Chapter 142: The masked man doesn’t want my life; he just wants to destroy me.
An Wujiu’s eyes were red, brimming with tears, and stubborn, yet it seemed as if they would shatter at a touch.
Such a look pierced Shen Ti’s heart. He had never seen An Wujiu so defeated, even chaotic. The person who once made decisions with unwavering confidence and was always in control was now shattered.
“Exception?” Shen Ti looked up. He couldn’t bear to look directly at An Wujiu’s pained eyes, so he looked upwards instead.
Suddenly, he froze.
Because Shen Ti finally noticed the parameter bar floating above An Wujiu’s head.
His always extremely stable sanity value had decreased by one-fifth.
Shen Ti frowned.
Could it be that, unlike others, directly facing supernatural phenomena like pollutants doesn’t cause fluctuations in his sanity, but something else does?
Yes, this is fundamentally a sanity value, not anything else. It represents a person’s mental state. Ordinary people can’t endure the crushing existence beyond human comprehension. These far exceed the limits of their minds and bodies, so they collapse. But An Wujiu is different.
What brings him to the brink of collapse are always the people and things he cares about.
“He can predict everyone’s decisions, but he can’t predict yours.” An Wujiu held Shen Ti’s hand. “That means as long as you are here, there is a breakthrough. We need a new plan.”
As he spoke, his hand was already on the hilt of his sword at his side.
At this point, An Wujiu couldn’t help but feel guilty. He thought this time they could succeed, foolishly believing that having the ability to turn back time could change everything.
For the sake of victory, he dragged [Yang Erci], who didn’t need to be involved, and the already polluted [Zhong Yirou] into his team, altering their fates without permission, leading to their wrongful deaths.
If he hadn’t interfered with [Yang Erci]’s actions, perhaps she would have already escaped to a safer place with [Zhong Yirou].
All of this was a choice he actively made. He wanted to forcibly change destiny.
Therefore, he could only personally end it and start the next cycle to save everyone.
“I know; I understand what you’re thinking.” Shen Ti pulled away his hand and placed the other hand on An Wujiu’s shoulder. “But Wujiu, please don’t leave voluntarily, okay?”
Hearing this, An Wujiu seemed dazed.
“Wujiu, listen to me.” Shen Ti kept repeating his name, pulling him into his arms. “I know how you feel, but this isn’t your fault. You know he came prepared, so this isn’t something we can solve in one or two tries. Since we still have a chance, let’s try again. Everyone will come back, right?”
An Wujiu’s hand tightly gripped the fabric at Shen Ti’s lower back.
“But I don’t know which cycle will be the end. What if we still lose next time?”
Shen Ti wasn’t good at comforting people, he just told An Wujiu.
“Then we can’t afford to give up any chance, like now.”
“I know you can’t accept the current situation. It might be worse than the last time, but their sacrifices can’t be in vain.” Shen Ti looked into An Wujiu’s eyes, telling him firmly, “They did this hoping you could find more truth.”
He couldn’t say something like “calm down” to An Wujiu.
That would only make him more miserable.
The only thing that could pull An Wujiu out of his pain was his responsibility.
All the responsibilities he carried on his shoulders, both his burden and his armor.
For these people, Shen Ti knew he would never give up.
An Wujiu tilted his head slightly. Under the cruel sunlight, the sea shimmered beautifully—unbelievably so. He raised his hand, wiped the corner of his eye with his fingertip, turned back, and returned to his calm demeanor.
“Let’s see if we can reach the top floor.”
He was not a fragile person. On the contrary, he had endured pain that an ordinary person couldn’t experience in a lifetime, growing through surgical knives, electrodes, and farewells, with an extraordinary tolerance.
But An Wujiu was still human, not a god.
He took a difficult step forward, with the bodies of his companions and comrades behind him—the most terrifying nightmare he had ever faced.
Shen Ti also turned around, following him off the rooftop.
“The masked man’s purpose, I guess, isn’t to kill you,” Shen Ti said to An Wujiu as they descended the stairs.
An Wujiu’s steps faltered for a moment upon hearing this but quickly returned to normal.
“I think so too. In all our encounters with him, his targets were never me. From Wu You in the first cycle to Lilith now, and everyone around me except you, he’s eliminated them all. If he really wanted to kill me, he could have done so the moment the elevator doors opened.”
Shen Ti thought for a moment and then decided to tell him, “Wujiu, your sanity value has decreased; did you notice?”
Reminded this way, An Wujiu belatedly raised his head.
Indeed, it was so.
All his attention had been forcibly diverted.
“I suspect the masked man doesn’t avoid killing you; perhaps he knows that killing you is pointless. It’s better to destroy you by emptying your sanity value.”
An Wujiu’s hand gripped the stair railing.
Yes.
That makes sense.
