This was equivalent to putting a killing knife in Xing Ye's hand.

“Is that it? Did we not fight at all?” In Guan Ling’s shocked voice, the game ended, and Xing Ye and Lu Mingze returned to the system space.

Sitting in the virtual chair created by the system space, Xing Ye was still reminiscing about the experience of this game and remained silent for a long time.

Lu Mingze probed his head, observing Xing Ye’s expression, and cautiously said, “Actually, I was able to pass so quickly because you guys did a good job in the early preparation. The clues were already collected, and with my luck, that’s why it went so smoothly. You… don’t be discouraged.”

Seeing that Xing Ye was looking down and silent with no expression, Lu Mingze felt a bit worried, fearing that Xing Ye might be affected by his luck.

Lu Mingze had always had good luck; not only did he grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he could also win thousands just by buying a scratch-off lottery ticket. Because of his good family background, many people tried to curry favour with him when he was young. However, he had a good eye and never befriended those with bad intentions, only interacting with a few friends who didn’t care about his family background.

But gradually, those who initially treated him equally started to drift away from Lu Mingze. It was simply because Lu Mingze was too dazzling. He could easily obtain what others strived for, and those with strong personalities around him would gradually feel inferior, making it hard to open up to him.

Lu Mingze hadn’t done anything wrong, but he was simply too eye-catching .

Lu Mingze feared that Xing Ye would also leave him like his past friends. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Xing Ye’s character, believing that Xing Ye would suppress his own consciousness. Rather, he was worried about existing misunderstandings between them, which would prevent them from talking freely like before.

He cared a lot about Xing Ye and didn’t want any barriers between them.

Seeing Lu Mingze’s anxious expression, Xing Ye smiled slightly, wanting to reach out and pat his head, or pull him close, letting Lu Mingze lean against him.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything now. Xing Ye asked, “What are you afraid of?”

Lu Mingze looked into Xing Ye’s eyes, seeing that he was not frustrated at all. He laughed cheerfully and shook his head, “Nothing, I’m not afraid of anything, hee hee hee.”

But Xing Ye saw right through his thoughts: “Worried that I’d be jealous of you, that I’d be on guard against you?”

Feeling that Xing Ye had guessed his thoughts, Lu Mingze honestly nodded, but then quickly waved his hands, “That’s not what I mean; I just…”

“Just what?” Xing Ye feigned a serious expression, looking at him earnestly.

“I just care a lot and don’t want you to be unhappy,” Lu Mingze said sincerely.

He didn’t realize that if he acted like this in reality, he might get pinned against a wall.

Xing Ye smiled gently: “I understand what you mean. With your good luck, you must have had plenty of experiences like this in the past, right?”

Seeing that Xing Ye wasn’t really angry, Lu Mingze breathed a sigh of relief, and the image in the mirror shifted from standing to sitting on the ground. He shook his head and said, “Not particularly many. I actually know that truly open-minded people wouldn’t care about these things. If someone befriended me for this reason, then that person wouldn’t be worth being friends with.”

“Since you understand this principle, why worry so much? Are you afraid of outshining me? Afraid I’d be wary of you?” Xing Ye asked.

“Of course not,” Lu Mingze shook his head vigorously like a rattle, “I just… don’t want you to be unhappy, not even a little.”

Seeing his naive yet earnest concern for him, Xing Ye felt warm in his heart. He asked, “Your mother is a well-known professor in the country, and your grandfather's family has been a scholarly family for many years. While they may not compare financially to Mr. Lu, in terms of academic standing and years of cultural heritage, they surpass Mr. Lu by far. Your mother also has many students; many people work hard just to become her students. Your mother is so outstanding—over the years, has your father ever stopped her from furthering her studies, mentoring students, or attending academic conferences and lectures?”

“Of course not,” Lu Mingze replied, “My dad often jokes that he’s a businessman full of copper smell, and in his spare time, he works hard to read books and increase his scholarly aura. Every day, he cheerfully goes out bragging, saying his wife is too outstanding, and that he’s not working hard enough to keep up with her.”

“That’s it,” Xing Ye said. “If you feel you can’t compare with others, just work hard to improve yourself and elevate your character to the same level as your friends. Jealousy has never been an option for me.”

“What were you thinking just now? You looked pretty scary with your serious face,” Lu Mingze asked.

