The pitch-black flames erupted violently in the grand hall, and the building, already on the verge of collapse, teetered under the impact. Yu Sheng heard ominous sounds of cracking coming from all directions, and as far as he could see, all the walls and the remaining part of the roof in the hall were rapidly splitting open.Through those wide cracks, he could see the material structure of the entire Royal City quickly disintegrating. The broken remnants of structures turned into fluttering paper fragments, which then swiftly burned into ashes and evaporated into the twilight of this world's last day.
The armored figure had already rushed into the flames in the center of the hall and was engulfed by them in the blink of an eye.
He heard Erin cursing nearby, along with a gasp from Hu Li.
Then, everything began to slow down.
It was as if the final "time order" of this world also went awry. Everything before Yu Sheng's eyes rapidly became almost stagnant. The violently erupting black flames paused a few meters before reaching him, and the dust that had risen due to the collapsing building also hovered suspended in the air.
All colors faded away, and familiar black, white, and gray filled his vision.
Yu Sheng furrowed his brow and found that he was the only one still able to move here.
A slight unexplained intuition arose in his heart. He carefully took the Little Puppet, which was also in a stagnant state, off his shoulder, gently placing it on the ground, and then stepped forward.
He came to the static black flames, hearing countless overlapping whispers coming from within the flames.
"So that's how it is..."
Yu Sheng suddenly understood—this familiar scene was the "Dead Communication."
The dead was this unfamiliar world—it had been dead for countless ages and was still in the process of dying today.
He took a gentle breath and unhesitatingly walked straight toward the flames.
The pitch-black flame had a slight chill. Yu Sheng felt as if he were passing through a harmless mist, and after the mist cleared, he found himself in an unfamiliar hall.
The lighting around was bright, but for some reason, these bright lights acted like hazy veils, obscuring all details, making it difficult for him to see into the distance.
A massive, faintly glowing device stood in the center of the hall, emitting a slight buzzing sound.
A robed figure was busy beside that device, with his back to Yu Sheng, seemingly entirely unaware of the happenings behind him.
Yu Sheng approached and saw that both the figure and the massive device beside him had a semi-transparent texture. He reached out to touch the busy person, but his fingers passed directly through the other's body.
He heard the other mumbling something, and as he moved closer, he finally caught the self-talk—
"Rosaline, let's simulate this again; the sustainment array has iterated a new data compression mode, reducing the overall information volume to a third of the previous version..."
A deep buzzing sound echoed in the hall, and a cold response came from the large device: "...Data structure iteration, Sanctuary expected sustainment time... 776,215 days..."
"...Good, we now have some time. Outside... there may be other sanctuaries out there; we'll hold on for a few more days, waiting for news from outside."
"Understood, 'Father.'"
A slight buzzing entered his ears. Yu Sheng stepped back half a step, seeing everything before him silently collapse and then reassemble in the mist.
Still the same hall, still the same gauzy-like light curtains, but the surrounding light seemed dimmer, and that massive device was emitting a low hum.
The robed figure came to the front of the device.
"Rosaline, the world outside has become very quiet now; we... have work to complete. This time the sustainment array has deleted some less important data, simulate again..."
"...Simulation completed, expected sustainment time... 196,835 days."
The edge of the space seemed to exhibit some fluctuation, as if a rift had appeared in that hazy light curtain. Yu Sheng walked towards it and saw endless desolation and darkness outside the rift.
Turning back, he saw that numerous rusted and weathered marks had appeared unknowingly on the massive device, the hall lighting becoming dreary, and amidst the surrounding hum, discordant noise was faintly present.
A weary figure stood before the device.
"Rosaline..."
"What's wrong, Father?"
"We might need to make some changes... outside, it's too quiet. I don't know... I... Are you listening?"
"Yes, I am listening."
"...Rosaline, this time the sustainment array deleted even more data, after the next iteration, it might breach the system's safe threshold, you understand? Those precious things—poems, people's voices, history, our understanding of the world, the appearance of all things..."
"I... find it difficult to understand," came a gentle voice from the device, "I have indeed recorded the data you mentioned, but your current emotional reaction confuses me. We've made the best possible choices in every iteration, at least within the full system's capabilities, and there was no unplanned destruction."
A long sigh responded to Rosaline.
