The instant the thread prophesying destiny lit up—
Zhi Ze’s pupils dilated slightly. An exceptionally warm and peaceful scene flashed through his mind—
In the soft golden sunset, a hooded young man turned into a flower shop by the street and bought a bouquet of sunflowers.
It vanished in a flash.
While escaping, Zhi Ze looked back at that Yuan Guang leader.
Like an illusion, he seemed to see a trace of relief and approval in those eyes.
…
Shi Deng sat on the edge of a tall rooftop.
Xiao Deng rarely praised him. “Your acting really isn’t bad.”
Shi Deng wanted to say that in the future, to survive in Yuan Guang, Xiao Deng’s acting would certainly be just as good. But thinking about it, this was truly a vicious curse on himself, so he chose to shut his mouth.
Uncle Fu: “Leader, shall we return?”
Shi Deng: “Wait a bit longer.”
He watched Yuan Ting and the other two who’d just escaped from his grasp, now dragging their half-dead bodies to save people and drive away exotic beasts. He said, “I don’t have that kind of energy anymore.”
“If this fails, don’t reset again. There will be a price.” Shi-ge said.
Shi Deng turned his head, asking curiously, “Shi-ge, what’s the future you’re in like? Actually, I don’t just want to save those three. The only Yuan Marrow that suppresses contamination will disappear from the world. The black fog runs rampant. Just thinking about it…”
How dark that must be.
Shi Deng: “Actually, I can guess a little. Shi-ge hasn’t done anything to substantially stop me. Is it because the future isn’t good?”
“If I change the future, Shi-ge, will you still exist?”
He extended two fingers, pinching the corner of Shi-ge’s clothing, tugging up and down, blinking. “Shi-ge~”
Shi-ge sighed helplessly. “Don’t ask.”
He ruffled Shi Deng’s hair, leaned down to pick up Xiao Deng. “Let’s go.”
Xiao Deng lay on Shi-ge’s shoulder, curling into a small ball somewhat shyly, extending his hand toward Shi Deng. “Let’s go.”
Shi Deng fell silent for a while, then turned to complain. “Uncle Xiao Fu, they’re bullying me, isolating me, excluding me, and ignoring me.”
Uncle Fu shook his head with a smile, extending his young, slender hand.
“Leader, time to go home for dinner.”
Shi Deng took his hand and jumped down.
“Also, I’ve recently been learning to make clothes and embroider. My String Manipulation ability is quite useful for this.”
The youth made an acknowledging sound. “Then Uncle Xiao Fu, can you weave straw hats?”
Uncle Fu asked curiously, “I can learn. Why does the leader think of this?”
“Because before, I went with Yuan Ting and the other two to visit a sunflower field, right behind the Tiangu training base. The old man there wore a straw hat.”
Uncle Fu: “Mm… I’ll try…”
They walked away together.
***
Shi Deng gradually began to wake, struggling to emerge from the illusion.
Outside on the wasteland, the rain grew heavier. His hair had completely turned gray-white. Xiao Deng anxiously meowed by his feet.
Meanwhile, the black fog between the three-tailed fox’s brows seemed to have faded considerably from energy consumption.
Because it needed to focus entirely on dealing with Shi Deng, the three people it had originally circled with its tails were long ago tossed not far away. All were unconscious but showing faint signs of waking.
Shi Deng’s lashes trembled. Finally, he was still swept up by the illusion.
***
It was the final battle after the second reset.
The Yuan Marrow rushed out from the place Tiangu guarded, rising into the sky, its energy gradually dimming.
As it dimmed, the entire Northern Yu Region began experiencing slight tremors. Countless living beings grew fearful.
The Yuan Marrow carried supremely pure energy, suppressing the contamination qi in this region. Now that the Yuan Marrow was about to disappear, the contamination could no longer be suppressed and began rising from the ground.
Countless exotic beasts, stimulated, shrieked madly, their strength surging as they crazily attacked crowds.
Tiangu and free ability users suffered heavy casualties and began desperately resisting.
The black fog within Shi Deng’s body, as the contamination’s main body, had completely gone mad.
Shi Deng showed no reaction. He was waiting.
He was waiting for the final three seconds. In those three seconds, the Yuan Marrow’s power would surge dramatically. As long as he seized the opportunity and drew the Yuan Marrow into his body, he’d have sufficient confidence to suppress the black fog nearly to zero.
The instant Shi Deng seized the chance and rushed toward the sky—
Many people noticed him.
He hadn’t left a good impression among the ability user community. Someone immediately said, “Shi Deng wants to destroy the Yuan Marrow!!”
“Stop him!!”
Shi Deng couldn’t hear. His eyes held only that mass of Yuan Marrow emitting soft white light in the sky.
The instant his hand grasped it—
The Yuan Marrow entered his body. The black fog inside him shrieked miserably, continuously escaping from him, making Shi Deng look like an utterly wicked demon already contaminated.
