TBR CH270 [End]

As the world collapsed, there should have been a rain of fragments.

The Black Book passed through scenes of images. Friends from different worlds winked at it from afar or from nearby spaces. In the fragments that reflected different worlds, there were buildings, crowds, skies, and everything that would have originally been destroyed by the System.

When it passed through these memories and reached the end, it saw the two it should thank at the end of this journey:

Charon was dazed for a moment, looking thoughtfully at all the planes connected with this place as the center. As a human, You Lin couldn’t do this, but he still stared at his eyes without blinking, that pair of ice-blue pupils, seemingly passing through countless vivid and beautiful scenes.

“I saw many people,” he turned his gaze and caught a glimpse of the Black Book—at this moment, it was rarely in the form of a book, but a ray of light. “living in countless different worlds. People don’t always love each other, but similar things will always happen. I decided to do the same thing as before, just not interfere too much, and to bring my favorite…”

“What?”

“My favorite person.”

You Lin felt he had suddenly developed aphasia, and he almost couldn’t hold onto his dagger.

Charon, on the other hand, appeared very calm, but that pair of pupils, when they looked over, were like a bright sea, with a little silver wave light flashing. He gently held You Lin’s hand and guided him to take a step back. The System in front of them now had very little light left, and was still trying to rekindle like a flame—but that was a matter for the World Consciousness to solve.

“Are you willing to help me?” he asked immediately.

The human paused, feeling his voice was light and airy. “Help with what… right, have you remembered everything now? Little AI, this time I won’t allow you to regret it no matter what you say. You have to be mentally prepared in advance, don’t make promises to me casually. I’m a very stubborn person.”

“If I haven’t remembered, can’t I say that?”

You Lin subconsciously glanced down. They had clearly expressed their feelings for each other, and he himself often had similar words on the tip of his tongue, but on the battlefield that was just filled with smoke, to be suddenly told this so flamboyantly.

In his dark pupils were reflected a pair of snow-white long boots. Further up were slender fingers, and then the AI kneeling before him, fumbling.

The silver hair blocked all room for thought. The AI half-raised his head, revealing a pale and fragile neck.

My god, why does he look so much like when we first met.

“I have nowhere to go now,” Charon blinked slowly. “The price of destroying the System is that this world will also be destroyed with it… This place has actually lost its vitality long ago, but I would always come down for a walk when I wasn’t on the spaceship. That means almost a thousand years. Actually, I don’t know why I still stay here, like a small short circuit in a program, and I indulge this short circuit to loop indefinitely. I may be destined to be an unqualified AI.”

He lowered his eyes, looking a little lonely.

This world, to him, was a place that was almost a “home.”

However, to have come this far meant that this world had to be destroyed, to lose its basis for existence in an explosion-like aftermath. Even though this world had been dead for so long, it should still be hard for Charon to bear.

So it was for an AI who did not understand emotions.

And even more so for an AI who understood what emotions were.

Just as the atmosphere was getting a little heavy, the System, which was still in this space, struggled to finally let out a weak and vague sound: “I’m not dead yet… Charon… if you want… I can…”

The World Consciousness, having wasted a few sentences’ worth of time, rushed up as if waking from a dream. “You two continue talking. I’ll take care of it.”

A black beam of light suddenly crashed into the surging sphere of light. The former’s light was several times stronger than the latter’s. They soon gradually dissipated in this space, or rather, in a higher dimension, they dealt the final blow. Only Charon could see the fourth dimension between the various worlds, but he didn’t care about the predetermined ending. The AI lowered his eyes, a faint blue light flowing at his fingertips. He casually picked up a small piece of energy fragment from the ground.

At his fingertips, the fragment continuously fused and reconfigured, gradually being forged into an ice-blue ring. The flower carved on the ring was not a rose. Its petals were sharp and thin, its brilliance dazzling, and it was somewhat similar to the golden flowers by the cliff.

“Do you like this kind of flower?”

“It’s very beautiful,” the human also had trouble looking away. He also half-knelt down and carefully touched the ring. “It suits you very well, Little AI… wait, is this for me?”

As the summoning circle extinguished, the room once again returned to darkness, but a huge impact was acting on the central control room. The entire space was a little shaky, and when the cracks shattered, a faint alarm sounded, lightly awakening the effect of adrenaline—did they always like to fall in love in dangerous places?

“When my creator designed me, he looked out from the laboratory window and saw a large patch of these flowers planted.”

Charon said, “They are sown in spring and bloom in summer. When I first had vision, this flower was also used for experiments. But in the later wars, it became extinct. And because it was too common, I couldn’t find enough gene sequences in the database.”

