The voice paused for a moment, then spoke again:
"Lian Qiao… is your most important person… you have to… save him…"
Like an old radio with poor signal, the sound was intermittent, with a little current interference.
RenDong and Lian Qiao looked at each other with strange expressions on their faces.
"Go up and take a look?" Lian Qiao suggested in a low voice.
"…" RenDong felt inexplicably repelled. He couldn't tell why but he felt as though the voice didn't mean any threat, however he still felt scared. He dare not go up.
But reason told him that the answer lay ahead.
He took a deep breath and nodded towards Lian Qiao.
The surrounding gears are uneven and you can climb all the way to the top along the gears. The two carefully climbed among the gears, and the voice of darkness continued.
"You will experience… countless tortures, but this is not a punishment but a reward."
"When you reach the end…"
The voice paused, seemed to take a deep breath, and then continued:
"When you get to the end, it will all be worth it."
"Live on with him."
"Be with him…live."
The last sentence was repeated twice. The strings of the RenDong heart were also plucked repeatedly, no matter how hard it was to calm down.
Lian Qiao saw that his expression was not good, so he gave him a hand and sighed: "Don't think too much now. Be careful where you step, don't step in the wrong place. You will know everything when you get up."
RenDong: "Yeah."
Crawling between the gears is very strenuous. After all, all the gears are rotating. If you get stuck in the gap between the gears, you may not be able to escape the end of being crushed alive.
RenDong's mood was difficult to calm down and he forced his attention to her feet.
"Lian Qiao is your most important person…you have to save him…"
In the darkness, the voice repeated that passage, like a broken tape player. The higher they climbed, the closer they were to the voice.
Gradually, they discovered that there was a gear on the top that looked different from the others. The other gears are all gray but this one is bright silver-white, with strange patterns engraved on the wheel.
That sound came from the silver-white gear.
The position of the silver-white gear was extremely high and it was covered by many gears below. That's why they hadn't noticed this unusual gear before.
The silver-white gear stood abruptly in mid-air, not connected to the other gears. But the distance was not too far.
The two of them stood on the gear closest to the silver gear, with a gap of about half a meter between them. Lian Qiao estimated the distance, took a few steps back and jumped, grabbing the edge of the gear with both hands.
His feet were in the air and his whole body was shaking in mid-air. RenDong's throat tightened when he saw it and he couldn't help but want to reach out to hold him.
Fortunately, Lian Qiao's physical fitness is excellent. With a vigorous pull of his arms, he propped up his body neatly.
RenDong raised his head and asked, "What's up there?"
Lian Qiao didn't speak for a while. After a while, he leaned out from the edge of the silver-white gear and stretched out towards him.
"Come on, come up and see for yourself."
With Lian Qiao's help, RenDong also climbed up. He was stunned as soon as he came up.
Between the silver and white gears, there was actually a silver and white light curtain standing.
He couldn't help but look up. The light curtain seemed to be the Milky Way falling endlessly pouring straight down from the sky. It was impossible to see where the source was. It is also like a spear piercing the night sky, unstoppable, piercing the boundless darkness and trying to lead people to the other end of the universe.
Lian Qiao circled the light curtain and scratched his head: "What is this? A teleportation array?" As he spoke, he poked the light curtain with his fingertips.
"Wait!" RenDong was about to stop him but it was too late. He saw a flash of white light in front of his eyes, and Lian Qiao disappeared.
"Lian Qiao?!" RenDong was shocked. He rushed into the beam of light. In an instant, the warm and soft white light enveloped him. He felt dazzled for a while. His feet were like stepping on cotton, very soft, and there was no gravity.
However, in the next second, the sense of gravity returned to him.
"Ugh!" He lost his balance and fell forward, hitting something hard.
"Ugh!" The thing he ran into was caught off guard and both of them slammed into the ground.
The two of them rubbed their bumped heads and got up from the ground dizzily. After confirming each other's safety, Lian Qiao looked around and said in shock: "What the hell is this place? A library?"
They saw countless bookshelves standing around. All the bookshelves are connected in a row, with a slightly curved arc, forming a large circle with a diameter of tens of meters.
The place where the two fell was right between the huge circular bookshelf. Looking up, there was still endless darkness above. But, beneath his feet, was a silver-white metal ground.
