Chapter 145: “I want to go alone this time.”
He remembered everything.
An Wujiu was somewhat surprised. During the last reset, Shen Ti had behaved exactly the same as everyone else. But just one reset later, Shen Ti was already in complete sync with him, even retaining previous memories.
In fact, Shen Ti, like himself, could be considered someone who had come back through a reset.
So, Shen Ti clearly remembered the process of killing him, just as An Wujiu still retained the pain of the bullet’s penetration.
An Wujiu rested his chin on Shen Ti’s shoulder, gently stroking his back.
“I’m sorry, if I wasn’t desperate, I would never have let you do it.”
Shen Ti chuckled, “You should be thankful I saved the last bullet; otherwise, that would have truly been desperate.”
An Wujiu was taken aback; he hadn’t known that was Shen Ti’s last bullet.
Even Shen Ti himself hadn’t expected that the bullet would be used to kill the one he loved.
Shen Ti hadn’t expected that when he briefly left and told An Wujiu to “call him in his heart, and he would surely come back,” the ability to hear his heart’s voice would be used by An Wujiu to command him to kill him.
For the sake of others, An Wujiu was willing to do anything.
“Hey.”
Wu You, sitting in the passenger seat, had an exasperated look on his face. He turned his head and stared at them, as if to say, “What’s with all the hugging and cuddling as soon as you get in the car? Are you trying to annoy me to death?”
Shen Ti saw him and laughed directly, reaching out to pinch his cheek.
“What are you doing?!”
Shen Ti’s tone was relaxed, “Seeing your little face like this still feels strange.”
Wu You rubbed his own face, not understanding, “What do you mean?”
Shen Ti ignored him, turning to An Wujiu instead, “Right? That little monster looked cute after a while, with those little tentacles…”
Before Shen Ti could finish, An Wujiu covered his mouth with his hand.
“I think you’re dreaming.” Wu You retorted coldly, turning to look out the window, almost getting scared by an incoming pollutant.
Like in previous cycles, Nan Shan, who was driving, asked them where they were headed.
Hearing Nan Shan’s voice, An Wujiu felt as if it were a lifetime ago.
Seeing that An Wujiu did not respond, Nan Shan specifically looked in the rearview mirror and asked, “Wujiu?”
“Yeah, I’m thinking.” An Wujiu responded softly.
This time, he could not let them sacrifice themselves.
He didn’t know how many chances he had, but no matter what, he couldn’t accept everyone dying because of him; it was too painful.
Thinking of this, An Wujiu recalled the development of events after his previous decisions. In the last cycle, he had changed their route to save Wu You, who had his throat cut by a masked man, which ultimately led to Yang Erci’s death and triggered the worst timeline where everyone died and humanity’s fate was doomed.
Now he understood that any decision could lead to disaster, but no matter what, he couldn’t give up any opportunity.
In countless timelines and countless parallel universes, there must be a relatively perfect possibility.
His goal was to find this possibility.
“I have something to tell you.”
He told them about his ability to reset time. As he expected, both Nan Shan and Wu You found it hard to believe.
Shen Ti grabbed his hand and said, “Wait, let me try.”
An Wujiu was puzzled. He watched as Shen Ti reached out and grabbed Wu You’s shoulder.
In an instant, Wu You felt a surge of power flowing from his shoulder directly into his brain.
It was countless fragments of memories—everything that had happened in the second cycle, from Yang Erci’s death to him being polluted and meeting another [Yang Erci], all flashed before his eyes.
But what he saw was not what he had experienced, but what Shen Ti had seen.
In this flow of memories, he finally knew that Shen Ti had lied to him.
They had never separated and agreed to meet the next day.
At that time, Nan Shan was already dead.
The overwhelming memories flooded his brain, making Wu You feel like a machine overloaded with data, crashing for a few seconds.
In those few seconds, his still mind only had one silent image: the dead Nan Shan lying on him, fending off all the pollutants’ attacks.
That was something he hadn’t known.
Shen Ti let go of his hand, initially wanting to ask if he had received those memories, but as he leaned over, he saw a shining tear quickly slide down Wu You’s cheek.
He immediately understood and asked nothing.
It really works. Shen Ti looked down at his hands.
