Chapter 18

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

A new project that’s unknown to everyone? It sounds like part of a conspiracy. When Jian Yiguang said it, it also carried an antagonistic tone… It is probably not something good that people would want to hear about.

Bai Lianhua lets his imagination run wild for a moment, and he tenses up and feels tingly on his skin. Though Jian Yiguang continues to hold his hand out to feed him, looking as if he’s not moving even if he wouldn’t take it. His lips are even perking up.

——Oi, is this the time to be eating fruit casually?!

Oh well. Bai Lianhua can only take the bairong fruit. He doesn’t feel like eating it though, so he puts it aside in a bowl.

He asks quietly, “what project are you talking about?”

Jian Yiguang giggles, “a research that achieves effective immortality for all; no one has to face the pain of separation anymore.”

Bai Lianhua “…” Should I be amazed?

He’s been through quite a few worlds and immortality is a common dream shared within them, but none of the worlds have actually achieved it. It doesn’t exist in spacefaring worlds with their incomprehensible technologies, nor in the completely unscientific supernatural worlds… Even in cultivation worlds only a few elders can manage to ascend and share their lives with the Heavens. Other cultivators would still be concerned over their longevity, or Wen Fu’s age complementation body wouldn’t have been seen as that special in the last world.

What Jian Yiguang just said sound noble and ideal, but it’s vague. He can’t conclude anything useful from that.

“What do you mean?” Pausing, Bai Lianhua furrows his brows, “and I don’t understand why you’d suddenly want to research this.”

Thanks to technological advancements, life expectancy is extended quite a bit for humans in this world, reaching 200 years in length. Jian Yiguang is 30 this year, so he’s clearly still young and has a long life ahead of him.

Unless——

“It’s because of that. I thought you died before…” It looks as if Jian Yiguang is smiling, “I don’t want you to die. I hate the concept of death itself. So I was thinking, how great it would be if we could exist forever.”

“Human lives are limited when it comes to extending life expectancy, but there are countless possibilities when it comes to just the conscience. What I need to do now is to realise this limitless potential and rid us of our useless baggages.”

“The best choice to achieve this is in the virtual world.”

Jian Yiguang patiently and rationally lays out his thoughts in front of Bai Lianhua, like a teacher teaching a student. Through his description, Bai Lianhua finally understands his line of thought——Jian Yiguang is planning to virtualise the whole world, and have the virtual world consume the entire real world.

According to Jian Yiguang, without bodily constraints, and everyone is but a consciousness, then there is no longer the concept of death.

He has had this thought for more than a few years, ever since Bai Lianhua left. It is for this purpose that he worked his way up to his current position.

After all, completing his ambition would require ample funds, top-class machinery, complete access to information for referencing in the institute… These can only be achieved when he’s at the top of the empire.

If he were still the odd, insociable, unknown weirdo that could only hide his tracks those days, Jian Yiguang would never achieve his goals.

So that’s why Jian Yiguang decided to take up scientific research back then, and then even making himself public to start a revolution soon afterwards.

Bai Lianhua’s jaws are dropping. Was this the fundamental reason Jian Yiguang changed?

——It seems, the root cause… is the shock from his so-called ‘death.’

If this were true, then his sins would be unbearable.

The system also laments, “host, what a sinful white lotus you are. A prime example of an evil beauty… If the antagonist really put that into action, then you’ll never be able to be cleansed again. Just this causality relation would be enough for you to have been tainted black by the antagonist.”

Bai Lianhua “…”

He’s not interested in arguing with the system for now. His head already hurts from this.

Jian Yiguang is the researcher of the field of psychic power in the entire empire. He’s got the resources, the social position, and the manpower. If he wanted to pull tricks with the celestial Internet in the future, there will be no one to stop him.

Rather, if Jian Yiguang told any excuse at all, like modifying the setup of the celestial Internet, then people would be practically welcoming him on board, not the least bit alert to his antics.

Jian Yiguang’s research is already halfway done.

Bai Lianhua doesn’t dare question Jian Yiguang’s intelligence at all. It’s important to know that the antagonists are able to jeopardise a whole world because they already are a sort of blessed existence in the world, only walking the wrong path due to numerous reasons.

Jian Yiguang is, essentially, basically a bug-like existence in the world. Nothing is impossible under his guidance. If he really wanted, there’s nothing he can’t do.

In these worlds, there isn’t any ‘protagonist’ in the traditional sense. Put another way, Jian Yiguang himself is the one and only protagonist, the chosen one in this world.

Jian Yiguang is still speaking.

“How great it would be when everyone becomes a string of data. Then as long as the main server is maintained, nobody will die anymore.”

“Besides, originally, didn’t they want to trap me forever in the virtual world? Then now this is my present to them. I’ll let the whole world into the virtual world. What a great idea, no?”

