Night World Players

Chapter 213 You Will Wander in the Deepest Part of the Starry Sea (Two-in-One)

"In the future you describe—"

"Where is your own place?"

Last's words echoed in the empty library.

Hearing this, Dean Yin couldn't help but gently sweep Last's cheek with his tail.

What does this gesture mean? Are you crazy? Have you forgotten that the little Grey in front of you is just a recording, and you actually want to have a conversation with her?

However, the next moment.

According to Gray herself, this was just a video she had recorded in advance and stored in the watchtower, which would automatically play when Rast's arrival was detected.

However, when Last's words rang out, Gray's voice actually paused slightly.

"My own place?"

"Sure enough, I knew you would ask this question, Brother Rast."

She smiled, as if using the power of "fate" to observe the future when Rast would ask this question.

"Honestly, I don't know..."

"Brother Rast, you once told me that all the gifts bestowed by fate have already been secretly marked with a price."

"'Equivalent exchange' is the only universally accepted legal principle in the supernatural world, even for angels."

"So, every wish I make to fate will inevitably come at a price—the more grand the wish, the more unattainable the miracle... the greater the price."

"As I record this moment, I haven't made my third and final wish yet... Therefore, I don't know what the price I will pay for it."

"Even though I've traveled through all the future's branches, this future alone remains unclear to me."

Gray's voice, as clear as a wind chime, carried a strange meaning.

"I don't know where I will be after making this third wish. Perhaps I'll be banished to the cracks of time and space, the abyss of dimensions... Or perhaps I'll wander forever in the deepest reaches of the starry sea, never to see you again, Brother Rust."

"That's why I kept this recording and video."

"It's both to explain the truth to you, Brother Rust... and to say goodbye to you, Brother Rust."

"After all, no one knows when we will meet again. Maybe in a thousand years, maybe in ten thousand years—"

"Or maybe, forever."

……

“Is it really worth it?”

Last spoke softly as he looked at the light curtain that swayed slowly and rippled like water waves.

"You were such a scared person when you were little."

"Leaving this mortal world, exiled to the rifts of time and space, to the deepest reaches of the sea of ​​stars, aren't you afraid?"

He recalled the little girl he saw alone on the street of the town next to the watchtower long ago when he entered the Echoes of History for the second time.

As the sun sets, warm orange lights shine through the windows along the street. Gray walks alone on the street, as if she is in two different worlds from the lights of thousands of homes around her.

That look reminded Rast of the little match girl.

And at this moment, the original scene is repeated again.

The little girl who was afraid of loneliness at that time now chose to separate from this world and plunged into the lonely deep space.

"Of course I'm scared..."

It was clearly a silent whisper from Lust, but at this moment it seemed to have really crossed time and space and was transmitted to Gray's ears.

"I know very well what a coward I am. Without your support, Brother Rust, I can't do anything..."

"It was like this then, and it's still like this now—it's just that during these days of separation from you, Brother Last, I had to constantly disguise myself with a tough exterior, pretending to be independent, strong, powerful, and mysterious in front of outsiders."

"But deep down, I'm still the little girl crying helplessly on the cliff."

"But that's what I have to do."

Gray's words sounded like a farewell, but also like a smile.

“When you realize you’ve done something wrong, you shouldn’t try to escape or deny it. Instead, you should bravely admit your mistake and do everything you can to make amends.”

"This is the principle you taught me, brother Last, wasn't it?"

"Regardless of my subjective intentions, the second wish I made to fate truly destroyed Canaan's peaceful daily life..."

"Brother Rust, your and Xiao Ai's fate has been rewritten, leading you down a twisted and distorted path. This is an undeniable fact."

"Well, since I've done something wrong, I should take responsibility... I'll do everything I can to put your and Xiao Ai's fate back on the right track."

There was a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Originally, I was still a little hesitant and struggling... It wasn't for my own benefit, but whenever I thought about the possibility of never seeing you, Brother Last, again, I couldn't help but feel a bitter and unwilling feeling in my heart."

"However, my two meetings with Xiao Ai have made up my mind completely."

Her voice paused slightly.

"Even a little girl like that, barely in her early teens, who had lived in a small border town and had never seen the outside world... could make such a decisive choice just to be reunited with you, Brother Rust, and for a better future."

"What's more, it's me."

"No matter what, I am the successor chosen by Leader Cecil and the owner of the 'Fool's Library'..."

"And I've earned your approval, Brother Rust, as the new 'Shore Keeper.'"

"What a 'shore guardian' should do is to use his or her hard work to pave the way for those who come after him—"

"Just like in the Battle of Broken Coast, Leader Sissel used his life to pave the way for me..."

"And now, it's my turn to follow the footsteps left by you, Brother Luster, and Leader Sissel."

Gray's voice became softer and more distant.

"Well then, goodbye, Brother Last." "Though it was just a pre-recorded message, though it was only a glimpse of the future glimpsed through the long river of fate..."

"But I am really happy to be able to meet you again in this way and to be able to say goodbye to you in person."

"If everything goes well, then maybe it will be just like Xiao Ai..."

