If Lu Mingze had a body at this moment, Xing Ye would definitely hug him.

 

In the Casino World, Xing Ye didn’t obtain any special QR codes, and the only one—Yan Hebi’s “Friend of Women”—didn’t belong to him. The Repainting Brush had little effect on such special QR codes either.

But Xing Ye’s gains were considerable—he earned an astounding amount of points in this world: over 30 million. The remainder was so small it could be ignored.

After the results were reckoned, Xing Ye received a message from Cao Qian. She said she had completed a Difficult World and earned triple points. She hoped to continue teaming up with Xing Ye in the next world.

While still in the system space, Xing Ye briefly explained the rules of the Advanced World to Cao Qian: teammates might not end up on the same side, and following him could mean entering extremely difficult worlds.

These honest warnings didn’t shake Cao Qian’s resolve. She felt that as long as she was in the same world as Xing Ye, even as an opponent, things wouldn’t be too bad—Xing Ye was always kind to players who seriously tried to clear the game and maintained their moral bottom line.

Xing Ye agreed to her request and was also quite curious how Cao Qian had cleared the Difficult Mode.

Cao Qian said she had help from Swan, and Guan Ling also played a major role. They were in a world similar to Saw, and had to find a way to escape a villa. Because Cao Qian had chosen Difficult Mode, every door’s key was hidden inside her body. In that world, she repeatedly had her eyes gouged out, kidneys stabbed, legs cut off...

Fortunately, Guan Ling had healing abilities, and when Swan’s crystal Linlin saw how injured Cao Qian was, her favourability exploded.

After her favourability skyrocketed, Linlin used Cao Qian’s points to activate “Self-Deception.” Every time Cao Qian was injured, Linlin would quietly convince herself: “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt.” As a result, Cao Qian also lost her sense of pain—retrieving keys felt like being under full anesthesia, with hardly any suffering.

Then Guan Ling would heal her promptly once “Self-Deception” wore off. In the end, they succeeded in finding the villa’s true owner and unlocked the true ending, achieving a perfect clear.

The pain of Difficult Mode could have left Cao Qian with permanent trauma, but because of her teammates, she only felt pain the first time her hand was cut off. After that, there was no pain at all—there was no lasting trauma.

After clearing the world, Cao Qian gained over 30,000 points, instantly becoming an Advanced World player. She would be able to reunite with Xing Ye in the next world.

Guan Ling was the only one left in the Melee World, but after escaping from the villa, he gained a powerful new item. He hadn’t even used the items he’d received from his perfect endings in the previous two worlds. As a Following Fate player with healing abilities, many people would want to team up with him. And with his stash of QR codes and strong tools, even if he encountered a teammate like Di Kuang again, he would have the authority to control the situation—there was no need to worry about him.

Guan Ling said he would patiently continue clearing the Melee World and wait for Xing Ye to complete the final level and find a way to save the Following Fate players.

After hearing that Xing Ye had won over 30 million points against the system on the high-stakes cruise ship, Guan Ling was even less concerned. He figured he might not even reach the Advanced World before Xing Ye finished clearing the game.

Xing Ye smiled softly as he looked at the group chat messages. He wasn’t the only one growing stronger in the game world—his companions were too.

He wasn’t worried that the harshness of the Advanced World would affect Cao Qian. This woman was already tough and strong enough to overcome it quickly.

And Cao Qian’s experience in Difficult Mode made Xing Ye deeply understand what Xing Shuo had once said: “You can’t do it alone.”

To clear the game, you must have teammates you trust.

When a Fate-Defying player personally destroys the consciousness of a Following Fate item, they also lose the right to ultimate victory.

After exchanging updates with his companions, Xing Ye returned to the real world.

At 1:30 in the morning, the little mirror sat obediently in his mirror phone case, looking at him and smiling with outstretched arms: “Before, it was the system and others congratulating you—this time it’s from me. Congratulations on defeating the system!”

Xing Ye looked at the little mirror for a moment and let out a long sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Mingze asked with concern.

Xing Ye shook his head. “Nothing. I just kind of understand now why those otaku guys at the company buy figurines.”

Having your tiny beloved right in the palm of your hand... That feeling was probably even more intoxicating than owning a figurine.

Though he couldn’t physically embrace him, Xing Ye symbolically hugged Lu Mingze by pressing his finger to the mirror, then asked, “What do you want to eat?”

Lu Mingze instantly perked up and rattled off a long list of dishes. Since he was now just a spirit, he could eat as much as he wanted without getting full!

Xing Ye noted the dishes down. “I’ll take you out for them tomorrow. Tonight, there’s only milk at home.”

There was a housekeeper at Xing Ye’s place, but it would be inhumane to wake someone up this late to cook.

“There are also sunflower seeds!” Lu Mingze said. “You’re definitely going to analyze the situation with Liu Muqing and Lin Jingxue. I want to snack on seeds while I listen!”

Xing Ye wasn’t too tired, so he drove to a 24-hour convenience store to buy the snacks and sunflower seeds Lu Mingze wanted. After returning home, he warmed up the milk and placed the snacks as an offering to Lu Mingze.

The offering method was simple: as long as the food was placed in front of the mirror and Xing Ye silently thought, “I offer this food to Lu Mingze,” it would appear inside the mirror.