At that moment, the hands under the gloves suddenly became scorching hot, and the marks on the skin seemed like many worms, trying to burrow out.
Shen Ti clenched his fists tightly, then relaxed, looking at the road ahead through the windshield. He said to Wu You, “Help me watch the car.”
Wu You was stunned for a second and then saw Shen Ti place his hand on Nan Shan’s shoulder.
Just like him, all those memories belonging to Shen Ti flowed into Nan Shan’s body. In this way, they all retrieved the memories of the previous cycle, effectively bringing them back in time together.
“I died so quickly back then.” Nan Shan recovered from the overloaded memories and gave a bitter smile. “I couldn’t help everyone.”
“No.” Shen Ti shrugged. “Just pretending you were still alive helped stabilize a certain little monster, and that was quite a help.”
Wu You only wanted to punch Shen Ti’s face, hoping it would leave a scar and save An Wujiu from being so infatuated with him.
“Shut up, liar.” He restrained himself in the end, as he was a mature person.
Shen Ti placed his overlapping hands on his chest, assuming a saintly expression. “It was a lie of love.”
“Since things were so dire last time,” Nan Shan said while driving around obstacles, “we have to be very careful this time.”
“Yeah.” An Wujiu nodded, then made a proposal that all three of them opposed.
“This time, I want to act alone.”
“What?”
Wu You shook his head first. “Too dangerous.”
“Yeah.” Nan Shan also opposed the idea of acting alone. “We don’t have a way to stay in contact. Once we separate, we might not find each other again.”
Shen Ti didn’t speak, but from his expression, An Wujiu knew he was unwilling. After all, they had only been reunited for about fifteen minutes since his last death.
“I have my reasons for deciding this.”
An Wujiu checked the time and sped up, trying to persuade them quickly. “This time, I have to save Erci and Yirou. They must be on their way to Yirou’s house now. According to the last cycle’s intel, they were attacked by masked men while riding in the same car.
They don’t have the memories from before, so their decisions this time will inevitably be the same as last time. The masked men know they won’t change and can predict that, given my thinking, I will go to save them again this time.”
Wu You listened, somewhat confused. “I don’t quite understand. If he can predict your actions and you are known to him, why do you still want to go alone? Isn’t that courting death?”
“No.” An Wujiu explained, “The masked men can predict me, but they can’t predict Shen Ti. As long as Shen Ti is around, what is known about me to them becomes unknown because just Shen Ti and I alone create four possibilities: one, we both go to save them; two, neither of us goes; three, I go alone; four, Shen Ti goes alone.”
Shen Ti understood what he meant.
Nan Shan also caught on. “So the masked men can only think and predict within these four possibilities.”
“Exactly!” An Wujiu continued. “The masked men are arrogantly smart. During the confrontation in the last cycle, he must have realized that I discovered he couldn’t foresee Shen Ti’s actions. So this time, he will consider this in his tactics. This is his weakness.”
Shen Ti nodded. “So you want to act alone because you are betting that the masked men, knowing you have figured this out, will use this point and send me, the unknown factor to him, alone to save Erci and Yirou, as this would be the most profitable option among the four possibilities.”
“Yes, so I will do the opposite and go alone this time.” An Wujiu said firmly, “I will bet once; I bet that he cannot predict my prediction.”
Wu You suddenly understood. “I get it. If the masked men believe this time that Shen Ti will go alone to where Erci died last time, everything in his vision becomes clear. Rather than changing strategies to kill us, killing an unknown Shen Ti and eliminating Erci is the best choice. We didn’t know what he would choose, but now it looks like he will definitely choose to stick to the original plan, right?”
Shen Ti appreciatively patted his shoulder. “Your little brain finally got it.”
To the masked men, An Wujiu was transparent, but with Shen Ti, things became complicated.
To An Wujiu, the masked men were unknown. None of them could predict where this guy would show up at a critical moment. It seemed he could also reset and had memories. When An Wujiu changed his strategy, the masked men would also change. This was the most troublesome part.
But as long as Shen Ti, this smokescreen, was deployed, and if they bet correctly, the masked men’s decisions would become predictable.