The silver-white metal under his feet reflected the light from nowhere, reflecting their reflections. RenDong just looked down and felt dazzled. He felt as if there was another self under his feet, which made him inexplicably uneasy.
Lian Qiao was very excited, rubbing his hands and saying, "The light beam just now seems to be really a portal! It sent us here! Hey, is there another door over there?"
RenDong looked along where Lian Qiao pointed. Sure enough, a piece of the circular bookshelf was missing, forming an abrupt gap.
RenDong's heart moved: "Should we go and see?"
Lian Qiao said, "No rush. Study the bookshelves first."
The two people were standing far away from the bookshelf, so they couldn't see clearly what was on the bookshelf. As they got closer, they realized that the bookshelf was filled with wooden boxes instead of books.
They both blurted out at the same time.
"A treasure chest?"
"An urn?"
The two were stunned for a moment, both looking at each other in shock.
The person who said 'treasure box' was naturally Lian Qiao, because the shape of this wooden box was exactly the same as a treasure box in a game. And RenDong said 'urn' because the wooden boxes neatly arranged on the shelf was very similar to the funeral home where Zhong Xiu's ashes are placed.
Lian Qiao was a little excited when he saw what he thought was a treasure chest, but when he heard what RenDong said, he couldn't help sticking out his tongue: "Indeed, there is a name on this box…"
RenDong turned his head sideways, looking at every box on the nearby bookshelves. Sure enough, each box was engraved with a name and a keyhole.
RenDong's heart moved. He took out his brass key and compared the size.
It was just right.
Lian Qiao opened his eyes wide: "The… the key was originally used to open the lock here? Then my key…"
RenDong vaguely guessed something and felt flustered for no reason. He suppressed the uneasiness in his heart, smiled at Lian Qiao and said, "Let's look for my name first."
It was unknown what Lian Qiao was thinking but his expression became a little subtle.
The two began to look for the treasure box with Xu RenDong's name on the bookshelf.
Each treasure chest is the same size, about ten centimeters in length and more than ten centimeters in width, which is the size that an adult man can easily hold in his arms. However, when RenDong tried to take the treasure box off the bookshelf, he found that the treasure box seemed to be nailed to the bookshelf and would not move at all no matter how hard he tried.
He then tried to insert his key into the keyhole of the treasure chest but he couldn't insert it at all. It seems that these treasure chests with other people's names on them have nothing to do with him. He still has to find the one that belongs to him.
The two of them split up and searched along both ends of the bookshelves. The terrain here is simple and the view is wide, so you don't have to worry about anything going wrong even if you work separately.
RenDong scanned the bookshelves carefully, saw countless strange names, but never saw himself.
He didn't see Lian Qiao either.
His heart was always hanging in the air and he became more and more impatient. Just as he quickened his pace to inspect the bookshelves, Lian Qiao's call came from behind him.
"RenDong, come quickly and take a look!"
RenDong's ears pricked up and she walked towards him quickly: "Found it?"
"Uh, I found it but it's not yours…" Lian Qiao stood in front of the bookshelf with a strange expression, "…it belongs to Shi JianChuan."
RenDong was stunned. Only then did he realize that the treasure chest he was pointing at was open and was empty inside. On the lid of the treasure chest, there was the word "Shi JianChuan".
"Shi JianChuan has been here too?!" RenDong was a little surprised and then figured it out, "Well, this is reasonable. After all, he also has a key."
"Then what's in his box?" Lian Qiao tried to move the box but couldn't move it. He reached into the box and touched it a few times.
"There's not even dust." Lian Qiao sighed and retracted, "I can't guess what it contained before."
"Forget it, don't worry about Shi JianChuan." RenDong said, "Let's continue looking for our box."
Not long after, RenDong found a box with Lian Qiao's name on another bookshelf.
"Ahhh!" Lian Qiao yelled frantically, "I don't have a key! My treasure chest ahhh!"
RenDong pursed her lips and did not speak.
As a 'looting maniac', seeing that his own treasure chest could not be opened, Lian Qiao's depression almost broke through the sky. What made it even more heartbreaking was that he could easily take the box off the shelf. The weight was not light but he didn't know what was hidden inside.
He tried to poke the RenDong key into it, but of course he couldn't get it in at all.
"Ahhhhh!" Lian Qiao scratched his head, almost going crazy with curiosity, "Why don't I smash the box open and take a look!"