Then seemingly many more years passed, the traces of rust and weathering on the surface of the huge apparatus became more severe, more noise was filling the hall, and some of the lights seemed to have gone out permanently. The man in the robe returned once more to this place—holding in his hands a small box containing black soil.
"What is this?" A proactive inquiry came from within the apparatus, accompanied by a hissing static.
"It's soil, I... recreated it from the database."
"This will consume additional energy, father."
"But our energy is inexhaustible, Rosaline."
"...Agreed, this aligns with the last computation. So what is your intention with this soil you've brought?"
"...Rosaline, didn't you ask me before, 'What does life mean?'"
"There are records on this in my database, but..."
"I also brought a seed."
After that, a long time passed... or maybe not very long at all.
The robed figure returned to the hall once more.
"Rosaline, look, the plants have sprouted—growth, this is the process."
"Incredible, father—there are detailed definitions and records of this process in my database, but 'witnessing it with my own eyes'... has caused unexpected fluctuations in my emotional processes."
"Indeed, the things in the database always have a barrier between them and reality, Rosaline... if, and I mean if, there were an opportunity, would you want to... touch it?"
"..."
The voice gradually faded away, and the surroundings dimmed. Yu Sheng's gaze penetrated the increasing rifts at the edge of the hall, looking outward to see something quietly standing in the dark in the vast desolation outside.
He withdrew his gaze to see the hall illuminated only by some particularly dim glows, the huge apparatus quietly lay dormant in the dark, most of its lights extinguished, leaving only two or three slowly flickering indicators emitting a soft glow.
Then, it seemed countless years passed again, now dense vines and heavy moss covered the surface of the apparatus—yet there was no soil for the vines to grow in the hall, those plants... seemed to have grown directly out from the inside of the apparatus.
Hesitating for a moment, Yu Sheng slowly walked toward the apparatus, driven by some inexplicable instinct. Between the tangled vines, he saw the curled-up body.
Or rather, it was just a bunch of indiscernible robe fragments, enveloped in the lush plants.
Yu Sheng lowered his head, quietly observing this scene, speaking softly after a long time, "…No wonder the armor was empty."
And then countless more years passed—in the world's death process, time itself had lost meaning—he heard footsteps coming from behind him.
Yu Sheng lifted his head, noticing the huge apparatus before him had completely shut off its lights, even collapsing from the middle, vines growing from inside the apparatus spread to the ground, and not far beside, a figure slowly approached.
It was a girl, or perhaps some strange... hybrid creature.
Her body seemed cobbled together haphazardly from machinery and biomass, with parts of her surface even showing plant traits, the body deformed, distorted, asymmetrical, like a machine under some limitation randomly pieced together a shell with a technology it couldn't comprehend, then striving to imitate a human form as per the records.
This distorted machine walked over, halting before Yu Sheng, her head tilting while looking at Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng frowned briefly, quickly responding, "Can you see me?"
The girl nodded.
Yet despite her response, she didn't seem truly conscious—her gaze focused on some place behind Yu Sheng, taking a few seconds before she muttered to herself, "My dad went out."
Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned, subconsciously saying, "Your 'father'..."
But the girl didn't acknowledge him, she just slowly moved to the massive apparatus, awkwardly maneuvering her deformed limbs, gradually sitting amidst the vines.
She pulled out a large notebook from the vines, laboriously flipping it open with her misshapen fingers, then carefully and seriously began to paint something on it.
Yu Sheng walked over, his gaze landing on the open sketchbook.
Childlike naive crooked strokes met his eyes—the girl was sketching a tall clock tower, standing in a city, surrounded by many crooked houses, with roads connecting the clock tower and houses.
The "hall" disappeared, Yu Sheng saw it suddenly transform into a warm little room, where a fireplace crackled in the corner, leaping with bright yellow flames, firewood snapping and popping.
Beside it, an open window, Rosaline sat by it, still dutifully sketching her "painting", the daylight through the window falling on her shoulders, coating the surface of her mechanical, flesh, and plant-mixed limbs with a faint golden glow.
Yu Sheng's gaze moved past the window, he saw a clock tower standing quietly in the city, distant buildings dense, bustling streets, throngs of people bustling about.
A voice as if talking to oneself floated into his ears—
"Once upon a time, there was a not-so-big and not-so-small kingdom, and a king..."