Chapter 152: Only then can An Wujiu’s kindness be preserved, and the complete An Wujiu can survive.
Yang Erci held her gun, peering through the scope at the others’ location.
The sudden gunfire from Lilith, the swarming of pollutants around them, the contaminated Zhong Yirou, and the sudden appearance of Russell—all these urgent events worried her deeply.
But her mind kept repeating An Wujiu’s last words to her.
[Don’t shoot easily; don’t expose your position lightly. If the worst happens, Erci, you must shoot with the determination to kill me; otherwise, you’ll be in great danger.]
[Survive until the end, kill me, and then we will have another chance to start over.]
When she saw the first bullet head towards An Wujiu’s head, she immediately fired. Yang Erci knew that another [Yang Erci] had executed the order. She seemed more ruthless and decisive than herself.
Yang Erci quickly followed up with another shot.
But she was certain that when she pulled the trigger, aiming at An Wujiu’s heart, she clearly saw through the scope that his chest was torn open, and a scorpion-like appendage burst out from inside, covered in green mucus, slicing through An Wujiu’s chest like a blade.
What was that?
It didn’t look like Russell’s appendages.
She had no time to think; everything seemed to switch off, and the screen went black.
Even the world itself ceased to exist.
The screen did not immediately return to normal; it just flickered, as if it were malfunctioning.
An Wujiu realized he hadn’t immediately returned to a new past timeline; his consciousness and body felt separated, drifting in different places.
At the moment of his death, a severe headache erupted, almost as if it would burst, but he didn’t know why. It didn’t hurt this much when he was shot before.
As the pain gradually subsided, he suddenly sensed something was wrong.
He heard a voice, initially a mechanical female voice, gradually restoring until it became his own voice.
[You’ve now opened this memory storage card, which means you’re at a critical moment of life and death.]
An Wujiu was a bit shocked, partly because of the voice and partly because he didn’t expect his own memory to be unlocked.
According to Zhong Yirou, his brain or body must have been subjected to significant energy stimulation.
But it should have only been Erci’s bullet. Why did this happen?
[You’re right. I am An Wujiu, and I am you, but also not you. The difference is that we come from different timelines, which we only discovered later. You can understand the Altar as a collection of one hundred parallel timelines. I am from No. 98, and you are from No. 99. I came to find you because I am dying and need your help.]
Suddenly, many data points of light appeared before An Wujiu’s eyes. Quickly, these points gathered, projecting an identical person to himself.
The back of his hand was marked with 98, and his expression and movements were very similar to his own, covered in wounds, like a person soaked in blood.
An Wujiu stared at him, almost forgetting that he was in a similar state.
[These hundred parallel timelines of the Altar are independent, like a series of completely closed rooms arranged in sequence where no one can disturb anyone else. But one day, An Wujiu from room 0 suddenly discovered that he could open his own door and also open the door to the next room. Yes, that’s me and you.]
No. 98 An Wujiu looked into his eyes, as if looking at someone very far away.
He can’t see me, An Wujiu thought.
[Actually, you can’t say that. He is the original An Wujiu, entering the Altar directly from the lab environment. You should also recall past events; those experiments altered our brain nerves, suppressing the evil in our nature, attempting to bring us infinitely close to a perfect person.
But after entering the Altar, the extreme twisted hatred rebounded. We are all the same, which is why we exhibit extreme dual personalities, oscillating between extreme good and extreme evil. In the Altar’s survival-of-the-fittest environment, he became more and more cold-blooded.
At first, he was like us, aiming to find his sister, but this goal gradually got overwhelmed by revenge. When he accidentally discovered another self, he killed that other him directly, who was the An Wujiu from timeline 1. He’s very smart. You know how smart he is; he quickly realized it wasn’t his original timeline. If he didn’t strike first, he might be the one to die.]
No. 98 An Wujiu coughed, spitting out blood.
[I need to hurry up. It’s pretty much the same after that. An Wujiu from timeline No. 0 found the card to the next timeline in each one, continuing this cycle. He killed too quickly and easily, so the original An Wujiu couldn’t react in time.
In timeline 45, that An Wujiu didn’t die immediately due to the help of his companions. He discovered that An Wujiu from timeline No. 0 was traveling from another timeline and aimed to keep killing until the last timeline because he believed this was the way to clear the Altar game. As long as he killed all the An Wujius and crushed us into useless data, he could leave here.]
An Wujiu felt a cold chill climbing up, piercing to the bone. No. 98 An Wujiu operated the system panel, playing a new video for him.
The projection was right next to No. 98. An Wujiu clearly saw an An Wujiu who had lost an arm appear on the screen. He spoke with a pale face, “I don’t know if you can see this recording. What I’m about to say is true. If you see someone who looks exactly like you with the No. 0 on the back of their hand, run away, at least escape safely. His goal is to kill you—to kill all the An Wujius from different timelines…”
An Wujiu didn’t understand how this video crossed timelines and ended up in the hands of other An Wujius who hadn’t yet faced disaster.
But No. 98 quickly explained this mystery to him.
[This projection was stored on a data card. The data card has a function—it can be used as a reward for other players through the system, but it cannot specify a recipient, only conditions. No. 45 deduced that on the timeline, each timeline lags behind the previous one to a certain extent, but the challenges they face are roughly the same. This is why No. 0 can go on a killing spree so accurately because he has experienced it all before.
So, No. 45 limited it to the challenge he had just experienced and set the conditions according to his own. Thus, An Wujiu from timeline 46 received this reward after winning and saw this video.]
I see.