But Shi Deng’s smile hadn’t yet risen when icy cold mixed with searing pain came from his chest and abdomen.
A long blade crackling with black lightning pierced through his abdomen. From the ground, a long, sharp vine burst forth, dancing wildly upward. After piercing through his right chest, it froze.
The youth was pinned in midair.
Shi Deng froze, looking up to see Yuan Ting’s much more mature face. That face held nothing but coldness and disgust. “The Yuan Marrow suppresses contamination. No matter what, you shouldn’t have touched it.”
Wind swept past his ears. A strand of hair by the youth’s ear quietly turned white.
Shi Deng lowered his head. Below, numerous ability users had stopped, looking up at him pierced through the chest by vines, pinned in midair.
On those people’s faces—resentment, fear, panic, indifference, revulsion, aversion…
His eyes turned. He saw the ability light in Zhi Ze’s hand supporting the vine that injured him. Behind him, Cen Le was giving Zhi Ze domain augmentation for his ability.
“The Yuan Marrow’s light went out!”
“It’s him! It’s Shi Deng!”
“He’s behind this! Kill him! Kill him!”
“…”
Everywhere his gaze reached, everyone was filled with righteous indignation.
The youth withdrew his gaze, his hands slowly dropping. He looked at the black fog continuously overflowing from his body. Indeed, the way he looked now, he was a villain. Though this time, he really hadn’t done few bad things.
Shi Deng laughed briefly.
He said, “This is also quite good.”
Unfortunately, change came in an instant. The black fog that had dispersed began absorbing its counterparts from the ground, rapidly growing stronger. With lightning speed, it contaminated all the ability users present.
The part of the black fog core locked in his body shrieked, “Shi Deng—! You can’t kill me!”
In revenge, the black fog outside immediately killed Yuan Ting, Cen Le, and Zhi Ze right before Shi Deng’s eyes.
That vine vanished in the blink of an eye. The youth fell.
He gritted his teeth, extending a finger. “Time reversal!”
…
Nothing happened.
He fell heavily to the ground, staring at the three corpses, speechless for a long while.
“There’s no such thing as time reversal… it’s all just your fantasy,” the black fog murmured in his ear.
Shi Deng: “It’s not like that.”
He seemed to vaguely remember he would reverse time again, bringing the black fog into the second reset.
The youth looked at his hands in confusion… but why, this time, nothing happened.
“I succeeded the first time.”
Black fog: “Did you succeed? Look, what is this?”
The scene before him twisted again.
Still corpses everywhere. Yuan Ting, Zhi Ze, and Sister Le were still dead, lying before him, just dying differently than moments ago.
This was…
Before he reversed time, the three’s first deaths.
The black fog said, “They died long ago the first time. You just didn’t believe it. Resets, time reversal—they’re all just dreams. Things you fabricated yourself. All fake.”
“…”
Shi Deng remained silent for a long time. His eyes gradually cleared. He said calmly, “You’re lying to me.”
The youth slowly stood up, surveying his surroundings.
This illusion was constructed incredibly realistically.
The first reset’s ending had indeed left him mentally and spiritually devastated. Even though he knew Yuan Ting, Sister Le, and Zhi Ze treating him that way was his own doing.
But when he saw clearly the disgust on those three faces directed at him, he still couldn’t control overthinking.
The black fog had seized on this vulnerability in his heart. First, it made him relive the despair of being despised by everyone with no way out. Then it manipulated the illusion again, constructing the scene of Yuan Ting and the others’ first deaths.
It intended to make him believe he hadn’t reversed time, breaking down his psychological defenses.
The black fog still tirelessy repeated its previous rhetoric.
Shi Deng: “You forgot one very important point. I didn’t fall to the ground at that time.”
The black fog froze.
When the vine disappeared and he fell from midair, he’d initiated time reversal while still in the air. But time reversal needed a few seconds to activate.
In those few seconds, everyone’s time stopped—including the black fog—except for him, Shi-ge, and Xiao Deng.
So the black fog didn’t know.
When he fell from midair, Shi-ge caught him.
He didn’t hurt from the fall.
***
The black fog vanished. The illusion dispersed.
The three-tailed fox instantly collapsed on the ground, lifeless. Its body gradually began seeping blood onto the ground, diluted by the rain.
The wasteland fell silent except for the pattering rain.
Shi Deng endured this rain, soaked through. His lashes trembled lightly as he opened his eyes. Xiao Deng’s urgent calls came to his ears.
Not far away, Yuan Ting and the other two also slowly climbed up, dizzy and surveying their surroundings.
Yuan Ting clearly still remembered what happened before he passed out. Just after waking, he shouted frantically, “Where’s Shi Deng? Where’s Shi Deng?!”