"One day, we will be able to meet again in the distant future—"

……

The girl's clear voice became increasingly distant and ethereal until it completely disappeared.

And on that crystal light curtain, the ripples that were originally like waves on the water gradually dissipated and finally returned to the dark nothingness.

Last gently reached out his hand and turned off the video device in front of him.

He closed his eyes and stood in the silent library without saying a word for a long time.

After a long silence, Rast opened his eyes again.

"I said...are you okay?"

Dean Yin squatted on a nearby bookshelf and cautiously spoke tentatively, "Although it might be a little hard to digest all of this information all at once, this world is still a beautiful place. Don't let yourself get so depressed that you end up committing suicide."

"Would you like me to call a psychiatrist for you? This world's technology is so advanced, so I imagine the psychiatrists' skills wouldn't be much worse... Oh, right, isn't my own Moon Sequence a natural-born psychiatrist?"

"If that doesn't work, I can be your spiritual comfort mink."

Although he usually has a carefree personality, at this moment, Dean Yin spoke in a rather cautious and careful manner.

As the holder of the unique sequence long-level "Moon", feeling the fluctuations of other people's hearts and souls has almost become Dean Yin's instinct.

Therefore, it could clearly feel the emotions that were stirring and brewing in the long silence of the young man in front of it.

It has known Last for a long time and is well aware of the importance of the word "shore guard" in Last's heart.

Becoming a shore guardian, becoming a partner of justice... This has been his ideal since he was a child.

During the three hundred years of time cycle in Deep Blue Harbor, he became like a spiritual pillar in Last's heart.

Just like a person who falls into the water, he will subconsciously wave his hands to grab a life-saving straw... At that time, Last regarded this childhood ideal as his life-saving straw in the hell of Deep Blue Harbor.

It was the anchor of his soul and the pillar of everything.

It was precisely because of his persistence in that ideal, and his obsession with being the "shore watcher," that Last was able to climb out of the hell of Deep Blue Harbor, without ever falling and losing himself, or self-destructing.

Today, it has become something deeper than ideals and beliefs, like an obsession.

The human named Rast is such a machine that continues to survive for the ideal of being a "shore guardian". This ideal has almost become his entire life... Apart from this, there is nothing else in his broken body and soul.

At this moment, the truth that Grey expounded also hinted at such a clear point -

The ideal that Last regarded as the spiritual pillar and the meaning of life was actually false.

……

From Rast's past perspective, it was the woman who embraced him and smiled sincerely in the fire of the ruins of the Canaan town who gave him the ideal of being a "shorekeeper."

The smile that woman showed at that time was so beautiful...

Even though Last had fallen into the hell of Deep Blue Harbor and had weathered the passage of hundreds of years, most of his childhood memories had long been worn away by time and completely forgotten - but he still remembered that beautiful smile.

It was precisely because of his longing for that smile that Rast developed the desire to become a "shore guard" himself.

However, it now seems that the ideal of being a "shore watcher" is clearly a complete falsehood.

The woman who picked up young Rust from the burning ruins of Canaan was Gray herself.

And if Gray had not mistakenly made her second wish, leading to the serious consequence of space-time collapse... then the fire in Canaan and the Fran explosion that occurred two hundred years before the present timeline would not have happened at all.

Last and Xiao Ai should have continued to live peacefully in the border town of Canaan, spending countless quiet days.

Maybe one day they will go on a long journey, begin to dabble in the extraordinary field, and become true extraordinary people... Or maybe they will never touch the extraordinary in their entire lives, but will get married and have children like ordinary people, and spend the rest of their lives in that remote but beautiful town.

However, the instigator of all this was Grey herself.

And the so-called ideal of becoming a "shore watcher"... is actually just a coincidence that was born out of fate's trickery and a series of mistakes.

It is a fake thing borrowed from outsiders.

However, in response to Dean Yin's cautious inquiry, Last just smiled.

"Don't worry, Dean Yin."

"I'm not as fragile as you think."

He raised his head and looked up at the glass dome, where the small sky was reflected in the watchtower.

"Indeed, my initial ideal of being a shore watcher stemmed from nothing more than yearning... It was my yearning for the smile of the woman who rescued me from the fire that sparked my desire to become one—and it grew increasingly tainted over the course of countless years, becoming an unshakable obsession."

"If it were me, right after leaving Deep Blue Harbor, knowing the truth of it all was just a coincidence, a trick of fate, I might have collapsed... and denied the meaning of my life."

"But now I am not like that anymore."

He gazed at the corner of the azure sky:
"Maybe it was out of longing at first, but in the end, it was my own heartfelt wish."

"I want to deny that hopeless hell... I want to help those within my power, to make them stop crying."

"I want to end the fate of generations of shore guardians, who have been thrown into the flame like moths to a flame..."

After leaving Deep Blue Port, he joined Star University.

After encountering many people and things as a night traveler...

Rast's ideals are no longer so fragile that they will be shattered by wind and rain.

"correct……"

His voice paused slightly. "If I heard correctly, Dean Yin, you said you wanted to be my spiritual comfort mink?"

"Get lost...did I say that? I didn't."

(End of this chapter)