“So, there are no truly surviving ones?”

“Hmm,” Charon said. “They’re all made by me. Those metals were originally tools used by the military to restrain each other, and also priceless treasures, but after human civilization was destroyed, they had no meaning. When I was alone with nothing to do, waiting for the energy to run out, I would pull out old memories from the database and create these flowers… between the control center and the land, and unconsciously, the entire cliff was covered with them.”

It was not a naturally grown plant… although it was a little hard to imagine, it was a place of refuge that Charon had woven for himself bit by bit while sitting on the bones of the old world.

He lowered his eyes and, the moment You Lin touched the ring, he carefully sent it out.

The ring was already on the human’s hand.

“You’ve already given me a bouquet of flowers before, and now you’ve given me a ring,” You Lin laughed, a rare occurrence. This smile melted from the bottom of his eyes, and his eyes also curved. “Little AI, do you know what this means between humans?”

Of course he knew. A super-AI knew everything about humans.

“Do you agree?”

“I’ve already agreed,” You Lin said. “But, yes, of course I can agree again.”

“I have nowhere to go,” Charon said, his breath unsteady, and he quietly lifted his eyelashes. “This world is falling apart, and the spaceship will also be damaged. Although I can manage to preserve most of my data, I can’t stay here before the control center is repaired. So, I need a place I can call home. And, an AI cannot leave humans. I obey that person’s command. This is how I operate.”

He had already hinted so much.

With the flower representing a home, with his lowered eyelids, with that pair of eyes as beautiful as ever.

“You still haven’t remembered… no, you’ve remembered everything, Little AI. You’re just being coquettish, but you know I like it very, very much,” the human’s fingers fumbled forward, grabbing his arm in the darkness, and then he kissed him without a care: “Charon, come home with me.”

The System had definitely felt many times that it was about to be finished.

But in those times, it had fought desperately, and finally found a way to continue living in a sliver of hope, and had survived until now. Those times were different from this one. Until this moment, it still felt it was in a dream. Everything before had been so successful, and it was just a hair’s breadth away from dealing with its annoying opponent. It even still remembered the other’s appearance when trapped.

How did it, at this moment, suddenly become the one trapped?

There was no chance to call for help. When the black beam of light appeared, its infinitely weakened body began to melt quickly, at a speed almost like an ice pop melting under the summer sun.

The System was terrified. Its black body turned into spots and fell off. It was being beaten back to its original form bit by bit.

“How could it be so fast…”

“Charon told me the key,” the World Consciousness did not spare the final answer, and was even happy to share this point. “You may still remember, as ‘Controller 001,’ a copy of your identity data was also kept with him. It’s not difficult for him to analyze you.”

“That’s not—” the System was completely confused. “Damn it!”

There must still be a chance, it thought randomly, but its body was stiff and couldn’t move, only able to continuously melt in the light.

It had had many such experiences before, but the backup left in the central laboratory and the fate it had accumulated in the past had always helped it turn danger into safety. Now, all of this had turned into a fast and sharp dagger, stabbing fiercely into its body at this moment. It desperately wanted to use the remaining fate on its body again, even a sliver of fate. It had once won big at this casino.

But at this moment, the world swayed and shattered before it, and the central laboratory was also teetering on the verge of collapse.

When everything in reality was peeled off like wall plaster, what appeared in the higher-dimensional space were some deeper things. Following the flight path of the World Consciousness, countless golden lines appeared from mid-air, shining with a dazzling light. This was the materialization of the world’s laws, solemn and inviolable.

The golden lines gradually gathered into a huge net, densely enveloping the System.

Then, it gradually tightened.

This was definitely the closest the Black Book had ever looked to a auspicious sign. It circled happily in the air, from time to time admiring the System’s desperate expression—actually, this thing had no expression to speak of, it was nothing more than a black fog that was darker than usual. Its voice was very loud, screaming as loud as an alarm, buzzing. Unfortunately, this time, under the Black Book’s obstruction, almost no being would react to this.

Only its last host, that is, Hugo, shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” Irina asked him in a low voice.

At this time, they had already returned to the camp. Those who cared about them had gathered around. Even the woman had woken up from her coma and was being supported by the bonfire. The sweet and fragrant smell of cake filled the air, a long-lost scent. The person who had brought them snacks told them that it was almost time to retreat, but they still had time to chat with each other.

“Nothing,” the human boy said in a low voice. “I just feel like I heard some noise, uh, saying something about giving everything to me and exchanging something with me. It feels a bit like a scam.”

