"Home."

I looked at the slightly rough palm in front of me, and my vision suddenly blurred.

It was only now that I realized the fragility of my strength, and the lingering loneliness that always accompanies me.

He's right, this shell is just a shackle, and what I need is companionship—a companion that is genuine, not easy to lose.

After a few moments, there were no words, but my trembling hand reached out to the man who had been waiting for a long time.

The long wind blew, and I touched the cold fingertips, and the intertwined lines of the palm.

His gaze never shifted half a minute during the whole process, and I was caught up in the dark green eyes, completely oblivious to his slow backward steps and the clearer and clearer surface of the lake.

Wow –

The pale waters of the lake rippled, invading the bones that floated on it, and countless mutilated limbs touched and rubbed against each other, as if the whole world resonated with the man's toes tapping into the lake.

Looking at the endless corpses, I inexplicably hesitated in my heart. It's not out of fear, it's just that I can't connect the man's utopia with the strange scene in front of me.

What exactly happened to the creatures who chose to join them?

"Come on."

The man bowed slightly as he stepped deeper, staring at me who was hesitating on the shore.

"Everyone is waiting for you."

As soon as the words fell, the lake behind him suddenly lost its original calm, and the thick white liquid outside seemed to suddenly squirm and rise like life, deformed and twisted like clay being played with wantonly in the hands of children, and finally formed several rough and crude humanoid statues, which together imitated the man's movements and raised his right arm towards me.

Half of their bodies sank into the viscous water, they moved forward like slugs, and a pair of vague depressions slowly appeared in the center of the head that was not yet fully formed, and they were straight towards the shore with a complicated complexion.

In an instant, my previous question was answered, maybe these things are the same people who once listened to the man who finally gave up everything, could this also be my fate?

Thinking about it, a chill spread from my stomach, and I staggered to my feet with the original fear and resistance of human beings to the unknown.

"I—I'm not ready—"

"Don't be afraid."

As if to catch the shiver coming from my torso, the man jerked my wrist so hard that it almost retracted, and then looked up at me with an extremely sick look. In addition to paranoia and oppression, there was also an imperceptible contempt in his fiery gaze, which felt like a legendary god overlooking the small and humble believers on the earth.

"You need us."

"No, no......"

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine, and I fell to the ground in a cold sweat with rapid breathing. But when my terrified gaze swept over the man's face, all I saw was a stiff smile that remained the same, and a small patch of upturned skin at the corner of his mouth near his cheekbones.

"Come on."

He whispered, tugging at my crumbling body with irresistible force,

"Here, all people are the same, equal, fraternal, tolerant ......"

The man shook his head and described the so-called paradise in his own characteristic voice, while all my attention was focused on the left side of his face, which took up most of the hollow - the burnt yellow skin was like the dried and crumpled paint of a fresco, crumbling and falling off at a rapid pace. Underneath that, however, I saw only darkness, as if the whole of his body was a lifelike skin.

“...... Without oppression, arguments, prejudices, accusations, you will understand everyone as you understand yourself, and they will ......"

Suddenly, I completely understood my situation, so I immediately stepped on the ground, lowered my center of gravity, and bent down to concentrate all my strength on my wrist, which was caught red.

"Let go of me!"

While roaring, I used my strength to suck back violently, but in the next second, except for the arm that was about to be pulled to the dislocation, Baihu was almost not far away.

Shocked, I turned my head to look at the man's half-vanished face, probably because of the gradually crushing shell, and his brainwashed words had now become indistinct notes, echoing across the lake just a stone's throw away.

"Damn! Let go! ”

I didn't have time to be stunned, so I hurriedly put away my mind, pinched my purple left wrist with my free right hand, stepped on the man's chest with one foot, and kicked on the raised rock on the shore, desperately leaning back.

Click-

I could feel my left hand softening as if it had lost its connection, followed by lightning-like pain crawling all over my body.

"Ahh Ahhh ”

Seeing that I was about to fall into the lake, and the humanoid slime was about to touch the arm on my face, I immediately didn't care about crying out for pain, and shook my upper body sharply from side to side as if crazy, and the tendons at the junction between my palm and forearm also let out a low and painful explosion in the almost crazy tearing.

However, the terrible thing is that no matter how hard I try, I still can't pull myself half a step away. The lake, the "man", always kept approaching at a slow and heavy speed, and my reason and courage were crushed into powder in this indescribable sense of oppression.