Although RenDong felt that this move was inappropriate, he did not stop him and allowed him to smash it. He saw Lian Qiao raising the treasure box high above his head and smashing it to the ground with a loud shout. The wooden treasure chest hit the ground with a bang.
However, the wooden treasure chest was solid and bounced on the ground a few times without even a single crack.
Lian Qiao didn't give up. He climbed to the top of the bookshelf with the treasure box, and then smashed it down from that height. He repeated this several times until he was exhausted, but the treasure box was not damaged at all. It was still tightly closed without any clues.
Lian Qiao was going crazy.
"Ahhhh, it would be nice if there was a crowbar!" He was so angry that he kicked the treasure box. "I can't open it, I can't open it, I can't open it, ahhhh my treasure box!"
RenDong remained silent and watched. Only then did he say: "Perhaps this is the real price."
"Ah?" Lian Qiao raised his eyes aggrievedly.
RenDong: "If you use the key in the instance, you won't be able to open the box here. This is the price of using the key."
Lian Qiao: "…"
RenDong sighed: "Look, I told you not to use the key a long time ago. Do you regret it now?"
RenDong originally thought that he would roll on the ground crazily but Lian Qiao touched his nose and smiled at him.
"Not at all. If I had known that the price would be one less treasure chest to open, I should have used up the key in the first round. How much less suffering would you have experienced this way."
RenDong was stunned. His heart seemed to thump and fell into the rice balls: sweet and sour, warm and drunk.
"Forget it, let's go find your treasure box." Lian Qiao simply kicked his treasure box away: out of sight and out of mind.
RenDong didn't say anything, just sighed softly.
Soon, the two found the treasure chest engraved with the character "Xu RenDong".
RenDong's treasure chest was not far from Lian Qiao's and was exactly the same size. RenDong stretched out his hand and took the treasure box down from the bookshelf. As soon as he touched the treasure box, a strange feeling surged in his heart.
Through the wood, he felt an indescribable attraction. Reason told him that it was unclear whether it was good or bad, but he had a strong impulse.
He wants to open the box!
He wants to get back what originally belonged to him!
...Huh?
Originally belonged to him?
RenDong held the treasure box and stood there dumbfounded.
"RenDong?" Seeing him standing still, Lian Qiao thought he was worried about opening it and finding something bad, so he asked, "How about I open it? You stay away."
However, as soon as Lian Qiao touched the treasure box, RenDong protected the treasure box and took two steps back as if startled.
Lian Qiao was taken aback. Only then did RenDong come back to his senses and raised his eyes in a daze.
"…No." RenDong panted slightly and said firmly, "I will do it myself."
Lian Qiao noticed something strange about him and asked worriedly: "What's wrong with you? Is there something wrong with this box?"
"No." RenDong shook his head slowly. He slowly slid his fingers across the wooden texture of the treasure chest. He felt his heartstrings twitching and even the depths of his soul began to tremble slightly, "This is my chest… I feel it. This is something very, very important to me…"
Lian Qiao scratched his head: "Really? Then why didn't I feel anything when I touched my box just now?"
RenDong raised the corners of his mouth, sort of smiling. The smile was a little forced.
Lian Qiao became increasingly uneasy: "Is it really okay? You don't look right. Why don't we just stop opening the box and go straight to find a way out…"
RenDong shook his head firmly again. This time he said nothing but calmly inserted the key into the keyhole.
He turned the key. The treasure chest opened with a creak.
Then, everything in front of him shook like water waves.
A flood of emotions floods into the brain in an instant. RenDong felt dizzy for a moment and couldn't stand upright. When he regained his balance and opened his eyes, he found that Lian Qiao was gone.
"Lian Qiao?" RenDong was startled. He looked around and found that he was still in the round bookshelf.
And in the gap in the bookshelf, in the place they haven't had time to explore, there was a person kneeling on the ground at this time.
"…Lian Qiao?" RenDong hesitated and walked towards the figure.
That figure was extremely familiar. It was someone he had embraced countless times. But at this moment, he also felt strange for no reason.
When he got closer, he realized where the strange feeling came from.
It was indeed Lian Qiao but he was covered in wounds and dripping with blood. His clothes were almost shredded into strips, hanging from his body in tatters, clearly exposing several wounds on the skin where the bones were deep.