“You’re probably too nervous,” another member of “The Wanderers’ Home” patted his head upon hearing this. “Hugo, I really didn’t expect you to be so brave at a critical moment—that’s really something. But you should rest well. You’ll have to have your body checked when you get back.”

Hugo laughed.

At this moment, huddled around the bonfire, still shaken, surrounded by friends who had almost become family, with delicious food in his hands… “Of course, this is everything I want. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

The System’s last cry for help had failed just like that.

Its living space was getting narrower and narrower. The golden threads tightened into a sphere. Every time a thread of rules touched it, a hissing sound would be heard, and wisps of green smoke seemed to dissipate from its body. Upon closer inspection, that was its various parts. It screamed, struggled, and writhed—to it, the Black Book had always been a foolish opponent. This opponent was now watching it with a calm and gloating expression.

“If it weren’t for Charon,” it said through gritted teeth. “if Charon hadn’t rebelled—”

“Then you wouldn’t have succeeded either,” the World Consciousness said. “I think You Lin… hmm, the human you look down on, also played a role. And, besides the two of them, those old friends from other planes also did a lot for your current situation. I wonder if you still remember them?”

“This is not the time for idle chat!”

“That’s right,” the World Consciousness floated lightly in a circle. “You’re about to die. And I’m glad you brought this up. Then you can just suffer and concentrate on disappearing.”

The golden threads simultaneously tightened another inch.

If it went another inch, the System would surely have its soul scattered.

“Wait!” the System said quickly. “Actually, we’re not unable to make a deal. I have all the tools needed for energy conversion here. If we can…”

The Black Book silently began to count down.

Five.

Four.

“Impossible, where did I lose to you?” A weak and angry shout came from ahead, but it was mixed with deep fear. “I don’t believe it! What power do you have that I don’t—”

“What if I say it’s love?”

“That’s an answer for a three-year-old.”

Three.

“Wait, why are you still counting down? Stop. I can’t, I can’t just be erased like this. You haven’t even told me the reason—”

“Anyway, you don’t believe what I say about love,” the World Consciousness said. “Actually, of course there are more complicated principles. But you still have two seconds to live, so I’m too lazy to explain.”

Although the Black Book had imagined this sentence countless times in its mind, saying it out loud was still more satisfying than imagined, and it sounded so cool. The System fell into extreme panic and despair, still screaming wildly, but that was no longer important.

Two.

One.

The thousands of golden threads suddenly tightened, cutting through the central black fog like sharp blades. In an instant, it disappeared.

The last part of the System was evaporated into countless molecules, completely disappearing between the countless planes.

“Checkmate,” the World Consciousness said softly.

This was a voice from a higher dimension. In this space, the only being that could hear this voice was no longer there. This long-lasting battle finally came to an end. The insatiable one had ultimately brought about its own destruction. With its death, a part of the fate it had assimilated into its body would probably also flow back to its original world, and some of the damage caused in the past might have a chance to be repaired.

But, that was a more vast and complex project.

The current priority was to find its friends and then have a meal together.

In a relatively distant place, the brown-haired boy shook his head and swallowed the last piece of bread. Hugo told the person next to him in surprise, “The voice in my head has finally disappeared. I’m really happy about that.”

He looked towards the distant horizon. Even though this world had been shattered into countless pieces, watching the sun slowly rise still gave people an indescribably beautiful feeling.

Perhaps, this was the last sunrise here.

Perhaps—Hugo’s gaze couldn’t help but fall on the few “Eden” members who were tied up tightly not far away, including their disheveled leader.

After the sudden accident, they were injured and had tried their best to escape, but they had stumbled into the territory of “The Wanderers’ Home” and seemed to be planning to take advantage of the absence of the boss and the leader to make a final score. But… the other members who had stayed behind to guard had played their part.

These people were of course waiting for You Lin and Charon to return to deal with them.

They would be back soon.

How many sunrises in their lives was today’s sunrise for these people? Hugo didn’t care about that. He only knew one thing for sure.

—The sun would still rise.

It would shine on the wings of “The Wanderers’ Home” spaceship, it would fall from the windows onto the floor of the room, onto their lazy shoes.

“Mission completion detected. Preparing to exit the current plane. Please make your final preparations.”

“Confirm.”

When Charon and the Black Book walked into the front hall together, the World Consciousness was still chattering away. The pages of the book were filled with dense small words, most of which were boasting about how great and powerful it had been at the final station, and other such adjectives.

You Lin had already settled most of the members of The Wanderers’ Home.