"Despair" has also become the deepest emotion imprinted in my mind at this moment, which is so familiar.

Ding——

Suddenly, just as my forefoot was about to touch the surface of the surging lake, a soul-striking sound swept through the distant indigo dome.

In a moment's time, the whole world before me was like silk hanging from an elevated shelf, curling and crumpling with the sound of the glamour.

The white lake, the man, and even my own captured arm were as still as mosquitoes encased in amber. Every skin, every piece of land, is wrapped in gently undulating ripples, with a little enchanting illusion in the mystery.

“...... Wake up......"

A vague voice came from overhead, but I didn't even have the strength to move my eyes, so I could only wait in a daze like an image frozen in film.

"Wake up......"

The voice grew clearer, but the scene in my eyes was more distorted like a rubbed newspaper.

"Come back, Luo!"

Finally, as the vortex of reality and illusion shattered completely, I took a long breath of cold, damp air and focused my shaky gaze on a haggard face above my head.

“...... Yao? I, where am I? ”

Half-propped on my torso, I got up from the ground in exhaustion, a slight screech still lingering in my ears.

"Luo! Finally, you're awake! ”

The girl's young face was covered with dust, but it was still difficult to hide the excitement and joy that spread beneath it, and between her right hand leaning against me, she was pinching a delicate lilac bell.

In a trance, I tightened the corners of my eyes and tried to make out the scenery around me, which was a myriad of holes like sponges, and long pale pillars the thickness of my arms were densely packed with everything as far as the eye could see.

Behind Yao and me, a large, irregularly shaped window suddenly appeared in the wood-like network, and beyond that, there was a green sky.

Suddenly, a chill crept up from the bottom of my spine all the way to my brain, and I suddenly remembered the destination of my journey not long ago, when Yao was still asleep, and before those strange images were released.

"Yao...... Tell me, what is this place. ”

The girl who had not yet recovered from her joy tilted her head to look at me, and as she spoke, my heart sank to the bottom,

"Its eyes."

With a little fishy sweet air intruding into my nostrils, the corners of my mouth twitched unnaturally, but I couldn't spit out half a word.

"Luo, now is not the time to think about this, you are still waiting for us, waiting for you! We're running out of time! And—"

She paused, stared at the bell lying in her palm in disbelief, and said tremblingly,

"-The way out of here is there!"

"What?!"

Hearing this, I immediately jumped up as if I was electrocuted, and faced Yao with a distorted and fanatical expression,

"How do you know?!"

"Uh......"

Standing in the eye sockets of the giant skeleton, Yao looked back in the direction of Baihu with some embarrassment, and replied hesitantly,

"That 'tree'...... You should know it, it seems to have used some method to make me see some ...... when you were unconscious Stuff. ”

After speaking, she lifted the bell and shook it in front of her, frowning and adding,

"This is also what your old friend gave me, it should have the effect of calming people's minds, in short, it is quite useful."

Suddenly, Yao rolled her eyes and stared at me directly, and her voice was a little more anxious.

"No, no, I'll explain it to you later! We don't have much time left! Get her out of control before she gets out of control! ”

Without waiting for me to reminisce about the large amount of information I had heard, Yao slipped the bell into the pocket of her trench coat, then grabbed my cuffs and dragged me forward.

I staggered to her rhythm and asked,

"And where is she now?"

"Right where you saw it before - the center of this skeleton's eyebrows."

"So we need to get out first, don't we?"

"That's right."

However, after a long silence, I still couldn't help but say,

"But what exactly do you see? How can you be so sure you can find a way out? I've seen what you call 'stuff' before, but those aren't about—"

But before I could finish speaking, Yao suddenly stood on tiptoe and gently covered my lips with her hand.

Although the doubts in my heart did not disappear, I still swallowed all the questions that were stuck in my throat because I felt the coolness coming from the contact between my skin and the pleading in the girl's eyes.

"Don't ask..... Follow me. ”

After seeing that I had calmed down, Yao stiffly withdrew her arm and walked towards a white pillar that crossed not far away, and after a moment of sluggishness, I coughed lightly twice and kept up with her pace.

After all, there are some things, maybe it's not too late to wait.

The structure inside the skeleton is like a labyrinth, with countless pale columns slanting through in all directions, like a bamboo chopstick that has been scattered on the table, and we are ants shuttling between the gaps in the chopsticks.