Some of the wounds were smooth and flat, as if they were cut open by sharp blades. Some had five parallel wounds, apparently scratched by some kind of beast's claws. There are more shallow and deep wounds of different shapes, some of which have scabbed and healed, some of which are still bleeding.
RenDong's pupils shrank suddenly, startled.
The reason why he was shocked was not why Lian Qiao was suddenly so seriously injured. It was because Lian Qiao was holding a man with mutilated limbs in his arms.
From this angle, it can be seen that the man's legs are completely broken at the knees. His shoulder propped on Lian Qiao was also missing the arm, revealing the bones with dense fascial adhesions.
The blood flowing from the severed arm had soaked Lian Qiao's back. The blood was no longer flowing and the blood was all covered with dark red scabs. It can be seen that the blood of that person has stopped flowing for a long time.
The man was leaning in Lian Qiao's arms. His head was slightly tilted back, revealing a blue-gray face.
It was the face of a dead man. That is the face that Xu RenDong sees in the mirror every day.
—that was dead him.
"Lian Qiao…"
Xu RenDong felt that the blood in his whole body was congealed instantly. He murmured Lian Qiao's name and walked towards Lian Qiao.
Lian Qiao turned a deaf ear and just looked down at the dead man. It was as if the whole world had nothing to do with him.
RenDong stumbled behind Lian Qiao and wanted to push him. Just as he lifted it up, he suddenly heard a voice above his head.
"Congratulations to the player, you have passed all challenges."
"The player can choose to leave or stay."
It was a non-male, non-female, emotionless mechanical voice.
RenDong looked up in astonishment. Behind the gap in the bookshelf, there was a silver-white metal door. He was very familiar with the shape of that door. It was the entrance of the elevator.
Or was it… the exit?
The mechanical sound seemed to come from the door. It continued: "Choose to leave, and players will permanently leave this system and return to an ordinary person's life."
"Choose to stay and you will unlock a new difficulty challenge. As a reward for entering the second round, players can realize any wish…"
Before the mechanical voice could finish speaking, Lian Qiao, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly raised his head.
"I want to stay!"
RenDong shuddered. Lian Qiao's eyes were red, his tears were mixed with blood, his face was dirty and he looked extremely miserable.
"I want to stay." Lian Qiao paused every word, with a firm expression, "My wish is to revive Xu RenDong."
Suddenly hearing his name, Xu RenDong's heart trembled. He looked at Lian Qiao's blood-stained face and suddenly wanted to wipe it off for him. So he squatted down slowly and reached out to wipe his face.
But as soon as his fingertips touched Lian Qiao, the scene in front of him started to shake again.
Lian Qiao suddenly disappeared.
Instead, there was a person who stumbled towards here.
The man was swaying as if he was drunk. After walking a few steps, his legs became weak and he fell to the ground.
"…" RenDong stood in front of the elevator door, looking at the… himself who fell to the ground with complicated emotions.
That Xu RenDong was in a daze. His body was also covered in injuries and his face was covered in blood. However, Lian Qiao was not by his side.
The only thing that accompanied him was a bloody crowbar and a split doll.
Where did Lian Qiao go?
The mechanical sound sounded again from behind.
"Congratulations to the player, you have passed all challenges."
"The player can choose…"
That Xu RenDong twitched the corner of his mouth and suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed.
"Hahahahaha!"
The sharp laughter echoed among the bookshelves, playing repeatedly and extremely harshly. That Xu RenDong had obviously suffered a mental breakdown. He was in a daze at the moment, his face was smiling but his eyes were crying.
"…As a reward for entering the third round, players can realize any wish and also obtain a 'mortgage' opportunity."
The mechanical voice ignored his madness and dutifully finished the passage. Then it stopped and waited quietly for his reply.
That Xu RenDong finally laughed enough and had run out of energy. Then he panted slightly and asked with a self-deprecating smile: "What's the use of keeping me?"
His voice had become hoarse from laughter, so his voice was choked with sobs, like whining in the wind and sand, making it difficult to recognize.
The mechanical sound didn't answer him.
That Xu RenDong stroked the crowbar inside and murmured to himself: "Live for me… What does 'live for me' mean… Why are you forcing me like this? You killed everyone, even yourself. All to pave the way for me… But what's the use of keeping a waste like me?"
Suddenly, with a fierce look on his face, he raised the crowbar high and slammed it to the ground. The metal crowbar collided with the ground, making a sharp and harsh impact.