The image of the masked man beckoning him at the last moment appeared before his eyes.
This masked man has done so much, seemingly destroying each of his plans step by step, but in fact, he never intended to cause him physical harm, only to guide him.
Just as he intentionally guided him to the rooftop at the right moment to break him.
The masked man’s goal was to exhaust his sanity value through these means, to assimilate him into a pollutant, and to rob him of any chance of winning this game.
“I see.”
With this clarity, An Wujiu’s heart hardened.
“He even clearly told me that Lilith is my sister.” An Wujiu looked at Shen Ti. “You’re right; his goal is clear. He doesn’t want my life; he just wants to destroy me.”
Using methods that harm all his friends to make him surrender, An Wujiu could not forgive such despicable tactics.
There was no way he would just surrender.
But one thing An Wujiu still didn’t understand. If the masked man’s goal was to destroy him, then was he opposed to the human innovation plan that created him? What was his relationship with the altar and the so-called evil god?
Their goals didn’t seem to align.
It felt like everything was about to surface, but not completely. The truth that An Wujiu could glimpse was approaching him step by step.
The two of them reached the entrance to the top floor along the stairs, but this door was also closed.
An Wujiu placed his hand on the doorknob, only to find that it could be pushed open directly, unlike the rooftop door.
After what happened before, he became extremely cautious and didn’t dare to push it open easily. Instead, he looked back at Shen Ti.
Shen Ti switched to the light machine gun behind him, reloaded, and aimed at the door.
After preparing for battle, An Wujiu opened the door.
To his surprise, there was nothing behind the door, just an empty stairwell leading to the top-floor office.
“It feels like this place is already deserted.” Shen Ti held his gun, observing the surroundings.
As they stepped out of the stairwell, light poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, almost blinding An Wujiu.
In front of them was a large room, separated by frosted glass with intricate carvings. The ceiling featured reliefs of angels and saints, and the floor was covered with carpets depicting religious scenes.
Even as they stepped onto this floor, the sound of a serene and holy choir echoed.
Compared to the hellish chaos outside, this place was isolated from the world’s turmoil, high and aloof, like a true paradise.
This didn’t feel like an abandoned place.
An Wujiu walked forward step by step along the glass wall, treading lightly, inspecting everywhere, until they reached the entrance of this huge room.
The glass door to this office was open, and the music was indeed coming from inside, as if someone had been waiting to welcome them.
An Wujiu’s heart was racing, yet he didn’t feel particularly nervous. Instead, there was a strong sense of repulsion coming from within him.
A strange force seemed ready to break free.
Oddly, the room was completely empty, not a single person inside. There were few furnishings, allowing a clear view of everything: just a desk and some neatly arranged benches.
Behind the desk was a large, round stained glass window, colorful and fragmented in design. The window was divided into radiating segments, inlaid with stained glass, resembling a beautifully blooming flower.
Sunlight streamed through this stained glass window, casting intricate patterns and eerie colors onto the floor and desk.
An Wujiu walked over and checked the desk, finding nothing, not even a single piece of paper.
Could it be that everyone had really left?
“Does this place remind you of the hall in the bunker from the first instance we encountered?” Shen Ti asked An Wujiu.
An Wujiu nodded.
It indeed looked very similar, and both resembled a church.
So, from the beginning, the mastermind was hinting at their future.
Destroying all the heretics, the survivors struggling for life, the underground church, all religious elements were foreshadowing the existence of a god.
Every instance they had experienced seemed like a hint, about this world, and about themselves.
“There’s really no one here,” Shen Ti said after checking, resting his gun on his shoulder.
An Wujiu wanted to see the situation outside. After all that had happened, his vigilance was higher than ever, worried that the masked man might appear in another building like Shen Ti. So, he walked to the floor-to-ceiling window to check.
The glass here was normal, allowing him to see other places.
There didn’t seem to be anything unusual in the two adjacent buildings.
Glancing down unintentionally, An Wujiu saw a very similar and shocking scene.
Down at the bottom of this building, he saw a car pulling up, just like they had done earlier.
Likewise, the car door opened, and several people got out one after another.
There was Nan Shan, who was supposed to be dead, and Wu You, who hadn’t been polluted…
Were they the same as the ones from [Yang Erci]’s world?
Were they still alive?
But this guess was immediately shattered because he saw two other people getting out of the car.
They were Zhong Yirou and Yang Erci, neither dead nor polluted.
And An Wujiu had already seen two of them.
So… these two were from the third world.
“Wujiu, look at the sky.”
An Wujiu heard Shen Ti’s voice and looked up as he instructed.
“There is another moon in the sky.”
Wonder why the masked man is bent on standing against mc. Wanting to destroy mc’s sanity.
Another batch of parallel friends (´ཀ`」 ∠)