He was not sad.

 

Sometimes, communication between certain people does not require words. When Mirror Xing Ye, Xing Ye, and “Xing Shuo” saw the system’s task prompt, they had already understood everything.

At that time, Mirror Xing Ye still mistakenly believed himself to be the real Xing Ye. But when he saw that the system-issued task was “kill the other Xing Ye to leave the final stage,” suspicion arose in his heart.

“Leaving” the final stage does not mean clearing it. “Leaving” had three meanings: first, after winning, one left the final stage and entered a door on the second floor—an apparent victory that was in fact a failure; second, after winning, one returned to the real world; third, after winning, one left the final stage but was unable to enter the true real world.

Mirror Xing Ye did not trust the system, but he could not understand what the system was trying to do. Was it simply making him duel with Xing Ye B? It did not seem to be that simple.

Just as Mirror Xing Ye was puzzled, “Xing Shuo” spread his phone open, allowing Mirror Xing Ye to see his task: “Kill the outsider Xing Ye, and the world can become a real world.”

Taken literally, it seemed to say that Mirror Xing Ye was the outsider in this copied world. Yet what was strange was that it did not use highly specific wording such as “kill the Xing Ye with items,” or “the frail Xing Ye,” or “the Xing Ye with fewer points.” Instead, it used the vague term “outsider.”

It was precisely this vague wording that caused a question to arise in the hearts of Mirror Xing Ye, Xing Ye, and “Xing Shuo” alike—who, exactly, was the outsider?

When such a question arose, Mirror Xing Ye could no longer believe that he himself was the real Xing Ye. And at the same time, Xing Ye’s true self, who had believed himself to be the copy, also began to doubt—if a copy’s memories could be fabricated at will, and if Xing Ye’s true self had also suffered memory loss in past worlds, then whose memories were actually real?

Mirror Xing Ye and Xing Ye’s true self looked at each other. In the instant their eyes met, they had already made a decision: no matter which one was real, neither of them could die; they absolutely could not comply with the system’s will.

But the system’s intention to force them into a duel had already been made blatantly obvious. Without staging a performance, it seemed impossible to draw out the hidden malice lurking behind it.

The experience in the Casino World made the two of them clearly understand that the system could be deceived. Previously, when Xing Ye had used passengers to gamble on the sidelines, the system had failed to notice. There could be two reasons for this: first, the world was real, and the passengers were not under the system’s control, so the system had no authority to inspect matters involving passengers; second, the reason lay in the system’s black-and-white duality. What players usually encountered was the black, malicious side—the malicious system constantly lured players into making mistakes, exploiting the weaknesses of human nature to harm others. The white side rarely appeared, but once it did, it would grant players large amounts of points and assistance.

Since the system itself was contradictory, was it possible that the white and black aspects of the system were originally two opposing rules—black luring them into duels, while white restrained the power of black and forced it to obey the rules of the world?

Xing Ye still remembered that when he completed the campus world’s side quest to lay Lin Jingxue to rest, the system had once said: “Besides powerful items and the ability to explore the truth, sometimes gaining strength also requires a trace of tenderness. The player has done very well.”

That was the first time Xing Ye had felt goodwill from the system. Before that, goodwill had always been hidden beneath malice, difficult for players to perceive.

Since goodwill could be buried by malice, then by the same logic, goodwill could also suppress malice. As long as they operated properly, they might not be detected by the system.

In a very short moment, the three of them exchanged an enormous amount of information. Thus, following “Xing Shuo,” Xing Ye B—namely Xing Ye’s true self—also placed his phone on the table. What he displayed was not the task interface, but the ability interface: all of his points, abilities, QR codes, and achievement titles were shown to Mirror Xing Ye.

After seeing the abilities of Xing Ye’s true self, Mirror Xing Ye also spread open his phone, displaying his own abilities as well as Lu Mingze’s abilities.

After the three of them had seen each other’s abilities, they had already decided how to perform this act.

