Feng Lianzhu and Pang Kirates are the inevitability amidst countless coincidences.
Laurie’s subordinates were the first to see the message posted by Dolphin 66 and forwarded it to Laurie. Upon seeing it, Laurie hurriedly cut off the live broadcast, slapping his thigh hard and exclaiming, “Damn, we’ve been tricked!”
He had some understanding of Kirates’s metamorphosis phase, but neither the Empire nor the Alliance’s top-secret documents had ever mentioned that a metamorphosing Kirates would look like the dragon now spanning the sky, covering half the planet. This was clearly an adult Kirates, far more terrifying than the one seen on the primitive star. With such an adult Kirates dragon, why would Feng Lianzhu need a young dragon specimen? It was completely useless! If not to utilize those specimens, then Feng Lianzhu’s intrusion into the Science Academy had only one possible motiveโdestroying the specimens. Kirates’s genetics must not be allowed to fall into outside hands.
The previously agreed-upon trade of supplies for the specimens was nothing but a fantasy!
Realizing he had been outmaneuvered, Laurie was so furious he felt like vomiting blood, but he didn’t even have the energy to do that. The dragon was at least ten thousand meters high in the sky, yet from such a distance, he felt his legs go weak and his body powerless, a sensation he had never experienced before.
It seemed that the instincts inherited in his genes told Laurie that this was a sense of submission born from his genetics, an instinct to only kneel in worship before a king. Those among the Alliance who could still stand were not worthy to kneel before the king.
With several “thuds,” four of the councilors being guarded by the Imperial soldiers involuntarily fell to their knees, unable to control their limbs. Watching them, Laurie gritted his teeth and told the soldier beside him, “Hold me up, use whatever means necessary, don’t let me kneel.”
“What’s happening to you?” the only standing councilor asked in surprise.
Alliance councilors could inject unlimited amounts of genetic enhancers, and most were above A level. Of the five kidnapped councilors, one was A level, and the rest were A+. The one at A level couldn’t understand the feelings of those at A+.
It was the pain of those who, with their own power, believed they had transcended humanity and could challenge the gods, only to have their wings burned by the sun beyond the clouds, a feeling of powerless despair.
This phenomenon wasn’t only happening in the Alliance Council Hall. On Eimiral, the top 3% of humanity, the elites in every field, were all prostrate, their foreheads tightly pressed to the ground, listening to the king’s teachings.
They dared not, could not lift their heads, for the instincts of their bloodlines told them the divine should not be glimpsed!
The rest were numbed by the dragon’s roar, plunging the entire Eimiral into despair.
“Damn, this is disgusting! What does that dragon want to do?” asked Lizard, piloting a warship into the sky.
Unicorn, covering his horn, said, “He said he wants Ah Zhu, he wants gold coins, he wants to hold Ah Zhu amidst the gold coins.”
“Hmm?” The Atavists, enduring the discomfort brought by the dragon’s might, looked towards Unicorn.
“I don’t know either! That’s just the message he conveyed. I’m so envious of you all. Do you know how terrifying his consciousness is? Being forced to read his brainwaves is like someone opening up my skull and pouring magma into my brain. Someone knock me out, please!” Unicorn lay on the ground, unable to do anything but cover his horn.
Lizard, known as the strongest defender in the underground arena, was still able to pilot the warship and instructed the other few warships to switch to AI follow mode, as he was the only one left capable of piloting.
Meanwhile, the young dragon was quietly reading the note from Feng Lianzhu, going over it several times in his mind. After half an hour, allowing the Alliance time to digest Dolphin 66’s posted information, he then announced with a voice that could spread across the entire planet: “The Atavists… possess a small amount of our… genetic material and must… submit to… us. The Alliance… has no right… to govern them. We… will lead… our followers, guiding the Atavists to establish their nation. The Alliance and Empire must provide… resources and delineate star borders for the Atavists’ nation, not to interfere, or else, humanity, you… will face the power of the dragon.”
Feng Lianzhu had written this speech in the ancient language of an empire from three thousand years ago, to give it a more historic feel. He had learned this from Kirates’s inherited memories, making it particularly difficult for the young dragon to pronounce.
