Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1529: Find Ten Righteous People

As Nüwa slowly turned around, the cement-gray room's background seemed to suddenly turn into dark currents, twisted, drawn by her movement, swirling around her and dissolving. By the time she fully faced Lin Sanjiu, the room was gone, the press conference was gone, the planet was gone, and the cries of the people in that world were pushed to an unknown far distance, a place without existence.

They floated in the perpetually silent dark universe, where distant cold stars dotted the space.

Nüwa looked at the two and smiled slightly. Her hand lightly raised in mid-air and suddenly thrust downward—the sharp end of her staff lodged into the soft darkness, pinning the passage of time.

This description, "pinning the passage of time," seemed irrational.

But Lin Sanjiu felt this inexplicable sensation; time was no longer flowing beneath them. Yu Yuan seemed to have felt a touch as well, looking around and uttering a soft "ah," as if he had understood something.

"Yes," Nüwa said to one or both of them. She raised her other hand, pinching the air lightly with her thumb and index finger, and began to speak with a sigh-like tone.

"Like this, extending your finger to pinch time, and there in your fingertip, you have a moment caught between two forces, motionless. Time before still moves forward, time after still goes backward, only the moment where we are is eternally suspended."

Lin Sanjiu did not understand, nor did she try to. The more she learned about Nüwa, the more incomprehensible she seemed.

All she knew was that although she was surprised subconsciously, deep inside she wasn't that surprised at all—ever since the Reverie Libretto, she had been waiting for this day. Moreover, with such distinctive traits in this underground new game launch, Nüwa's name might as well have been written on the wall.

Despite being mentally prepared, Lin Sanjiu still felt an almost irresistible fatigue, as if she had been running a never-ending marathon for years, and someone had finally called a stop.

She looked down at her feet, not understanding where she was or what she was standing on, but she sat down dejectedly and said, "Yeah, you found me. Is this another one of your testing grounds?"

Nüwa's face expressed a cold and ultimate compassion. "No, A process with a known result cannot be called an experiment."

Lin Sanjiu nodded, still confused about what she was doing. She searched her bewildered mind for a while, looking for what to ask now, seeking some sense of normality.

Having thought for a long time, she could only think of the grand prize, the only question in her mind—but after uttering "Ji..." she thought she saw something flash across Nüwa's face, so she changed her words. "Why are you here?"

Nüwa smiled, like watching a child trying to be clever.

"I am here because I am here, as simple as that. It's not because of something I did that I appear here at this point in time; it's because I will appear here at this time that all these events occur before and after," she said patiently. "When you understand my meaning, you'll naturally understand why I can 'foresee' the course of events."

Yu Yuan asked, "You mean, your influence on cosmic things is now emanating from yourself, not your actions?"

Lin Sanjiu rubbed her temples and exclaimed, "What?"

Yu Yuan thought for a while before finding an analogy. "For example, she told me that I would bring you to her. Not because she foresaw the future or she or I took action to make this come true, but history will naturally be affected by her existence, like a cloth being bent... or like water flowing downhill. The difference is, Nüwa can clearly see the water flowing towards her, the influence she produces."

It seemed that he himself felt that neither of these metaphors were quite accurate. Lin Sanjiu waved her hand, unwilling to linger on a question she couldn't understand, and asked Nüwa in a hoarse voice, "What do you want from me?"

Nüwa stood upright in the dark void, her staff condensed into a thin cold light.

"Do you agree now?"

Lin Sanjiu had a strange feeling. Nüwa's question seemed to resonate throughout the universe, only reaching her ears when spoken aloud. It wasn't that Nüwa hadn't asked before, but that Lin Sanjiu only heard the question at that moment.

"Agree to what?" She faintly understood what Nüwa was referring to but still struggled to respond.

Nüwa smiled, her eyes falling on Lin Sanjiu's bloodstained knuckle dusters, and this time it was not a question but a statement. "You agree."

Lin Sanjiu raised the hand that had shattered Lord Tremors' skull, looking at it without speaking for a moment. Indeed, she had agreed—though she wouldn't admit it verbally, she was about to carry out a strategy identical to Nüwa's.

She hadn't pursued the silent woman, she hadn't dealt with Short Bangs, and at least five people were still alive in the new game's release conference. It wasn't that she thought these people had the right to live for some tragic reason, but because she thought, "What's the hurry? They can't run away. After finding Ji Shanqing, no one here can escape my hunt."

