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Everyone has their eyes wide, looking at each other for confirmation, like they couldn’t hear Xü Beijin clearly just now.
Until Xü Beijin repeats himself with a bigger smile this time, “we’ve succeeded! We can finally leave this godforsaken game!”
Great roars of joy erupt in the bookstore.
Looking at them, still smiling, XĂź Beijin feels himself getting swept up by the mood, energised.
Thinking so, he pulls Lin Qin closer to him from his side, locks right onto his slightly opened, confused lips and kisses.
The rest of the people present are egging them on, but Xü Beijin couldn’t care less——So what! He and his little apple is just sharing a kiss!
Soon enough, the news has spread throughout the bottom floor; Xü Beijin also informs all the contacts and Guarantors and tells them to announce it to everyone else – they can try logging out of the game now.
During this time, Xü Beijin has also confirmed and double-confirmed with the Maerton delegate that the Fy’ecas are completely done for.
The delegate is even kind enough to explain what they did, but Xü Beijin couldn’t understand the explanation at all.
Eh. The difference between humans and the Maertons has always been a great big gap anyway.
The joy of the Maerton delegate definitely came across, though, probably from defeating their age-old rivals. The delegate is also asking XĂź Beijin and Lin Qin to provide their body specs for the humanoid cyborg forms they promised.
Xü Beijin can find the data easily through NE’s database, which reflects their bodies as they entered the game. He is able to access the data via Liang Zhiyi’s brain.
Perhaps soon enough, XĂź Beijin and Lin Qin can leave this game as well.
At least, it looks like the Maertons have information on where these subordinate species are imprisoned——Well, probably as a side product of investigating where their own kind was held as prisoners of war.
Xü Beijin also asked if the delegate knew where they would be if they exit the ‘arena’ of the Maertons for this particular game. The delegate gave him one simple answer.
“The Earth…”
When people gradually rise up from their nutrient pods, they feel quite disoriented——Like just waking up from a bad dream.
Their bodies are stiff, but not crippled.
Everyone is raising their hands by reflex, to look at their hands, their fingers, their palms.
It’s the familiar body, the familiar appearance. Their body, their real, familiar, yet worse for the wear, body.
And not a bunch of data in a programme.
Feelings overwhelm them like they never have before. The most prominent feelings are gratitude, ecstasy and satisfaction.
Some bawl out right then and there. Some are looking at every inch of their body carefully, like it’s a whole new thing they’ve never seen before.
They’re in reality. They can feel the gravity pushing on their bodies, which isn’t at all uncomfortable. In fact, it’s homely.
Some are breathing quite loudly, like they’ve never breathed properly in their lives before. The action is written in their instincts, in their brains, but all their biological needs have been neglected in the game…
It’s like coming back to life anew, instead of just having escaped from some game.
The vast, gargantuan, white room lit at the ceiling, has become noisy and chaotic for the first time in a very long time.
People are happy, people are sad; people are laughing, people are crying; some have even gone so far as to embrace their closest person, and bawl – not in pain, but in joy.
The first time they ever opened their eyes in the Tower, they never realised it was going to be such a long imprisonment.
All the nights they spent in their – their eyes in the real life only shut and opened once, and it has all come to pass.
But nothing has come to pass – they were trapped. Trapped in destitution and depression.
They are finally able to breathe fresh air once more, returning to reality once more.
No longer imprisoned in a virtual world, they’re back——Back where they longed for.
Not a single person can stay calm and collected.
Not even the usually reticent Mu Jiashi can keep his eyes from reddening and tearing up.
When Xü Beijin said “we’ve succeeded,” he’d already lost control of his emotions.
Now, once again, he feels unrealistically joyful, that a dream has finally come true.
They——They really won! They’re really back!
He is standing there blankly, with tears out, but his lips are in a big smile.
It’s quite the twisted expression, really, but no one else is paying attention at this point.
“Y’all-?!”
That is when the entrance – a white door shut tight, suddenly opens.
An old, ailing man walks in, shocked at the great amount of laughing and crying people within.
It also sends the people closest to him, the humans who just escaped from the Tower, into bewilderment.
There are actually humans still outside?!
Many people rush forth at once, but they’re able to restrain themselves and order themselves a little. It’s clear the old man is also quite apprehensive.
Mu Jiashi wipes his tears away and walks over to talk – fortunately, their languages are still mutually intelligible. They seem to share a cultural background still, even despite the years passed.
However, just a simple conversation has allowed Mu Jiashi to understand how dramatically things have changed outside.
They’re still on Earth.
But, it has been 200 years.
The old man is also crying at this point, telling them, “we’re a colony right now. There are barely a few tens of thousands of people still living outside. The Fy’eca have strict population control in place, and we can only have 100 offsprings per year at most.
They think we have no value, but they also don’t want the trouble that comes with openly defying the Universal Accords, so they brutally terraformed Earth back to bare habitability and put us back here.
The youngest children, they don’t understand what’s happened… They’ve heard of the Apocalypse, and they have learned about the past, but they have never seen what human civilisation was at its peak.
We’ve had our backbones fractured by them. We didn’t dare show any resistance. Whenever they needed cannon fodder on the battlefield, the Fy’eca would also pick them here…
Not long ago, they were selecting young ones to fight again… but they were deemed too weak and so we were ‘spared.’
We all know… we all know, we’re only their slaves.
We had no way of resisting. Earth is——Well, I mean, was, full of artificial intelligence, that watched our every move…”
The voice turns from a shaky tone into a fearful tone. Until the voice has died down entirely, its owner shaking uncontrollably.
The large room, filled with murmurs, also slowly quiets down.
Not everyone heard the old man speak, but they were passing what was said along.
Most only realise now that, while they’ve made it out of the Tower, they actually know nothing of the outside world right now.
Fy’eca? What’s that?
There are a lot who haven’t even figured out for themselves what the Apocalypse actually was, and just blindly followed the others leaving the Tower.
Never mind those who have succumbed in the Nightmares in the long past. They look like they’re absolutely lost, looking around all confused.
Nobody knows anything.
But not Mu Jiashi, who has immediately latched onto a keyword, “‘was,’ you said? Did something happen outside?”
“The AIs…” The old man lowers his voice subconsciously a little, and explains, “it’s like… they all suddenly broke down or something, and collapsed on the ground, all stunned… Like they’ve crashed or something.”
Mu Jiashi furrows his brows.
Is this what XĂź Beijin was talking about? Did their outside help do this?
The old man continues, “this area has always been managed by the AIs, and it’s restricted to us. But my own ‘pa has told me in secret about what happened here.
He, and some others, designed the game you were in. They say they left as much information as they could in the game, but… honestly, there wasn’t much they could do at all… we…
The newest generation don’t even have any idea you existed right now. Even those at my age, only a handful still remember.”