Welcome to Rewind World Game-Chapter 1635 - 53: The Supreme Sun Mermaid and the Innocent Association’s People (20)

Chapter 1635: Chapter 53: The Supreme Sun Mermaid and the Innocent Association’s People (20)

Perlo—the expression of Detective Rock showed a momentary change.

It was indeed him!

At this moment, Su Liujin behind Su Ming’an decisively drew his knife. He transformed into a light white brilliance and, in a flash, the blade pierced through Rock’s neck! Even Su Ming’an hadn’t expected Su Liujin to burst forth with such formidable strength.

Blake was instantly enraged and hurried to support Rock: "What are you doing! Rock! Are you alright!"

Nearby, Yijulai’er’s eyes flickered, seeming to understand the situation.

However, the anger came too late. Rock’s throat produced several gasps before he finally glanced at Su Ming’an and collapsed.

The next moment, the surroundings suddenly spun around, producing a cracking sound like shattering glass, the sky collapsed, the ground cracked, as if the entire world was disintegrating.

Su Ming’an breathed a sigh of relief, thankful his guess was correct.

Suddenly, a shocked voice rang out:

"The one you saved is Number 0819...?" Ran Bo pointed at Su Liujin, "I haven’t participated in this experiment in a long time, but I remember Number 0819 wasn’t part of the ’Cultivation Plan’, was he?"

"What Cultivation Plan?" Su Ming’an looked up.

Ran Bo adjusted his glasses, a hint of complex pity flashed in his eyes, then was covered by the calm of a scientist, explaining in a flat tone:

"The ’Cultivation Plan’... is a branch project led by Edith. They found that directly cultivating perfect ’products’ had too low a success rate and consumed too vast resources. So they changed their approach..."

"They began to mass-produce a batch of ’basic models’. These ’basic models’ inherently had various genetic defects, with lifespans extremely short, like mayflies living only one day. Their value didn’t lie in growth, but in... they were living ’Cultivation Vessels’."

"Living... Cultivation Vessels?" Su Ming’an said softly.

"Yes." Ran Bo’s tone had no fluctuation, as if stating the most routine experimental data, "Their bodies were the best incubators closest to the successful ’perfect products’. As the ’perfect products’ grew, if any organ failure, genetic breakdown, or rejection reaction occurred... these synchronously cultivated ’basic models’ were the perfect organ banks and genetic sources."

"Simply put," Ran Bo summarized, words stabbing like an ice pick, "The existence of Number 0819 was meant to ensure Number S-0820—who would become the future Lighthouse Jellyfish Su Liujin living in Luowasha—could survive smoothly and reach a perfect state. This 0819 was S-0820’s ’spare parts’, ’biological buffer’. When S-0820 needed them, he could, and must offer everything."

"Therefore, when the twin stars fuse, he remains a human body—he was not carefully cultivated by humans to be a Lighthouse Jellyfish, hence won’t transform into jellyfish. He doesn’t count as having independent life, the World Rules cannot transform him. His lifespan is very short, the gene will soon break down and he’ll die."

"According to the final monitoring data feedback..." Ran Bo glanced at the pale-faced white-haired youth, a hint of an imperceptible sigh finally entering his tone, "The life indicators of Number 0819 should have hit zero by yesterday. His ability to hold on until now... is itself a miracle, or rather, a delayed last moment due to intense external stimuli and willpower. Did you do anything yesterday?"

Yesterday...

Su Ming’an recalled.

Yesterday, they played piano together, Su Liujin learned to play "Little Star", and they laughed while talking fairy tales of Braves and cannibal flowers...

Su Liujin’s life should have hit zero yesterday, and was intensely prolonged by external stimulation and willpower.

Indeed,

Was it "love" that supported him to live one more day?

Su Liujin put away the bloody knife, turned around, and gazed quietly at Su Ming’an with golden eyes, stepping back slowly.

Ran Bo’s words didn’t cause any change in his expression, and at this moment Su Ming’an understood—Su Liujin knew all of this from the start.

Beneath the rising sun, the youth walked step by step, all covered in golden red.

He gently smiled at Su Ming’an.

"Clang—!"

Suddenly, the Blade Edge fell to the ground.

Su Ming’an immediately reached out to support him, taking out a Vitality Agent he brought with him and injected it into Su Liujin.

However, the Vitality Agent had no effect. In fact, days prior, the effect of the Vitality Agent had been waning.

"So, when I came back today and couldn’t find you in the room, it’s because..." Su Ming’an looked down at the pale boy in his arms.

It wasn’t that Su Liujin truly wanted to get out for fresh air, but that Su Liujin sensed his death was approaching and wanted to find a place where no one would notice to die, not wanting Su Ming’an to see his corpse upon returning.

Yet, searching through the whole Ark, Su Ming’an found Su Liujin with faint breathing in a disregarded corner.