At first, both Mirror Xing Ye and Xing Ye’s true self were somewhat worried—worried that the other would not be able to guess the plan through eye contact alone. But the few exchanges in the courtyard put them at ease. Their moves and combat thinking were exactly the same: what I think is exactly what he thinks. Failure was impossible; misunderstanding was impossible.

After confirming this, Mirror Xing Ye decisively ran toward the house, while Xing Ye’s true self went to rescue “Xing Shuo,” who was pretending to be confused by “ghost hits a wall”.

At that time, Xing Ye’s true self said something heartfelt to his so-cooperative “younger brother,” because at that moment he knew that he himself might still be real, but “Xing Shuo” was certainly fake. After the battle ended, “Xing Shuo” would disappear.

And it was precisely at that moment that Xing Ye finally understood his younger brother’s true feelings.

The true brother and fake brother entered the house, and a meticulously prepared performance officially began.

Mirror Xing Ye pretended to lie in wait in the changing room using “Paper Substitute”, lying in ambush like waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit (NT: idiom meaning to wait passively for gains instead of taking initiative). “Xing Shuo” pretended to have his intelligence reduced and vision impaired by “Turning Misfortune into Blessing”, and even with the “X-ray Glasses,” he failed to see Mirror Xing Ye hiding inside the wardrobe.

In fact, at this moment Lu Mingze’s use of “Turning Misfortune into Blessing” was not meant to conceal anything from the true brother and the fake brother at all, but rather to add an extra layer of “filter” to their performance, so that the act could more smoothly deceive the system.

When the “Paper Substitute” was immobilized by “Immobilization Technique,” the Xing Ye hiding in the corner rushed out without using the gun modified by “Xing Shuo,” nor using any other long-range QR codes. This was, in fact, done deliberately to make it easier for Mirror Xing Ye to kill him.

At the very instant Xing Ye charged into the house, Lu Mingze activated his second QR code, “I have every form you desire”. This was originally a QR code that could not be drawn with the “Repainting Brush,” but Lu Mingze’s three QR codes were system rewards; as long as they were QR codes recorded by the “Eye of Truth,” they could all exert their original power. The reason Xing Ye and Lu Mingze chose this QR code was that, when combined once again with the “Eye of Truth,” it could grant ten additional uses of the “Repainting Brush”—one QR code in exchange for ten, a profitable deal.

However, this time, Lu Mingze did not use it to exchange for QR codes, but instead created a Xing Ye body that had no emotions, no memories, and no soul.

While Lu Mingze was using the “I have every form you desire” QR code, he simultaneously hid Xing Ye’s true self inside the mirror. At the very moment Xing Ye’s true self rushed into the house, he activated the achievement title “Stealing the Sky and Swapping the Sun”.

All of this was completed in an instant. Lu Mingze and Xing Ye’s true self cooperated with perfect tacit understanding, synchronously swapping places at the exact moment Xing Ye pushed the door open, seizing the opportunity to deceive the system.

After that, the one who suffered the triple attack of the “Defibrillator,” the “Battery,” and the “The Stage-Cutting Saw of the Magician” was not Xing Ye, but merely an artificially manufactured body.

Yet the deception formed by the combined power of “I have every form you desire,” “Stealing the Sky and Swapping the Sun,” and “Turning Misfortune into Blessing” finally succeeded in fooling the system, making it believe that Xing Ye had truly died, thus exposing its real objective in front of everyone. The power of a single person cannot defeat the system; this victory was the result of the perfect cooperation between Xing Ye and Lu Mingze. Without the double achievement titles, it would have been extremely difficult to deceive the system.

Of course, the reason the Black-and-White Cube could be made to speak the truth so easily was also because the effect of Lu Mingze’s “Turning Misfortune into Blessing” had not yet ended. Its duration was a full ten minutes, and their entire performance took less than five.

When Mirror Xing Ye saw Xing Ye’s true self emerge from the mirror, he silently glanced at the small makeup mirror, then placed it into Xing Ye’s true self’s hand.

Mirror Xing Ye gave a bitter smile and said, “I thought I was the protagonist of this world. Turns out I’m the fake one.”

He carried the memories, yet was unable to bear the heavy burden of victory.