Lu Mingze happily took the sunflower seeds and snacks, opened the bag, and said, “Go ahead and talk.”

Xing Ye also tried a sunflower seed, but found that the food lost its original flavour after being offered—it really couldn’t be eaten anymore.

Seeing Lu Mingze sipping milk and eating sunflower seeds while waiting for his analysis, Xing Ye chuckled softly and said:

“Actually, there’s not much to say. Lin Jingxue and Liu Muqing aren’t the same people we met in the Campus World. In that world, they had already died—that’s a fact. And on the cruise, they didn’t recognize me, which means the Campus World and the Gambling Cruise weren’t the same world.”

“Then what was it? A parallel universe?” Lu Mingze asked.

Since entering the game, Xing Ye had studied various theories about parallel universes, quantum mechanics, and multidimensional worlds in his spare time. Lu Mingze had also researched them in the past, so the concept wasn’t unfamiliar to him.

Xing Ye thought for a moment and said, “I’ve always had a feeling that the game world isn’t fake. Even though we’re always trapped within a specific map, I believe there’s a complete world beyond it. That’s why I always treat the NPCs in the game world like real people—I never harm them unless necessary and never think of myself as superior.

“And the design of the ‘True Ending’ versus the ‘Surface Ending’ is quite interesting too. The True Ending and Surface Ending are always opposites, but if you get the True Ending, you receive a book and access to the ‘Reincarnation’ bookshelf. Judging by the points and rewards, the game actually encourages players to pursue the True Ending. But all the clues it provides point toward the Surface Ending—that’s a contradiction.”

Lu Mingze listened while munching on seeds. The discarded shells vanished inside the mirror, leaving no mess.

Xing Ye looked at him in the mirror and continued:

“Because the system’s existence can’t be explained by conventional science, I can’t view the problem from a single angle. Based on what I’ve learned, I’ve made many hypotheses and tested their reasonableness. In the end, I leaned toward one conclusion—
The Surface Ending is a ‘real’ evil that has occurred, representing the ‘black’ in the Black and White Rubik’s Cube.

The True Ending is the ‘good’ that the system hopes players will achieve, directly opposing the Surface Ending. It represents the ‘white’ in the Black and White Rubik’s Cube.”

“Makes sense,” Lu Mingze thought through all the worlds he had experienced and, following Xing Ye’s line of reasoning, said, “Take the campus world, for example. The real ending was that Lin Jingxue and Liu Muqing died wrongfully, and Bai Xu got away scot-free. Maybe that world really did have a brain-eating demon, who knows. That event actually happened—the system can’t change a past ending—but the players can.”

Xing Ye said, “Saying ‘change’ isn’t quite right. When players uncover the true ending, it’s more like they’re giving the NPCs a chance—a chance to choose again, a chance for a parallel world to emerge, a chance for a new cycle.”

“The Lin and Liu from the gambling cruise proved that,” he continued. “When I returned to the system space, I asked Yan Hebi about those two. He said Lin Jingxue, when she was younger, had almost gone down the wrong path too. Fortunately, she chose ‘good,’ and so she and Liu Muqing didn’t die. Instead, they became good friends.

“And on the gambling cruise, the person who helped us the most was precisely Lin Jingxue. Without her, I wouldn’t have won so smoothly. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Lu Mingze thought for a moment and felt Xing Ye’s words made a lot of sense.

The “cause” in the campus world had led to the “effect” in the gambling world. Cause and effect—wasn’t that the very definition of ‘reincarnation’?

Lu Mingze asked, “Then will we meet NPCs from the melee world again in the future?”

“Not necessarily,” Xing Ye shook his head. “And besides, it wasn’t me who met Lin Jingxue, it was Yan Hebi. I don’t know how likely that kind of encounter is, but just having it happen once is already lucky enough. We shouldn’t expect too much.

“What matters most is that I insist on reaching the true ending in the melee world, not for any gratitude or reward from NPCs, but simply because I can’t tolerate the existence of truths I don’t yet know.”

Lu Mingze grinned happily: “But I have this feeling that I’ve done something good. It makes me really happy. Back when I was in the game world, I saw so many sad things. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a true ending. The only times I stumbled upon one were when I thought the story was too tragic and wanted to make the characters a little happier, so I dug deeper into the plot. That’s how I managed to reach the true endings.”

“But even after getting the true endings, I wasn’t happy,” he continued. “Because I thought, the events had already happened. All we did was make the game world a little less miserable. The tragedy hadn’t really changed.”

“But now it’s different. Now I know they’ve been given another chance. Seeing them doing so well in the cruise world makes me really happy. I finally feel like there’s closure.”

In the mirror, Lu Mingze closed his eyes, his expression one of contentment.

Xing Ye gazed at him intently.

Lu Mingze said, “I’ve never understood why I entered the game world. I used to think it was so pitiful that I became a vegetable. But if entering the game and all my effort to clear it can bring happiness back to these tragic characters, then I’m willing.”

When Xing Ye heard Lu Mingze’s words, he suddenly understood why the system had pulled Lu Mingze into the game.

The Black and White Rubik’s Cube had always had two colors—black and white. If the game attracted people who had lost faith in the world because of the ‘black,’ then Lu Mingze was one of the rare ones attracted by the ‘white.’

If Lu Mingze had a physical body at that moment, Xing Ye would’ve definitely hugged him.

 

Translator : DarNan