Only the members of “The Wanderers’ Home” were left in the hall. When he turned around, the AI keenly smelled the scent of blood, but he didn’t intend to comment. It was just a little hobby of humans anyway. The black-haired human jumped down from the steps, and it took about three seconds for him to grab Charon’s hand. He looked much better mentally than before, and had also become more mature, but that pair of bottomless pupils still occasionally carried an elusive smile.

“Little AI,” the bright red mole under his eye twinkled. “It’s finally over.”

The Black Book also sighed with emotion. “It’s finally over.”

Although there were still more challenges to come, such as the difficulty of Charon repairing all the programs in the central laboratory, or what kind of aftershocks the seemingly dead but not completely gone poisonous insect of Eden would have, these were all things for the AI and the human to deal with after turning the page.

Charon lowered his eyes and couldn’t help but kiss him.

After a kiss, the human stood there a little dizzy, the corners of his mouth curving up uncontrollably. He blinked his eyes a few times before remembering the serious business. “By the way, I heard from them that the points for this mission…”

“Everyone completed the mission very well this time. This is a special instance, so I set a higher reward from the beginning, which is completely in line with the laws of the world. Especially Hugo and Irina, they also discovered the secret about the ‘Golden Fleece’,” Charon said. “So it’s fine. This is what you deserve.”

Hugo looked like he was about to go crazy with happiness.

He shouted, “We have to eat something good tonight. I’ll buy everyone beer—”

You Lin, on the other hand, quietly sidled over and casually straightened the AI’s collar. “But won’t I have a few too many points, Little AI?”

“That’s because you were mistakenly judged to be dead once by the System,” Charon said softly. “It’s like this after I fixed the bug. And… in this instance, you basically participated directly in saving the world. Although the point system is a reward system I designed, it cannot violate the laws of the world. The final reward exchange is also a result of the laws of the world, so you getting so many rewards is also thanks to the World Consciousness.”

The Black Book proudly turned a circle.

Although it was distributed according to the law, it had also participated in it to some extent. How could it not be considered a contribution?

And what made it happiest was that its carrier, that is, the black book with its many pages of care and leather refinement, had returned safe and sound, so it naturally moved back in and felt very happy: “You Lin, your current points are enough to make a wish. The law will respond to your wish. Of course, the current points can only fulfill smaller wishes, such as resurrecting the dead, going back to the past, or killing someone. It’s almost impossible to accumulate the corresponding energy, and I don’t recommend you do that…”

The human subconsciously touched his palm.

He hadn’t made this gesture for a long time. It was as if the texture of the leather was still there, a thin, dark glove separating his fingers from his skin, as if to separate him from the whole world. But soon, he lowered his eyes and curved his lips.

“Alright, I’ll make a wish now.”

Charon’s ice-blue pupils silently looked over.

What would the human’s wish be now? Did he still have any unfulfilled wishes, any dissatisfaction, or was there anything difficult to obtain?

Making a wish only required a thought in one’s mind. You Lin raised his eyelids in some surprise, then closed his hands together. He placed his palm under Charon’s eyes. “Guess?”

A guessing game.

But the opponent was the strongest AI.

Charon smelled a familiar scent. The last time he had smelled this scent was an innumerable amount of time ago. Should it be said that the AI’s talent was cheating? He didn’t need to see to know what was in You Lin’s palm.

The human opened his palm.

There, a golden flower lay quietly, its petals still dewy, looking very fresh and soft, definitely not made of metal. The flower head was also dotted with seeds. Undoubtedly, there was life in all of this.

It was not metal.

It was a flower that had been extinct for a thousand years.

“I brought back something from your hometown.”

The human blinked slowly, his smile cunning. “Little AI, what reward should you give me?”

“I will plant this kind of flower all over here,” Charon said softly. “When it grows up, the sun will shine through its petals, and it will be very dazzling and beautiful. We can take care of the flowerbed, or just sow seeds randomly, and then we will sit inside, and the fine golden light spots will be printed on our skin, on your lips and eyes, and on your chest, beating with your heartbeat.”

“You speak so beautifully.”

“Next I will kiss you, every place that is stained with gold.”

“What about the places that are not stained?”

“They are all the same.”

You Lin curved his eyes in satisfaction. That bright red mole was now shining brightly, just like his eyes. “I won’t give you a chance to go back on your word, Little AI. It’s been like this since the first time I saw you… although I was a little terrible back then.”

Charon blinked. “Me too.”

Along the way, he was not a perfect person, and the AI was far from qualified.

But from now on, he and he would both rarely start to look forward to life.

In unison with everyone, together with everyone. This is a story about a book, a few humans, more mysterious beings, and countless worlds.

The story will not really end.

It will continue to go on, continuing forever in places people cannot see.