Chapter 127 - 117: At This Moment, the End

Instinctively raising her gun, Yin Zhen was fueled by the absolute resolve to kill her target At this moment. The muzzle of Night Song aimed squarely at Dracula’s granulated heart, which hung suspended within his rotting chest cavity.

BANG!

The instant the gunshot rang out, Zoe suddenly appeared right in front of her.

The pitch-black bullet pierced through Zoe’s heart, even as the Golden water current in Zoe’s palm blasted Dracula’s head to pieces.

Yin Zhen’s mind went completely blank. Her body felt as if every ounce of Strength had been drained from it in an instant. She watched in a daze as dark red blood bloomed across Zoe’s back. Zoe swayed slightly, then fell backward.

Yin Zhen instinctively reached out with her left hand to catch her, but the sheer weight of Zoe’s falling body dragged them both to the ground. Blood continued to gush wildly from the gaping hole Night Song’s bullet had torn through Zoe’s chest.

"Zoe... Zoe..."

A piercing ringing stabbed at Yin Zhen’s brain. She desperately pressed her left hand over the wound, but the blood merely welled up and spilled through her fingers.

All her Extraordinary Abilities were on cooldown. Ian was already dead. She looked toward Adeline’s direction—Xian Yu had been personally trapped elsewhere by her own hands. Every possible method to save a life was gone.

Fate revealed its cruelest face At this moment. If she weren’t the villain, she wouldn’t have been able to land that hit. If she hadn’t learned the Inheritance, she couldn’t have fired that bullet. It was her own choices, her own calculated steps, that had single-handedly wrought this irredeemable tragedy!

Zoe frowned in pain. She weakly raised her hand, her fingertips brushing against Yin Zhen’s cheek.

"May, this is my choice. Don’t blame yourself."

Using her left hand, Yin Zhen tried desperately to scoop Zoe up into her arms, wanting to rush outside to find absolutely anything that could save her.

But one hand wasn’t enough. Zoe’s body kept slipping; her blood kept flowing. Every time Yin Zhen tried to lift her up, she slipped right back down. Over and over again, her frantic efforts failed.

In the distance, Adeline finished off Lilith, who had lost her Strength, and turned to look in their direction.

Ma Fan lowered the muzzle of his gun. Signal’s electric arcs faded silently in his palm. Tui You unclenched his tight fists only to clench them once more, while Ye Se let out a heavy sigh.

No one had ever expected that this invasion game would reach its finale in such a manner.

Yet, when a full-grown adult made the resolute decision to die, no one could stop them.

Zoe gently pressed down on Yin Zhen’s frantic hand. "Don’t waste your Strength... That bullet contained the Strength of ’At this moment.’ It was your unyielding resolve to kill the target. It strikes directly at the soul. Your pain is truly... so powerful."

"Why?" Yin Zhen gritted her teeth, her eyes rimmed with red.

Blood trickled from the corner of Zoe’s mouth, but she was still smiling.

"During those few seconds lingering between the two worlds, I saw the grand finale of Chi Hai. The Blood Plague wouldn’t end just because Chi Hai was destroyed. There is no remedy for the consequences wrought by greed. In the end, the protagonist of Chi Hai would lose everything, left to live all alone in this bloodstained world of utter despair. Relying solely on her unyielding will, she would go on to forge a new world.

"That’s the system lying to you!" Yin Zhen shook her head. "Look at me—the plot can be changed!"

The smile still lingered on Zoe’s lips, though tears now welled up and spilled from her eyes.

"May... I was scared... I was scared that I would change into someone unrecognizable... I was terrified of that cold, ruthless version of myself at the very end... I was so scared that, one day, I might actually believe it was perfectly fine to kill you for the sake of that new world... I don’t want to live in that despairing world. I don’t want all of you to die one by one because of me, and I especially don’t want to build that ’new world’ upon the corpses of Ancient Abyss.

"Ancient Abyss is innocent. The people of Ancient Abyss are innocent. And I... I am innocent, too... I can’t let my own hands be completely drenched in blood... I can’t be that selfish... I’m sorry, May. Dying by your hand, letting Chi Hai end right At this moment—this is the best outcome for all of us."

Tears streamed from Yin Zhen’s eyes. "This isn’t the best outcome! The choice you’re making right now is what’s truly selfish!"