The scenery around him almost never changed, and during the half-hour climb, the only way to judge the direction was the skull's eyehole, which was getting closer and larger. Fortunately, due to the rather dense columns around us and the relatively stable environment, we did not encounter any substantial obstacles to our progress.

I cast my gaze to Yao a few meters above, this must have stopped for the fourth time, and although the whimpering wind around her never stopped, I could still catch her slight and rapid gasp.

"Rest, Yao."

Leaning against a wide column, I called out in a loud voice.

"No, no, no, there's no time to wait, you have to continue, keep going, keep ......"

The intermittent response came, and Yao's figure began to move again, but it seemed slower and more laborious, and to be honest, for a moment, I could almost imagine that she had not grasped it steadily, and she had fallen down.

As the uneasiness accumulated, I shouted with some anxiety,

"Then when you climb out, how to save her, do you have a number?"

As soon as the words fell, Yao suddenly froze in place, and then she turned her face and replied hesitantly,

"Hmm...... Yes, there should be a way. ”

I sighed, nervousness and worry swelling uncontrollably,

"yes, you don't know."

"Hmmm......"

Maybe it was to prevent this state of mind from infecting Yao, or maybe it was simply no other way, I tried to squeeze out a smile and said to the girl with a blue face,

"It's okay, let's go, with that guy's character, after seeing us, he will also think of the law and run out alive."

"Okay, okay......"

I don't know how much these words affected Yao, but at least her movements were a little less swaying than before, but how much courage would be left by then?

"Damn!"

I scolded, shook my head hard, and then used my hands and feet together to climb towards the edge of the hole in the skeleton's eyes.

Perhaps because of my boring thoughts and boring mechanical movements, the next part of the journey was much faster than before, and I felt that it had not even been ten minutes before I had stepped on the hard, smooth bone surface at the edge of the skull's eye socket.

The breeze came slowly, with a strong unfamiliar atmosphere, and the green embankment was faintly visible on the edge of the vast white lake. It was only then that I realized that the skeleton had been holding its head up, and that the thick branches had filled every part of its bones.

"There! There she is! ”

Suddenly, Yao exclaimed, and I turned my head to follow her gaze, and sure enough, I saw a figure floating in the center of the skeleton's forehead, which was like a plain, an emerald green crystal.

"......"

I muttered, unable to tell if it was a hallucination or not. But soon, with the air rushing through my trachea, I finally couldn't control my feet and stumbled over.

"Bah!"

The crystal reflects a hazy and magnificent brilliance, like a solidified dark green cloud. But she seems to be trapped in the gap of time, and thousands of green silks gently flow beside her curled up body, like a delicate and beautiful work of art.

"Why! Can you hear me? Musty! ”

Rushing to the crystal, I tore open my throat and shouted, but the sculptural girl in front of me did not react in the slightest, her skin was covered with an unhealthy pale, and her hair was a little more yellowish than the green of the young leaves.

Suddenly, I suddenly understood the reason for Yao's anxiety.

But even if we reach our destination, with such a weak force, what can we change? And how to save her in turn?

Thinking about it, I suddenly became anxious, grabbed my fist and threw it forward.

"Uh-"

Bang!

But at the moment when the heart of the fist came into contact with the crystal, my screams also resounded throughout the White Lake.

"Ahh!!!h

Half-kneeling on the skull's forehead, I shuddered all over, and beads of sweat the size of beans rained down all around.

"What happened? Just – your hands! ”

Just then, Yao rushed to the vicinity and stared in horror at my blackened and deformed palms that hung on my chest—in the skin that seemed to have been melted by the flames, Sensen's white bones were faintly visible.

"Damn—"

Gritting my teeth, I twisted my head towards the crystal, a few scorch marks and shriveled flesh still emitting a small amount of white smoke, but other than that, nothing was the same.

However, perhaps it was an illusion, or perhaps it was the refraction of light caused by the high temperature, and the tip of her eyebrows seemed to be slightly raised.

But at this moment, just this vague signal is enough.

"Hmph...... I know how you would be willing to be imprisoned in such a place. ”

Talking to myself, I used all my strength to slowly get up from the ground.

"Luo! What do you want?! ”

Yao's voice came from behind my ears, and without looking back, I could imagine what a wonderful expression on her face.