During the last moments, Su Liujin gathered spirit to take a space travel with Su Ming’an, help him complete the final Assassination, help Su Ming’an break free from the Dream Making...

He knew from the beginning, he was not the Su Liujin Emperor familiar to Su Ming’an.

He was only the "Little King".

He indeed merged with many "Su Liujin", but he himself was only a part of the Su Liujin known to Su Ming’an.

Thus, the hope of all humanity could not be easily saved by Su Ming’an just with the cover of a "Mother" Researcher. What Su Ming’an saved was merely a "Cultivation Vessel". The Little King was indeed the most successful, deliberately placed in the center of the laboratory to attract everyone’s attention, but all this was only to cover up the truly successful Su Liujin.

He was the most successful...the most successful "Cultivation Vessel".

In the correct history, he would die on the Ark due to genetic breakdown before the humans entered Luowasha. And Number S-0820 would then be deployed in Luowasha, becoming the Su Liujin Emperor familiar to Su Ming’an.

The one holding the "top sign" was not the Little King.

Because the boy was always this weak, Su Ming’an never thought—could it be that the Su Liujin he was familiar with was also not this one.

Because knowing they would meet in the future, Su Ming’an never considered—could it be they might never meet again, this person is not that person.

The boy lay in the arms, his lashes fluttering lightly, seemed like using all his strength to lift his eyelids.

When he narrated "I carried their Deaths, and also their Love. I became the future, complete, absolutely certain, flesh-grown and unique—Su Liujin Emperor," what was he thinking? He continually deepened the impression of "I am Su Liujin Emperor" in himself, afraid that if Su Ming’an knew he was not the familiar Su Liujin, he might not save him.

When he recalled "the gentleness left by Number 024, the wisdom left by Number 287, the resilience left by Number 312..." what was he thinking? Clearly, he himself is just a cold symbol.

When he sang "Sleep, sleep, Little King, in dreams there will be sweets and fairy tales. All of you unite into a Star Sea, all the Love will return home, waiting for the day you wake, you will fear nothing..." what was he thinking? He will not wake, Little King only exists in this dream, once Su Ming’an wakes up, he will only encounter the final Su Liujin, Little King already died on the historical Ark.

When he gazed at the universe and stars on the spaceship, talking of "the significance of the second child’s birth was only to provide blood and organs for the first child" what was he thinking? Su Ming’an thought he was pitying the second child, just like pitying those white-haired boys he devoured, yet, the second child was exactly himself.

On Su Ming’an’s birthday, wishing "I hope...both this Lighthouse Sect Leader and I can realize our ideals, heading towards happiness", what was he necessarily thinking?

Did he hope Su Ming’an woke soon, breaking the barriers of the Radiant Mother God, and hand in hand with the future Su Liujin, heading towards a glorious ideal and future? Or did he wish Time passed more slowly, the wishing moment lingered longer, so he could live for a while longer, continue to pass through happy daily life, basking in the last, difficultly obtained, fleeting as mayfly Life in the prolonged dreamscape?

His life started on the Ark and also ended on the Ark.

This long and sweet dream was the most precious treasure in his barren life.

...

["But, they gave me a dream, in which I became the ’Little King’. I learned to maintain my ’Rules’ with the Finger Gun, I drew the top sign and believed it would bring luck, I felt the cold and remembered your promise ’no longer cold’. Here with you, discussing a case in a textbook from another planet—aren’t these moments also true and exclusively mine?"]

["Yes, I have surpassed their ’design’."]

[Su Liujin murmured, as if hiding some words.]

["I haven’t lost..."]

["I’ve lost many times, but this particular battle... I didn’t lose to them."]

...

But he did not bind Su Ming’an.

He desperately played games, he voraciously read books, he proposed to learn an instrument, every minute and second aware that his life was on a countdown. Yet a flicker of hope burned before him—Su Ming’an. Su Ming’an was mighty, capable of sneaking into the lab to steal the Vitality Agent. Moreover, Su Ming’an possessed Divine Power, and if he could draw upon it, he might just survive a little longer.

He might even live a few more days.

However, he always remained silent. He claimed to be that Emperor Su Liujin, deceiving both himself and Su Ming’an; he believed Su Ming’an would lead him away, actively waking from the Little King’s dream; he calmly faced the genetic collapse of his body after leaving the nutrition tank, knowing the price of freedom was death; he declared that as long as the "Lighthouse Sect Leader" shattered the dream, the "Great Emperor" would awaken to meet him; he assisted Su Ming’an in understanding the status of the Ark, continually pushing Su Ming’an to conclude this dream, thus also ending his life...

In the end, he proposed a cosmic journey with Su Ming’an, using the last of his life, in a final burst of Strength, he assassinated Dream Maker Perlo, sending Su Ming’an away.

