the blood bead. Not only his hands but his legs and even his torso began to shatter at a frightening speed.
He couldn't stand anymore and he fell forward. He subconsciously wanted to support the ground with his hands but only a short upper arm was left on both arms so that, like a beggar with severed limbs by the roadside, he fell directly to the ground and fell into a pool of RenDong blood. Thick blood splattered all over his head and face.
"Lian Qiao!" RenDong uttered a mournful and inhuman cry. Immediately after a bang, he dropped the knife and rushed over to hug Lian Qiao.
The blood hole on RenDong's chest was still bleeding desperately. When Lian Qiao was held in his arms, his shoulders were instantly wet.
"Do you commit suicide in such a tragic way every time?" Lian Qiao really wanted to touch his face but he couldn't do anything because he lost his arms and legs. He could only raise his head and look at him with moist eyes. "Can't you be kinder to yourself…"
"…" RenDong hugged him tightly. His breathing was short and his face was pale. The massive blood loss made RenDong tremble all over and his body temperature gradually lost.
It's unknown if it was because of the weakness of the body or because of the huge blow to his spirit but RenDong couldn't say a word. He also couldn't stop shaking.
On the side, Little Apple had already collapsed, unable to do anything but cry. She cried hoarsely, watching Lian Qiao disappear, and knew that all this was irreparable and that it was herself who caused all this.
In an instant, Lian Qiao's whole body was shattered to the point that only his head and torso remained. His limbs turned into small pieces of flesh and floated in the air and the blood droplets floated in the air like a weightless water curtain. Even if they touched RenDong's clothes, they did not get wet.
RenDong hugged him with one hand and grabbed the pieces in vain with the other. But no matter how hard he tried, his fingers kept slipping through the shards. He can't touch those things at all.
It seems that Lian Qiao was leaving this time and space.
The 1.85 meter man is as light as a baby at the moment. RenDong's heart and liver were torn apart and he couldn't even shed tears. He just kept catching phantoms in the air like a psycho.
Lian Qiao raised his head with difficulty, looked at Ren Dong and suddenly felt shaken in his heart.
Is what I'm doing right?
Even if he can turn back time and go back to the past to save me, his memory will not be erased. His pain, his torture, will leave a permanent mark on his soul.
He will always remember the despair of my dissipating in his arms.
He will go back in time countless times to save me but what about him? He will never be redeemed.
He can only endure endless pain in endless reincarnation.
…How can we stop this cruel cycle?
How to break RenDong's infinite death loop…
Wait. An infinite loop?
A flash of lightning flashed in Lian Qiao's mind and his thoughts suddenly became clear.
He originally thought that the so-called bug referred to RenDong's special ability. RenDong has already experienced this instance and knows that the condition for clearing the level was to kill everyone, including him. RenDong couldn't abandon him, so he could only abandon his own life.
—But RenDong said he guessed wrong.
Where did I guess wrong?
Lian Qiao's body has been shattered until only his head and chest remain. The same is true for RenDong, the blood hole in his chest is still bubbling, but his blood pressure is obviously not as good as before. He was about to go into shock.
Lian Qiao knew that time was running out so he thought desperately.
"Debug…" He muttered the clue that cost him a huge price.
From the moment he used the key, his body gradually began to dissipate. He thought this may be a mechanism for the instance to maintain itself and it is punishing those who get additional clues.
...but that's wrong. What would be the point of the instance doing this? Even if he disappeared, Little Apple was still here. She can take the note to find RenDong. After all RenDong is the one who has the ability to solve all the mysteries.
The instance punished him, was it really simply because he used the key? But this key itself comes from the instance. If using the key violates the rules of the instance, then the key should not exist in the instance from the very beginning.
Having said that, if the instance really wishes to forcibly kill him in order to prevent him from solving the puzzle, then he should have been killed the moment he got the clue instead of using a slow death method such as gradually shattering.
—Wait, he doesn't have time to think about his own affairs. Think about it, what exactly was the bug?
The bug that existed from the beginning of the instance, the bug related to the dungeon mechanism… the bug that made RenDong fall into an infinite loop…
An infinite loop…
Lian Qiao's pupils shrank suddenly and suddenly he realized.
"RenDong—"
Lian Qiao was so shocked by his conjecture that his voice began to tremble. Even he couldn't believe what he was about to say.
"The instance clearance condition is not for us to die but—"
"For you to die… right?"
***
The author has something to say: Well, the puzzle-solving degree is full. Now you can rest assured, this time you really have to pass the level~
T/N: Don't worry this is not another reset!!