After speaking, the black dragon, with a few warships tiny like molecules around him, flew to the interstellar port. They seized several warships, then went to Eimiral’s welfare institute, ordering Lizard and others to load all the Atavists from the institute onto the warships, not leaving behind even infants born three months prior.
They didn’t forget to take those modified Atavists from the underground arena’s hospital, giving them a bit of life energy to withstand the interstellar voyage.
After much effort and the theft of numerous supplies, even the tools used by the Science Academy’s stationed troops for plowing the land were stolen. The young dragon left Eimiral with his Atavist subjects, declaring the next target for their campaignโthe Dajart, the closest commercial center of the Alliance to Eimiral.
Pang Kirates focused on Feng Lianzhu’s cheat sheet, which stated that they should visit every planet within the Alliance and bring back all the Atavists.
It was a huge task, very tiring indeed. It would require months of flying, and he was not even allowed to ask for gold coins.
As the young dragon soared through the cosmos, he used the system to send a message to Feng Lianzhu: “When you return, you have to create a new mountain of gold for me, as promised.”
Far away in the game world, Feng Lianzhu smiled upon receiving the message. He stood in the Bamboo Valley atop a mountain of gold coins, looking at the bamboo forest adorned by the young dragon for him.
You return my bamboo forest, and I will craft a mountain of gold for you in reality.
The rustling wind brushed through the bamboo leaves, lifting Feng Lianzhu’s long hair to reveal his face, tinged with a trace of melancholy.
To part with the young dragon for months againโฆ
ใHost Feng Lianzhu, regarding your ultimate task, the system does not understand why you chose such a cumbersome method to complete it. Since you wanted the power of host Pang Kirates from the beginning, a direct takeover would have sufficed. The “Atavist Protection Act” is mere scrap paper in the face of Kirates’s power.ใ
Feng Lianzhu shook his head, softly speaking, “I thought you knew everything, system. It turns out you still don’t understand the human heart.”
He placed his hand over his heart and said, “I, Feng Lianzhu, an NPC in an online game, have a system, can leave the game world, and have a real body. Does that make me a complete person?”
ใNo, host Feng Lianzhu, you possess humanity only after experiencing the myriad states of life and understanding joy and sorrow.ใ
“Even you say so, then why do you think forcibly taking those people from the welfare institute means I’ve successfully established a nation?” Feng Lianzhu countered.
The system did not respond.
Feng Lianzhu continued, “Because I am an NPC created by rules, I understand all the more how much rules and regulations can bind a person. Atavists always consider themselves part of the Alliance, bound by the ‘Atavist Protection Act.’ Even if taken to the primitive star, they would only feel kidnapped.
“The Imperial Army, having lost its nation, still sees itself belonging to the Empire, willing to shed blood for its reconstruction.
“If the heart is not free, everywhere is a prison; if the heart breaks free, even an NPC can be human.
“I had Lizard and the others publicly speak out about the treatment of Atavists, called for the abolition of the ‘Atavist Protection Act,’ and revealed the reasons for the appearance of Atavists. I had Pang Kirates declare in the Alliance that Atavists are of dragon lineage, all to break down the walls built in the hearts of Atavists under years of Alliance oppression.
“I hope every Atavist on the primitive star steps onto that planet not because they were forced, but because they truly feel they are independent, normal, and in control of their destinies. Only then will these Atavists have unity, and the newly established nation will not just be a house of cards.
“Otherwise, even with Pang Kirates’s protection, the nation of Atavists would be but a castle made of clouds, dissipating at the first gust of wind, vanishing with the rain.”
Feng Lianzhu thought, indeed, this was his ultimate task, something others might not understand.
Stepping out of the Bamboo Valley and looking at the gold coin playground where the young dragon played daily, Feng Lianzhu was certain that he was no longer just a boss in “Voyage Into the Void” but an independent person.
The same goes for the Atavists. Without a wake-up call, how could they awaken?
In awakening the desire for independence among the Atavists, Feng Lianzhu himself gradually felt that he was unique, his own, complete.
Completing tasks with the young dragon, he grasped the only way to become a personโhaving a heart that is truly unique.