To be honest, I can understand her anxiety, anxiety, panic, and struggle along the way, because it is also the emotion that has appeared in my heart countless times, tormenting me, leading me, and using the hope called "survival" to drive me into every trap of death and despair, making me sacrifice the future of others just to wait for the next more profound pain.

Perhaps from the beginning, "escape" was the rope around my neck, slowly tightened, and gradually suffocated.

But this farce has come to an end, and I will carry the beauty of the struggle and complete the final performance before the curtain ends.

"!!"

Roar! I shook my bloodied right wrist and threw it against the hot, sticky surface of the crystal!

Hiss ——————

Suddenly, the fierce hiss of flesh pierced through the raging smoke! Dense blisters crawl all the way up to most of your arms!

A collapse from the inside out was born in the fragile tissues of the human body, and the huge neural network was flooded with the electrical signals sent by countless cells before death, and only the disgusting pain was left in my wrinkled and convulsed brain marrow.

It was not the sharpness of a blade, or the hardness of a blunt object, but an abomination, as if cursed by life itself, an abhorrent pain that crushed, shredded, grinded, and eroded your will—the moment your fingertips touched the surface of the crystal, it was my victory.

"Ahhh

I bit the tip of my tongue with all my might, the strong smell of blood bursting in my mouth, and with the last shred of my sense, I took a half-step forward, shoving the only skeleton palm in the crystal deeper into the crystal.

Half an inch, one inch, five inches, ten inches......

It didn't take long for my eyesight to lose its strength in the midst of massive labor pains, and in the vast world, I could only hear Yao's slight sobs and the noise of bones groping forward as they pierced through the flesh and blood.

But for some reason, my soul has never been so clear and relaxed as I experienced the pain in my body.

It was as if all those invisible sins had disappeared with the flesh in the crystal, and in my consciousness, there was only one belief left - to bring her out and live.

"Uhhh

The roar became hoarse, the movements became simple convulsions, and this one-way train also headed for the end, only one last bit of effort, the last bit of effort, the last bit of effort, before I closed my eyes and knelt on the ground, finally, finally, one last ......

Swish!

Almost the moment she touched her, her closed eyes suddenly opened! Then, as if she had just woken up from a nightmare, she turned her head in a flash of lightning and looked at me, smiling.

Although I couldn't imagine my embarrassed posture in her eyes at this time, and I couldn't imagine how distorted and terrifying my smile was at this time, it was certain that her face was mixed with sad joy, and it didn't look like she was pretending.

Then, in the glow of blue and white, she grabbed my hand.

"Yao! Pull! ”

Without further words, I felt a pair of petite and powerful arms climb up my waist, and with what little strength I had left, and the girl pulled almost roughly, and I began to move slowly towards the edge of the crystal.

In the process, her eyes never left me, and the complex gaze with tears was like a soldering iron deeply rooted in my memory, which can never be erased.

"Whew-"

As most of her body wore out, I finally couldn't help but fall to the ground, watching her climb away from the shackles of the crystal indecently like an old man basking in the sun on the side of the street in winter.

It's just that this picture of cultivating sentiment is much more expensive than imagined.

"Luo! Luo! ”

When my eyes were black and I was about to fall backwards completely, a familiar palm also supported my heavy head at the right time.

"Heh, hehe...... You're really, so ....... It's too capricious. ”

"Poof—"

Hearing my half-dead preaching, she actually laughed out loud in her tears. Suddenly, after seeing this genuine smile, I felt that the price of an arm was acceptable.

"Hey! You two stop flirting! Get out of the way! ”

Just when the atmosphere was brewing just right, a discordant cry rang out, looking for prestige, only to see Yao pinching the bell she got from the tree man, and eagerly facing the turquoise crystal that was half more than half of her.

Seeing the girl's confident appearance, I didn't have much to say, so we hurriedly hid not far away.

"Humph! If it's right......"

Muttering, Yao threw up her arm violently and threw the lilac bell in her hand hard!

The moment it came into contact with the crystal, the bell quickly shrunk and disintegrated into countless extremely fine powders, and at the same time, the inside of the crystal boiled like boiling water, with a few torrents of bruises, and the originally clean and immaculate crystals were dyed into a dirty and blurred color.

Whew—

Almost as soon as the mutation occurred, the skeleton's loud roar also exploded like thunder! Standing on its broad forehead, the three of us were almost shaken down!