Xing Ye replied, “I was thinking about what my younger brother said behind the door. He said that no one can clear the level alone. Was he implying that the final level requires two people to clear it?”

“Two people? I cleared the final level by myself. The system said that you can’t team up for the final level,” Lu Mingze answered.

Xing Ye said, “That’s true; the system states that only one person can enter the game. But who says that the command props don’t belong to allies? In the past, you were just a mirror with no special abilities, but as your favorability increases, your strength grows stronger. Plus, with the incredible luck of the following Fate camp, the combination of the following Fate and Fate-defying factions is indeed unstoppable.”

“I’ve always found it strange why the system continuously grants good luck to following Fate players and equips them with QR codes for command props. Isn’t this unfair to Fate-defying players? This power dynamic is completely unbalanced, almost forcing following Fate players and Fate-defying players to be enemies or making one side dominate the other.”

As he spoke, he conjured up paper and a pen in the system space and drew a Tai Chi diagram.

“Have you noticed that obedience and rebellion are like this Tai Chi diagram? The 99% luck of obedience is like the white part, while the 1% luck of rebellion is like the white part within the black. Our two factions should complement each other.”

“The abilities of Fate-defying players are mostly for attack and charging into battle, while following Fate players tend to have more supportive skills. Only when these two are fully integrated can we achieve true balance between offense and defense.”

Lu Mingze listened attentively as Xing Ye analyzed.

“I might sound like I’m stealing your thunder by saying this, but the successful completion of the final challenge in the spiritual world is actually the result of the collaboration between obedience and rebellion,” Xing Ye said, feeling a bit shy.

Lu Mingze nodded affirmatively: “Of course! Without you guys discovering so many things early on, how could I have easily found the crucial information? And I feel that by following you and watching you clear the levels, I’ve also become much stronger.”

The person in the mirror looked at his own hands, tightly clenched into fists, and said with conviction, “It’s not an illusion; I’ve truly become stronger. By learning from you, every time you analyse something, I try to combine your thoughts with my intuition, which allows me to eliminate illusions and choose the true intuition. Luck is indeed useful; many significant inventions often stem from a single ‘coincidence’ in countless experiments. ‘Coincidence’ belongs to luck, but seizing that ‘coincidence’ and transforming it into ‘universality’ relies on a rich theoretical foundation and relentless effort.”

He tilted his head and smiled at Xing Ye, saying, “This is what I’ve learned from you.”

“So have I,” Xing Ye replied, “I’ve also learned more warmth from you.”

The Lu Mingze in the mirror reached out his hand, wanting to high-five him. Xing Ye looked at the tiny mirror, which was no bigger than his palm, and ultimately extended his little thumb.

Using the tip of his finger to touch the palm of the mirror, even though it was an insulator, Xing Ye felt a current pass from the mirror to his fingertip, causing a tingling sensation.

The two looked at the Tai Chi diagram, and a spark of understanding arose in their hearts.

The small mirror said again, “This time I gave the key QR code to Cao Qian so she could earn the most points. Will you be angry? You clearly need points more as you’re trying to level up to a higher world.”

Xing Ye replied trustingly, “As long as I can enter the higher world, the rest doesn’t matter. Besides, you must have your reasons; can you tell me?”

Lu Mingze said, “I feel that Cao Qian really wants to go to the higher world. Plus, every time we’re in a world, she puts in the most effort, gets hurt the most, but earns the least points. It’s quite a shame because she’s clearly a very capable player.”

“Actually, even if you hadn’t done this, I would have given the key QR code to Cao Qian,” Xing Ye said. “Our thoughts are aligned. I hope she can enter the higher world as soon as possible and team up with me again; I really need her strength.”

Lu Mingze replied, “Moreover, once we reach the higher world, a mere few thousand points won’t be enough. Your brother had 1.2 million points, which sounds like a lot, but do you know how many points I had when I cleared the final level?”

“How many?” Xing Ye asked, genuinely interested.

Lu Mingze puffed out his chest, particularly proud, and said, “4.75 million! I don’t remember the exact amount, but a few thousand points are just pocket change.”

This number truly shocked Xing Ye. At first, he thought that the points in the higher world were at most double those in the chaos world, around a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand. He didn’t expect Lu Mingze to have so many points.

Lu Mingze continued, “You have no idea how brutal the high-level world is. In the chaos world, you work hard to earn 50,000 points, but you might lose it all after just one world in the higher realm and have to return to the novice level to earn points again.”