Xu RenDong raised his head, looked at the door behind the bookshelf and asked, "What's a 'mortgage opportunity'?"
The mechanical voice replied: "Pledge the player's most cherished thing into the system in exchange for an additional wish. After the mortgage is successful, a key will be generated, which can be used in the instance to unlock a clearance prompt. Once the key is used, the mortgaged thing is permanently unavailable."
"My most cherished thing?" Xu RenDong raised the corners of his lips and the self-deprecating smile appeared on his face again, "My most cherished thing is gone. What can I replace it with?"
Mechanical voice: "The system judges that the player still has something that can be exchanged."
"Oh, really." Xu RenDong said lazily. "Then take whatever you want."
"Please confirm player if you choose to stay and challenge the final game?"
"En."
"The player is asked to specify their wishes."
"First, I want to resurrect Lian Qiao. Second…" Xu RenDong took a deep breath, "I want to have the ability to reverse time and space. I want to undo all the mistakes that have not happened yet."
"It is detected that there is a certain conflict between the player's wishes and the system. The actual effect of the player's wishes will be fine-tuned."
"Wait, what kind of fine-tuning? What kind of fine-tuning method?"
"The exchange was successful. The player has obtained: the ability to reset after death. The new instance will be unlocked soon. The player Lian Qiao is about to reset. Extracting the exchanged item: "all memories related to Lian Qiao". Due to the adjustment of the law of causality, "all memories related to Xu RenDong" is also extracted from the player Lian Qiao."
"Wha..."
Xu RenDong opened his eyes wide and suddenly covered his chest. A ray of light overflowed from between his fingers and then a brass key engraved with the word "Xu RenDong" rose from his chest and slowly floated into the air. Floating side by side with another key engraved with "Lian Qiao".
Xu RenDong cried bitterly: "Impossible! How could you take away the memories of both of us at the same time! In this case—I—we—"
The emotionless mechanical voice sounded again: "The exchange has been completed. This command is irreversible. Player Xu RenDong, please prepare to enter the next round of instances."
"Xu RenDong!" His voice was already hoarse and he desperately stretched out his hand towards the two keys, "You have to remember—you must remember! Lian Qiao is your most important person! You have to save him! You will experience countless tortures but this is not a punishment! It is a reward! When you reach the end you will understand that everything is worth it! Together with him-"
"With him—live on!"
…
The scene in front of him swayed like water again.
Numerous pictures flashed before his eyes. Countless emotions flooded into his mind all at once, like thousands of ghosts squeezing into his body at the same time, squeezing RenDong's soul to the point of being suffocated.
"RenDong? RenDong?!"
His arms were held tightly. The feeling of familiarity is like the bird you saw for the first time in this world when you first met.
"RenDong? What's wrong with you? Look at me, talk…"
…No, that wasn't a first encounter at all.
It was a long-lost reunion after all kinds of hardships.
Xu RenDong raised his eyes in a daze. His vision was blurry and his eyes were filled with tears. He could vaguely see the empty treasure chest that fell on the ground, as well as the familiar round bookshelf.
Lian Qiao was hugging him, wiping the tears on his face in a panic,and asked helplessly: "What's wrong with you, what's wrong with you? Don't scare me, RenDong…RenDong…" RenDong spoke with difficulty and his voice was hoarse, like whimpering in the wind and sand: "Lian… Qiao…"
"I'm here!" Lian Qiao grabbed his hand and put it on his heart. "I'm here, I'm right by your side!"
RenDong smiled slightly and tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes.
I remembered, finally remembered.
It turns out that we have known each other for so long. It turns out that we have been in love for so long.
Even if we lose all memories, we will still fall in love again.
Because our destinies are closely connected to each other like gears.
He smiled and held Lian Qiao's hand back.
"Let's go. Go home."
This time, we finally came here together.
The rest of our lives, we can finally walk it together.
***
The author has something to say: It's over, let's spread flowers~
Next, there will be additional extras dropped to make up for some small settings~ There may even be Shi JianChuan appearing in a scene.
Thank you all for your long-term companionship and take a bow.
PS: all the answers have been revealed. It is recommended to go back and watch it again, you can find a lot of hidden dangers, full of knives (laughs)
The new "You will be locked if you do this!" "Pre-acceptance for attention, the cover is super cute, you can see it by poking the column.