"Damn! What's wrong with this TM?! ”

As soon as I stabilized my figure, I quickly turned my head to look at Yao, who was half-kneeling on the ground not far away, but she didn't seem surprised, and raised her hand and pointed to the cloudy crystal in front of her,

"Look! Outlet! The exit is here! ”

Following Yao's guidance, I and I invariably turned our eyes to look at the crystal, which was very different in color and shape from Fang Cai—at the place where the bell was put in before, a piece of crystal was strangely sunk inside, as if a skilled sculptor had hollowed out most of the crystal, and then carved a ...... inside it with skillful Door.

Suddenly, the three of us looked at each other, and all thoughts and emotions in our brains went blank.

After a few seconds, it wasn't just who started first, let out a few muffled and suppressed laughs, and then this kind of morbid ecstasy swept through everyone present, like a contagious epidemic, as if we had never laughed before, and we didn't even care about the pain of the scar, and the dementia seemed to roll together.

"Hahahaha!!! Finally, finally!! ”

Wiping my tears with my only hand, I sat on my knees, observingly observing every detail and ornament on the door, as if admiring a woman with a slender body.

Unfortunately, before I could calm down, a curse-mixed howl finally erupted from the skeleton! The trunks of the trees that wrapped around it were shattered!

"Traitor!! It's all traitors!! Usurping the provisions of the forest, stealing the peace that belongs to us!! You guys!!! They all have to die!!!!! ”

Suddenly! The skeleton seemed to lose control, and its entire face began to tilt slowly downward as the vine branches crackled under the weight! For a while, the dust, gravel, and dead branches all fell like dumplings towards the white lake a hundred feet away!

"Yao, Yao! Come on! ”

After that, I only felt a majestic force under the bend of my arm, enveloping me, and rushing towards the closed door!

At this last moment, we could not have hesitated at all, and in a breath, we reached the edge of the crystal.

Yao was the first to hold the handle, and with the crisp click of the door lock, a beam of holy white light overflowed from behind the crack in the door, shining on the whole world like a rising sun hanging high in the sky.

Covered by a brilliant glow, I vaguely saw Yao turn her head briefly, and then stepped into the pure white without hesitation.

I could feel my heart beating desperately, it was a longing for life, a purest pursuit, and after tasting the bruises all over my body, the hard-won hope seemed even more illusory.

"See, it's our turn......"

Smashing my mouth, I took a step forward and pulled down the girl standing behind me.

But this time, she didn't follow.

"Huh? What's wrong? ”

I looked back in horror, and a strong unease overwhelmed everything I could see.

Yet she smiled, with an expression of indescribable relief.

"Luo, I can't go."

"Why?! Why??! ”

I twisted around like crazy, and only the knuckle of my right arm was clicking.

"Because of Jue, he promised to come to me, and this is a promise between us."

The name wrapped around my lungs like red-hot wire, and every breath was burning with pain.

"But that's just, it's just a lie! And even with his character, he would never have come! Musty! No way! You can't do this! For me! For your own sake! You've got to come with me today! Do you hear me?! 瑗!! ”

In the face of my hysteria, the girl just smiled and listened quietly to my shouts turning into screams, and screams turning into wailing, until she could no longer distinguish each byte, and became an obsession to tell with her voice.

With her back to the light, she suddenly approached, her thin lips pressed lightly to my forehead, and whispered in an extremely subtle voice,

"Luo, we'll definitely meet again."

Then, a tremendous force came from my chest, and with a push from her, I fell into the abyss called "loss".

...... Number of runs: 1

...... Running Replica: Lonely Village 9580

...... Operational deviation: 56%

...... Runtime Framework: Complete

...... Procedure A: Exception

...... Procedure B: Normal

...... Procedure C: Normal

...... Master: Exceptional

...... Data is uploaded to the cloud

...... The backup is complete

...... Reset all exceptions

...... The reset is complete

It's a familiar character again, and it's a monotonous and emotionless voice, and in the confusion, I am tired and tired, and I only hear a few words that are intermittent,

“...... Task failed...... Unlock the World Line 'Natural Disorder' ......"

And then, the powerlessness that goes deep into the soul, and the next bunch of instructions of unknown meaning,

...... Number of runs: 2

...... Substitution copy: Kasbah 8574

...... Launch all programs

...... Open all audience channels

.

.

.

.

.

.

...... Wake up the master

"Drink—"

How cold is the sad air.