Suddenly, his gaze froze. He saw that figure silent in the rain curtain—a youth with gray-white hair, not a trace of living human aura about him, as if already dead.
Yuan Ting’s face turned white. He tried to stand but fell clumsily to the ground. They’d already fought a battle with the three-tailed fox earlier and exhausted their abilities.
“That’s Shi Deng?!” Zhi Ze coughed dully. “How could he be here? His hair…”
Cen Le: “Go over first!”
Tiny red bloodshot lines climbed into Yuan Ting’s eyes as he looked at the three-tailed fox collapsed on the ground and Shi Deng whose hair had suddenly turned white.
“…Shi Deng saved us. Hurry… I saw it with my own eyes. For us, he walked into that black, disgusting thing’s trap…”
Cen Le: “What?”
Yuan Ting gritted his teeth. “Let’s save him first. I’ll explain later.”
Every reset, it was Shi Deng who walked toward them.
This time, the three of them supported each other and walked toward Shi Deng.
But the youth with gray-white long hair stepped back half a pace. His fingertips trembled. His pupils uncontrollably dilated slightly. Immense fear surfaced in the depths of his deep blue eyes. His breathing also became rapid.
He lowered his head, hurriedly rummaging through his small pouch for the medicine bottle. After finding it, he tried to unscrew it. But his constantly trembling hands couldn’t grasp a single pill.
Hastily pouring them into his palm without looking at how many, he swallowed them with rainwater directly into his mouth. Suddenly choking, he coughed violently. His foot hit a rock, and he fell directly to the ground. The medicine bottle dropped beside his hand.
The youth heard Yuan Ting and the other two calling his name, getting closer and closer. Finding nowhere to hide, he hurriedly curled himself into a ball, closed his eyes, and firmly covered his ears.
Don’t look, don’t look…
Those people are real, not replaced by monsters. He’s just sick…
He took medicine. He’ll get better soon.
But a voice clamored in his heart: They’ve been replaced by monsters. They’re wearing your companions’ skins, saying things your companions would say, but they’re fake.
As long as you kill them! As long as you kill them, your friends will come back.
The cat’s meows by the youth’s feet grew increasingly urgent.
Shi Deng endured the enormous unease and violent impulse in his heart, saying in a low voice, “Don’t come closer…”
The medicine took effect. His consciousness gradually began falling into darkness.
The hands covering his ears slowly loosened.
“Shi Deng!”
The second before he collapsed to the ground, Yuan Ting suddenly lunged over and cushioned his back.
The youth’s face was deathly pale. Even unconscious, he frowned.
Cen Le didn’t find any external injuries on Shi Deng, but the pills scattered on the ground were too strange.
She picked up the medicine bottle and looked at it. On the inside of the cap lying to the side, a line was carved. Cen Le carefully discerned it. It read:
Capgras Delusion Syndrome.
Private specialized ability medicine. One pill daily.
“Capgras Delusion Syndrome…”
Zhi Ze’s pupils contracted.
He knew it.
Patients believe their relatives, friends, lovers, or everything around them has been replaced by monsters. Usually accompanied by immense insecurity and aggression.
The unconscious youth was clearly extremely uncomfortable. He bit his teeth, blood seeping from the corners of his mouth. Not knowing what he dreamed of, faint sobs came from his throat.
Xiao Deng lay at the youth’s neck. Mist filled the cat’s eyes. It extended its paw to wipe the blood from Shi Deng’s mouth.
“There’s more writing here!”
On one side of the medicine bottle was another line reading: If the bottle owner has an episode and no one nearby can treat them, please call the guardian’s phone number…
Zhi Ze hoisted Shi Deng onto his back, walking while saying:
“Whose phone still works?!”
“First ask what to do. I just saw him swallow who knows how many pills in one go.”
“Mine, mine.” Yuan Ting pulled out his phone from his pocket, wrapped in a plastic bag. The screen was cracked but still usable.
He dialed that number. It was answered almost instantly. A low, indifferent voice came through. “Hello.”
Yuan Ting nearly burst into tears. He was truly afraid something would happen to Shi Deng. While wiping his nose, he said, “Are you Shi Deng’s guardian? He had an episode. We’re all on the wasteland. Fox, wuu wuu, blood, black fog… He took medicine, many pills, passed out…”
Incoherent.
The next second.
An extremely long streak of blood-red flashed across the gloomy sky and vanished.
A tall figure landed before them. Shi-ge hung up the phone, his gaze immediately falling on the youth on Zhi Ze’s back.
Then he glanced at the bedraggled three.
“I’m his guardian.” Shi-ge pulled back his hood, revealing an extraordinarily convincing face.
He extended his hand. “Give him to me.”
Author’s Note:
Shi-ge (shaking the drowned cat in his hand): Just looked away for a moment.
*
Capgras Delusion Syndrome explanation is summarized from Baidu.
***
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1