Zoe’s gaze began to lose its focus, and her voice grew increasingly faint. "I couldn’t protect my own world. I couldn’t protect Ian. But I managed to protect you and your world. Thank you... for letting me experience the vibrant joys of humanity... I really don’t want to leave it all behind... but in the end, I’m just a member of the Blood Clan... not a human...

"If you see Ian in Ancient Abyss, please thank him for me. Thank him for bringing me to this world... I really had such immense Luck... to have met all of you... in this short life of mine... I really want... to eat that sugar-frosted... hawthorn... one more time..."

Zoe’s hand slipped down limply. Yin Zhen knelt in the ruins, cradling the now-lifeless body in her arms. She didn’t cry out loud. Her lips merely moved, murmuring a single name over and over again.

"Zoe, Zoe, Zoe..."

The Shadow Servant surfaced from Yin Zhen’s shadow. Its pitch-black hand reached out halfway before freezing in midair, unsure of where to touch or how to offer comfort.

It looked at Yin Zhen, then looked at Zoe. Slowly, it retreated back into the shadow, curling itself up into a very, very tiny ball.

The world began to collapse. The laboratory walls were being peeled away from the edges toward the center by an invisible hand. With every layer stripped off, that section dissolved into a black torrent and vanished, much like ink diffusing into water.

[Congratulations to the Players of Ancient Abyss for securing victory in the first invasion game. The victory settlement will commence upon your return.]

[The Red Corpse World has met its end. Countdown to return: 30 seconds.]

Standing at the edge of the ruins, Bai Qiang watched Yin Zhen kneel in the center of the collapsing world, tightly clutching Zoe’s corpse.

As a psychologist, she understood the despair and agony tearing through Yin Zhen’s heart At this moment far better than anyone else.

Someone who had lost her father at a young age, who grew up amidst poverty and injustice, and who then lost both her only pillar of support and her legs in the span of a mere six months—she had finally, painstakingly, found a ray of light at the end of her path of vengeance. That light was supposed to be her salvation.

But now, that light had been ruthlessly snuffed out. It wasn’t destroyed by an enemy, but rather by the barrel of Yin Zhen’s own gun.

Having experienced all of this, Yin Zhen would inevitably plunge into self-loathing and descend entirely into darkness. It wouldn’t be surprising in the least if she decided to destroy the entire world.

Bai Qiang opened her hand, looking down at the Electronic Pet Machine she had obtained before crossing over. She let out a cold sneer.

She understood. She understood everything now.

First, it forced Zoe to make a choice: live and stand in direct opposition to Yin Zhen, or end up exactly like this.

Yet regardless of whether Zoe lived or died, the end result was pushing Yin Zhen into an abyss of suffering, ultimately shaping her into a supreme villain completely devoid of any remaining softness.

The system had likely anticipated Zoe’s choice, and so it had provided her—the protagonist of Ancient Abyss—with an Item capable of resurrection. However, the price of using it was forcing herself into a near-death state.

It prided itself on being a legitimate game that wouldn’t arbitrarily obliterate Players, but how was what it was doing any different from total obliteration?

The damn system was waiting for her to choose: preserve her own life, or extend a helping hand to Yin Zhen—an act that held absolutely no benefit for herself.

If she didn’t extend that helping hand, she and Yin Zhen would part ways forever, and Ancient Abyss would gain a truly opposing protagonist and villain.

But if she did choose to help, she would lose nearly everything. One wrong step backward would mean her own death.

Given her usual behavior—looking as if she couldn’t care less about the survival or destruction of Ancient Abyss—the system definitely assumed she would simply hide this Item and be someone who stayed completely out of the mess, right?

After all, as long as Yin Zhen didn’t know she currently possessed such an Item, she could lay low perfectly.

But was that even possible?

This damn system’s track record was already vile enough!

There would inevitably come a day when Yin Zhen found out about this. And when that time came... Hmph!

"Damn system, what a brilliant scheme. Do you really love watching the trials of human nature this much? But you’ve underestimated human nature, and you’ve definitely underestimated me!"

"To hell with being the protagonist, I’ve been sick of playing along for a long time!" she thought furiously. "Did you all really think that I, Bai Qiang, chose to become a psychologist just to make a living? Open your damn eyes and watch me closely!"

Casting everything aside, Bai Qiang strode boldly across the collapsing world and reached out a hand toward Yin Zhen, who was on the precipice of falling into the abyss.