But An Wujiu guessed that No. 46 might remain vigilant, but the delay might not be long for No. 0. He could catch No. 46 off guard by immediately moving to the next timeline after finishing the previous one.
But why wasn’t he like that? Why did he travel backward from No. 99 to No. 98’s space?
[I know you’re probably very confused right now, wondering why I’m in this state…]
The projection flickered, and No. 98 An Wujiu looked like he couldn’t hold on much longer, but he still tried his best to finish speaking.
[Each time No. 0 travels, he gains experience in dealing with himself. So, the further he goes, the more invincible he becomes, and his personality becomes increasingly extremely evil. Meanwhile, we can only continue to transmit data and cooperate with the next version of ourselves. This efficiency is far inferior to No. 0. So when we face him, the outcomes are always tragic. One always knows oneself best, especially a more advanced version of oneself.
After experiencing so many timelines, he can predict our every move, every action. Whatever we do is in vain. We can only try to give the next version of ourselves more time, hoping they can win. Up until me, No. 98…]
The projection of him clicked on the panel in front of him, and instantly, countless projections appeared before An Wujiu, densely lined up, from No. 45 to No. 97. Each one had his own face, different processes, different ways of dying, and similar last words. They repeated weak voices, ultimately dying repeatedly in this consciousness world beyond this space-time.
No. 98 An Wujiu coughed again in the projection, covering his mouth with his hand.
[According to the information provided by the game’s testers, the maximum number of copied server numbers only goes up to 99. So, it’s up to you… No. 99, you’ll be different…]
[I’m about to turn into data and disappear from this world. If you can, you must strive to be the survivor among us.
Only then can An Wujiu’s kindness be preserved, and the complete An Wujiu can survive…]
With that, all the projections disappeared in an instant.
An Wujiu’s heart suddenly began to ache dully, as if being pierced by thousands of fine needles.
He suddenly understood the prophecy in the Blood Moon instance—one desperate gamble, repeating mistakes, self-destruction.
These three words indeed summed up everything about him.
So, before him, there were so many versions of himself who had tried hard to survive.
But why had he come to timeline 98?
Suddenly, his continuously aching heart stopped beating, and memories began to flow back—memories belonging only to timeline 99.
Many scenes and memories, like lost data, returned to his brain. The flood of overloaded data poured in, submerging him and suffocating him.
He saw himself, in the original timeline 99, alone, without any companions or friends, just a silent winner, a lonely victor.
He won game after game, accumulated many points, collected Easter egg cards, and gained advantages, becoming stronger and stronger. But in his heart, only revenge remained.
One day, he finally received a data card and a projection that completely changed him.
At first, An Wujiu didn’t fully believe it. He was full of suspicion until he truly encountered a person, masked and hiding their identity.
Just as the projection said, that person wanted to kill him.
No. 99 An Wujiu and No. 0 had a long standoff. He found that every step of his plan, every counterattack, fell perfectly into the other’s trap. That person seemed to know everything he was thinking. In front of him, An Wujiu didn’t even have the ability to strategize.
Under the opponent’s design, he even lost the sister he had so hard to find, and his right wrist was almost destroyed.
Seriously injured, No. 99 An Wujiu reopened the data card and watched all the content, not just from No. 98, but from many of his past selves, their experiences before they died.
He suddenly realized this approach wouldn’t work.
Just like every past An Wujiu, holding onto past pains and wounds, personally fighting against another self wouldn’t work, because the opponent was also An Wujiu.
What they had experienced, he had also experienced, and even more.
Repeatedly playing against oneself made No. 0 stronger than any of them.
At a critical moment, An Wujiu saw that there was still an Easter egg card in his system, a card that could rewind time and travel through space.
Initially, he didn’t understand where it could take him, but now he understood.
Since this was a green light given to No. 0 by the Altar system, he could use it too.
He could rewind time and get another chance.
But even with another chance, it was almost impossible for him to defeat a stronger version of himself.
To survive, An Wujiu had to outwit himself.
Up to now, facing the nearly unbeatable No. 0, he might have only one way to succeed—to become an An Wujiu different from any other An Wujiu.
Make himself lose past experiences, erase the pains he had endured, the unbearable experiments and injuries, forget all the unresolved issues, and give himself the identity of an ordinary person, finding companions, friends, and even a lover to support him.
As long as these memories were sealed, becoming a completely different An Wujiu, there might still be hope to win.
In his last moments, An Wujiu uploaded his original memories onto the memory data card he drew from the Easter egg and implanted a new memory he personally modified.
Before traveling to timeline 98, he recorded a final voice message for his future self, who would wake up knowing nothing.
[There’s still time…]
[Trust me, you will find all the memories.]
[You need companions. Never be alone.]
To avoid detection, he specifically altered the audio, changing his voice so that his future self wouldn’t suspect it, ideally thinking it was his mother’s voice.
Thus, in his final moments, No. 99 An Wujiu used the card, at the cost of his irreversible injuries and life force, and all the checkpoints, points, and rewards he had gained—everything he had risked his life for—all to be erased and confiscated by the system.
He rewound time, coming to timeline 98, replacing An Wujiu who no longer existed in that timeline, and becoming a self with a different past who could try to be happy like a normal person, feel the warmth of friends, and have a completely different future.
[…You must survive. Survive to meet me.]
A lie that deceived him throughout an entire timeline, guiding him to this point, to meet “me,” who was both me and not me.
This is the end, and also the beginning.
Finally recovered mc’s memories ⸜(ˊᗜˋ)⸝ – so many revelations (´ཀ`」 ∠) mc is so 🥺 to be able to decide those actions and jump to the 98th timeline. Wonder how ml came to be. Why appear at that point in the 98th timeline.