The Little King urged the Lighthouse Sect Leader to break this dream.

The Little King actively ended his brief but blissful Life.

The Little King personally shattered his oxygen tank.

...

What truly is "love."

Sherrod taught Su Ming’an that "love" is sacrifice. Nailuo taught Su Ming’an that "love" is pure affection. Xiber taught Su Ming’an that "love" is tolerance and perseverance. Noah taught Su Ming’an that "love" is freedom. Lin Guang taught Su Ming’an that "love" is the courage to die. Su Wensheng taught Su Ming’an that "love" is letting go and holding on. And now, Emperor Su Liujin... no, the "Little King" taught Su Ming’an.

"Love" is a gift.

Love is knowing everything yet choosing to peacefully return and entrust.

Love is seeing the shared, fleeting moments as a gift, entrusting the remaining unlived Life to Su Liujin who walks towards the future.

The purpose of his existence is nourishment, but he transformed the "passive" destiny as nourishment into an "active" gift.

Su Ming’an recalled scenes one by one, and some mysteries in his mind dissipated.

Thus, the Jellyfish Emperor waiting for him, fighting alongside him, proud and vibrant in Luowasha, is the "completely intact" Su Liujin.

This boy in his arms was merely the left behind, incomplete part destined for early demise. From birth, he knew his fate but still used his last moments to tirelessly send Su Ming’an out.

The "awakening" he sought was never for himself.

—It was to let Su Ming’an reach the real world where the "complete" Su Liujin awaited.

The last injection of Vitality Agent administered, the boy slowly opened his eyes.

Earlier, he secretly left the room, collapsed in a corner surrounded only by Darkness, lying like a corpse with no one aware of his existence. Fearful, he did not want to die in endless loneliness and fear.

His Life was at its end, but he desperately recalled moments shared with Su Ming’an—birthday cake, piano music, smiling flowers, the Little King and his Servant... These "love" moments kept his consciousness awake, holding on until Su Ming’an found him.

"Don’t leave me alone..." he consistently whispered lying in that corner.

In a daze, before Su Ming’an’s eyes, the figure waiting in the sea seemed to overlap.

Don’t leave him alone in the dream.

Don’t leave him alone in the sea.

He constantly waited, constantly endured, constantly lost, always controlled, kidnapped, educated.

The King is the easiest Chess Piece to target on the board.

"How is it going?" Hui Bai had already explained the truth to everyone and quickly approached.

"I’m leaving." Su Ming’an looked at the dream on the verge of collapse.

"What about him?" Hui Bai asked with concern.

"He will also go home." Su Ming’an picked up the boy.

Su Liujin was feverish, white hair drooping over Su Ming’an’s neck, his cheek resting on Su Ming’an’s shoulder, he muttered a word obsessively—"Take me home."

But where is his home?

The lab on the Ark is not his home. The unfamiliar Colorful Planet is not his home either. His original planet, Zhai Xing, certainly isn’t his home.

He has no home.

"Parents" are malevolent scientists, "relatives" are vague flesh reclaimed, "friends" are a Void dream.

He has nothing.

He has nothing remaining.

Thin and suffocating, pale like a grain of sand.

If he had a home to speak of, it would only be the broken, man-made, originally malevolent Little King dream.

...

["Home! Where is my home?" Once upon a time, there was a jellyfish in the sea.]

[He swam through the sea, seeking a home...]

[—Twelve Stories · Story One · "A Jellyfish in the Sea"]

...

Su Ming’an picked up the boy.

"I’m going to take him home. To the Red Tower in Luowasha, he’s the Little King there..."

After a moment of silence, Hui Bai slowly nodded, turned his back, and softly said, "Go ahead. There’s some time before the dream fully collapses, maybe you’ll find a way to take him out in the last moments."

Su Ming’an looked back at Hui Bai, the two said nothing but understood each other well.

For Hui Bai and the others, the situation was the same, they were like Su Liujin, upon dream collapse, they would no longer exist.

Many died before dawn, before Su Ming’an arrived in Luowasha, this elongated dream retained ghosts long gone. Including Hui Bai, after splitting into pieces, the original had perished.

However, Hui Bai only said, let the Little King out.

They were embers of a bygone era, unable to move towards tomorrow, yet Su Ming’an was favored by the World, perhaps able to save a pure white boy’s ghost. Those who stained hands with Evil, unable to prevent experiments, could not compete with the Little King for the final place.

Hui Bai’s upright figure gradually disappeared, seemingly like dust blown away by the wind.

He did not look back, did not speak to Su Liujin, aware he failed to stop experiments, lacking the right to speak to the victim. His only option was to reassure everyone, turning back to walk away from Su Ming’an.

If fate permits another meeting, let it be in future times free of past entanglements... in a life free from any grievances.