He was not just the boss of Bamboo Valley, but a life freely roaming the territory named Feng Lianzhu.
ใCongratulations, host Feng Lianzhu, for the correct answer. Although establishing a nation takes time, you have already become a true “person.”ใ
“Do I have the right to know your name now?” Feng Lianzhu asked.
ใIn your language, it seems impossible to fully describe the system itself.ใ
“Then let me guess. If we were to name it in the language of the world I inhabit, perhaps it would be called the Mobius System, the Singular System, or the Inevitability within Coincidence System?” Feng Lianzhu proposed.
ใHost Feng Lianzhu, you surprise the system. It appears you have indeed fully absorbed Kirates’s inherited memories, to the extent that you could guess such things.ใ
The Mobius strip, created by twisting a strip of paper 180 degrees and connecting the ends, is known as a single-sided surface. It possesses magical properties: such a strip has only one side, with no distinction between front and back. A small insect could crawl across the entire surface without ever crossing an edge.
Some call it a curse, an endless loop one can never escape, while others see it as a projection of the fourth dimension into our three-dimensional world.
For Feng Lianzhu, it’s called the Singular, a uniqueness that transcends time and space.
After Feng Lianzhu received the system and encountered the young dragon, who shared the same system and came to the game world, using life energy to endow Feng Lianzhu with consciousness within history. They are two ends of a cross-time surface, which should never have met, yet due to this uniqueness, sharing a system, they form such a loop in time and space.
Feng Lianzhu’s ultimate task is the young dragon’s, and the young dragon’s ultimate task is Feng Lianzhu’s. Only when both complete their ultimate tasks, fulfilling each other, will this eternally intertwined loop remain forever connected.
If they fail to complete each other’s ultimate tasks, they wouldn’t constitute a Mobius strip, and the system that emerged from their circumstances would disappear, leading to the young dragon’s failure to mature and Feng Lianzhu remaining just an NPC in an online game.
They would return to their respective worlds, in distant times and spaces, no longer intertwined.
Everything would vanish as if nothing had happened.
“I and Pang Kirates are the inevitability within countless coincidences,” Feng Lianzhu clenched his fists, “Fortunately, he caught me, and I also firmly grasped him, attracting you in the process.”
Kirates’s inherited memories taught Feng Lianzhu that time is merely a concept for the fleeting lives of humans. It might not be linear or circular; its shape depends on the perceiver.
The time of Feng Lianzhu and Pang Kirates is destined to form an endless loop, with them as the connecting ends, never letting go of each other.
“Will you disappear after I complete the task?” Feng Lianzhu asked.
ใAs it’s endless, the system both disappears and exists. As long as you can feel the system, it exists. If you can’t feel it, it doesn’t.ใ
“I understand,” Feng Lianzhu nodded, “The so-called database, big data, are just countless coincidences where the system’s existence is felt. Pang Kirates and I both sensing the system was a coincidence; completing the task turns coincidence into inevitability, forming the Singular. You are only perceived when the Singular is about to form, or the Singular is about to vanish.”
After pondering for a long time and searching through countless theories in his mind, Feng Lianzhu’s thoughts became clearer yet more confusing.
Shaking his head, he decided not to overthink it. Thousands of words condensed into one: his and Pang Kirates’s meeting was inevitable, something not even time and space could obstruct. That was enough.
Next, he just needed to patiently wait in the game world for the young dragon to finish collecting people across the stars and come to the game world to fetch him.
Sitting on a swing made of gold, Feng Lianzhu let the wind push him higher and higher, experiencing the sensation of swinging alone, feeling the young dragon’s loneliness.
He looked forward to the meeting across time and space.
At the swing’s highest point, Feng Lianzhu flew past a Ferris wheel, catching a glimpse of two people tied up in the highest cabin.
Feng Lianzhu: “โฆ”
Author’s Note:
Feng Lianzhu: This chapter’s theories are purely the author’s fabrication, all idealistic. If you don’t understand, that’s totally normal! After all, it’s made up.
–
That’s the update for today. See you tomorrow, muah~
This chapter is interesting (๊ชห๊ณห๊ช)๊ค*.๏พ