Chapter 155: “Would you like to use me?”
Zhong Yirou didn’t have much time left.
She confirmed one last time and decided not to think about it. However, she was somewhat worried about Yang Erci, but at this moment, if she were to ask Wujiu about Yang Erci, it would seem too selfish.
Everyone was risking their lives.
Zhong Yirou mentally prepared herself for being polluted. Based on what Wujiu had told her about the last time it happened, she knew that becoming a pollutant would increase her combat strength and free her from the constraints of time. At least she could buy her companions some time to survive, which was more valuable than dying when her time ran out.
“Wujiu.”
While hiding, Zhong Yirou lowered her voice and asked, “What if Russell didn’t enter the loop from the same place as before? Last time, he appeared in the Sha WenBuilding, but before that, he was in the forest clearing. His actions were also irregular.”
An Wujiu understood her meaning. “That’s true, but at the end of the last loop, he told me that he knew I could loop. This implies that Russell didn’t know I could loop before, and he didn’t say he could loop either, which means he can’t loop voluntarily.”
“The second time he appeared in the Sha WenBuilding, it was already the afternoon of the 24th. It’s morning now. We don’t know if Russell has been to this forest this morning, so it doesn’t mean his actions have changed. He might have come here and just happened to meet us who came earlier in the previous loop, leading to a massacre.”
Zhong Yirou suddenly understood. “That makes sense. If he could loop, he wouldn’t have said something like that. Or, he might not be looping voluntarily but passively.”
An Wujiu nodded. “Actually, all of you are passively looping. The difference is whether you have memories. Without memories, you’re no different from NPCs, but No. 0 has memories. I can only bet that he is looping passively. If he were looping voluntarily, we wouldn’t be in the same loop each time.”
An Wujiu continued, “That’s why I wanted to take you all away first. Since I know Russell will come, and No. 0 knows I discovered his identity, he wants to drive me mad by killing all of you, which is not enough.”
He tried to guess No. 0’s thoughts, thinking about what would drive him into the deepest madness.
“To drive me mad, the best way is to use my identity and my face to deceive you all and then kill you. That’s why I think he should take off his mask now. He needed to hide this face before, but now he needs to use it. And…”
An Wujiu voiced his speculation. “If No. 0 is really looping passively, then the trigger point for the loop is my death. But last time, No. 0 didn’t come here at all. He was injured by Shen Ti…”
Speaking of Shen Ti, An Wujiu’s heart still wrenched.
He lowered his eyes. “He was severely injured, and later I died. Even if he didn’t die, he didn’t come here before I died, that is, before the morning of the 24th. Without the relevant memories, he wouldn’t know that Russell would arrive so soon.”
Zhong Yirou understood.
“So you want to use one to kill the other, betting that these two might meet, and that’s why you want us to vacate this battlefield first.”
An Wujiu nodded. “That’s the ideal scenario, but if there’s any flaw in my guess, it won’t succeed. But since Russell wants to kill me, he would also want to kill No. 0, I think.”
In the second loop, No. 0 also ambushed in the Sha WenBuilding. But after killing everyone, he left. Now it seems he didn’t cooperate with Russell and was also avoiding meeting him.
He went through it again and couldn’t find any reason why Russell wouldn’t kill No. 0.
But An Wujiu also knew it was hard to say whether what he thought wouldn’t be quickly realized by No. 0.
Before, Zhong Yirou had rationally accepted the relationship between An Wujiu and the masked man just by hearing his explanation. Emotionally, she couldn’t connect No. 0 with An Wujiu himself. But hearing him say these things, she finally accepted they were indeed the same person, but An Wujiu was much more righteous.
She told An Wujiu, “Actually, Wujiu, you’re worried that what you thought of would be thought of by No. 0 and predicted by him. But conversely, he’s also you, so he would be afraid of being predicted by you.”
Zhong Yirou smiled and patted his shoulder. “So don’t be too tense.”
At this moment, Nan Shan chimed in, “Yirou is right, Wujiu. Don’t be too tense. If we lose, we lose. Do our best and accept our fate.”
An Wujiu nodded.
He guessed that Yang Erci was most likely already sacrificed. Once No. 0 found out, he wouldn’t let her go.
“Should we be the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind?” Gabriel kept his hand on his gun, afraid of any sudden movement.
“Possible.” An Wujiu pondered for a moment. “We just can’t act rashly. We need a stealth plan.”
Wu You nodded. “Well, I’ll listen to Wujiu-ge.”
The other [Wu You] didn’t know An Wujiu well but inexplicably found him reliable, so he also said, “Me too.”
“And me,” the other [Nan Shan] said.
“I have a rather risky plan,” Zhou Yijue casually said. “Do you want to hear it?”
An Wujiu knew very well who he was. Clever as he was, most of his ideas relied on the sacrifice of others for a high probability of success.
“Everyone’s safety comes first. If it’s too risky then…”
“Wujiu.” Nan Shan, still with his usual smile, interrupted him.