“If you really predicted correctly and he does the same actions as last time,” Nan Shan was a bit worried, “you will have to confront him head-on.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” After An Wujiu finished speaking, he saw an attacking off-road vehicle ahead. The driver had turned into a pollutant and was still in the driver’s seat.
He knew this was an opportunity.
“Stop, Nan Shan. I need to get in that car!”
Nan Shan still felt uneasy, but he knew he couldn’t stop An Wujiu.
“Be careful.”
After An Wujiu got out of the car, he took the gun from Shen Ti, standing on the chaotic street and looking at them with determination and hope in his eyes.
“We will meet again soon.”
He shifted his gaze, smiling at Shen Ti.
Shen Ti also smiled slightly.
He knew what kind of person he loved.
Someone who pursued justice, was kind, strong, and a guardian who grew from suffering, willing to do anything to save all his companions.
“Go, I will protect them.”
Hearing this, An Wujiu felt at ease.
He opened the car door and heard Nan Shan recite a prayer for the contaminated car owner. He closed his eyes.
For a moment, it seemed as if he saw what this man looked like when he was alive and heard his voice, mixed with the strange cries of the pollutants.
He said he didn’t want to become a man-eating monster, and he begged An Wujiu to free him.
An Wujiu didn’t understand why he could hear the pollutants’ voices in this cycle as if they were the same kind.
Originally, he didn’t want to kill the car owner in front of him, but the constant pleas and the pain he felt made him raise his knife-wielding hand, ending the controlled life and getting into the car. The autopilot had malfunctioned, so he started the car himself.
Nan Shan also restarted his car. Through the shattered glass windows, they looked at each other and finally drove in different directions.
An Wujiu let Shen Ti stay in the car with Nan Shan and Wu You as a backup plan.
Even if his calculations were wrong and the masked men changed their strategy from the last cycle, at least they had Shen Ti by their side, making it relatively safe.
Seeing Shen Ti’s ability to directly transfer memories, An Wujiu was even more determined to implement this plan because his powers had awakened significantly.
As long as Shen Ti was there, Nan Shan and Wu You’s fate could be changed.
An Wujiu calculated the time. According to the previous situation, when the four of them reached Zhong Yirou’s house, she had already brought Yang Erci’s body home and provided first aid. So if he wanted to find her before Yang Erci died, he had to arrive at least forty minutes earlier.
This time, the reset point was when they just got in the car, and about twenty minutes had passed. According to what happened in the last cycle, the four of them were trapped by numerous pollutants for a long time. Now that he was alone, changing his route was still possible.
Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou should still be on their way. An Wujiu wasn’t very familiar with the city’s roads, but fortunately, the car had a map of the city’s road conditions saved from before. He found the homes of Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou. Based on their previous information, the blocked road should be one connecting the two locations.
The query function was destroyed, so An Wujiu had to drive and check. Having taken many rides, he knew Yang Erci’s driving habits; she would avoid high-traffic roads and take smaller, less crowded ones. Given the chaos now, many places were destroyed, and the whole city was busy fleeing. She would definitely choose the shortest and least crowded route.
After considering, An Wujiu chose a route from several options but didn’t plan to drive directly on that road. Instead, he took a detour to another place.
He wanted to take a shortcut and block their way before the masked men got there.
This route would take about eighteen minutes by car. If nothing unexpected happened, he could definitely intercept them in time.
During the drive, he encountered countless pollutants of various sizes on the street. In the past, he never understood the pollutants’ language, only feeling they were roaring. But this time, he could hear every pollutant’s inner voice.
An Wujiu thought they would be filled with killing intent, roaring about wanting to kill him.
But that wasn’t the case.
[So hungry, I’m so hungry…]
[Why did I become like this? I still have a daughter, where is my daughter?]
[Mom… Mom, save me; I can’t find home…]
[Kill me! Kill me; I don’t want to become like this!]
[Supreme God, grant me eternal life! I will serve you forever!]
…
They expressed hunger, anger, fear, and fanatical devotion just like normal humans. These extreme fears consumed by the evil god became their only emotions, trapping them forever since they were polluted.
An Wujiu had never imagined it would be like this.
If a person was left with only fear for a lifetime, how terrifying it would be.