——Before, with Bai Lianhua accompanying him, he did force himself to suppress his misanthropic tendencies, instead hoping to live a mundane, normal life. Yet, unfortunately, with Bai Lianhua’s departure, the barrier he forced himself into broke down, and he took revenge on everyone he needed to.

Still, even in the present, when his reprisals have been completed in full, his mind is still far from feeling peace. There is still a deep-seated hatred bubbling on its own.

Bai Lianhua’s reappearance, though, has acted as a soothing agent that has calmed him down a lot recently.

Bai Lianhua is panicking, trying to make Jian Yiguang give up on this terrifying project.

“But I’m back already. I didn’t die…”

He’s still able to run and jump and dance! He’ll be able to keep this up for a hundred years, promise!

Jian Yiguang is actually smiling now, “all the more reason to complete this project.”

“Before, I wanted to settle my grudges. If it were not for them, I wouldn’t have experienced all those, and I wouldn’t therefore have suffered hidden damages, which meant you wouldn’t have had to sacrifice yourself.”

“Now, you’re back. Even better, then we can stay together forever, never separating again… Not just us. Nobody will have to face the parting of loved ones again. Isn’t this better for everyone?”

Bai Lianhua “???” Wait, who promised to stay together with you in the first place again?

No no no, that’s not the problem here… If he didn’t tell him, who would have guessed that the highly respected Jian Yiguang is secretly pushing such a mad plan into action?

This is even scarier than what has happened in the original timeline, where he completely severed the virtual world from the real world resulting in tragedy for the few. Now he’s gotten worse, wanting to consume the real world with the virtual world, and have everyone live in it.

Bai Lianhua also finally understands, “so recently, you…” have only been acting? He was right to think that Jian Yiguang didn’t seem interested in his research topic.

Right, with such a project on his hands, no wonder Jian Yiguang is completely uninterested in the little topic of psychic invisibility… If his wishes were to come true, then everyone would become a conscience, so there’s no longer a need to use psychic power to make physical things invisible.

Jian Yiguang admits it frankly, “it’s not to arouse your suspicion, and also to keep you here. I’ve thought about how I could keep you living here and research was a good excuse.”

A study with an attached living space that’s isolated can also make him feel secure.

“Though you still learnt about it all in the end… You’ve always been the one that would throw my plans into chaos.”

Bai Lianhua is quiet for a moment before asking him to stop again.

Jian Yiguang doesn’t look angry either, just asking in a serious tone, “Bai Lianhua, on what grounds are you trying to stop me?”

“Do you no longer feel supportive of me?”

——That tone that sounds as if abandoned, or wronged makes Bai Lianhua feel as if he choked on his words.

Jeez. Does Jian Yiguang know how unnatural he looks when he says something so self-demeaning while having an abstinence-style face?

But what he said can be traced back. When Jian Yiguang was tortured continuously in the laboratories before, to help rebuild his shattered confidence, Bai Lianhua did repeatedly assure him that he’s the best and he will be supportive of Jian Yiguang no matter what.

Bai Lianhua words his sentences carefully, “like I saved you back then, I say this on the grounds of the people who need to be saved.”

“I don’t think your idea is good. Perhaps some people would want to live forever even if they had to give up everything, but there must also be some people that would rather spend a short life and meet their end in the real world than being trapped forever in the virtual world. It would be wrong of you to decide it for them.”

There is a deathly silence.

It almost made Bai Lianhua fail to keep up his posture and demonstrate what a thin, lone branch on a tree would be like as it trembles and curls up into itself.

“Right. Back then, you helped me because of that as well, not because I was Jian Yiguang… If it were someone else, you would also have helped them because of your kindness.”

“I like everything about you, but I hate your way of doing stuff that always put morality first…” Jian Yiguang lowers his head, and self-mockingly pouts, “but I can’t hate it from the bottom of my heart either. If it were not for this quality of yours, how would you have ever noticed me and built a relationship with me outside of research?”

Bai Lianhua “…” Oof. You’ve made me both the good guy and the bad guy here, so what else can I say?

“Then what do we do now?” Jian Yiguang sits up straight, “perhaps expose my true self in front of the whole empire?”

He sits quietly for a few seconds, then without waiting for Bai Lianhua’s response, he starts to pack up the files and rises, “today’s research session is over. You can take a rest.”

“Bai Lianhua, I won’t restrict you from accessing the celestial Internet. The choice is yours.”

Bai Lianhua is stunned by this series of unconventional moves Jian Yiguang has decided to make.

And when Jian Yiguang has already casually walked to the door, he stops and turns his head around.

“Right, don’t forget to try the bairong fruit. I peeled it for you myself.”

——Don’t be like then, and let it rot again.

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