Xing Ye looked at his own duplicate, opened his arms, and embraced him, saying softly, “I won’t say thank you, because you are me, and I am you. This is our shared victory.”

Mirror Xing Ye said, “It sounds like self-praise, but you really are strong. Even after having your memories swapped, even while believing yourself to be fake, even knowing clearly that you would disappear after defeating the system, your resolve never wavered. In that battle just now, if you had hesitated even a little, we could not have cooperated so seamlessly.”

Xing Ye replied, “You’re the same.”

Both of them believed themselves to be fake, and both held the determination of burning one’s boats (NT: idiom meaning to commit fully with no retreat, risking everything).

Only such power could defeat the system.

Little mirror Lu Mingze looked at Mirror Xing Ye and said, “You’re not fake at all. My intimacy with you has always been 100—it’s never dropped. In this illusory world, there is no real or fake; existence itself is truth.”

Mirror Xing Ye looked at Lu Mingze and smiled softly. “No need to comfort me. I have no regrets.”

He turned to the Black-and-White Cube, whose six faces had all turned pitch-black, and said, “As long as I can see its end before I disappear, that’s enough.”

The Black-and-White Cube roared angrily, “You actually deceived me? But so what—you're still inside the system! As long as I say you didn’t win, you’ll never leave the final stage!”

“You’re right,” Xing Ye said. “I once doubted whether I could defeat the system. After all, all the power we possess is granted by the system. But all this time, the Black-and-White Cube you’ve shown us, the true surface endings, the perfect victories, the real and fake final stages, even the factions of following fate and defying fate—all of them have been hinting to us that you are a contradictory entity with two sides. What provides you with power is both human goodwill and malice, and likewise the goodness and evil within players.”

Mirror Xing Ye added, “You constantly lure players toward the evil side in order to hide your weakness—to hide the fact that there is still a good side capable of defeating you.”

“Even if you’ve figured that out, so what?” the all-black cube said. “I’d like to see exactly how you plan to defeat me.”

Xing Ye said, “Do you remember Lu Mingze’s three QR codes? We’ve already used two. There’s one left. We actually chose a QR code that isn’t very powerful. So why would we choose it, when those three QR codes were so precious?”

From within the mirror, Lu Mingze said, “Of course because we were certain that this QR code could hurt you!”

With that, Lu Mingze used the third QR code, “Scars of the Heart”, on the all-black cube.

“Scars of the Heart” was a rare mental-control QR code that excavated the hidden wounds deep within the target’s heart. These wounds could be turned, according to the user’s will, into tangible damage inflicted upon the enemy.

Once the QR code took effect, countless cracks suddenly appeared across the all-black cube. It shattered into piece after piece, gradually flaking away, as the blackness of the surrounding space slowly faded.

As the all-black cube collapsed, Mirror Xing Ye also gradually broke down into countless black-and-white data points. Before disappearing, he said to the Black-and-White Cube, “You are a collection of malice. Malice doesn’t just hurt others—it also hurts itself. After absorbing so much of humanity’s negative emotions, how could your heart possibly be without scars?”

“Xing Ye…” Lu Mingze murmured from within the mirror, looking at the constantly vanishing Mirror Xing Ye.

Why was he unable to distinguish Mirror Xing Ye?

Was it because Mirror Xing Ye had scanned Lu Mingze’s QR code?

The system had made Mirror Xing Ye scan Lu Mingze’s invitation QR code to gain abilities precisely in order to blind Lu Mingze’s “Eye of Truth,” preventing him from recognizing which Xing Ye was real, hoping to use Lu Mingze’s power against Xing Ye.

But if Mirror Xing Ye did not possess a heart that cared for and loved Lu Mingze in exactly the same way as Xing Ye, how could he have deceived the “Eye of Truth”?

The person may have been fake, but the memories were real, and the emotions were genuine.

Before disappearing, Mirror Xing Ye said to the two of them, “Don’t be sad. My existence was brief, but being able to deal the system a heavy blow made it worth it.”

He was not sad.

 

Translator : DarNan