At that moment when he understood them, all the pollutants turned from monsters hunting them into pitiful people seeking his help. They were trapped in monstrous shells, eternally repeating extreme emotions, like Sisyphus’s punishment from the god of death, never to be freed.
But he couldn’t communicate yet. Everything he said to the pollutants seemed unheard.
If it were Shen Ti, maybe he could sever the pollutants’ chains and free them from extreme emotions, just like Wu You and [Zhong Yirou].
But because of this one-sided input, An Wujiu could hear the inner voices of all the surrounding pollutants. The overwhelming noise completely occupied his mind, making it almost impossible to think.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed a faint electromagnetic interference sound from the seat, standing out among the chaotic pollutant voices and catching his attention.
An Wujiu didn’t stop driving. He used one hand to search for the source of the sound, eventually finding a communicator. It was a half-surrounding silver metal strip that, when worn, had both ends attached behind his ears, emitting a buzzing electromagnetic noise.
He touched it, and the noise instantly transformed into a symphony.
Under the impact of the symphony, the voices of the pollutants became less distinct.
He drove towards the intersection of his target street. Just before he reached the previous intersection, he suddenly saw a giant pollutant attacking two young students. An injured boy was shielding a girl, using an iron rod to fight against the massive pollutant.
Survival was impossible. The height of this pollutant matched the nearby twenty-story building, and their only tool was a long, heavy iron rod.
The pollutant roared, different from others who were merely afraid. An Wujiu could understand its voice.
It was looking for its daughter.
For this, it went mad, its huge tentacles smashing the surrounding railings and flinging away the fire hose meant for rescue.
How ironic, a pollutant, trapped in the despair of searching for its daughter, was harming two poor children.
The car’s system issued a warning.
[Speed reduced, estimated arrival time increased by 1 minute.]
An Wujiu glanced at the time. The eighteen-minute journey was supposed to take only half a minute more.
If he stopped to save them, he might lose the chance to save his teammates.
According to his prediction, the masked men would follow their original plan. By the time he dealt with this, he might only see Yang Erci’s cold corpse again.
But if he didn’t save them…
An Wujiu drew closer and heard the girl’s cries in the gaps of the symphony.
Another difficult choice.
[Speed continuously reduced, estimated arrival time increased by 1 minute and 12 seconds.]
The pollutant’s tentacles violently slapped the hose, which swung in front of An Wujiu’s windshield.
[You are off course, turn right to reach your destination!]
[You are off course—]
Turning the steering wheel, An Wujiu lowered the window, grabbed the slipping hose, and shouted to the two students, “Run!”
The moving car tightened the hose, entangling one of the giant pollutant’s tentacles.
The sudden drag shifted the pollutant’s focus entirely to An Wujiu in the car. Its tentacles retracted, giving the two children a chance to escape.
No time to respond to their thanks, An Wujiu released the hose, accelerated, and the enormous shadow quickly engulfed the car.
At the brink of life and death, An Wujiu finally saw the intersection.
He sharply turned the car, parked it sideways, quickly opened the door, and rolled out!
His shoulder hit the ground hard, the impact dizzying him.
But as he expected, the giant pollutant, chasing him at high speed, couldn’t avoid the sudden obstacle. The off-road vehicle was enough to trip it.
An Wujiu quickly stood up, raised his gun, and aimed at the pollutant’s head.
The pollutant, shot and unable to control its massive body, fell heavily to the ground.
The surrounding buildings shook. An Wujiu ran over with his gun, firing repeatedly at the pollutant until he was sure it couldn’t get up again.
The pollutant’s body blocked the entire road, which was exactly what An Wujiu wanted.
This was the road he predicted Yang Erci would take. Once blocked, the cars ahead would be stuck, forcing her to turn around. If everything was the same as last time, she should be nearby by now.
An Wujiu confirmed there was still time, and despite his shoulder injury, he quickly ran back to the car. The vehicle had been damaged by the collapsing pollutant but was still barely usable. He turned and drove towards another road, aiming for the only intersection Yang Erci was likely to take.
The masked men might appear at any moment.
Staring through the shattered windshield, An Wujiu kept repeating in his mind.
This time, I’ll make it.