Glancing at Yu Yuan beside her, Lin Sanjiu vaguely remembered that she had once slaughtered Peanut Town. Now, thinking back, even if that nightmare were reality, she likely wouldn't spare any lives.

Because nobody in Peanut Town deserved to live.

"A long time ago, I was genuinely, though briefly, puzzled by your existence," Nüwa murmured with a sigh. "If there's a diseased fruit tree producing nothing but rotten fruit, but then it bears one good fruit, it means the tree can indeed bear good fruit. The problem is the disease, not the tree itself... right? I want to know if this hypothesis is correct."

She seemed not to wait for Lin Sanjiu's answer, but continued, "With that confusion, I observed you for a while afterward."

What Nüwa called "a while" was many years for Lin Sanjiu.

"But humans are not fruit trees," slipped from Lin Sanjiu's lips, surprising her. If it was to ensure human survival, she should have gone along with Nüwa.

Nüwa smiled, almost relieved, as if gratified to be understood. "Of course not, you know that better than me. If a fruit tree is diseased, the problem is the disease, not the tree itself. But humans are not fruit trees; humans are the disease itself. Born as humans, they must act like viruses, like deer that must drink when thirsty, like water that must freeze at zero degrees. But in such a large group, there are different trends. You and others like you are a rare extreme, an anomaly; while people like Gong Daoyi are the opposite extreme, also rare."

Lin Sanjiu felt that no matter what Nüwa knew, she wouldn't be surprised.

"If Gong Daoyi is at the negative end, then he is more valuable than most people. Because he's awake, he knows his coordinates within humanity; that's why he sees you, and has always been looking at you, looking at your opposite coordinates."

Nüwa shook her head. "But most people in the middle can't see you and don't want to. You are unwelcome; your existence can hurt people. In Sodom, angels are more loathsome than Satan, and you know this better than anyone."

Lin Sanjiu didn't say anything.

"So, you can even tolerate Gong Daoyi, but you can't tolerate Peanut Town," Nüwa said softly. "You can endure the conscious, absolute evil, because judging it is simple and unequivocal. But how about the mediocre, ordinary, chaotic, unaware, and encouraging majority who are even evil out of stupidity? How do you view them? Grey and hopeless, beyond cure, beyond judgment. Give them an environment, and they will metamorphose into the soil of the Garden of Eden. Is the new game launch conference an exception? Of course not. A fire can burn so bright and vigorous because the gasoline has always been there.

"The most terrible thing is, you know, a large part of the reason you're sitting where you are is luck. If you were to slip, you'd slide past the grey and chaotic majority, going straight to the other extreme. The more you understand, the more you resist, you save people, you kill people. You blood-washed Peanut Town all because you fear more than anyone else that you are also a person. You hate them more than I do, fear them more, and desire more for them to be good."

Lin Sanjiu heard a "click-click" noise, faintly and continuously sounding in her ears. After a while, she realized that the sound was coming from her own teeth grinding.

Nüwa took a gentle breath, turned her head and looked at the dark universe that enveloped the three of them, and said, "You asked me what I want, but I actually told you years ago. I come to see you now to give you two choices."

Lin Sanjiu lowered her head, listening silently.

"The Great Deluge, Judgment Day, whatever you call it, the ultimate destruction is inevitable. I'm not a human, I'm a forewarning. You can't stop me; you can only save yourself. So, my first choice for you is to abandon your identity as a person, abandon your past, and come to me, just like Reno and Rena did many years ago. You already know their choice, don't you?"

A strong internal shock was vibrating Lin Sanjiu, as if she wasn't clenching her teeth and holding herself steady, she would sway as if sitting in a cradle.

"What's the second choice?" she asked hoarsely.

She could feel Nüwa looking at her, speaking softly.

"Abraham approached and said, 'Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?'

"And the Lord said, 'If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.'

"Abraham answered and said, 'Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. What if there are forty found there?' He said, 'For the sake of forty, I will not do it.'

"Abraham said, 'Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if thirty are found there?' He answered, 'I will not do it if I find thirty there.'

"Abraham said, 'Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. What if twenty are found there?' He answered, 'For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.'

"Abraham said, 'Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. What if ten are found there?' He answered, 'For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.'"

Nüwa's voice fell, and the dark universe returned to complete silence. When she spoke again, her voice was low, but the air seemed filled with countless strings, vibrating in unison.

"I'm not Jehovah; I won't spare Sodom. But if you can find ten righteous people who won't look back at Sodom, I will allow you to board the Ark."