Xing Ye wanted to ask some questions about the high-level world, but at that moment, the black-and-white cube in the system space started spinning furiously, creating a bored expression on its flat surface and said to the two of them, “Player x8205, are you already too lazy to even check your rewards?”

It had been observing player x8205 for a long time, watching him smile gently at his obedient props, his eyes filled with affection, indulgence, tolerance, and fondness. The black-and-white cube spun wildly in front of Xing Ye, and he didn’t even get a glance from him.

Xing Ye looked at the black-and-white cube, straightened his face, and said seriously, “Black-and-white cube, I think you should be a little more rounded.”

The black-and-white cube responded, “?”

Xing Ye held up the Tai Chi diagram to show it: “This is the true world, not just the black-and-white view you present.”

The black-and-white cube displayed a blank expression and said to Xing Ye, “Player x8205, I am merely a game system. Please do not discuss meaningless things like life with me. Please accept your rewards. Because you cleared the game perfectly, you have received a book, as well as the option to choose one item from the game world’s props and reward QR codes.”

Xing Ye first accepted the book, which was titled Self-Redemption. It told the inspirational story of a person with depression who successfully overcame their psychological illness.

Xing Ye placed the book on the bookshelf, which now had five books, fulfilling one of the conditions for the final challenge that Randy had mentioned.

Looking at the books, Xing Ye couldn’t help but ask, “Black-and-white cube, why is the bookshelf named ‘Reincarnation’?”

“Who knows?” the black-and-white cube retorted. “Player x8205, if you have questions, please continue to clear levels. Just like when you mistakenly entered the consciousness space in the game, who knows what you will encounter in the future game world? Perhaps you will find the answers. The system does not take responsibility for answering any player questions; fate is the same. No one will tell you why the heavens treat you this way, will they?”

“I’ve never had such doubts,” Xing Ye replied. “Aren’t you going to recommend a prop or QR code for me this time?”

The black-and-white cube said, “No matter how I recommend it, players will always choose the opposite, right? I won’t provide any opinions; the player can choose for themselves.”

Just as they had speculated before, the game would make appropriate adjustments based on the player’s characteristics.

Xing Ye said, “I choose the QR code.”

He was curious to see what QR code he would draw this time. If he was not mistaken, a certain QR code should appear.

After the black-and-white cube spun and drew the QR code, Xing Ye scanned it with his phone. Upon seeing the description on his phone, his pupils slightly constricted—just as he expected.

He didn’t hide it from Lu Mingze, placing his phone in front of the mirror so Lu Mingze could see as well.

The description in the phone read: Item Equipment QR Code. After equipping this QR code, it can erase the consciousness of the item, allowing the player to control all special abilities of the item from then on.

Lu Mingze felt a chill in his heart; this game was too wicked.

First, it constantly increased the power of the items, even merging them with the player’s initial skills, then allowing a high degree of autonomy for the items to shine in the game, and finally giving the player a QR code that could erase the item’s consciousness. This series of tactics would likely lead many players to choose to erase the item’s consciousness.

If a narrow-minded person saw the little mirror easily and perfectly clear a level, taking their place in the team, and then encountered such an item, the consequences would be unthinkable.

The QR code also had a note at the end: This QR code can be stored in the phone; it can be equipped not only on the player’s items but also on other players’ items.

This was equivalent to placing a knife for murder in Xing Ye’s hands.

Even if Xing Ye was reluctant to part with the little mirror, if he found a player's item particularly bothersome, he could still kill the opponent.

What was most frightening was that this QR code could actually be transferred!

Other QR codes only had a "Use" button at the bottom, while the code to erase consciousness had not only "Use" but also two additional buttons: "Transfer" and "Abandon."

Xing Ye decisively chose "Abandon." When the screen popped up asking, "Are you really going to give up such a rare clearing reward?" Xing Ye unhesitatingly selected "Yes."

The code to erase consciousness disappeared from Xing Ye's phone, and the little mirror let out a sigh of relief.

He trusted Xing Ye, but anyone would feel fear when a gun was placed in front of them.

“No matter who it is, their life and death should not be decided by me,” Xing Ye said to the black-and-white cube. “I will not kill.”

This was not only because of his brother's advice but also a requirement he imposed on himself.

The black-and-white cube replied, “I hope the player can continue to persist.”

 

Translator : DarNan