“Let’s hear what Yijue has to say first.”
Regarding the current situation, [An Wujiu] quickly reacted.
But Russell truly intended to kill. His tentacles attacked fiercely, shooting towards him like arrows, aiming for his heart.
[An Wujiu] wasn’t waiting to die.
He controlled the pollutants to block the attack but didn’t make a counterattack.
Direct confrontation wouldn’t end well.
The controlled pollutants lowered their injured limbs, revealing [An Wujiu] inside.
He raised his hands and grinned.
“Sorry, you might have the wrong person. Well, not entirely the wrong person, but I wasn’t saved by anyone. I got here step by step through my own efforts.”
Despite his words, [An Wujiu] was contemplating whether the large or small figure in front of him was the real one or if neither of them was.
What interesting situation would arise if he killed the real one?
Russell didn’t seem to listen to him and directly launched a second round of attacks. The ground behind him stirred, and many strong, tree root-like tentacles broke through the soil, heading straight for him.
[An Wujiu] didn’t move.
He wanted to take a gamble.
Anyway, even if he resisted desperately, the outcome wouldn’t be optimistic.
“Wait.”
Through the dense tentacles, [An Wujiu] raised an eyebrow.
The voice calling for a halt was sweet and childlike—it was the little girl.
What a confusing person. He almost thought she was just a puppet container.
So she was the one in control?
No wonder Russell seemed like a dead man; he must have been hollowed out.
The tentacles retracted one by one, and Noah’s indifferent face gradually showed a faint smile, “You are also An Wujiu, but not the one I encountered.”
“You’re right, I’m not him.”
Noah was silent for a while, her smile fading, and she softly said, “It seems the observer’s ability has caused a time-space split…”
She raised her eyes and looked at the [An Wujiu] before her.
And [An Wujiu] was also observing her.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the child, or rather the evil god, at the beginning of the altar’s creation couldn’t move freely. As more people died and sacrificed themselves to the altar, she gained more and gradually took on a human form. The final collective sacrifice was the last valve to fully restore the evil god’s power.
Would this incomplete form fight?
Maybe there was a chance to win.
“Since you’re not him,” Noah smiled, “Then it doesn’t matter. The one I want to kill is just the An Wujiu from that time-space.”
Hearing this, [An Wujiu]’s heart sank, becoming extremely vigilant.
“Really? Then we can totally cooperate.” He said this while secretly summoning other pollutants, trying to make them attack from behind.
This little girl didn’t intend to let him go and was already starting to lull him.
She probably knew that another An Wujiu might exist in this forest. Since she feared one, two would be even more troublesome.
Now, she would only worry about a third party emerging, so it would be better to deal with one first.
Everyone coexisted in this forest, serving as both potential threats and balancing weapons against each other.
This silence lasted less than three seconds before there was a sudden commotion on the right side of the forest.
Seeing Noah’s attention shift, [An Wujiu] seized the moment, causing the pollutants he had summoned nearby to lunge at the little girl.
But Russell was even quicker. His body exploded, extending into grotesque limbs covered in venom and fangs. One swing corroded the pollutants blocking [An Wujiu]’s path.
“You are all the same.” Noah waved her hand, summoning more tentacles from the ground. But No. 0 reacted swiftly, leaping onto the back of a pollutant and retreating, then commanding other pollutants to surround them.
This timely retreat created some space for him. [An Wujiu], on the back of the pollutant, picked up his gun and, despite the bumps, fired the first shot at Noah without hesitation!
The shot didn’t hit her heart completely, but it did strike her. The monster Russell had transformed into let out a painful roar.
As expected.
He fired a second shot without hesitation, but then his right arm was suddenly severed!
One of the surrounding pollutants suddenly turned against him. Severely injured by Russell’s attack, it turned its deadly jaws on [An Wujiu], biting off his arm.
The other pollutants did the same, turning on him one by one.
“Almost hit the heart.”
Noah sluggishly shifted her gaze from her bleeding chest.
“But it doesn’t matter; it seems you really don’t know.”
[An Wujiu] realized that the pollutants he controlled were of the same origin as hers.
Since he could control them, why couldn’t she?
But she didn’t kill him outright.
Why?
It must be because she thought he couldn’t kill her!
[An Wujiu], clutching his injured shoulder, spoke to Noah in the dangerous moment.
“That An Wujiu knows.”
Noah blinked.
“In the Human Revolution Project, there was a survivor named Yang Ce. He was an investigator who looked into your information.”
[An Wujiu] smiled, “You know whose hands he fell into.”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have sought death by firing that shot just now, would I?”
“But if it were An Wujiu here, who knows what he would do?” [An Wujiu], despite his severe injuries, smiled maniacally.
“Want to give it a try? Use me. My reward is simple.”
Noah’s expression remained utterly still.
“What?”
“Kill him.”
[An Wujiu] smiled, “Before this world is completely destroyed, there can only be one An Wujiu.”
