Chapter 880: Zhou Shangqing's Memories

"Why... must you force me to remember the past?"

Zhou Shangqing's eyes were filled with despair.

Everything from the past was dredged up under the power of the Obelisk.

"I just wanted to find a place to slowly rot away, to die in self-punishment... Even this tiny wish can't be granted? Why? Why must you, like all those people who arbitrarily placed their expectations on me, insist on forcing me?!"

He slowly crawled up, the intense Grievance emanating from his body made him no longer resemble a human, but rather more like a Devil that had crawled out of hell.

The blood was washed clean by the rain.

The tattered clothes that had always draped over him slowly peeled away.

Revealing the spikes beneath that pierced inward through flesh and skin.

"Fate, how unfair... Why must everyone force me? I clearly only wanted to live a quiet life, I clearly did nothing wrong..."

Zhou Shangqing muttered as he gazed at Ye Qiyan with those eyes that ceaselessly streamed tears of blood.

Or to be precise.

At the Cube in his hand.

"You've already obtained this Cube, already obtained this power, so why won't you let me go? Fate, truly unfair... I clearly never wanted to possess any talent, yet it gave me that damned Surpass the Stars. I clearly abandoned everything just to rot away in this world...

But still, someone found me... Heh, heheheh... Kill me then. Do whatever you want, I no longer have the strength to resist."

Zhou Shangqing staggered, painfully falling to his knees, lowering his head. The events of the past, like spikes after spikes, ceaselessly pierced through his heart, leaving it riddled with holes.

Ye Qiyan looked at him and shook his head.

"I never said I was going to kill you, Senior. I'm just curious about some things, that's why I need to restore your memories. Mm, no time to waste, first tell me, why are you here?

From what I know, you should already be dead. At least, your avatar is grayed out in many people's Friends Lists."

[Bewitchment × Defiance]

Ye Qiyan sat on the shattered Black Throne, having Lisette, who had finished Overdrive, sit beside him.

Nine Demon Cards condensed into a ring behind him, slowly rotating.

[Malice] surged.

The weakened Zhou Shangqing had no way to resist the Bewitchment enhanced by Defiance.

Though, he had never intended to lie anyway.

He pulled a wretched smile and spoke:

"Since you recognize me, you should also know what I did, right?"

"Crossed the Wasteland, drove for a year, then disappeared?"

"Yes... But no one knows what happened after that."

Zhou Shangqing's body kept trembling. Just as he was about to continue describing, Ye Qiyan interrupted, "Oh right, actually it doesn't matter if you don't say it. Let me see for myself."

"Myself?"

"Yes, myself~"

The Talent Cube storing [Surpass the Stars] vanished, replaced by another Cube identical in appearance but different in color.

[Talent Cube · Memory]

[Talent: Memory]

[Uses Remaining: 9/10]

[After use, consumes a large amount of Spirit to construct a memory space of past experiences. Everything within the space is False, but everything within was once real.]

The Cube obtained in RUN Company's special Subspace didn't just contain that ordinary stone.

Since he was curious about Zhou Shangqing's past, he might as well use it to directly construct the scenes of memory.

"Come, don't resist. Though it makes no difference even if you do."

Talent Activated.

Spirit consumed.

A dim yellow glow of memory was drawn out from Zhou Shangqing's forehead.

He stared blankly at that Cube for a long time, and truly did not resist at all.

The space finished constructing.

Illusory light and shadow interwove with the real past.

Within this small alley, a tiny sandbox world called [Memory] was constructed.

And within that world, Zhou Shangqing's memories, like a vivid 3D movie, were presented before Ye Qiyan's eyes.

[Spirit: 600→100]

[Memory, Begin]

[Scene One]

Within the memory world.

Zhou Shangqing's train appeared here, streamlined, covered with special Dynamic Train Skins also used to provide speed.

And the speed of this train, even within this memory world, felt incredibly fast.

But the scenery outside the train window remained that Wasteland and boundary line that had never undergone any change.

Now, it was Zhou Shangqing's final day driving through the Wasteland.

In that moment, he curled up in a corner of the locomotive section, trembling all over.

"Of course it doesn't work. It just doesn't work. It definitely won't work! I told them long ago, even using that world-burning engine might not help!

So many people died. No, it's not my fault, it's not my fault at all..."

He ceaselessly muttered. Before him, on the system interface, were various messages.

["How is it? Any progress?"]

["Any changes in the Wasteland?"]

["A new batch of world fuel will be sent to you soon. Remember to check it."]

"World fuel... No, don't do it anymore, don't do this kind of thing again..."

Outside the memory world, Zhou Shangqing clutched his head, as if recalling something incredibly terrifying, banging his head against the ground, as though only pain could offset the agony in his heart.

"World fuel? What is that?"

Ye Qiyan asked curiously.

"That was something I made up..."

The scene within the memory world changed the moment he said those words.

In the scene, Zhou Shangqing was conversing with a group of men and women whose faces were blurred, indistinguishable, whose voices were unrecognizable.

["Using world fuel is the only way to make your talent pair with that special engine from the level 50 upgrade options and advance at full speed?"]

["Never heard of such a thing, but we can look for it."]

"My train, with their help, was raised from level 35 to level 50. This kind of thing shouldn't have been possible... Because Train Coins given as help by others wouldn't be permitted by the train, but... someone used a certain System privilege, at the cost of consuming thousands of times the resources.

Forcibly raised my train up while also not making the upgrade options become too terrible..."

"But even so, it could only raise my train to level 50, because the later upgrade materials, even for them, were difficult to afford..."

Zhou Shangqing's body trembled more and more violently.

"I was actually lying the whole time. I was the one who told them I could cross the Wasteland, could use my talent to try and find the end of the world... But I knew very well this was absolutely impossible... So, I told them about a special fuel that had never existed.

I originally thought that as long as this fuel couldn't be found, they would give up supplying me, give up their expectations for me, and that plan would just end! But..."

The scene shifted, and it was several Wasteland months later.

["Found it. Didn't expect it, but world fuel really is the traces left behind after incinerating an entire world, and that can serve as fuel."]

["This stuff isn't bad, just gets consumed pretty fast. We tried it with a level 13 furnace, and about two blocks burn in a day.

It's just that those people from the Celestial Realm are a pain, insisting on relocating the natives inside, otherwise we wouldn't need one or two years to prepare. About half a year would be enough to collect it."]